The Price of a Super Secure Mobile for Questionable People
December 29, 2021
Criminals are sometimes the smartest people in the world, but other times they are the dumbest. The Sydney Morning Herald reported a story on some of the latter in, “‘Invulnerable To Law Enforcement’: More Alleged Drug Criminals Outed By Encrypted App.” Australian criminals Duax Ngakuru and Hakan Ayik were used an encrypted phone platform that was surreptitiously created by law enforcement.
Australian and New Zealand law enforcement teamed together on Operation Ironside and they infiltrated the encrypted AN0M phone network. Authorities monitored Ngakuru and Ayiks’ drug activity for three years:
“The work of Australian and New Zealand authorities has – especially since Operation Ironside was unveiled publicly in June with sweeping arrests and raids across the globe – made the Ngakurus and Ayik among the most wanted men on the planet, crippling the drug syndicates the trio helped operate.
The police files also reveal how the AFP’s infiltration of the encrypted AN0M phone network suggest the Ngakurus and Ayik successfully imported many drug shipments into Australia and New Zealand over many years. On May 17, Shane Ngakuru was covertly recorded using his AN0M phone device to describe sending “methamphetamine to New Zealand, Melbourne, and Perth” from his base in Thailand.”
The bad actors believed they were invulnerable and the most powerful men in Turkey if not Oceania. While their drug operations were cleverly planned, the stupidity surfaces when they did not research their communication networks. Their so-called invulnerability comes about when they thought AN0M could not be hacked. They did not check up on updates or in other bad acting communities to see if there were hints of police crackdowns.
The US FBI, CIA, and other law enforcement organizations never shared information in the past, but they discovered it was mutually beneficially to do so. Criminals often do the same. Unfortunately Ayik and Ngakurus’ egos got the best of them.
Whitney Grace, December 29, 2021
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