An encrypted app used by criminals was covertly monitored by the FBI and Australia’s Federal Police for nearly three years.
The ANoM app was supposed to be the underworld’s impenetrable communication tool, a digital safe space to plot crimes away from the prying eyes of the law.
The FBI had access to the app and its communications, which the organization then used to collect information on criminal operations.
Hundreds of arrests and tons of drugs were also seized overseas as a result of the operation, the AFP said in a statement. More arrests are expected in Australia and overseas, authorities said on Tuesday, as well as tens of millions of dollars in assets seized in the three-year operation.