Security News > 2021 > June > 'What's the Price Today?': FBI Phone App Reaped Secrets of Global Drug Networks
Their messages were some of 27 million that the FBI and law enforcement partners in Australia and elsewhere scooped up and decrypted, exposing global criminal networks to an unparallelled extent.
FBI Special Agent Suzanne Turner said they were stunned at how openly traffickers exchanged information on the ANOM devices.
The massive coup came about in 2018, when the FBI shut down a precursor encrypted service called Phantom Secure and arrested its head Vincent Ramos and four others for supporting drug trafficking.
The FBI said more than 300 distinct transnational criminal organizations were using ANOM. - Shutting down rivals -.
In one, ANOM was used for the logistics of the drug shipments, while Ciphr or Sky were used to deal with the money involved.
After US authorities closed down another rival, Sky Global, in March this year, active ANOM users soared from 3,000 to 9,000, the FBI said.