Criminal messaging app Ghost shut down in global police sting

Breakthrough against platform marketed as 'unhackable' to criminals

An Australian Federal Police officer arrests a suspect allegedly involved in the encrypted Ghost messaging app used by criminals worldwide. AFP

A global police operation involving the European Union crime agency Europol and nine countries has taken down an encrypted messaging app used by criminals to enable drug deals and order killings.

The platform – known as Ghost – was marketed as “unhackable” and used by several thousand suspected criminals in regions including Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Users did not have to provide any personal information to buy the app, which was pre-installed on a customised phone. The platform had its own infrastructure and employed three separate encryption standards. Users could remotely “self-destruct” all messages and reset the phone remotely if, for example, seized by authorities.

This allowed criminal networks to communicate securely, evade detection and co-ordinate their illegal operations across borders, Europol said. Global policing authorities had successfully hacked into the network and were watching as criminals discussed trafficking drugs, money laundering, murders and serious violence.

Authorities made their move on Tuesday and Wednesday, arresting 51 suspects from Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Australia – including the “mastermind” of the app. Most of the arrests were made in Australia.

The app's alleged administrator, Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, appeared in a Sydney court Wednesday on charges including supporting a criminal organisation and benefiting from proceeds of crime. Mr Jung did not enter pleas or apply to be released on bail. He will remain behind bars until his case returns to court in November.

Australian police arrested 38 suspects in raids across four states in recent days, Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said.

“We allege hundreds of criminals including Italian organised crime, motorcycle gang members, Middle Eastern organised crime and Korean organised crime have used Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and order killings,” he said.

Australian police had prevented 50 people from being killed, kidnapped or seriously hurt by monitoring threats among 125,000 messages and 120 video calls since March, Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield said.

“This was truly a global game of cat and mouse, and today, the game is up,” Europol deputy executive director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe said.

Europol's executive director Catherine De Bolle called the platform “a lifeline for serious organised crime”, adding: “Today we have made it clear that no matter how hidden criminal networks think they are, they can’t evade our collective effort.”

The operation was conducted with the help of authorities from Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the US as part of a broader commitment to combat global organised crime.

In Ireland, the infiltration led to the seizure of €15 million (£12.6 million) worth of cocaine and 11 arrests.

The country's police force said it was conducting Ghost-related investigations over four identified organised crime groups in Ireland, involved in drug trafficking and money laundering “on a significant scale”.

The infiltration of the platform led to a series of searches on Monday evening at 27 premises across Dublin and counties in the east of Ireland, involving 300 officers. Representatives from Europol, the Australian Federal Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation were in Ireland for the operation.

Around one thousand messages were being exchanged each day via the platform, which had been in use since 2021, said Europol. The police agency said Ghost was effectively its own ecosystem “with a network of resellers based in several countries”.

Europol said Ghost used servers “hidden away” in Iceland and France, its founder was in Australia, and the money trail led to the US. Police said it was used almost exclusively by criminals.

“Across many months, and indeed hundreds of thousands of intercepted modes of communication, we've no evidence to suggest this was used by anyone other than criminal enterprises,” said assistant commissioner David McLean from the Australian Federal Police.