Five Eyes nations face security fear
LOS ANGELES: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is working with Australia, New Zealand and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network after the shock arrest of a top Canadian law enforcement official.
There are fears Cameron Ortis, a directorgeneral with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit, may have exposed highly sensitive information from alliance members to criminal groups or foreign entities.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and the United States are members of Five Eyes and any breach of trust could place clandestine operations, informants, witnesses in protection and other confidential activities in danger.
‘‘We are continuing to work with our Five Eyes allies on this matter which the authorities are taking extremely seriously,’’ Trudeau told reporters yesterday.
‘‘We all understand I am not going to make more comments on this delicate situation.’’
Ortis (47) was charged on Friday under a 2012 security information law used to prosecute spies.
He is accused of offences including obtaining information to give to a foreign entity or terrorist group, communicating or confirming special operational information and breach of trust.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki would not confirm, but did not deny, reports authorities were led to Ortis while investigating Vincent Ramos, the Vancouverbased head of encrypted phone company Phantom Secure.
She would only say the RCMP was working with the FBI in 2018 when they ‘‘came across certain documents that led us to believe that there might be some internal corruption’’.
The RCMP, FBI, Australian Federal Police and other law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation.
Ramos was a major player in the Australian criminal underworld the FBI estimating of the 20,000 Phantom Secure devices in service around the world, 10,000 were used by Australian criminals.
The phones were designed to thwart law enforcement.
Ramos was sentenced to nine years’ prison in a San Diego court in May for ‘‘leading a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale of encrypted communication devices and services’’.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, citing an assessment by Canada’s Communications Security Establishment cybersecurity agency, reported Ortis had allegedly reached out to Ramos.
‘‘I have information that I am confident you will find very valuable,’’ one email from Ortis to Ramos allegedly said, according to the CSE documents.
Another Phantom Secure customer was Owen Hanson, the Californiabased drug trafficking kingpin, who US prosecutors said used six Phantom Secure devices to coordinate the transportation of more than a tonne of cocaine from Mexico into the US and on to Canada and Australia.
Hanson is serving a 21year prison sentence in the US.
US federal court filings also detailed how Ramos sold Phantom Secure devices to Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman’s Sinaloa drug cartel, a major supplier of cocaine to Australia.
Lucki said she could ‘‘definitely imagine that there is concern amongst our Five Eyes community’’ following Ortis’ arrest, but she said ‘‘cooperation with our allies has not been compromised’’ and sharing of information between nations continued. — AAP