Worldwide organised crime kicks own goal

AUSTRALIA, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Serbia have been named as the heaviest users of the AN0M app – and it’s in those countries drug dealers, contract killers and crime lords have the most to lose.

But the tentacles of crime syndicates spread far and wide and a series of raids and arrests have taken place around the world, proving nowhere is safe from Operation Trojan Shield, as the AFP’s Operation Ironside is known outside Australia.

Arrests are ongoing, but a staggering 800 have been made worldwide so far.

Europol has not provided a country-by-country breakdown of arrests in Europe, but some individual countries have begun to confirm numbers and raids that began on Monday.

In The Netherlands, the investigation helped Dutch police dismantle 25 drug labs and make 49 arrests.

It wasn’t just drugs seized – eight guns and more than $2m worth of euros in cash were also discovered in dramatic nationwide raids.

A Dutch police statement said most of the 27 million AN0M messages obtained by the sting were in Dutch, German and Swedish.

“Criminals assumed that the service was safe and touted it among themselves as the platform you should use … Nothing could have been further from the truth,” the statement read.

Sweden arrested 155 people, including five Swedish nationals who fled to Spain, after raids carried out by tactical police.

Finnish police said more than 100 people had been arrested and more than 500kg of drugs had been seized.