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AN AMBITIOUS international crime investigation tricking criminals into using an encrypted app has “struck a heavy blow against organised crime”, Scott Morrison has declared, as police confirm the probe prevented a mass shooting on Australian soil.
The PM’S comments came after the Australian underworld was crushed by the biggest crime bust in the southern hemisphere, with more than 200 offenders facing charges and $45m in assets and cash seized. About 4000 police burst through doors across Australia in the early hours of Monday as part of top-secret Operation Ironside in what Mr Morrison described as a “watershed moment” for law enforcement.
The raids were the culmination of an ambitious investigation based on police tricking organised crime figures into using a supposedly encrypted app AN0M, providing realtime access to 25 million messages on underworld plots.
Mr Morrison said the bust had “struck a heavy blow against organised crime” both in Australia and across the globe, and was made possible by the government providing “serious resources” to their operations.
“This is a watershed moment in Australian law enforcement history,” he declared on Tuesday. “Operation Ironside puts Australia at the forefront of this fight against dangerous, organised criminals who peddle in human misery, and ultimately it will keep our communities and Australians safer.”
The Australian
Police (AFP) worked
Federal closely with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on the operation, which has sparked a wave of arrests from Europe to the US.
The PM described Tuesday as a “proud day” for the families of officers who took part, often at great sacrifice.
“You can be very proud of the work they’re doing today, and I’m incredibly proud of all those who are wearing blue in this country today,” he said.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed the operation, which remained ongoing, had already led to 224 suspects being charged, about $45m in assets and cash seized, six clandestine laboratories shut down and 21 threats to kill acted on.
Law enforcement had also managed to apprehend an offender planning a mass shooting, he revealed.
“They were using a machine gun potentially at a cafe where people would have been no doubt harmed,” he said. “We were able to, with the cooperation of that particular state police force, take that individual before they were able to do that.”
Mr Kershaw did not reveal where the mass shooting was to take place, but confirmed it was linked to organised crime.
“Essentially, we have been in the back pockets of organised crime and operated a criminal take-down like we’ve never seen,” Mr Kershaw said.
The idea to give law enforcement real-time access to criminal messages via an encrypted app was first hatched over beers between two Australian investigators and FBI agents in 2018.
FBI legal attache Anthony Russo said international co-operation was increasingly important as crime crossed borders.