Dutch police help take down another encrypted commmunications platform
The Dutch police have helped take down another encrypted chat service used by criminals. According to Europol, criminals worldwide used the Ghost platform for a wide range of crimes, including drug trafficking, money laundering, “extreme violence, and other forms of serious and organized crime. It’s takedown already prevented several “threats to life,” resulted in the dismantling of a drug lab in Australia, and the seizure of weapons, drugs, and over 1 million euros in cash globally.
“Today, we have made it clear that no matter how hidden criminal networks think they are, they can’t evade our collective effort. Law enforcement from 9 countries, together with Europol, have dismantled a tool which was a lifeline for serious organized crime,” Europol director Catherine De Bolle said.
According to Europol, Ghost offered secure communications to criminals with three encryption standards and an option to send a code with a message that would result in the self-destruction of all messages on the target phone. “This allowed criminal networks to communicate securely, evade detection, counter forensic measures, and coordinate their illegal operations across borders,” the European policing agency said.
Worldwide, several thousand people used Ghost and exchanged about 1,000 messages via the platform each day. Ghost’s servers were located in France and Iceland, its company owners in Australia, and financial assets in the United States.
The takedown involved a series of coordinated raids, resulting in the arrests of 51 suspects so far - 38 in Australia, 11 in Ireland, one in Canada, and one in Italy. According to Europol, the Italian suspect belonged to the Sacra Corona Unita mafia group.
The investigation was conducted by an Operational Taskforce established in Europol in March 2022, involving authorities from the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, and the United States.
This is not the first time the Dutch police have been involved in the takedown of an encrypted messaging service. In recent years, they also helped bust Encrochat and SkyECC. The Encrochat hack resulted in over 6,500 arrests worldwide in three years.
