A self-proclaimed “computer geek” from Australia was arrested this week for building a messaging app that is encrypted and was used by criminals all over the world to order killings and set up drug deals, according to police.
The Australian Federal Police said the Ghost app, which was created by 32-year-old Jay Je Yoon Jung, was marketed to figures in the underworld as an “unhackable” application.
It’s suspected that criminals hailing from Asia, the Middle East and Europe all used the app.
Users didn’t know it, though, but some policing authorities around the globe were able to hack into the network and watch what they were discussing — which included instances of drug trafficking, serious violence such as homicides and money laundering.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, criminals from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Ireland and Italy were all arrested in connection to criminal activity on the app.
Catherine De Bolle, the executive director of Interpol, said law enforcement agencies from nine different countries were involved in this international sting. As she said on Wednesday:
“Today, we have made it clear that no matter how hidden criminal networks think they are, they can’t evade our collective effort.”
The deputy executive director of Interpol, Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, added
“This was a truly global game of cat and mouse, and today, the game is up.”
In addition to arresting the “mastermind” behind the app, authorities dismantled a drug lab in Australia, and seized in excess of $1.1 million in cash and drugs from around the globe.
Ghost was essentially akin to WhatsApp but was directed toward criminals. It was created in 2015 and only could be accessed by smartphones that were modified. They sold for around $1,590.
That price tag gave criminals the smartphone and a six-month subscription for tech support to the Ghost app, police in Australia said this week. Users had to continue paying for a subscription beyond that time if they wanted to continue accessing the app.
Police in France were able to trace the location of the creator of the app to Australia, and they then joined with other local police agencies to zone in on the platform.
The creator of the app regularly pushed software updates out to users. In 2022, though, police in Australia were able to hack into those updates so that they could access the encrypted content on it.
Over the last two years, law enforcement authorities watched over the app, as criminals exchanged different messages and the popularity of the app grew.
Europol estimates that several thousands people all across the world use the Ghost app, with about 1,000 messages exchanged on it every single day.
Just in Australia, 376 phones had the Ghost app installed on them.
Ireland had the second-most users on the Ghost platform. Authorities there dismantled “a primary drugs trafficking route into our country and in doing so, we have seized drugs with an approximate street value of 16 million euros, assistant police commissioner, Justin Kelly, told a local news outlet there.
Jung has been charged with five offenses, which includes supporting a criminal organization. That has a maximum sentence of three years in jail.
He was denied bail during his first court appearance Wednesday.
In addition to the creator of the app, another 38 individuals in Australia were arrested in connection with Ghost.
