Criminal-favored Ghost messaging app busted, owners arrested

The encrypted comms app Ghost has been dismantled, with authorities from nine countries infiltrating and arresting the software‘s creators.

“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 nine countries, together with Europol, have dismantled a tool which was a lifeline for serious organized crime,” Europol’s executive director Catherine De Bolle said about the operation.

Law enforcement agencies claim that Ghost facilitated serious and organized crime, including large-scale sale of drugs, money laundering and extreme violence. Criminals favored the app as it allowed them to evade law enforcement’s attention.

“The solution used three encryption standards and offered the option to send a message followed by a specific code which would result in the self-destruction of all messages on the target phone,” Europol said.

The Ghost app’s servers were found in France and Iceland, with the company owners residing in Australia, and financial assets located in the US. Law enforcement agencies in Australia, Canada, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the US took part in the operation to take down the global infrastructure.

So far, 51 suspects have been arrested, Europol claims, including 38 in Australia, 11 in Ireland, one in Canada and one in Italy belonging to the Italian Sacra Corona Unita mafia group. On top of that, several “threats to life” were prevented and a drug lab was busted in Australia.

Earlier today, Australian authorities reported arresting the 32-year-old mastermind behind the app, Jay Je Yoon Jung, who now faces charges over supporting criminal organizations and benefiting from crime proceedings.

According to Europol, the Ghost app, which had its own infrastructure, had several thousand users with around one thousand messages exchanged every day.