Transporting illegal guns.  Smuggling cocaine in a pineapple.  Planning drug deals.  Paying for contract killings.  Criminals around the world were using a messaging app they thought was secure and encrypted to openly discuss their activities.

Unfortunately for them, the app was designed and controlled by the FBI, and the information was being monitored by law enforcement agents around the world, according to the Washington Post.

Led by the FBI, Australian police and a host of European law enforcement agencies, the three-year effort led to the arrest of more than 800 people who used the AN0M app, which had been promoted as a totally encrypted platform impossible to crack.  It was included in custom cell phones that were sold on the black market and quickly became popular among criminals. 

While the messages were actually encrypted, a copy of the encrypted message (along with the key needed to decode it) were send to the FBI, who then shared the information with international law enforcement agencies from 17 different countries.  It provided these agencies unprecedented access to the plans and activities of global criminal groups.

The idea for the operation came when Australian agents and FBI agents sat down for a few beers in 2018.  Australians then built out the platform, and the FBI used a paid collaborator who had provided criminal groups with communications devices to get the phones into the hands of the criminals.

The operation led to the confiscation of more than eight tons of cocaine, 22 tons of marijuana and hashish, two tons of methamphetamine and amphetamine, 250 firearms, 55 luxury vehicles and more than $48 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.

“Essentially, they have handcuffed each other by endorsing and trusting AN0M and openly communicating on it — not knowing we were watching the entire time,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.