Stealth the new device for crime gangs who fear the cops closing in

Gangsters are trying to find a new safe, encrypted device to do their drugs deals and plan murders after the discovery that police were tracking them on the AN0M server.

Sydney gangsters are now arming themselves with an encrypted phone device called Stealth because they believe police have cracked many other so-called safe phone apps.

The underworld is now paranoid about communicating with each other after the FBI and the Australian Federal Police infiltrated the AN0M server used extensively by Australian crime syndicates, especially the Comanchero bikie gang.

“A lot of people are going to Stealth because they thinks it’s safe,’’ said a Sydney crime source.

“After the big raids because of AN0M everyone is shit scared they are being tracked by cops.”

A man being arrested by police over an alleged Sydney Airport drug import scheme. Picture: Supplied

Another favourite encrypted device, Cypher, is also now being dumped by many criminals, despite the provider making recent security upgrades including using a special chip.

Former Sydney Comanchero Marco Coffin who is now living overseas has the distribution rights to Australia for Cypher.

“No one believes Cypher or WhatsApp is secure anymore and have doubts about Signal and Viber,’’ the source said.

A senior Australian law enforcement source said they had information now that Stealth was becoming the preferred gangster phone accessory.

“But after the AN0M fiasco they really are not sure what is safe which is creating problems for them,’’ he said.

“And Covid makes it hard to fly around the world to meet and do deals, and in Australia the lockdowns present them with problems as well.”

Another man arrested as part of Operation Ironside. Picture: Supplied

But he admitted it made a lot of covert police practices difficult.

“Putting listening devices into premises is a problem because even the crooks are not going out as much so we can’t bug them, literally,’’ he said.

Law enforcement agencies around the world are constantly targeting encrypted ­devices as a way to get intelligence on criminal networks and have been doing so for years. Operation Ironside, known internationally as Trojan Shield, used AN0M to lure criminals into revealing their secrets to police.

For over a decade Phantom Secure used on blackberrys was used by nearly every serious criminal in the world and was particularly popular in Australia.

The NSW Crime Commission was instrumental in aiding the American authorities in the downfall of Phantom in 2018 when it was deactivated. Many Australian criminals migrated to AN0M only to see it become a Trojan horse which resulted in dozens of arrests and likely many more of its users for months to come.