The father of a Sydney man accused of masterminding the underworld’s “unhackable” communications network has broken down in tears as he struggles to come to terms with the grave allegations against his son who is now being held in prison.
The biggest scalp from the so-called Ghost platform breach can also be revealed – an accused drug lord found with an encrypted device in his prison cell, who allegedly plotted to get his hands on rocket launchers and machine guns to buy his freedom.
The father of Jay Je Yoon Jung at his family business on Wednesday. The family are struggling to grasp the allegations against their son.Credit: Sam Mooy
Jay Je Yoon Jung, 32, faced court in Sydney on Wednesday, just hours after the Australian Federal Police revealed they had infiltrated Ghost six months ago and raided the home of the alleged administrator.
Jung’s father, Chi, talked to reporters outside the family cleaning business on Wednesday.
The deeply upset Chi, 70, said he spoke poor English, and the family had migrated from Korea more than 30 years ago.
Chi broke down in tears describing the shock of his son’s arrest. He declined to make a formal statement as the family come to terms with the news.
The AFP say Jung’s parents run their own successful and legitimate business and are not accused of any wrongdoing. They are not suspected of knowing their son was allegedly running the underworld “Ghost” network.
Jung was arrested early on Tuesday by the AFP after they infiltrated the Ghost network allegedly run from his bedroom.Credit: AFP
Jung held a job as general manager in the family business, and before that as a sales representative, according to resumes found online.
The quiet, academically gifted man was arrested at his parents’ home in Narwee, in the city’s south-west, at 5am on Tuesday after AFP officers shattered the suburban peace with flash bangs.
He was marched out of the brick home in handcuffs and a hoodie before being taken to AFP headquarters in the city for a day of questioning and charges.
Neighbours reported the sounds of banging early in the morning.
“I thought it was gunshots because I didn’t know what I was hearing,” said one neighbour.
“It made sense after, when we realised that it was possibly a flash grenade or something like that.”
AFP commanders, at a press conference on Wednesday morning, alleged Jung was a “geek” and “driven by profit”.
AFP at the Narwee home of Jung as the raid continues on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
“From his perspective it was marketed as an unhackable network and I think there was a degree of confidence and trust involved,” Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney said.
Court documents allege Jung supported a criminal organisation by providing material support and resources aiding a serious offence.
He also allegedly dealt with more than $100,000 in suspected proceeds of indictable crime and cryptocurrency offences.
Jung is expected to remain in custody as his legal team, headed by Jason Pham, consider their options.
His time in prison will probably be spent in protective custody – safe from the men rounded up on serious charges thanks to intelligence hacked from Ghost.
Ghost was infiltrated in March through Jung’s computers, the AFP said. Ghost unwittingly forwarded more than 120,000 messages to law enforcement before 700 police raided homes on Tuesday.
Carefully guarded plots of organised crime were exposed through the breach, including a “false terror plot” involving high-powered weapons, massive drug importations and threats to dozens of lives.
Accused drug lord Guy Habkouk allegedly used Ghost to plot to acquire machine guns, bombs, hand grenades, rocket launchers and flags with terrorist insignia.
Habkouk was allegedly using the Ghost phone from a high-security prison where he is awaiting trial for allegedly importing a massive amount of heroin.
His goal, police will allege, was to source the dangerous weapons and enlist others in a terror plot.
Habkouk would then alert authorities, cutting a deal for a shorter sentence or even freedom, in exchange for the capture of the weapons, AFP sources say.
At the same time, police claim, he was trying to import 42 kilograms of cocaine into Sydney. Ghost intelligence led border force to the importations, authorities say.
Habkouk and an associate were charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. He was also charged over the attempted cocaine importation.
The AFP also revealed it was forced to intervene in about 50 threats to life since the breached messages began hitting its data teams in March this year.
“We could see [on Ghost] an image of a person who had a firearm to their head,” Assistant Commissioner Kirsty Schofield said at the press conference.
“We had an hour in which to respond to that threat.”
The AFP arrested two of the eight alleged “resellers” of Ghost phones – the only people who Jung allegedly trusted to enlist new buyers.
The phones were only sold through word of mouth among the underworld, the police claim.
One of those resellers was a 24-year-old man from Mortlake who allegedly sold 157 Ghost phones.
Another was a Dulwich Hill man, 31, who is also accused of being a major financial backer of drug plots in Sydney.
The AFP’s asset confiscation team also seized two residential properties and cryptocurrency which they allege belonged to a Perth-based man using Ghost.
His assets were “grossly out of proportion” to his declared income, police claim, and he was allegedly communicating on Ghost with members of a suspected crime syndicate.
Millions in cash and cryptocurrency has already been seized by the AFP’s Operation Kraken, tasked with taking down Ghost, and much more is expected as the raids continue.
Across the world, particularly in Italy, Sweden and Canada, other Ghost users will be raided in coming days.
The AFP is hesitant to share details of how they breached the system, but once they did, the “covert” program sat dormant until Jung allegedly sent updates to Ghost phones.
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