By Perry Duffin
International crime figures, including an alleged Italian mafia member and an infamous Irish crime family, have been arrested after Australian authorities infiltrated an encrypted crime network, known as Ghost, and captured its alleged mastermind in Sydney.
The foreign arrests reveal a strange echo in the underworld; criminals are accused of using encrypted devices while in prison to import weapons and cut deals with prosecutors.
Alleged mafia boss Giovanni Parlangeli was arrested in Lecce, in southern Italy, as part of global raids following the breach of the encrypted Ghost phone network.
The Australian Federal Police last week revealed they had infiltrated the encrypted platform Ghost, which was being used exclusively by criminals to organise multimillion-dollar drug deals and violence across the underworld.
The alleged mastermind, a 32-year-old Sydney man, was hauled out of his parents’ home on Tuesday morning and charged with supporting a criminal organisation, dealing with the proceeds of crime, and cryptocurrency offences.
Jay Jung, who allegedly built Ghost in 2017, will remain in prison on remand while his lawyer, Jason Pham, considers options for the “geeky” computer whiz who had never been in trouble with the law until last week.
Dozens more alleged Ghost users were rounded up across Australia, accused of using the platform to organise massive drug importations, violent retributions and gun sales.
Latest figures from the AFP show 46 have been arrested and more than $4.1 million has been seized including more than $800,000 in crypto and $1 million in property.
Ireland’s police, the Gardaí, released images of raids that netted 11 alleged organised crime figures following the Ghost breach by the AFP.
But as the Ghost users sit behind bars in Australia, authorities around the world have also rounded up criminals caught up in Ghost’s breach.
The AFP said while almost 400 of the 600 active Ghost phones were in Australia, the others were in Italy, Ireland, Canada and Sweden.
Anti-mafia investigators last week stormed a farmhouse in Italy’s southern region of Puglia at dawn and located Giovanni Parlangeli.
The alleged mafia boss had been off the grid since last year – until the Ghost breach, authorities say.
Cash seized in Ireland as part of the crackdown on Ghost users.
Local media described Parlangeli as a “boss” or senior figure who linked two organised crime clans in the region. He had false documents for travelling abroad and ammunition stocked in the farmhouse, authorities allege.
After Australia, Ghost’s biggest user base was Ireland, and it was there authorities made almost a dozen arrests.
Drugs, cryptocurrency and cash were seized in bulk, Ireland’s police, the Gardaí, said.
Jung was arrested early on Tuesday by the AFP after they infiltrated the Ghost network allegedly run from his bedroom.Credit: AFP
Gardaí seized 42 Ghost phones but believe there are about 100 in the country, the public broadcaster RTE said.
Four unnamed gangs were caught up in the arrests, authorities said, including members of a group known as The Family – the country’s biggest drug importers.
The Family have only recently ascended over Ireland’s last generation of powerful gangs, particularly the Kinahan cartel.
Gardaí were asked if Kinahan members were also among those caught using Ghost phones; they declined to comment but said those arrested were “high-value” targets.
“We want to be sure they are feeling vulnerable around their communications and how they work with one another. That gives us investigative opportunities. The upper echelons within the organised crime groups were using the ‘Ghost’ system,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.
The AFP also claim they uncovered a complicated plot being organised from a NSW prison, using Ghost, that seems to mirror an infamous Kinahan conspiracy.
The AFP said Guy Habkouk, who is in custody accused of a massive heroin importation, had allegedly communicated over Ghost to source rocket launchers, machine guns, grenades and terrorist insignia.
Habkouk’s plan, the AFP alleges, was to alert authorities to a fake terrorist plot in exchange for a lighter sentence for his alleged heroin dealing. His brother, Wade, was convicted earlier this year for his role in the drug deal. Guy is fighting the charge.
But Guy Habkouk’s alleged plan to cut a deal with the courts resembles on that the Kinahan family played out in 2020.
Two Kinahan gang leaders organised to have guns buried on a farm in Ireland and then tipped prosecutors off to their location, claiming they had intelligence about weapon smuggling.
The goal was to have the courts cut them a lighter deal for co-operating.
But the Kinahans were not aware EncroChat, the encrypted app they favoured, had already been breached by police.
The Kinahans were charged with weapons and conspiring to pervert the course of justice in their drug trials.
The demise of EncroChat, along with its rivals Phantom Secure and Sky ECC, helped steer criminals toward Ghost, the AFP said.
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