Trudeau consults allies on spy fears

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau says he is working with Australia after the arrest of a top Canadian law enforcement official.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Picture: AFP

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he is working with Australia, New Zealand and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network after the shock arrest of a top Canadian law-enforcement official.

There are fears that Cameron Ortis, a director-general with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s intelligence unit, may have exposed highly sensitive information from alliance members to criminal groups or foreign entities. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the US are members of Five Eyes and any breach of trust could endanger clandestine operations, informants, witnesses in protection and other confidential activities.

“We are continuing to work with our Five Eyes allies on this matter, which the authorities are taking extremely seriously,” Mr Trudeau said.

“We all understand I am not going to make more comments on this delicate situation.”

Mr Ortis, 47, was charged on Friday under a 2012 security inform­ation law used to prosecute spies. He is accused of offences ­including obtaining information to give to a foreign entity or terrorist group, communicating or confirm­ing special operational infor­mation and breach of trust.

Mounties Commissioner Brenda Lucki would not confirm, but did not deny, reports authorities were led to Mr Ortis while investigating Vincent Ramos, the Vancouver-based head of encrypted phone company Phantom Secure.

She would say only that the Mounties were working with the FBI last year when they “came across certain documents that led us to believe that there might be some internal corruption”.

Ms Lucki said she could “defin­itely imagine that there is concern amongst our Five Eyes community” following Mr Ortis’s arrest, but she added that “co-­operation with our allies has not been compromised” and said the sharing of informatio­n between nations con­tinued.

The Mounties, FBI, Australian Federal Police and other law-­enforcement agencies were involved in the probe of Ramos.

Ramos was a major player in the Australian criminal underworld with the FBI estimating that, of the 20,000 Phantom Secure device­s in service around the world, 10,000 were used by Australian criminals.

The phones were designed to thwart law enforcement.

Ramos was sentenced in a San Diego court in May to nine years’ prison for “leading a criminal ­enter­prise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribut­ion of narcotics through the sale of encrypted communic­ation devices and services”.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, citing an assessment by Canada’s Communications ­Security Establishment cyber­security agency, reported Mr Ortis had allegedly contacted Ramos.

AAP