Sydney man Edwin Harmendra Kumar extradited to the US to face AN0M racketeering charges
AN0M accused Edwin Harmendra Kumar sent to US to face charges laid by FBI, two years after his arrest by Operation Ironside investigators
An Australian man who spent almost two years in custody has been quietly extradited to the US to face racketeering charges relating to the underworld’s encrypted app AN0M.
Edwin Harmendra Kumar, 35, of Sydney, was handed over to US officials and flown out of Australia on Tuesday.
The move comes almost two years after he was arrested on June 7, 2021, by Australian Federal Police following a provisional request from US authorities.
The Attorney-General’s Department confirmed Mr Kumar had been extradited. “The department can confirm that on 11 April an individual was surrendered to the United States of America pursuant to a request for his extradition,’’ a spokesperson said.
“The individual is wanted for prosecution … for conspiracy to engage in a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organisation.
“As the prosecution of the individual is now a matter for the US, it would not be appropriate to comment further.’’
Mr Kumar is one of 17 men indicted by the FBI after a joint FBI-AFP investigation targeting bikies, mafia figures and international crime gangs allegedly involved in global drug-trafficking and money-laundering.
The takedown came after authorities launched what is known as the sting of the century built around the encrypted app AN0M. Underworld figures used the app believing it a secure way of communicating away from law enforcement scrutiny. In fact, it was being controlled and used by the AFP, which copied more than 28 million messages sent on it.
The FBI alleges that the purpose of the AN0M enterprise was to “create, maintain, use and control a method of secure communication to facilitate the importation, exportation and distribution of illegal drugs into Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, including the US and Canada, and to launder the proceeds of such drug-trafficking conduct.’’
Mr Kumar is charged with one count of conspiracy to engage in a racketeer-influenced and corrupt organisation (RICO conspiracy), in violation of Title 18, United States Code, section 1962 (d) – an 1970s-era law originally aimed at mafia figures operating in the US.
If convicted, he could face a 20-year jail term.
He is accused of being a distributor of AN0M devices, with the FBI alleging “distributors co-ordinate groups of agents of the AN0M enterprise devices, receive payments for ongoing subscription fees (minus personal profit) back to the parent company, and provide second-level technical support. The distributors can also remotely delete and reset devices.’’
The agreement by Australia to extradite Mr Kumar means five of the 17 men indicted have either been sent to the US to face the courts or are in custody in third countries pending extradition.
Two more men, whose details have been suppressed, are before the courts in Australia and any potential extradition has been paused pending resolution of local criminal charges lodged against them.
By comparison, Mr Kumar never faced any local charge, and he spent almost two years in Parklea prison before he was put on a plane.
He had agreed in November 2021 to be surrendered to the US, but asked the attorney-general not to extradite him as negotiations between Australia and the US over his likely conditions in US custody dragged on.
His lawyer, Sarah Khan, had previously told The Australian her client should not be extradited, and noted no US citizens had been charged there for AN0M-related offences.
The extradition came after Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus formally agreed to the US “surrender request’’.
Seven Australians were named in the FBI’s indictment, all of them apart from Mr Kumar and a man whose name is suppressed living offshore at the time. Australian citizen Osemah El Hassen was arrested in Colombia at the request of the FBI.
New Zealand citizen Shane Ngakuru, who has strong Australian ties, was arrested in Thailand and deported to the US.
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