Adelaide hacker David Kee Crees deported from US to Australia, branded ‘alien’ by ICE
An Adelaide master hacker with microchips in his hands has been deported back to Australia, with a US agency boasting about it online.
The Trump administration has arrested and deported Adelaide hacker David Kee Crees back to Australia after a US agency boasted online about arresting the “Australian alien” in its immigration crackdown.
The 26-year-old, who was earlier busted in an FBI sting operation, was booted from America less than a year after he was extradited from an Adelaide prison to the US under the Biden administration.
Crees, linked to mass Australian data theft incidents, was alleged to have offered an undercover FBI agent details of 500,000 credit cards he claimed to have hacked through businesses.
After he was extradited to a US federal prison in August 2024, he pleaded guilty to 14 counts of fraud and walked free in May, having spent 2½ years incarcerated across Adelaide and America, The Australian reported.
He was then swiftly arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Posting a picture of a handcuffed Crees to its social media pages on Friday, ICE said: “ICE Denver agents arrested Australian alien David Kee Crees because he has multiple computer fraud convictions. He also faces charges for money laundering and ID fraud.”
On his own Facebook page, Crees appears to be happily at home, posting in late May a smiling profile picture of himself at a beach.
Supporters and family members commented “Welcome home!”, “Looking good bro” and “Still got that cheeky grin”.
The profile said he lived in Adelaide and was single, while his Instagram page declared in a one-word biography that he was “free”.
The District Court of Colorado first issued a warrant for Crees’ arrest July 7, 2021, prompting the FBI to begin liaising with Australian law enforcement.
He was charged with 22 counts including 16 counts of fraud relating to the FBI sting and awaited extradition in a high-security Adelaide prison until August 2024.
Microchips embedded in his hands had caused security issues in the prison, as he continually set off metal detectors.
Online security website DataBreaches.net reported an undercover FBI operative had made contact with Crees to offer him hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for system intrusions and theft.
The publication has reported on the man’s exploits dating back to 2015, under hacker names including “DR32” and “Abdilo”.
Abdilo was linked to the theft of the details of hundreds of thousands of Aussie Travel Cover customers in 2015.
A user of the Abdilo handle claimed to be responsible for hacking websites run by local government organisations, Australian universities and the Australian Nuclear and Technology Organisation.
The Australian reported an ABN in Adelaide registered to Crees’ name was cancelled from April 14, after two companies linked to it – ROOTKIT and SQLI – were deregistered. The companies were named after common hacking tools.
He previously lived in Collinswood and has also lived in the Northern Territory.
ABF, DFAT, ICE and Crees were contacted for comment.
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