Europol and law enforcement agencies from nine countries successfully shut down Ghost, an encrypted communications platform heavily used by organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.
The platform, which boasted advanced security features, allowed users to communicate anonymously and even enabled subscription purchases via cryptocurrency.
Ghost’s services, which included modified smartphones, were sold for $2,350 per six-month subscription. The platform was known for its three-layer encryption and self-destructing message feature, ensuring that no trace of communications remained on either the sender’s or recipient’s devices. Thousands of users globally exchanged approximately 1,000 messages per day using Ghost.
The investigation, led by Europol’s Operational Taskforce (OTF) and launched in March 2022, involved agents from countries including the U.S., France, Australia, Canada, and Italy. This coordinated effort led to the identification of Ghost’s servers in France and Iceland and the platform’s operators in Australia. Raids across several nations resulted in 51 arrests, including 38 in Australia and 11 in Ireland. Authorities also seized weapons, drugs, and over €1 million in cash.
This operation follows similar crackdowns on encrypted platforms like Sky ECC and EncroChat, which were previously dismantled by Europol. However, Europol warns that such actions fragment the landscape of encrypted communications, prompting criminal actors to shift to other tools with varying degrees of security.
