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Inside the 'AN0M' bust: How fake encrypted app sting saw 4,000 cops sweep through the underworld arresting more than 100 and seizing trove of 3.77 tonnes of drugs, $45 million in cash, guns and GODFATHER memorabilia
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
  • Huge AFP bust has seen 4,000 cops storm Australia's underworld overnight

  • In the nation's biggest ever police bust, 224 people have been arrested

  • Cops used world-leading tech to bust criminals' encrypted message systems

  • But Mail can reveal mission was almost compromised by a tech geek blogger

  • Ninja Warrior star Sopiea Kong was arrested after 154g of meth was seized

  • Bachelorette star Samuel Minkin was charged with possession of cannabis

  • Former Bandito bikie
    ...bikies are motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern lads, primarily Lebanese. There are Sunni bikie gangs, Shiite bikie gangs, and even one called Soldiers of Islam. Along with the usual, they’re fond of stolen rocket launchers and molesting women on Australian beaches. In 2019 new linkages were revealed between Australia’s narco-jihadis and the Hispano-American drug routes that have been connected to Hizbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp. ...
    Benjamin Joseph Thornton was arrested and denied bail

  • Police charged 224 alleged offenders and shut down six clandestine laboratories
Former Bandito bikie Benjamin Joseph Thornton, 31, was arrested after police seized two mobile phones and a small quantity of cocaine. He was denied bail and will reappear in court next week.

The bust exposed new details about how one of Australia's most wanted fugitives gave police extensive access to the world's criminal underworld.

Drug kingpin and Comancheros bikie associate Hakan Ayik has spent the last decade on the run from Australian authorities after fleeing the country in 2010.

Now living in Turkey, he was tricked into distributing messages to his criminal associates around the world via encrypted communications app AN0M, unaware it was being run by FBI special agents.

Three years ago, Australia Federal Police identified Ayik as a key influencer to successfully distribute the encrypted AN0M devices due to his high status in the criminal underworld.

Then known as Joseph Hakan Ayik, the Sydney bikie associate and gym junkie fled Australia in 2010 to avoid arrest over a $230 million heroin importation.

Ayik, subbed one of the world's most prolific drug-smuggling masterminds, was later detained in Cyprus but then escaped and fled to Turkey, where he has created a new life.

He invested his proceeds of crime in hotel and resort developments while living a lavish lifestyle that extended to flashy cars and private yachts.

His Dutch wife, hair transplant business owner Fleur Messelink publicly flaunted the couple's elaborate lifestyle on Instagram until this week.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the alleged syndicate included 'some of the most dangerous criminals to Australia'.

'We allege they are members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, Australian Mafia, Asian crime syndicates and serious and organised crime groups,' he told reporters on Tuesday.

'We allege they've been trafficking illicit drugs into Australia at an industrial scale.

'Sadly, criminal gangs are targeting Australia because it is one of the most profitable countries in the world to sell drugs, and for three years, this operation has been overt.'

Mr Kershaw said detectives have arrested the alleged 'King makers' behind the alleged crimes, prevented mass shootings in suburbs and 'frustrated serious and organised crime by seizing their ill-gotten wealth'.

'And these figures are likely to increase over the coming days. Collectively, these alleged offenders are facing jail terms that could run into hundreds of years and some of the charges they are facing carry life imprisonment,' he said.
Posted by: Skidmark 2021-06-08
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=603985