Gardaí examining more than six months of encrypted messages in Ghost service probe
Gardaí are examining more than six months of encrypted messages from the Ghost service in a bid to make further arrests in relation to organised crime in Ireland.
11 people were arrested following a major international operation last week in which 42 devices which were connected to the Ghost encrypted messaging service were seized in Ireland, along with drugs worth €16m, cryptocurrency and €350,000 in cash.
Some 300 gardaí swooped on suspects in Dublin and surrounding counties and executed 33 search warrants.
More arrests are expected in connection with the operation, gardaí said. The Ghost encrypted messaging system was used by serious and organized crime to traffic drugs and weapons, arrange murders, kidnappings and money laundering.
Element of paranoia
“We always have to introduce an element of paranoia into how they [criminals] work,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.
“We want to be sure that they are feeling vulnerable around their communications and how they work with each other.
“That then gives us investigative opportunities to pursue in terms of just the methodology that we need to interdict on.”
Four Irish gangs were among the targets of the operation, with one – not mentioned by name but believed to be west Dublin gang The Family – as being the largest drug distributors in the country.
“The various gangs that have been referred to, they aren’t a new priority to us,” Mr Harris said.
“They’re the subject of investigation by the Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, and that’s been the case now over the last period of time.
“So this [Ghost bust] has been significant in that it has given us a really good foothold to advance those investigations.
“But […] there’s more to be done, and those investigations are carrying on.”
Scale of hack
Gardaí are now examining six months’ worth of messages from the Ghost bust.
Gardaí also had access to criminal communications following the Encrochat encrypted messaging service hack in 2020.
While the scale of the Encrochat hack was much larger, with the encrypted phones used by large criminal networks the people using Ghost were in “the upper echelons” of the criminal underworld, Mr Harris said.
And because the Ghost network was smaller, that “weakness becomes a strength in investigative purposes.”
He “hopes” the Ghost files contain significant evidence.
“We will find out over the next coming weeks and months,” he said.