Federal police break up shady reseller network selling “unhackable” mobile phones – channelnews

Several shady mobile phone resellers, many in high-crime areas of Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, are being raided by the Australian Federal Police after a so-called “unhackable” “ghost” mobile network used by criminals was disrupted.

The resellers who sold the custom-made devices used by criminals in prisons and to plan murders and drug deals were exposed after police began investigating a 32-year-old mastermind who set up a network from his parents’ Sydney home and sold the devices to criminals through a network of resellers.

Jay Je Yoon Jung, a 32-year-old Korean national who lived with his parents in Western Sydney, is due to appear in court later today. He is accused of developing the encrypted communications platform “Ghost”, which has been in operation for nine years and is used by outlaw motorcycle gangs such as the Hells Angels, Mongols, Comancheros and Finks, as well as Middle Eastern organised crime groups, Italian crime syndicates and Korean crime gangs.

He drives a black luxury Mercedes that is worth over $300,000 when new.

At this time, it is not yet known which mobile phones have been adapted to run the unique OPS software.

The tip-off to AFP that smartphones used by criminals originated in Sydney came from Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, which set up a task force in 2022 to shut down the network.

They alerted AFP that the network’s administrator was apparently in Sydney.

To infiltrate Ghost, the AFP, you set up Operation Kraken, in which the technical operators develop a virus-like program to inject into the administrator’s computers.

According to information to be provided to prosecutors, Jung sold the customized devices for about $2,350 through a select group of “resellers.”

So far, 600 devices are believed to have been sold to criminals.

AFP officials claim that the resellers are experienced criminals or have knowledge of gangs and what they want to buy for their criminal activities.

It is believed that the resellers were screening new users before selling them a ghost phone.

It is assumed that the devices are used exclusively by criminals.

400 of the Ghost mobile phones were used in Australia, the rest were used by criminals abroad.

Currently, more than 700 police officers are searching the doors of users of the “Ghost” network, and according to AFP, raids are threatened in Europe and North America.

Jay Je Yoon Jung was known as a karaoke singer.

He has since been charged with aiding and abetting participation in a criminal organization, allegedly trading in illegal money worth over $100,000, and cryptocurrency offenses.

Police claim that the man, Jay Je Yoon Jung, is the architect and “administrator” of Ghost and that his arrest has caused the underworld to desperately search for a safe haven.

AFP officials claim he is suspected to be the driving force behind drug trafficking in Australia.

According to police, his current almost 400 domestic clients include Australian biker gangs, but also organized crime groups from the Middle East, Italian crime families and Korean gangs.

Police claim that with each of his updates, a backup copy of the messages was copied to the AFP, so more than 125,000 messages from the past six months are now in the hands of law enforcement.

When AFP technical experts managed to infiltrate the platform in March, they allegedly uncovered at least 50 death and harm threats, as well as information about violent crime, money laundering and drug trafficking.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Kristy Schofield said most of the death threats had occurred in Sydney.

Jung’s arrest is expected to have repercussions for criminal networks in the United States, Canada, Italy, Sweden and Ireland.

Ghost boasted about its security, describing itself as “the encrypted communications service of the future.”

Crucially, it ran on decentralized networks with post-quantum encryption that he believed could not be hacked by law enforcement.

Additional layers of security, automatic message deletion, voice obfuscation, pseudonymous usernames and remote wiping meant that even confiscated phones could be of little use.

Jung is expected to appear in court in Sydney on Wednesday.

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