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A man with a "big role" in an Italian mafia is among dozens of suspects arrested in a global series of coordinated raids stemming from the dismantling of an Australia-based encrypted communications app.
Italian authorities described the arrest of the 43-year-old, who is linked to Puglia's Sacra Corona Unita and wanted since last year, as "fundamental", and expressed hope it would be just the start of similar operations.
Globally, the app's shutdown led to the seizure of millions of dollars in drugs, hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and the dismantling of an Australian drug lab, various international and Australian authorities claimed.
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Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner David McLean claimed the operation saved as many as 50 people from death or serious injury.
"While there are 50 people alive today as the result of our work, there are another 50 people in Australia, users of the ghost platform who are now facing criminal charges," he said.
By Wednesday night, 51 suspects had been arrested as European policing agency Europol worked with law enforcement agencies from nine countries including Australia and the US to smash the "Ghost" communications app, which criminals were using to communicate undetected.
Thirty-eight of those were in Australia – including alleged creator Jay Je Yoon Jung – 11 in Ireland, one in Canada and one in Italy, according to Europol, which stressed more operations were likely.
"Criminals thought they would and could hide behind technology to coordinate drugs and weapons trafficking, extreme violence and money laundering across borders," Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle said at a press conference at its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, on Wednesday morning (Wednesday night AEST).
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"But today, we are making it clear, no matter how advanced the technology, no matter how secure they think their communications are, we will find them and we will shut down their criminal activities."
While there was only one arrest in Italy, an Italian law enforcement representative at the same conference described it as "fundamental and "very important".
"The Sacra Corona Unita is one of the mafia that we have in Italy, you know, probably better than others, like Sicilian Mafia, like Ndrangheta from Calabria and like also Camorra from Naples," he said, without introducing himself by name.
"But we are talking here about a wanted, a man wanted since 2023 … with a big role into the Sacra Corona Unita, which is placed in the south part of Italy, in Puglia region, because of the geography, the closing together with Albania and all this area is very fundamentally crucial for this kind of investigation.
"So we hope that will be just only a start for new law enforcement cooperation."
Another Italian official speaking at a news conference in Italy said the suspect had escaped a pre-trial detention order issued by the Court of Lecce in May 2023 due to suspected mafia association and was a convicted felon.
He allegedly forced a local entrepreneur in the Gallipoli area to pay more than €60,000 ($98,500) through the use of heavy threats.
The AFP claims Jung created the Ghost app when he was 23 and sold "dedicated encrypted communications devices" to use it for about $2350, vetting new users before they were allowed into the system.
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The encryption was described as "a cut above" consumer encrypted platforms like WhatsApp and Signal.
Interpol said the network used three encryption standards, included a code to self-destruct all messages on a targeted phone and was used by several thousand people globally sending about 1000 messages a day.
"We will allege hundreds of criminals, including Italian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern organised crime and Korean organised crime have been using Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and to order the killing of individuals involved in various criminal enterprises," the AFP's McLean said at the Europol press conference.
Servers running the network were found in France and Iceland and financial assets in the US, it's alleged.
Ghost was described as much smaller than previous encrypted networks popular among criminals such as EncroChat and Sky ECC.
Europol Deputy Executive Director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe said the landscape had "fragmented" since the takedown of the bigger apps.
"We have multiple smaller networks that are used by the criminals, and they use, sometimes two or three of them," he said.
"So the size is smaller but the footprint is global."
An international taskforce established at Europol in March 2022 included authorities from Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United States.
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