The AFP said while almost 400 of the 600 active Ghost phones were in Australia, the others were in Italy, Ireland, Canada and Sweden.
Anti-mafia investigators last week stormed a farmhouse in Italy’s southern region of Puglia at dawn and located Giovanni Parlangeli.
The alleged mafia boss had been off the grid since last year – until the Ghost breach, authorities say.
Cash seized in Ireland as part of the crackdown on Ghost users.
Local media described Parlangeli as a “boss” or senior figure who linked two organised crime clans in the region. He had false documents for travelling abroad and ammunition stocked in the farmhouse, authorities allege.
After Australia, Ghost’s biggest user base was Ireland, and it was there authorities made almost a dozen arrests.
Drugs, cryptocurrency and cash were seized in bulk, Ireland’s police, the Gardaí, said.
Jung was arrested early on Tuesday by the AFP after they infiltrated the Ghost network allegedly run from his bedroom.Credit: AFP
Gardaí seized 42 Ghost phones but believe there are about 100 in the country, the public broadcaster RTE said.
Four unnamed gangs were caught up in the arrests, authorities said, including members of a group known as The Family – the country’s biggest drug importers.
The Family have only recently ascended over Ireland’s last generation of powerful gangs, particularly the Kinahan cartel.
Gardaí were asked if Kinahan members were also among those caught using Ghost phones; they declined to comment but said those arrested were “high-value” targets.
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“We want to be sure they are feeling vulnerable around their communications and how they work with one another. That gives us investigative opportunities. The upper echelons within the organised crime groups were using the ‘Ghost’ system,” Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said.
The AFP also claim they uncovered a complicated plot being organised from a NSW prison, using Ghost, that seems to mirror an infamous Kinahan conspiracy.
The AFP said Guy Habkouk, who is in custody accused of a massive heroin importation, had allegedly communicated over Ghost to source rocket launchers, machine guns, grenades and terrorist insignia.
Habkouk’s plan, the AFP alleges, was to alert authorities to a fake terrorist plot in exchange for a lighter sentence for his alleged heroin dealing. His brother, Wade, was convicted earlier this year for his role in the drug deal. Guy is fighting the charge.
But Guy Habkouk’s alleged plan to cut a deal with the courts resembles on that the Kinahan family played out in 2020.
Two Kinahan gang leaders organised to have guns buried on a farm in Ireland and then tipped prosecutors off to their location, claiming they had intelligence about weapon smuggling.
The goal was to have the courts cut them a lighter deal for co-operating.
But the Kinahans were not aware EncroChat, the encrypted app they favoured, had already been breached by police.
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The Kinahans were charged with weapons and conspiring to pervert the course of justice in their drug trials.
The demise of EncroChat, along with its rivals Phantom Secure and Sky ECC, helped steer criminals toward Ghost, the AFP said.
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