The Instagram of Drug Trafficking: The Dismantling of Ghost

When you mention the word “ghost” most people think of ghastly figures of the night haunting their attic. Others think it’s a load of rubbish even to acknowledge such things. However, Jae Je Yoon Jung, a 32-year-old Australian, has made one ghost all too real. But it’s not an ancient spirit, rather, it is a social media platform dealers use in various illegal trades. The platform gained traction after offering advanced security features that one could buy without providing personal information. However, Europol and Eurojust have finally taken down the platform, resulting in dozens of arrests worldwide, including the mastermind Yoon Jung. He faces up to 26 years in prison, as his trial began in Australia shortly after his arrest, with the expectation that it will be concluded by the end of the year. Even with this takedown though, the damage has been done, leaving a mess that all governments must keep an eye on, to ensure another platform does not come in to replace Ghost. 

So how does Ghost work? The additional security features used three encryption standards. These standards allowed criminals to send a message followed by a specific code that would self-destruct all messages on the targeted phone. This allowed crime organizations to communicate undetected across borders, leaving no traces for law enforcement. Even though the majority of the usage came from Europe, the platform was used worldwide by criminals, supported by the Ghost’s infrastructure, which allowed dealers to connect with a range of their counterparts worldwide. It’s estimated that around a thousand messages were being exchanged on Ghost a day and those were only the ones that could be tracked without self-destructing. 

The owners of the platform were eventually located in Australia, with servers additionally located in France and Iceland, as well as financial assets in the United States. So far, fifty-one people have been arrested, mainly from Australia, revealing connections between the platforms and crime organizations from Canadian arms dealers to Italian mafia groups. 

Europol’s Deputy Executive Director, Jean-Phillipe Lecouffe, told reporters shortly after the operation, “This was truly a global game of cat and mouse, and today, the game is up.” 

Weapons, drugs, and around one million euros have been seized, including the dismantling of a drug lab in Australia. Further arrests are expected to be made in the coming weeks as the investigation continues. The activities on Ghost are believed to have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people through a wide range of activities including large-scale drug trafficking, money laundering, and extreme violence. 

Taking down Ghost is just one of the many operations that have been carried out by intelligence agencies against social media platforms in recent times. Just last month, Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, was charged with twelve offenses related to illicit activities on the platform, helped largely in part by the encryption options offered by Telegram. Encrochat, another platform that promised heavily encrypted messaging, was taken down in 2020, resulting in more than 6,500 arrests and 900 million euros being seized by intelligence agencies. In 2021, another secure encrypted messaging app, ANOM, was taken down by a sting operation by US, Australian, and European police. The takedown resulted in more than 800 arrests and the seizing of assets such as drugs, weapons, and cash. Commenting on these recent takedowns, Europol’s Executive Director Catherine De Bolle stated, “Today we have made it clear that no matter how hidden criminal networks think they are, they can't evade our collective effort.” 

With technology advancing every day, the threats to all of those who use social media increase at a similar rate. But with intelligence agencies collaborating more and more, the harm caused by platforms such as Ghost is finally beginning to decrease after years of being allowed to run loose on the interweb. The stories of Ghost and other platforms like it, simply remind us to be safe on the web to ensure our safety and that of those we care about.

By Luke Birch