The long and circuitous path from Phantom Secure to Operation Trojan Shield and the INDICTMENT of “Influencers“
How the FBI managed to pull off one of the most consequential infiltration of hundreds of Transnational Crime Organizations and how a confidential source became the MVP of Operation Trojan Shield
In a joint Law Enforcement Operation - the FBI worked with the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (RCMP) below is an excerpt from the September 2020 RCMP Report highlighting 2017/2018 noteworthy and bilateral investigations
The RCMP assisted international partners with the execution of multiple search warrants, seizing more than 1,000 encrypted mobile devices, computers, servers, and corporate documents. The RCMP is working with the FBI to ensure that evidence seized in Canada can be legally shared and used in the prosecution of Phantom's owne
In collaboration with the Australian Federal Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and law enforcement agencies in Panama, Hong Kong, and Thailand, Phantom Secure’s founder and chief executive Vincent Ramos was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, on March 7. Four of Ramos’ associates are fugitives. They are charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act violations.
This case is the first time the U.S. government has targeted a company and its leaders for assisting a criminal organization by providing them with technology to “go dark,” or evade law enforcement’s detection of their crimes.
Thereafter on March 15, 2018 a Grand Jury returned an INDICTMENT as to defendants;
Vincent Ramos count(s) 1, 2,
Kim Augustus Rodd count(s) 1, 2,
Younes Nasri count(s) 1, 2,
Michael Gamboa count(s) 1, 2,
Christopher Poquiz (5) count(s) 1, 2.
October 2, 2018 Minute Entry;
… held before Magistrate Judge Barbara Lynn Major: Change of Plea Hearing as to Vincent Ramos held on 10/2/2018. Consent, Findings, Plea Agreement, Forfeiture Addendum filed. Guilty Plea Tendered by Vincent Ramos on count One(1) of Indictment. Objections to findings due in 14 days.
Phantom Secure sold “hardened encrypted device” which is an encrypted communication device that
1) sends and receives encrypted electronic communications, and/or
2) encrypts the data stored on the device.
devices had limited functionality: a user could not make a normal phone call or browse the internet
Phantom Secure used a closed loop system - device-to-device communication was limited to a self-selected closed group of individuals using only other Phantom Secure devices.
encryption service plans lasting from two to six months, and devices cost $1,500 to $2,000 each for a six month service plan.
The devices were not sold in commercial brick and mortar stores. Phantom Secure vetted it’s customers. Customers were required purchase through a known distributor to even begin the initial conversation to obtain a device.
Phantom Secure was engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, or its activities in some way affected ( or were contemplated to in some way affect) interstate or foreign commerce.
The defendant was employed by or associated with Phantom Secure.
There was an agreement between two or more persons to conduct (or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of) Phantom Secure's affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity.
Defendant became a member of the conspiracy knowing of its illegal objects and intending to help accomplish them.
The enterprise was Phantom Secure - which sold custom encrypted phones, and their customers were largely “high end organized criminal groups— including the Sinaloa drug cartel”
In Vincent Ramos’ plea agreement - he admitted that he and his co-conspirators used Phantom Secure and
“facilitated the distribution of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine to locations around the world including in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Thailand and Europe by supplying narcotics traffickers…”
Additionally Defendant Ramos agreed to the following conditions pursuant to the Plea Agreement:
$80 million forfeiture money judgment as well as the forfeiture of tens of millions of dollars in identified assets, ranging from bank accounts worldwide, to houses, to a Lamborghini, to cryptocurrency accounts, to gold coins.
forfeit the server licenses and over 150 domains which were being used to operate the infrastructure of the Phantom Secure network, enabling it to send and receive encrypted messages for criminals.
SkyGlobal March 2021 Indictment
what made SKY GLOBAL more attractive to Transnational Criminal Organizations is once Ramos et al were in custody Phantom Secure effectively shutdown. The “closed-loop” feature actually became a point of frustration, users ability to surf the web, download, listen to music and/or take pictures— the very same features you and I used on our smartphones - Phantom Secure had none of that. And that created a vacuum for a more “functional” encrypted phone but also the bonus of a remote “wipe” and hyper vigilance of shutting down a SKY GLOBAL device/suspending accounts that were using the Sky Global Network - especially of the Administrators “thought” Law Enforcement or an Informant was on their network…
On March 12, 2021 a Grand Jury returned a two count indictment - JEAN-FRANCOIS EAP aka "888888" and THOMAS HERDMAN
Count Two: 21 U.S.C. §Secs. 84l(a)(l) and 846 -Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances; Title 18, U.S.C. Sec. 2 -Aiding and Abetting; Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 1963,
See the footnote, for unknown reasons some still speciously and incorrectly state R-I-C-O is easy or that the DOJ isn’t using all the tools. I am genuinely sick of seeing so many impugn the DOJ and FBI - in order for any USAO to pursue RICO charges there are numerous policies that they must follow - and that’s after Main DOJ approves RICO charges.
To give you a detailed understanding see DOJ 9-110.000 - ORGANIZED CRIME AND RACKETEERING which details all the prerequisite steps and authorizations- no RICO is not easy to prosecute. Period. Full Stop.
SKY GLOBAL devices are dedicated data devices housed inside an iPhone, Google Pixel, Blackberry, or Nokia handset. Whereas the standard iPhone, Google Pixel, Blackberry, or handset is sold to the public with the capability for voice communication, GPS, navigation, camera, Internet access, and the Messenger services, when SKY GLOBAL receives the devices, their technical team removes the internal hardware/software responsible for the GPS, camera, Internet, and voice communications. SKY GLOBAL then installs sophisticated encryption software and routes the data through encrypted servers located in Canada and France.
There are at least 70,000 SKY GLOBAL devices in use worldwide, including in the United States. For more than a decade, SKY GLOBAL has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profit by facilitating the criminal activity of transnational criminal organizations and protecting these organization from law enforcement.
Not to belabor the point - once Phantom Secure was essentially annihilated and ceased to operate this created a vacuum and Sky Global attempted to fill the encrypted telecommunications void that Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) needed to move their “products” that being illegal drugs.. and the TCOs needed to have a secured communications network so they could ensure the logistics of shipping and distribution of the drugs.
Moreover SKY GLOBAL ability to remote delete communiques sent/received by their clients continued to thwart and frustrate law enforcement various investigations. The infrastructure SKY GLOBAL created allowed for TCOs to move tons and I mean tons of drugs. As you’ll note on page 4 of the March 2021 Indictment the Government explains both the manner and means but the back-end functionality of SKY GLOBAL. Which resulted in unjust enrichment
…create, maintain, and control a method of secure communication to facilitate the importation, exportation, and distribution of illegal drugs into Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America, including the United States and Canada, and to launder the proceeds of such drug trafficking conduct…
Again a lot of facts are contained in Court Filings, the catch is 1st you need to read it, 2nd you need to understand what you’re reading and 3rd (probably the most important) is you need to read it under the guise of the broader picture and how various cases can be interconnected. For Example:
SKY GLOBAL's Administrators, Distributors, and Agents employed an “ask nothing/do nothing'' approach toward its clients. SKY GLOBAL adopted this approach shortly after the takedown of Phantom Secure and allowed for its Administrators, Distributors, and Agents to have plausible deniability from the activities of their clients that they knew or had reason to know participated in illegal activities, including international drug trafficking.
Earlier today I published a “rush” article concerning Operation Trojan Shield and indicted that I would come back to the Affidavit after COB - and as promised let’s get down and dirty with the “good stuff” - now that you have a pretty basic and condensed understanding of both Phantom and Sky - it makes sense that under that framework to drill down further on Operation Trojan Shield.
AFFIDAVIT re: expliamdavis@gmail.com
Sometimes it is best to start at the beginning- especially now that you have the Phantom & Sky context
…from January 1, 2021, to May 17, 2021, for items that constitute evidence, fruits, and instrumentalities of violations of federal criminal law, namely, Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 846 (Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances), as described in Attachment B.
This affidavit and application are sought pursuant to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and 18 U.S.C. §2703(a) and (b), which applies to providers of electronic communication and remote computing services.
And yes I find footnotes have a lot of interesting information - for example footnote 2 - discloses that during the investigation the FBI was unable to “identified a single legitimate, non-criminal user of Phantom Secure” I mean they even provided “opportunities for any user…to come forward and retrieve their data…” shockingly “no request was made” (please note my extreme sarcasm)l
Confidential Human Source (CHS)
As indicated on page 7 - entitled:
A CHS Gave FBI An In-Development Encrypted Device Company
The whole word of mouth and a reference has to have references before a distributor would sell a “hardened device” make a lot of sense given TCOs main objective is communicate in real time with the logics of moving and distributing “product” all while try to evade detection from law enforcement - the fact the FBI had a CHS and they began working for the FBI in 2018 - that is pretty incredible and likely put the CHS in serious mortal danger because one would think the “bosses” of the TCOs didn’t take too kindly to having their entire communication network as one big ol’ honey pot…
CHS has been working for FBI agents since 2018 in exchange for the possibility of having a reduced sentence in relation to charges the CHS is facing. The CHS has been paid $120,000 by the FBI for services and $59,508 for expenses related to living and travel expenses
SEVENTEEN INDICTED - Case 3:21-cr-01623-JLS
JOSEPH HAKAN AYIK , DOMENICO CATANZARITI (2), MAXIMILIAN RIVKIN, ABDELHAKIM AHARCHAOU, SEYYED HOSSEIN HOSSEINI , ALEXANDER DMITRIENKO, BARIS TUKEL, ERKAN YUSEF DOGAN, SHANE GEOFFREY MAY, AURANGZEB AYUB, JAMES THOMAS FLOOD, SRDJAN TODOROVIC aka DR.DJEK, SHANE NGAKURU, EDWIN HARMENDRA KUMAR, OMAR MALIK, MIWAND ZAKHIMI aka MAIWAND ZAKHIMI and OSEMAH ELHASSEN
The newly unsealed indictment via ECF https://ecf.casd.uscourts.gov/doc1/037017084398 ..the defendants, some of which are labeled as “international fugitives include individuals in; Turkey, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, Spain, Colombia, and Thailand.
As elucidated by the newly unsealed indictment:
…Anom has generated the Defendants millions of dollars in profit by facilitating the criminal activity of transnational criminal organizations and protecting these organizations from law enforcement,"
The Anom Enterprise …
How the Anom Enterprise Worked the purpose of it:
Which included "influencers," as further alleged in the newly unsealed indictment;
"well-known crime figures who wield significant power and influence over other criminal associates. These influencers have also built a reputation for their knowledge and expertise in the hardened encrypted device field and use that power, knowledge, and expertise to promote, market, and encourage others to use specific hardened encrypted devices."
The "Distributors" would the. provide technical support for customers. The indictment also alleged that they would send money back up to the parent company, and manage "agents," - the agents were the boots on the ground anf meeting and engaging with customers..and while the Anom Enterprises staff largely remained anonymous - this was kind of a built in fire wall for the Enterprise itself. As the “agents” did know other “agents” this kind of siloing has one main purpose; evade law enforcement
“Designed by Criminals for Criminals”
Oh. My. God. No that’s really what the indictment states - haaall[pp I’m on the ground howling - it literally is the worst business tag line ever. Because the criminals didn’t know that the FBI had a serious ace up its sleeve…a CHS who helped create a master key before Anom was rolled out…
To make Anom more attractive- they marketed themselves;
not subject to U.S. law, including the U.S. surveillance law the Patriot Act, "to increase trust in the Anom brand as being secure for drug trafficking and money laundering,"
Here I went ahead and uploaded the newly unsealed Anom Enterprise Indictment to my public drive - in “RICO we Trust” and now you have a much better understanding of how much work the USAO-SDCA and FBI put into this monumental take down.
-for real the indictment was recently (like less than an hour ago) unsealed
indictment, notes that ANOM’s administrators, distributors, and agents described the platform to potential users as “designed by criminals for criminals” and targeted the sale of ANOM to individuals that they knew participated in illegal activities.
All defendants are foreign nationals located outside of the U.S. In total, eight of the indicted defendants were taken into custody last night. Authorities are continuing to search for the remaining nine defendants.
The indictment alleges the defendants knew the devices they distributed were being used exclusively by criminals to coordinate drug trafficking and money laundering, and in furtherance of numerous Transnational Criminal Organizations-Syndicates - which included some in the U.S.
HELLO FACEBOOK Gangster - JOSEPH HAKAN AYIK
yes if you watched 60 Minutes Australia over the past weekend - yes the same Hakan Ayik
‘In an effort to further obstruct justice and evade law enforcement -some of the defendants personally fielded “wipe requests” from users when devices fell into the hands of law enforcement. You can read more via;
And lastly just to reiterate those who are continuing to attack, besmirch or impugn our Department of Justice, the FBI and Attorney General Garland - what in the ___ is wrong with you?
Do you not understand that the DOJ is part of the Executive Branch that perhaps the Biden-DOJ is in fact trying to protect The Office of the President of the United States? That maybe your attacks on the aforementioned are beyond the pale. That you’re throwing gasoline on the fire that’s already raging. I will never understand why or what motivations these critics have. However the fact the Left is losing its mind over the fact the DOJ is “representing (former) president Trump” pull your heads out - they are protecting the Office of POTUS. But dogging Attorney General Garland just proves how you’ll do anything to stay relevant. Hope it was worth it -
Also I created a public folder Trojan Shield and uploaded the various Court Documents discussed because I trust my readers to give them access to public documents. Plus there’s no sense in making my readers incur additional cost for court filings. Also duh these are public documents and I’ll never understand those who withhold documents. It’s entirely abusive and manipulative AF to “pretend” you alone have access to court filings - people like that are entirely selfish and yet their cult-like followers hold such deference - also they have pretty hilariously bad “legal hawt takes” so I just sit here and laugh and roll my eyes. Facts don’t need ALL Caps or Emojis- facts stand on their own
-Filey - my haters are gonna hate and troll but I have much more important things to research and report - although I do love the fact I’m living rent free in their drug addled heads.
LI’m not going to chase down the Twitter archive of numerous threads - but if you’re going to pontificate as the foremost Twitter legal expert (did you get your JD from Trump University - is that where they taught you that the prolific use emojis and all caps and all the booms) dear god I spent hours on the phone explaining the DOJ RICO policies and procedures to you - and yet you still tweet utter nonsense. A USAO - is required pursuant to:
DOJ - 9-110.101 - Division Approval
“No RICO criminal indictment or information or civil complaint shall be filed, and no civil investigative demand shall be issued, without the prior approval of the Criminal Division.” See RICO Guidelines at JM 9-110.200. Also cited in JM 6-4.210
DOJ - 9-110.200 - RICO Guidelines Preface
The decision to institute a federal criminal prosecution involves balancing society's interest in effective law enforcement against the consequences for the accused. Utilization of the RICO statute, more so than most other federal criminal sanctions, requires particularly careful and reasoned application, because, among other things, RICO incorporates certain state crimes. One purpose of these guidelines is to reemphasize the principle that the primary responsibility for enforcing state laws rests with the state concerned. Despite the broad statutory language of RICO and the “legislative intent that the statute . . . shall be liberally construed to effectuate its remedial purpose," it is the policy of the Criminal Division that RICO be selectively and uniformly used. - cited in JM 9-110.101; JM 9-110.811
Use of RICO in a prosecution, like every other federal criminal statute, is also governed by the Principles of Federal Prosecution. See JM 9-27.000, etseq. Inclusion of a RICO count in an indictment solely or even primarily to create a bargaining tool for later plea negotiations on lesser counts is not appropriate and would violate the Principles of Federal Prosecution. - updated January 2020 and cited in JM 9-63.1200
These crimmies paid 8k per year for a Trojan smart phone and didn’t pay anyone to read the freakin fine print. Thanks for reading the footnotes for free, Filey. They shoulda found a crooked version of you 🤣
Biiig story that’s not getting enough attention, in my view. Great to read your analysis. Thanks so much, Mic.
These crimmies paid 8k per year for a Trojan smart phone and didn’t pay anyone to read the freakin fine print. Thanks for reading the footnotes for free, Filey. They shoulda found a crooked version of you 🤣