The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say Calabrian mafia ‘Ndrangheta have been in Australia for decades, laundering money and ‘pulling the strings’ of other gangs.
The AFP covertly took control of an underworld encrypted messaging system and have exposed how the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia has infiltrated Australia.
Alongside the FBI, the AFP penetrated and seized control of AN0M, a secure and encrypted messaging system favoured by criminals around the world. This changed everything, the AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan said.
The secretive mafia living openly in the community
The Australian Federal Police have exposed just how deeply Italy’s notoriously secretive and ruthlessly violent has infiltrated Australia. Their tentacles are in towns and cities across the country. They explained how thousands of members will be presenting a modest front of regular family life while laundering billions in dirty cash in construction, agricultural and catering businesses.
“It’s entirely possible that people would be living next door to members of the ‘Ndrangheta without knowing,” Ryan said. “The ‘Ndrangheta pride themselves on the fact that they have this omertà, which means they work in secrecy and silence.”
“They’ve been able to operate in the darkness for so long.”
The ‘Ndrangheta families have been established in Australia since the early 1920s. They legitimised their businesses to “wash billions” of ill-gotten gains.
The ‘Ndrangheta traffic around 70% of the world’s cocaine, and the AFP believes that same monopolising control exists in Australia.
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“The ‘Ndrangheta are actually the ones pulling the strings of different, other organised crime groups, particularly the more violent groups such as motorcycle gangs.”
Assisted by the FBI, Italian police and other Europrean law enforcement agencies, the AFP has built out extensive familial mapping. It revealed 51 Italian organised crime clans operating in Australia, of which 14 were “confirmed” as ‘Ndrangheta.
“We’ve seen the familial blood lines, and marriage into blood lines,” Ryan said.
“We see the same names coming up all the time in relation to organised crime in this country.”
Breaking into ANoM
Four years ago, the AFP set up a covert investigation called Operation Ironside. It looked into organised crime syndicates trafficking illicit drugs and weapons.
At the heart of the operation was an encrypted communications device – ANoM. That operation saw the AFP penetrate major crime groups by breaking into and assuming total control of ANoM.
ANoM allowed the AFP to build an extensive picture of the ‘Ndrangheta in Australia, as agents methodically analysed 28 million messages. Users had no idea the AFP and FBI was watching.
Ryan said a “good majority” of those messages were between Italian mafia members and outlaw motorcycle gangs, particularly the Comancheros.
“Unfortunately for them, they invested in the wrong technology when they invested in ANoM.”
However, Ryan said Asian or Middle Eastern crime syndicates do not use ANoM.
“This is really a warning to Italian organised crime that they’re on our radar,” he said.
Ryan declared the AFP must “cut off the head and tail” of ‘Ndrangheta in Australia.
