Key members of ‘The Family' drugs gang splash the cash after jetting off to Ibiza
Six people were arrested after the network was hacked
Six people were arrested after the network was hacked
Key members of 'The Family' drugs gang splashed the cash after jetting off to Ibiza for a stag weekend — just months after gardai looked to have smashed the mob by hacking into their encrypted phone network.
The suspected gang members were spotted living it up on the party island last month after flying out from Ireland to celebrate an upcoming wedding.
A source said the party included a number of key associates of the leader of 'The Family' mob, as well as a 'tech expert' who operated the Ghost encrypted phone network for the west Dublin gang. However, the source claimed one of the gang leaders pulled out at the last minute because he believed he was under surveillance.
Six people were arrested after the network was hacked
The Ghost network claimed to provide criminals with devices that could not be infiltrated by police due to a special triple-encryption system.
A source told the Sunday World that 'no expense' was spared with members of the gang splashing the cash on the weekend trip.
Known as 'The Family', the gang have filled the void left by the demise of the Kinahan Cartel and are regarded as major importers of cocaine and heroin into the country.
However, it appeared that gardai had effectively brought down the leadership of gang when they carried out a series of raids in March.
Three brothers, including the overall gang boss, were among six people arrested as part of country's first major encrypted phone hack case.
Six people were arrested after the network was hacked
Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 6th
The arrested men also included a 'tech expert' who is suspected of selling and maintaining the encrypted communication devices.
They were held after gardai accessed the gang's day-to-day business when the encrypted network Ghost network was hacked last September as part of an international policing operation.
After the Ghost network was compromised, gardai seized €15.2m of cocaine, €350,000 in cash, €320,000 worth of cannabis and a further €100,000 of heroin from the gang following 33 searches and the seizure of 42 devices.
A further 153 electronic devices were also seized from suspected gang members at that time.
But days after their arrests, the gang's leaders were released without charge — with a file being prepared for the DPP — despite the wealth of evidence exposed on the encrypted phones.
To date, Ireland has remained an outlier when it comes to prosecutions involving evidence against criminal groups and individuals discovered on encrypted networks.
An Garda Siochana have failed to bring any cases relating to the Encrochat takedown despite the fact that numerous successful prosecutions have been taken in Northern Ireland and hundreds of networks have been dismantled and jailed in the UK.
It is understood that the evidence against the leadership of 'The Family' found on the phones is overwhelming but, months later, the DPP has yet to give direction on charges.
Last year, gardai teamed up with their international partners after French authorities broke into two Ghost network servers and made contact with Europol.
The investigation subsequently revealed that Australia and Ireland were the two countries with the greatest use of the Ghost system.
As well as 'The Family', a Wicklow-based crime gang were also on the devices, and a separate Irish crime group was supplying and operating the phones.
Despite the fact that the Ghost encrypted phone network was used almost exclusively for organised crime, it was run by a 'computer geek'.
Jay Je Yoon Jung, (32), from Sydney in Australia, has been charged with allegedly creating and administering the Ghost network from a room in his parents' quiet suburban home.
Even while running the Ghost network, he continued to work for his parents' commercial cleaning business in the Sydney suburb of Narwee.
According to neighbours, he was the polite and quiet 'perfect son' who was well-known for his love of karaoke.
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