The FBI detained the director of the company for the production of secure mobile phones Phantom Secure

Each of us constantly carries in his pocket a universal bug, a device that is ideally designed for constant surveillance and listening to a person. This is a mobile phone. Fortunately, the authorities do not yet have the infrastructure for listening, voice identification and automatic speech recognition on all mobile phones in the country at once, so the interception is usually limited to only selected categories of citizens - they are criminals, oppositionists, big businessmen, etc. Two options: either to abandon mobile phones, or try to somehow protect themselves from surveillance.

If there is a demand, then there is an offer. For several years now, a number of companies that offer secure mobile phones have been operating on the market - usually reworked versions of BlackBerry or Android devices, often with physically removed cameras and microphones, with functionality limited only by sending text messages over encrypted communication channels through servers whose operators refuse to cooperate with law enforcement.
')
The phones removed GPS receivers, browsers, ordinary instant messengers and similar programs. Instead, they installed Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software and a client for sending encrypted messages. There is a function of remote cleaning of the phone in case of confiscation by law enforcement agencies.

It is no secret that batches of such phones are often purchased by criminal structures for their personnel. And some of the manufacturers specifically serve criminal structures as their main customers. But in this case, they themselves become accomplices. Recently, the District Court of the Southern District of California sent a criminal case to Vincent Ramos (Vincent Ramos), the founder and executive director of one of the most famous companies for the production of secure mobile phones - the Canadian company Phantom Secure .



From the documents it follows that the arrest of Ramos was part of a complex and thought-out operation carried out by the FBI in collaboration with law enforcement agencies of Canada and Australia.

“The FBI plays with its muscles,” an anonymous source commented to Motherboard , who spoke in detail about the operation before it became known to the general public.

Vincent Ramos was accused of banditry as part of a criminal group in the framework of solving business issues in business, as well as criminal conspiracy, aiding and abetting the spread of drugs. Authorities arrested Ramos on Thursday, March 8, 2018.

It is important to note the following. According to the position of the prosecutor's office, Ramos and his company Phantom Secure did not just accidentally help criminals, like Apple, if the criminal uses the iPhone. No, in this case, the company Phantom Secure is specifically created to facilitate criminal activity.

The published court documents show that Phantom Secure phones were used by members of the famous drug cartel Sinaloa , the largest cartel in Mexico, which controls up to 60% of all drug traffic in the United States. Six years ago, as a result of a large-scale operation of law enforcement agencies, 599 airplanes and helicopters of the drug cartel were captured, but he managed to quickly recover from the losses and continue criminal activities. Not least, the success of this activity is due to the use of Phantom Secure encrypted mobile phones.

The company Phantom Secure found grateful buyers in criminal circles. Clients are influential criminal groups in Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela. Among the buyers is the notorious motorcycle club “Angels of Hell” - a gang of motorcyclists with branches in 56 countries of the world (Moscow branch was founded in 2006), which is accused of drug trafficking, racketeering, trafficking in stolen goods, violence, murders, etc. Club members claim to be peaceful motorcycle enthusiasts, united for joint motocross, meetings and social events. But this does not prevent them from using protected cell phones. According to the FBI special agent Nicholas Cheviron, approximately 20,000 Phantom Secure mobile phones have been sold worldwide.

Subscribing to secured services for an organization costs $ 2000-3000 per month.

To collect evidence against Phantom Secure, Canadian police officers introduced themselves as drug dealers and when buying phones they asked if it was safe to send messages “for the delivery of MDMA to Montreal,” to which a company representative replied “Absolutely safe.” Subsequently, they staged the arrest of drug dealers and the confiscation of the phone - and representatives of Phantom Secure helped to remotely erase the information. In one of his conversations with an undercover agent, Ramos himself said that "we designed these phones specifically for such purposes [drug trafficking]." There is one case witness who used the Phantom Secure phone when transporting five kilograms of cocaine. So there is enough evidence.