Feds Bust CEO Allegedly Selling Custom BlackBerry Phones To Sinaloa Drug Cartel (vice.com)

An anonymous reader shares a Motherboard report: For years, a slew of shadowy companies have sold so-called encrypted phones, custom BlackBerry or Android devices that sometimes have the camera and microphone removed and only send secure messages through private networks. Several of those firms allegedly cater primarily for criminal organizations.Now, the FBI has arrested the owner of one of the most established companies, Phantom Secure, as part of a complex law enforcement operation, according to court records and sources familiar with the matter. "FBI are flexing their muscle," one source familiar with the secure phone industry, and who gave Motherboard specific and accurate details about the operation before it was public knowledge, said. Motherboard granted the sources in this story anonymity to talk about sensitive developments in the secure phone trade. The source said the Phantom operation was carried out in partnership with Canadian and Australian authorities.

Comments

Why is this illegal?

[nimbius]

Cartel members buy toilet paper, tacos, beer and car window tint too. Selling things to a criminal is not, itself, a crime. Just because encryption can be used in concert with a criminal act does not make encryption a criminal act. The important part of this article is where the FBI seeks to use Phantom as a whipping boy for its "safe" and "good" crypto agenda.

Phantom then installs Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software to send encrypted messages, and routes these messages through overseas servers, the complaint alleges.

If you want to stop drug trafficking and end cartels, you can stop trying to outlaw trapdoor math functions and start overhauling the century old criminal code that made a drug safer than aspirin a capital offense.

Re:Why is this illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh OK. So because they actually designed for illicit use then the encryption and lack of camera and mic is illegal.

What they SHOULD have done was market the phones for use for clergy. "Officer, these phones were designed to take remote confessionals. Now fuck off and may the Lord be with you!"

Re:Why is this illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't want to stop drug trafficking and end cartels, they just want to stop drug trafficking and cartels that they do not control and profit from.

Re:Why is this illegal?

[azcoyote]

Exactly. I agree with bogaboga. Some common-sense moral evaluation can tell us that this is immoral, and from there we can infer that if it isn't illegal, it probably should be.

It's immoral for at least the following reasons:

• The seller has full knowledge of what the item will be used for.
• The seller markets the object with the direct and clear intention that it should be used for the commission of crimes.
• The seller should be aware that such crimes involve immoral actions, including harm of persons and even murder. ("should" because even if the seller does not directly know, this is what is called "vincible ignorance"--an ignorance that he easily could rectify and which is therefore his own fault.)

Cartel members buy toilet paper, tacos, beer and car window tint too.

If a person sells toilet paper to a criminal to wipe his behind, that is not immoral. In fact, providing a basic necessity like medical aid to a criminal could even be a morally good act if done for the sake of the person's human dignity and not for the sake of continuing their crimes. If you happen to see someone marketing toilet paper to a criminal so that he can murder someone with it, then you can go ahead and call the police on him.

Re:Why is this illegal?

[schnell]

Cartel members buy toilet paper, tacos, beer and car window tint too. Selling things to a criminal is not, itself, a crime.

I'd suggest reading TFA, which is actually both less sensational and more damning than the cheap clickbait Slashdot version.

The short version is that they arrested the CEO of a company which proactively markets its services to criminal organizations. The company performs perfectly legal activities: they mod phones to remove camera, GPS, web browsing, etc.; add secure messaging software; and then operate a remote Enterprise Mobility Management server that the phones are connected to so they can manage remote wipe/lock/whatever. That second half is the problem: it's not a "fire and forget" operation of just selling a modded phone. It's doing the EMM bit of acting as the IT department of criminal organizations ("call us to wipe your phone if your dude gets arrested") knowingly and willingly, to the extent of the CEO saying "we made this for drug traffickers."

Long story short: you're right, selling legal stuff to criminals that they use for illegal activity: not a crime. But marketing your services specifically to be used in illegal activities: yes, a crime.

That CEO is a [reckless] moron

[bogaboga]

How else would I call a fella who says the following to anyone?

“We made it—we made it specifically for this [drug trafficking] too,”

As he reportedly told undercover agents...

One conclusion: "Moron."

Re:Duterte

[b0s0z0ku]

The Coca farmers are often poor peasants -- are you advocating napalming families who are just getting by?

As far as Mussolini, he ended up strung up upside down, hanging from a gas station sign like a trussed turkey. "Hanged and quartered" by his own people. Hope that happens to many world leaders in the near future. Murderers like "Duterte Harry", and "Wannabe Stalin" Lukashenko would be good starts.

In short, you Russian troll, feck off, get MRSA of the scrotum from a FSB-run hooker.