AST April 2018 Magazine AST April Magazine (3.30.18) | Page 7

Volume 22
April 2018 Edition
A selection of Phantom PGP’s Instagram account posts. (Courtesy of Instagram)
“The indictment of Vincent Ramos and his associates
is a milestone against transnational crime,” said FBI
Director Christopher Wray.
“Phantom Secure allegedly provided a service designed
to allow criminals the world over to evade law enforce-
ment to traffic drugs and commit acts of violent crime
without detection.”
“Ramos and his company made millions off this
criminal activity, and our takedown sends a serious
message to those who exploit encryption to go dark
on law enforcement.”
“I want to thank our partners at the Department of Justice,
as well as our Australian and Canadian law enforcement
partners, for their incredible work on this case.”
The FBI takes an enterprise approach to transnation-
al organized crime, taking down criminal organiza-
tions from the top using the RICO Act.
The sweeping investigation allowed the entire illicit
operation—and its technological infrastructure—to be
taken down at one time.
FBI Director Christopher Wray
“We had to investigate the entire company and its
leaders, both from a personnel and technology perspec-
tive,”Cheviron said.
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