An internationally wanted Swedish man in his 40s has been arrested in Turkey, which SVT was the first to report on.
He was arrested in Istanbul on Saturday evening, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya writes on X.
The man is in custody in Sweden in his absence on suspicion of extremely serious drug smuggling and extremely serious drug crime, Expressen writes.
In the US, he is wanted on suspicion of having been a leading administrator and enabler of serious organized crime through the FBI’s own chat service Anom. The service had been developed by the FBI to trick criminals into using it and thus be able to better spy on them and their activities.
That the FBI was behind the service was revealed in 2021 and by then it had spread among criminals. The police obtained a secret copy of all the messages they sent between each other with Anom.
Fooled by the FBI
The Swede was tricked by the FBI and sold phones with Anom installed to several criminal gangs. American and Swedish police were able to follow what criminals wrote to each other, and in Sweden the Anom chats led to more than a hundred people being arrested.
This summer, the US Department of State went out and offered a reward of the equivalent of just over SEK 54 million to anyone who could provide tips that led to the arrest of the man.
According to SVT, the man has lived in Turkey in recent years and has been seen out in Istanbul’s nightlife. He is also said to have bought several homes after he was internationally wanted.