{"id":5832,"date":"2025-05-29T16:21:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.ackgame.com\/onwords\/?p=5832"},"modified":"2025-05-29T16:21:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:21:49","slug":"dark-wire-by-joseph-cox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.ackgame.com\/onwords\/dark-wire-by-joseph-cox\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Wire<\/B> by Joseph Cox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dark<\/a>Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever<\/a> by Joseph Cox<\/a>
\nMy rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

This docubook details the story of a huge sting operation launched and operated for years by the FBI, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and a set of European national police departments. The group created their own encrypted phone and distributed them among drug dealers worldwide. The software in the phone was devised to have all the encrypted messages decrypted and stored in plaintext to a central server for law enforcement access. The information received eventually resulted in tons of drugs of all types being seized, several murders thwarted, and hundreds or maybe thousands of criminals prosecuted. As a retired FBI agent I loved the basic operation and cheered on the good guys. I was surprised and delighted at the crucial role played by one small country.<\/p>\n

That said, the book wasn’t written to entertain, so it became a bit too much like a police report – highly repetitive and devoid of much action. Much of it is simply recording which new drug dealer or phone seller or user got sucked into the sting and how the drug trade took place. I would have skimmed to the end if it weren’t a book club choice. Ironically, the FBI is the one agency that couldn’t use the intercepts in its own country because of U.S. privacy laws. It could, however, prosecute the phone sellers for selling the phones, conspiring, obstruction of justice, RICO, etc. I’d give this a 3.5 star rating but I’ll stretch that to 4 for Goodreads.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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