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Australia's biggest-ever crime sting involving a fake encrypted text messaging app only came about after an FBI informant codenamed 'Jackpot' turned on an American cocaine baron. 

Daily Mail Australia can reveal the extraordinary chain of events beginning at Sydney's The Star casino a decade ago which led to the arrest of some 800 people around the world last month.   

FBI informant 'Jackpot', set in motion a chain of events that ultimately led to the AN0M app busts around the world.

In events which streaming giant Netflix is now planning to turn into a blockbuster documentary, law enforcement in 16 countries kneecapped major organised crime syndicates including the mafia, seizing 32 tonnes of drugs and $48million in cash. 

The stunning sting came after the FBI and Australian Federal Police dreamed up a Trojan horse app named AN0M, which was downloaded onto 12,000 phones and distributed among organised crime groups. 

The app supposedly let criminals send encrypted messages - but in fact let authorities read all 27million of their text messages. 

But authorities may never have even thought up the cunning ploy without the arrest of major Californian drug lord Owen 'O-Dog' Hanson in 2015, after he was betrayed by Las Vegas blackjack player RJ Cipriani.

Cipriani helped Hanson launder dirty money through The Star in 2011, until he blew $2.5million of the gangster's money on the gambling tables, called the police on Hanson, and became an informant for the FBI known as 'Jackpot.'

Owen 'O-Dog' Hanson's enormous drug empire spanned the US and Australia - and he claimed he could make $238,000 for a kilogram of cocaine in Sydney, compared with $27,000 in Los Angeles

How gambler's betrayal led to AN0M bust

Hanson's massive drug empire stretched across the Pacific from the US to Australia. He once boasted he could make $238,000 for a kilogram of cocaine in Sydney compared with $27,000 in Los Angeles, but moving it around was difficult. 

Jackpot met Hanson in June 2011 in Sydney, via a model named Crista Velarde, who Jackpot claims he used to date but Hanson ultimately ended up marrying.

Hanson wanted help laundering dirty money via Sydney's The Star casino. Jackpot initially obliged, making a million or so gambling with Hanson.

But stakes grew higher a couple of months later when Hanson knocked on Jackpot's hotel door with $2.5million stuffed in suitcases. 

Jackpot met Hanson in June 2011 in Sydney, via a model named Crista Velarde (above)

Jackpot blew the lot on the casino's blackjack tables in a matter of days. 

Petrified, he avoided Hanson's calls, but they collided with each other at a bar, where Hanson was joined by a henchman. 

The duo told Jackpot to meet them at the Hilton hotel, but instead Jackpot called the police, who found AUD$702,000 in a suitcase.

That kicked off a four-year joint NSW Police and FBI investigation which eventually led to Hanson's arrest in 2015. 

During the investigative period Hanson harassed Jackpot for his money. 

A court has heard how Hanson sent a DVD to Jackpot, showing two kneeling men being beheaded, one by chainsaw, the other by butcher's knife, with the narrator warning they'll be next.

Hanson also paid $7,000 to a private investigator to splash red paint on the grave of Jackpot's mother, Regina. 

The ruthless cocaine baron then posed next to it wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and holding a shovel, and mailed Cipriani the photo along with the beheading DVD.

Desecrating Regina's grave was the final straw and the gambler turned informant for the FBI, and was given the codename 'Jackpot'.   

Upon Hanson's arrest, the FBI captured his encrypted 'Phantom Secure' phone. 

Canadian-based company Phantom Secure's special encryption turned phones into ultra-secure messaging platforms which were a favourite of criminal organisations. 

Hanson's arrest ultimately led police to shut down the company in 2018. 

Phantom Secure was an inspiration to the FBI and the AFP. Over beers, the two countries' law enforcement agencies discussed designing their own messaging app. 

Such an app could be used to entrap crime syndicates around the world.  

That it did, with US, Australian and European authorities announcing the busts at a press conference last month, the AFP hailing it Australia's biggest crime sting.

Netflix eyes AN0M tale

According to emails seen by Daily Mail Australia, Jackpot has been in talks with Netflix Vice-President Adam Del Deo and the series producers, John Turner (Dirty Money) and Greg Whiteley (Cheer and Last Chance U).

Los Angeles-based Jackpot claims that Netflix has all the main players on board including FBI and Australian Federal Police agents, and are even attempting to tee up an interview with Owen Hanson himself, who is serving a 21-year jail sentence in a Californian prison.

An Australian Federal Police spokesman confirmed the agency had been approached by production companies. 

'Those matters are being considered, factoring in operational and evidentiary issues,' a spokesman said. 'No decisions or agreements have been made.'

In one email, Mr Turner admits that they have 'exclusive participation' of former assistant US attorney Andrew Young, who, until August 2020, oversaw Operation Trojan Shield.

But Jackpot turned Netflix down over an argument about a production credit and fee.

Jackpot has instead been in talks to feature in a separate version of events involving Balcony 9 Productions (The Immaculate Room, Speed Girl) and director Bryan Fogel, who produced the Oscar-winning documentary Icarus, which exposes Olympic Russian doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Australia's biggest ever police bust, part of the AN0M sting, saw 3.77 tonnes of drugs, $45 million in cash, guns, luxury cars, motorcycles and watches (pictured) seized

Pictured: one man accused of participating in the syndicate sits on his bed after being raided by AFP officers 

A luxury Ducati motorcycle was among the hundreds of items seized by AFP officers during raids as part of Operation Ironside 

Jackpot has shown the Mail emails proving he held meetings with Fogel and Balcony 9.

Jackpot said: 'They [Netflix] got an exclusive agreement with Andrew Young, assistant US attorney that handled all the cases, they also said they've got the FBI on record, the Australian Feds.

'They didn't want this out, but they're trying to get an exclusive with Owen Hanson, they're afraid the publicity will blow it up, they're trying to be secret without anyone knowing. 

'It's a six to eight part docuseries ... I had phone calls and emails with John (Turner) and Greg (Whiteley). 

'I said I'm not doing this without a credit. I risked my life, my family's life, I put myself in harm's way to take down these guys, I'm not going to do it for free.

'Neflix's top guys Adam Del Deo and Ted Sarandos (co-CEO) knew about this story a year ago because of me. 

'I sent them emails about my story, but they didn't come to me first. They didn't want to resolve our issues by giving me a credit and a fee when they easily could have done both.

'I was shown no respect, they wanted to film me this Friday, I said I'm not doing anything until this is sorted. It will take more than a few days, this is Hollywood. Netflix should have done the proper thing, I'm the one who was put in harm's way.

'One of Hollywood's top bosses, who I knew very well tried to smooth the process over, but when he called Adam Del Deo up at the agreed time of 5.30pm, he didn't answer, and didn't call back for two hours. Then I told John Turner - "If they give me $10 million, I wouldn't do this docuseries".'

Netflix was approached for comment.  

Meanwhile, Jackpot says he is working on a book to tell the 'real story of Jackpot. I want to tell my own story.'   

How did the AN0M scam work?  

Users could buy phone handsets costing between $1,500 and $2,500 from what has been described as underground distributors. 

The phones were stripped down - they couldn't even make calls, access the internet or send emails. 

What did do was send encrypted messages, photos and videos, using a foreign SIM card to apparently avoid Australian data snooping laws. 

Crooks could buy a six month subscription to use the app - the funds raised unknowingly redirected to the police. 

The app was invitation-only as of Tuesday morning - before the page was sensationally taken down and replaced with a warning by the FBI

Anom's Twitter account claimed the company was based in the famously neutral nation of Switzerland

The app was accessed by entering a PIN number into the phone's calculator, the stuff of spy dramas. 

ANoM's website, which was only deleted about 10am on Tuesday, made the technology sound bulletproof.   

The company was apparently based in famously neutral Switzerland and boasted of 'military grade encrypt and sanitise'. 

For its encryption, it claimed to use 'OMEMO Double Ratchet Algorithm ... independently audited by Dutch security research group Radically Open Security'.  

That may have been an in-joke - as all the supposedly self-destructing messages sent on the app was radically open to the Australian Federal Police to read. 

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