The alleged mastermind of an encrypted messaging platform used for years by bikies, mafia figures and Korean and Middle-Eastern organised crime has been arrested.

Commander Paula Hudson told 7.30 that the AFP will allege the platform is “solely being used for criminality and serious organised crime, drug trafficking, drug importation, tobacco trafficking, firearms trafficking, money laundering, threatening to murder, threatening to harm, standover tactics and criminals seeking to do damage to people.”

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An international law enforcement operation has dismantled an encrypted communication platform, known as Ghost, notorious for enabling large-scale drug trafficking and money laundering, Europol said on Wednesday.

Australian police say they have infiltrated Ghost, an encrypted global communications app developed for criminals, leading to dozens of arrests