That country “requested its participation be kept confidential,” according to a document I previously obtained. The document said the third country was a European Union member but did not name the country itself. “The FBI is neither now nor in the future in a position to release the identity of the aforementioned third country,” the document added.
That country was Lithuania, 404 Media has learned from a source briefed on the operation but who did not work on it on the U.S. side.
The revelation provides important clarity on the complex technological and legal arrangements that facilitated the largest law enforcement sting operation in history, where more than 9,000 law enforcement officers sprung into action on June 7, 2021 as part of the globally coordinated arrests of many of Anom’s criminal users. Recently, defense lawyers in the U.S. have argued that they need to know the identity of the third country in order to scrutinize the legality of evidence collected against their clients. The government has so far not provided that information to defense teams.