Dark Wire is a fast-paced read into the dark world where drugs, law enforcement and technology collide. It’s a world you never see, but should definitely think about.

Dark Wire
Joseph Cox


I admit, I am a sucker for true-crime stories, especially one where the good guys win. Dark War was a hit with me. It was a fun read about a topic I enjoy.

=== The Good Stuff ===
* I don’t like to spoil a book for any potential reader, but suffice it to say it is a story that, if it were fiction, would be accused of being unrealistic. It tracks an FBI sting operation that become bigger and more successful that anyone would have ever imagined.
* Joseph Cox does a great job in telling the story. The book is easy to read, full of just the right amount of detail and avoids getting caught up in trivia or details that do not advance the story. Rather that trying to relate everything that happens, the author pick and stays with a few threads throughout the book.
* It is tough to tell from the draft version I was reading, but everything seems well referenced.
* Cox captures a few dimension of the story. You can see the difficulties, both legal and technical, that a US law enforcement agency faces in setting up an operation of this type. There is a feel of a “tech startup” as the sting grows, and finally a sense of the accomplishment and pride the members of the team felt in conning some of the world’s more cunning criminals.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===
* You can almost feel the author struggling with how much detail to include and edit out. I would have been interested in more technical detail, but I am sure other readers would have wanted more details on the international legal and law enforcement aspects. It is simply too complex a story to please every possible reader-without writing a 900 page doorstop.

== Summary ===
I enjoyed the book, both the topic and the way it was told. Cox captures just enough of the personal and technical sides of the story, without getting bogged down in trivia and needless detail. I would have liked the book to be another 100 pages or so, but understand that sometimes less is more.
I’d definitely recommend this book to fans of true-crime and law enforcement, and it would almost stand-alone as a business book on technical startups!

This was such a fascinating case, it had everything that I was hoping for based on the description. Joseph Cox has a great writing style and it worked with what I was hoping for. It kept me invested in and thought this was a strong overall concept.

Fascinating story. The global networking among law enforcement officers depicted was noteworthy, as were the trends in organized crime. Both enabled by information technology. Cox’s work is investigative journalism at its best.

Wow! Criminals beware! The author gives an insider look to one of the biggest investigations into the workings of the criminal underworld.
I would think that most people, through their television/movie watching habits, know that the "bad guys" do a lot of their misdeeds utilizing the phone. Or, they did until wiretaps came into play. How would they plan crimes without being able to trust their phone? Enter the phenomenon of encrypted phones. Entirely (almost) secure messages could now be exchanged without the worry of prying eyes. Drug dealer, arms dealer, crooks worldwide jumped on the bandwagon.
Through the encrypted phone companies use of basing business in other countries, law enforcement found themselves unable to crack the encryption. The companies even offered a "panic button" that would totally erase all of the messages if the phone came into the law's hands.
Enter the author. Along with his partners in the FBI, they too found themselves stymied. BUT....they came up with an ingenious idea. What would happen if they (FBI) created their own encrypted phone company? One that offered even more features and security than the other companies. So they set about doing just that. Together with a cooperating witness, who was the front man to run the company, along with some (in my opinion) conveniently occurring crashes/lawsuits/raids that shut down the other companies, they created the gold standard of encrypted phones. And to top it all off, they got the criminals (unknowingly) to distribute the phones amongst themselves!
But unknown to the criminals, the Americans, British, Australian, and many other countries law enforcement agencies could read every single one of the messages! Genius!
The criminal acts were being tracked and investigated worldwide. I found this part of the book to be fascinating. How they managed to keep the investigation secret, with no leaks, is incredible. At the end, they were tracking 100,000 criminals!
The investigation grew and grew, becoming too complex to keep going. At the end, multiple countries law enforcement agencies conducted raids simultaneously worldwide, arresting thousand of criminals!
This was an exciting book to read. With one exception. Completely uncontrollable by the author. Due to resistance in the upper layers of the Department of Justice (afraid if something went wrong, they would be blamed, and hurt their careers), the phones were not allowed to be tracked in the United States. I understand the argument for civil liberties and such, however, to me the rights of the citizens being exploited by the criminals and the poison they sell, should take precedence over the rights of the criminals. They could have at least tried, and if the courts eventually threw out the cases, at least we got the drugs off the street. Ahh, my career law enforcement tendencies are showing through!
I encourage you to give this book a try. Maybe it will help change things. OR....maybe the authorities already have another investigation going now. Criminals should be looking over their shoulders!