GPS – Dark Nights

Lyon, France : Three new arrests in the Lafarge case

Posted on 2023/12/03 - 2023/12/03 by darknights

After two waves of arrests in June, 3 people were arrested this week in connection with the Lafarge case.
Early on Tuesday morning, November 28, three people were arrested in connection with the Lafarge case.
They were arrested by the SDAT, then taken into police custody in Lyon, where they were questioned for 3 days, before being released early Thursday evening.

Already in June, one person had been arrested in Lyon, and had published an account.
An article published in September detailed the invasive investigation methods used in this case.

Reminder

When taken into police custody, you have the right to :
– ask for a lawyer, if you know one (ask your legal team about trusted lawyers. The name is sufficient)
– inform a relative: this is important, as they can send a lawyer if you don’t know one
– remain silent

[…]

Source: http://e7nkzth74kcn6j54u6a75pbh2q2yxjsyramuta5z7seix26gnpsq36ad.onion/3-nouvelles-arrestations-dans-l-affaire-25449

Via: Attaque

DN Note

On Monday June 5, some 15 people were searched and arrested across France, accused of participating in the “invasion-sabotage” of the Lafarge plant in Bouc-Bel-Air (13, Bouche-du-Rhône) on December 10, 2022, the damage to which is estimated at 6 million euros. On Tuesday June 20, 18 people were once again arrested in similar circumstances. Those arrested revealed in part the extent to which the state is prepared to deploy its resources to track down those who oppose ecological and industrial devastation. Eavesdropping, shadowing, spyware, facial recognition, GPS beacons…

France: Some initial notes on the investigation file against Ivan

Posted on 2023/01/25 - 2023/01/25 by darknights

The following information comes from an initial quick reading of the investigation file. Therefore, it is necessarily incomplete.

First of all, how did this investigation start?

The Anti-Terrorism Sub-Directorate (SDAT) of the judicial police began an investigation on its own initiative, at the beginning of January 2022, following “confidential information collected by [the] service” (in another document, a judge speaks of “anonymous intelligence”). The police “gathered” the names of two comrades who, according to this information, were likely to be responsible for the incendiary attacks, claimed by anarchists, which had been targeting vehicles in Paris and the surrounding area for years. In the past, different local police stations and the anti-terrorism group of the DPJ 1 (a section of the Parisian Judicial Police) had already carried out investigations, notably for “criminal association”, without success.

The National Division of Research and Surveillance (DNRS, which can be understood as the “operational unit” of the SDAT) set up an operation for tailing the two comrades. They planned to follow Ivan from January 10 to February 3, 2022, and the other person from January 17 to February 3. Concretely, this part of the file includes the statements of the DNRS agents who, in the morning, placed themselves in front of the homes of the two comrades and followed them (on foot or by car) in their movements, at work, photographed them at the supermarket, etc. It should be noted that they often lost sight of their “target” when the latter was moving on foot or by bicycle.

The second comrade was quickly cleared. The DNRS agents say that they saw and photographed Ivan putting up posters in Paris and Montreuil late in the evening of January 18. On the evening of January 21, they followed him again when he went to Paris. The comrade used his bike and the cops lost sight of him almost immediately. They then deployed four “surveillance devices” (cars come to mind). Suspecting that the comrade was still headed towards Montreuil, they placed them at four transportation corridors between Paris and this suburb. One of these “devices” recorded him on the commune of Montreuil (they lost sight of him immediately afterwards). The police used this as an indication that the comrade was responsible for the arson that occurred that night of a SFR van, in Montreuil, and of an Enedis vehicle in the twelfth Parisian district.

On February 23, the SDAT contacted the Bobigny court, which officially tasked it with investigating the comrade. Continue reading “France: Some initial notes on the investigation file against Ivan” →

Bavaria, Germany: Camera and microphone found in front of apartment

Posted on 2023/01/14 - 2023/01/14 by darknights

A tool bag for mounting under the bicycle saddle (symbol image)

On Friday, November 25, an audio and video surveillance installation was exposed outside an apartment somewhere in Bavaria. The listening device had been discovered on a bicycle parked there and installed on it with the help of a tool bag under the saddle (see symbol picture). The interception device itself consisted of a main unit measuring approx. 12 x 12 x 1.5 cm (see technical details), to which a camera and a microphone were connected, as well as an approx. 25 x 5 x 4 cm Li-ion battery (16 Ah). The whole installation was hidden in the saddlebag in such a way that it could not be seen from the outside. Only the camera (max. approx. 1 x 1 x 1 cm with a lens diameter of max. 0.5 cm) was led to the outside via a tiny hole and was pointed at the entrance to the corresponding apartment. With the naked eye, however, this was so nevertheless impossible to identify.

A few minutes after removal of the bugging device, the bicycle was picked up by the suspected spies. Recordings made by the listening device were presumably transmitted via the mobile network with the help of a SIM card.

The design and installation of the bugging device on the bicycle make it at least conceivable that this is a spontaneously deployable installation that could be used in this form at short notice and without much lead time. In fact, numerous suppliers of surveillance technology have been marketing corresponding installations for use in the helmet storage boxes of scooters for many years. Continue reading “Bavaria, Germany: Camera and microphone found in front of apartment” →

Leipzig, Germany: Tracking device and bug discovered in car

Posted on 2021/11/21 by darknights

On November 18, 2021, surveillance technology was discovered in a friend’s car, probably belonging to a government agency. It is a larger device with a GPS tracker from the company “u-blox” and a smaller audio recording device. The devices were hidden behind a panel of the front ceiling light. They were connected by a power cable and drew their power from the supply line to the rear ceiling light. A Y-adapter specially adapted to the car model was apparently used for this purpose. The audio unit tapped into the hands-free system’s existing microphone, which was located behind a cover above the rearview mirror. It is not known if the hands-free unit still worked under these circumstances.

Both units were wrapped in foam and gaffa tape, presumably to prevent them from making noise when the car moves. The larger unit has, among other things, a GPS receiver “u-blox MAX-M8”, a card slot with a 16 GB microSD card, a cellular chip “u-blox LISA-U230” along with a Telekom SIM card, as well as a removable three-pin antenna module. The inventory number “2044 ID93 142” is found on the side. Evaluation of the SD card suggests that the device has been in use since at least early September, possibly three months earlier. It can be assumed that the device overwrites cached location data with zeros after it is sent.

The smaller unit contains a voltage converter, a 3.7 V, 550 mAh lithium-ion battery, and a small circuit board. The individual parts are connected with heat shrink tubing. The small circuit board contains, among other things, a 32 GB microSD card and the “NN01-104” antenna from Ignion (formerly “Fractus”), which is designed for the 2.4 GHz frequency band and can thus transmit and receive Bluetooth or WLAN signals, for example. Mobile technology is not present, but it is conceivable that audio recordings were transmitted to the larger device via WLAN or Bluetooth and sent from there, or possibly retrieved from a close distance via WLAN or Bluetooth. Continue reading “Leipzig, Germany: Tracking device and bug discovered in car” →

To (try to) keep the cops at bay

Posted on 2021/09/21 by darknights

Source: Counter-Surveillance Resource Center

There are many guides out there that describe everything from the best ways of building timed incendiary devices, to dealing with DNA, to anti-forensic methods and how to secure digital information against search and seizure or government surveillance.

Some of them are over forty years old, others are newer, some of them still hold up while others need updating. We thought it wouldn’t hurt to have some suggestions, a brief “things to consider” article, that is reasonably up-to-date in regards to the enemy’s methods. Some lessons and experiences combined with technical info but in a format that hopefully doesn’t feel too rigid and authoritarian.

Sometimes it feels like there is a particularly repressive climate in the world or the region you live in but historically there is rarely more repression in one era than there is in another. The simple explanation is that the state is constantly waging war against its enemies, it is only more evident if one is affected by it directly or indirectly, as an individual, group or entire society. The exceptions may be situations such as world wars, but even then the mechanisms are different, and in our view it is usually possible to say that repression is constant. That is to say, it is not possible to think: I will be unaffected. Because sooner or later the spotlight will turn from yesterday’s enemy to you. Continue reading “To (try to) keep the cops at bay” →

Genoa, Italy: GLONASS on board!

Posted on 2021/08/03 by darknights

The Glonass system, comparable to the American GPS, is a Russian global navigation satellite system used for tracking and tracing. It is also used as a back-up or support positioning system, which can provide a faster fix and greater accuracy than GPS.

This device was found in our car. It was connected to the power supply of the control unit underneath the steering wheel on the left-hand side and had been placed there with a magnet, insulating tape and a heating cloth. It consists of an antenna (QC in the photo) connected to a multi-frequency positioning receiver box containing a micro SIM card. On the same side, a long cable ran along the inside of the internal side pillar linings of the windscreen to the underside of the roof of the car. All on the driver’s side. At the top of the cable were two microphones.

Glon-my-ass!
On the Road Again!

Two anarchists in Genoa

[Received and published by malacoda.noblogs.org, August 2, 2021].