US police have arrested a man accused of plotting to assassinate former US President George W Bush, in part due to WhatsApp messages sent by the suspect.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab’s plan involved smuggling four Iraqi nationals into the US over the Mexican border. He has also been described as conducting reconnaissance work near Bush’s home in Dallas, Texas, such as taking photos and video.

“Shihab planned to smuggle four additional Iraqi foreign nationals into the United States for the purpose of killing former President George W. Bush in retaliation of Iraqi deaths during ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom,’” a US Department of Justice statement reads.

The intelligence used to arrest Shihab is drawn, in part, from surveillance of his WhatsApp account. The FBI obtained a warrant in March to search the accused’s mobile phone records.

In messages sent from his WhatsApp account, he discussed the plan to assassinate Bush with two people, who both turned informant against him.

One is alleged to be a smuggler who would have brought in the four accomplices, while the other is claimed to be a customer of the smuggler.

He asked one of the informants about acquiring fake law enforcement badges as part of the plot. The suspect is also accused of accepting $40,000 to bring accomplices into the country.

They both recorded face-to-face meetings with Shihab as part of a sting operation.

WhatsApp, owned by Facebook parent company Meta, is widely touted as being end-to-end encrypted. This means that only the sender and recipient are capable of reading messages.

The moment a message is sent, it is encrypted, preventing it from being intercepted in transit. While this means that it can’t be read by hackers, it means neither the messaging service or authorities can read it. Only when it is decrypted on either the sender or receiver’s device can it be seen.

US authorities were able to access his messages because the phone he used had been provided by one of the informants.

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Messaging services have frequently provided a weak link in illicit operations. With the ability to monitor their plans, police can stay ahead of criminals.

A recent example took place during the Eurovision Song Contest. Russia-linked cybercrime group Killnet planned to attack the contest, bringing down its voting infrastructure, along with other targets in Italy, the host country.

However, the group boasted about its plans on its Telegram channels, revealing its targets and intentions. With this information, Italian authorities were prepared for the attack and were able to block it.

And in a more proactive case, the US’s FBI arrested hundreds of suspected criminals by distributing phones running its own encrypted messaging app.

ANOM was developed by US authorities and installed on special ANOM phones. These were designed to be attractive to criminals – they couldn’t receive phone calls or emails, only ANOM messages; they could be remotely wiped; and they offered duress passwords to send covert distress signals.

The only problem is that they weren’t encrypted – the messages were viewable to law enforcement officials. As such, the suspects were caught discussing crimes, such as money laundering, drug smuggling, and murder, with police reading the messages in real-time.

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