US law enforcement has arrested a New Jersey man and searched stashes of laptops in 16 states in a sweeping crackdown on North Korean efforts to use remote tech workers to covertly fund their weapons programs,

The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI on Monday announced an arrest and indictments targeting North Korea’s so-called “IT worker” program, where North Koreans obtain remote IT-related positions at more than 100 U.

FBI Atlanta issued a warning to the public after four North Koreans were indicted in an alleged scheme to steal from two companies.

The stunning new details offer a rare look at how technology can be exploited in the high-stakes battle between US law enforcement and the violent Mexican cartels that control illicit drug trade.

The hacker was able to break into the agent’s phone remotely and watch their incoming and outgoing calls, and even monitor the phone’s geolocation.

In 2018, a hacker hired by the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel run by the infamous kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán spied on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City with the goal of identifying “people of interest” for the cartel to target and kill, according to a new U.S. government watchdog report.