A drug dealer who used the EncroChat handle 'Foxhedge' blew kisses to his partner as he was being sent down.
Joseph Byrne, of Huyton, was found to be a drug broker and supplied narcotics across the country. Liverpool Crown Court heard how the 44-year-old was involved with at least 30 kilos of cocaine and heroin as well as thousands of pounds worth of cannabis.
In an EncroChat message he told another user he was carrying £38k he owed when driving through a police stop check area. Byrne, who used the EncroChat handle 'FoxHedge', said: "It was heavvvyyy s**t myself."
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Alex Langhorn, prosecuting, said Byrne was in the strata of dealers who operate at a distance from others in the chain, sometimes never taking possession of the drugs themselves and on occasions purchasing them collectively for their own cut of the profits. He told court about EncroChat conversations between the defendant and Zonepizza talking about various transactions involving money and kilos of drugs.
Mr Langhorn said: “Police went to his home on July 15 last year but he was not in so officers left. A short time later his partner left and met him at a petrol station and they went to the defendant’s parents’ address in Huyton.”
He was arrested there and officers found passports, £7,000 cash, cannabis and scales. Byrne, of Radway Road, Huyton, pleaded guilty to three conspiracies to supply drugs involving cocaine, heroin and cannabis between January 1 and June 4, 2020.
The court heard that the defendant has nine previous convictions for 20 offences including being jailed in 2006 for conspiracy to supply amphetamine and possessing a prohibited weapon.
Jailing him for 12 years nine months Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said: “You were involved for at least three months and responsible for a very large number of transactions involving different types of drugs. It revealed messages from others which clearly confirmed you remained in your criminal ways with criminal associates.”
He said that Byrne had acted in a variety of ways “acting as a wholesaler and as a broker".
He said: "You were involved in the supply of drugs close to but not as an importer, but part of a network of similar people according to who had available drugs at any one time.”
The judge said it was “a somewhat unusual case” as the prosecution accepted that for about a third of the time he was acting in his own right but for the rest of time he was working on behalf of another wholesale dealer, whose EncroChat handle was Zonepizza. The Crown had also accepted the conservative estimate of 30 kilos of cocaine and heroin and Byrne had been involved in single and multi-kilo transactions on those Class A drugs and 21 kilos of cannabis.
The judge said: “You were using vehicles with concealed compartments as transport for delivering drugs and delivering cash going to London, the North of England and Wales."
Damian Nolan, defending, said that Byrne, who has children, had pleaded guilty at an early stage and had expressed genuine remorse.
He said: “His decision to become involved in this criminality will have an immediate impact on him by way of the sentence he has to serve and by proxy his family will also serve a sentence.”
He said that for the majority of the time he had been acting under the direction of Zonepizza so playing a significant rather than a leading role. As Byrne was led to the cells he and his partner blew each other kisses across the courtroom.
