A criminal gang who peddled drugs across the country have been taken down through the EncroChat network.
Thomas Fitzpatrick, 36, of Caldwell Road, Allerton, Michael Breen, 58, of Badger Bait, Little Neston, and James Morris, 49, of Dial Street, Warrington, were jailed for their involvement in a 22-strong gang that peddled drugs across Leicestershire, Merseyside and other parts of the country.
All 22 men involved in the operation have now been put behind bars for a combined total of 200 years.
It came after police across Europe cracked an encrypted online communication service they were using to communicate. The service, called EncroChat, provided modified smartphones that allowed its 60,000 subscribers to message each other in secret LeicesterLive reports.
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But French police discovered in 2017 that it was being used mainly by organised crime gangs to communicate. The investigation received EU funding in 2019 and a judge in France authorised police to infiltrate EncroChat the following year.
Officers then installed malware onto the company's servers, which allowed them to read messages before they were sent and record lock screen passwords. Police then analysed millions of messages and uncovered a huge amount of information on criminal enterprises across the continent.
The information on the criminal enterprises was then passed to forces in a number of countries, including the UK. Three major operations began as a result, which led to the arrest of more than 2,900 people.
One of the criminal enterprises was a drugs operation that involved 22 men, who were dealing heroin and cocaine across Leicestershire, Merseyside, Cheshire and other parts of the country.
Members of the gang, aged between 26 and 58, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and were sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, January 9, and Tuesday, January 10.
Three of the defendants, Christian Kelly, James Morris, and Michael Estrin - all based in Cheshire - were responsible for distributing dozens of kilos of cocaine and heroin into a Leicester-based crime group, which centred around Nigel Julien, Ashley Forde, Ross Sterland, and Ashley Lunn.
The group then supplied smaller-scale dealers across Leicestershire, including Ahmed Samanka, Tanveer Arkate, Reece Dagli, Ramone Anozie, Steven Freakley, and Mohsin Raja.
But the Cheshire trio were not just supplying drugs to Leicestershire. They also supplied a large quantity of class A drugs to Nottingham-based Malachi McLeary, who in turn was linked to drugs being distributed from Merseyside and Cheshire via Thomas Fitzpatrick and Michael Breen - as well as other dealers across Nottinghamshire.
Kelly, Morris, and Estrin were also caught dealing drugs to South Yorkshire-based Ian Brennan and Ian Townsend. The rest of the men, Toby Poole, Jamie Holms, Stephen Lees-Rowe, and Matthew Whorlow, were used as couriers by various members of the groups to dispatch drugs across the UK.
Police arrested the 22 defendants during a series of raids in 2020 and 2021, where they also recovered huge amounts of cash and class-A drugs. But Kelly fled the UK before he was finally tracked down to a hideout in Spain before he was extradited back to the UK.
The sentences for each man vary from ten months imprisonment up to 16 years and eight months. Some were already serving time for further offences elsewhere in the UK. EncroChat, whose founders and owners are still unknown, ceased operating in June 2020 as a result of the police operation.
Find the full details for each of the defendants and their sentences below:
- Ramone Anozie, 28, from Tugby, Leicestershire, was jailed for five years and three months for conspiracy to supply a class A drug (cocaine) and failing to provide a PIN code to a seized mobile telephone
- Tanveer Arkate, 34, of Stanhope Street, Leicester, was jailed for nine years and six months for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drugs
- Reece Dagli, 31, of Broadway, Loughborough, Leicestershire, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug, possession of a class A drug with intent to supply, possession of a class B drug with intent to supply and possession of criminal property
- Ashley Forde, 35, of Grass Acres, Leicester, was jailed for 12 years for two separate counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Steven Freakley, 31, of Dominion Road, Leicester, was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Jamie Holms, 42, of Rennocks Place, Thringstone, Leicestershire was jailed for eight years and six months for conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Nigel Julien, 34, of Holmfield Avenue West, Leicester Forest East, was jailed for 13 years and six months for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Ashley Lunn, 31, of Aikman Avenue, Leicester, was jailed for 12 years and four months for conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Ahmed Samankar, 26, of Kashmir Road, Leicester, was jailed for eight years and one month for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug and one count of failing to provide a PIN code to a seized mobile telephone
- Ross Sterland, 34, of Tudor Road, Leicester, was jailed for 13 years and six months for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Michael Breen, 58, of Badger Bait, Little Neston, Cheshire, was sentenced to 10 years and four months for one count of conspiracy to supply class A drugs (cocaine and heroin)
- Ian Brennan, 53, of Highridge Close, Conisbrough, South Yorkshire, was sentenced to 10 years and four months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A drug (cocaine)
- Michael Estrin, 47, of Wellfield Place, Wilmslow, Cheshire, was sentenced to 14 years and eight months imprisonment for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Thomas Fitzpatrick, 36, of Caldwell Road, Liverpool, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for one count of conspiracy to supply class A drugs
- Christian Kelly, 47, of Hoo Green Lane, Mere, Cheshire, was sentenced to 16 years imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Stephen Lees-Rowe, 45, of Springhead Court, Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug. This sentence is to run consecutive to a sentence of 13 years 2 months imprisonment that Lees-Rowe received at Harrow Crown Court on 25 March 2022 for further offences of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. The total sentence is therefore now 14 years and eight months imprisonment.
- Malachi McLeary, 38, of Campion Street, Arnold, Nottinghamshire, was sentenced to 13 years and six months imprisonment for three counts of conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug
- James Morris, 49, of Dial Street, Warrington, Cheshire, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply class A drugs
- Toby Poole, 44, Padstow Walk, Crawley, West Sussex, was sentenced to six years and eight months for conspiracy to supply a class A drug (cocaine)
- Mohsin Raja, 43, of Chestnut Walk, Crawley, West Sussex, was sentenced to nine years and six months imprisonment for two counts of conspiracy to supply a class A drug
- Ian Townsend, 56, of Prince Arthur Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug
- Matthew Whorlow, 31, of Moorgreen Drive, Nottingham, was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply a class A controlled drug. This sentence is to run consecutive to a sentence of 10 years 9 months imprisonment that Whorlow received at Harrow Crown Court on 14 February 2022 for further offences of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. The total sentence is therefore now 11 years and seven months imprisonment.
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