An organised crime group that was linked to a wave of car bombs in Liverpool has been targeted by police as a result of the EncroChat investigation.
The violent gang, led by some of the city's most notorious criminals, bombed nightclubs, homes and police stations during a wave of violence in 2003 and 2004. At one point police officers targeting the crime group were advised to wear body armour while off-duty in case they were identified by the criminals involved.
Richard Caswell, who carried out some of the bombings, was later jailed for life. The Kirkdale man is now facing a long prison sentence for his role in a raid on a Liverpool stash house.
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Caswell, who pleaded guilty to drug offences and possessing criminal property, will be sentenced later this year. The north Liverpool man conspired with the Cox brothers from Salford to target a stash house on Croxdale Road West in Liverpool. A father and son were slashed and beaten during the raid.
The stolen drugs were later sold to Leon Atkinson, an associate of notorious criminal Dale Cregan. Police exposed the conspiracy as a direct result of the penetration of the EncroChat network, which was used by criminals across Europe to facilitate crime.
Caswell was released from prison on licence in 2019 and appears to have resumed relations with the organised crime group responsible for the car bombings. The crime group is said to control a security company which it used as a front for its criminality.
Caswell associated with a number of well known businessmen and developers through his association with the security firm.
The ECHO also understands that Old Swan man Martin Grant was also linked to the same organised crime group. Grant was jailed for 14 years in June after Liverpool Crown Court heard that he acted as" wholesale broker" in the UK for drugs imported from South America.
Ben Jones, prosecuting, told the court that Grant was working for powerful criminals responsible for the drug imports. The court heard how Grant began using the EncroChat network to supply drugs within weeks of his release from prison on licence.
Grant had been jailed for ten years in 2015 for slashing a man across the face with a knife. Trusted sources have told the ECHO that Grant was affiliated to the same north Liverpool crime group as Caswell.
Last month the police charged another senior member of the crime group with drug offences and money laundering. The Liverpool man, who the ECHO has chosen not to name, was said to be the crime group's leader.
Operation Venetic, which is the police-led investigation into the use of EncroChat phones, has now compromised a number of powerful crime groups across the city. Notorious criminals linked to one notorious Merseyside drug gang are now serving long prison sentences.
Speaking earlier this year Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen, head of investigations at Merseyside Police, described the impact of Venetic as unprecedented .
He said: "It is the single most impactive tactic against serious and organised crime that policing has ever experienced."
Anyone with information about serious crime can contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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