A prolific drug dealer was busted over messages from an EncroChat device activated after the network had already been hacked by investigators.
Wesley Kavanagh from Warrington had picked up a phone enabled with the software from a side street in Oldham in a £1,400 deal in May 2020.
By that time the system had already been compromised by an international operation that allowed messages to be obtained by police.
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Kavanagh sourced his EncroChat-enabled phone through his friend Lee Taylor.
The pair dealt in cocaine and cannabis together but while Taylor had been in contact with criminal associates using his EncroChat handle MusicalSalmon, Kavanagh had instead been using a communications platform called Wickr.
Kavanagh’s EncroChat phone was sold to him on May 29 in a deal arranged through another user called GingerSpeaker.
The 36-year-old activated his MysticBlade account on the same day - almost two months after a joint operation by French and Dutch authorities cracked the encrypted network that law enforcement agencies say was relied upon by the top levels of the European underworld.
Just 13 days later all users received a warning to say the system had been infiltrated and their privacy could no longer be guaranteed.
Messages and photos linked to the MusicalSalmon and MysticBlade accounts were passed onto Cheshire Police, which launched Operation Stations in a bid to unmask the men behind the codenames.
That led them to Taylor and Kavanagh.
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court the messages linked to the accounts detailed cocaine and cannabis dealing, as well as the production of an adulterant used to ‘bulk up’ cocaine.
In April 2020 Taylor is in conversation with another EncroChat user about his friend “Wez” and the production of that adulterant, nicknamed ‘marshmallow’.
The following month he discusses a deal for 4kgs of cocaine for him and Kavanagh.
On May 29 the 34-year-old told MrAwkward that ‘Wez’ wants an ‘enc’ and was put in touch with GingerSpeaker, who set up a deal in Oldham.
That night Kavanagh’s black Mercedes travelled to Oldham and MysticBlade was activated. The following day the movements of the device matched those of Kavanagh’s normal mobile phone.
Taylor’s messages detailed the sale of cocaine in quantities ranging from “corners” - 250g - to “tops” - full kilos. Payments in the tens of thousands of pounds were discussed.
Taylor’s messages also revealed the extent of their “marshmallow” production, listing the creation of 150 “boxes” - kilograms - of the substance. They sold for between £300 and £400 each.
Other messages discussed the pair’s cannabis dealings and the claim Kavanagh had access to a property in which 90 plants were grown.
Ms Daley said: “The sale of the cannabis appeared to be being used to clear Class A debts, the profits for which funded further purchases of high purity cocaine.”
Kavanagh, of Stockport Road in Thelwall, was arrested at Gatwick Airport last April as he was about to board a flight to Mexico.
His Samsung Galaxy was seized and its contents included images of drugs - one showing a white substance on set of scales that displayed the weight as 485g.
Taylor, of Longshaw Street in Warrington, was arrested at his home.
The dads each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs but disputed the amounts they were accused of dealing - arguing the 4kg cocaine deal discussed in Taylor’s messages did not materialise.
But the judge, Recorder Simon Parrington, said both men admitted being involved in a conspiracy to supply drugs and that messages suggested their business pre-dated their activity on EncroChat.
The judge accepted the prosecution’s argument Kavanagh and Taylor, who he said had displayed remorse, were linked to the sale of at least 6kgs of cocaine and 9kgs of cannabis.
They were sentenced to 12 years in jail each.
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