A 'banker' known as 'Kun Aguero' laundered almost £300,000 of dirty cash for a drugs gang.
Christopher Carroll, 35, collected and delivered huge amounts of money for a £2m cocaine and cannabis gang which operated on a 'serious and commercial scale'.
Dad-of-two Carroll was unmasked following the law enforcement hacking of the EncroChat network, a secretive communications platform often referred to as 'WhatsApp for criminals'. He was known as 'Kun Aguero' on the shady encrypted system, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Messages from the hacking of the system revealed that Carroll, from Tameside, had acted as a 'banker' for the gang, distributing and collecting £289,000. The wider drugs gang was linked to the distribution of 50 kilos of cocaine, worth up to £2.1m, as well as 84 kilos of cannabis, said to be worth around £250,000.
Carroll, a dad-of-two with a 'responsible' job, has now been locked up for two years. "The amount of money that you dropped in that way between individuals was some £289,000, over a quarter of a million pounds," sentencing Judge John Potter told him.
"You had involved yourself in serious money laundering activity on a commercial scale. You have let yourself, your partner and your children down by becoming involved in this criminal enterprise."
Defending, Michael Lavery said Carroll was not aware that his criminal associates were dealing in cocaine, and believed they were only peddling cannabis. He said Carroll was paid £200 per drop.
"He describes it to me as the hardest money he has earned, given the consequences he has faced," Mr Lavery said. Mr Lavery said the time which Carroll has spent in prison on remand has allowed him to 'reflect very seriously' on his behaviour.
He had previously been sinking '10 pints a night' after work and at weekends would 'almost drink himself into a stupor', Mr Lavery said. Carroll has experienced the benefits of abstinence in jail, and will be able to return to his job with former employers once released, the court heard.
Carroll, of Haughton Street, Audenshaw, pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property. He now faces an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act, with a further hearing set for April.
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