The luck of a dealer who traded in blocks of drugs with shamrocks embossed on them ran out when he gave out his address during secret chats with co-conspirators.
Paul Whitney used the handle "BulletHawk" when conducting his illicit business over encrypted communications platform EncroChat. But police were able to identify him as the man behind this pseudonym when he ordered kilo amounts of heroin to be delivered to his home in Walton.
Merseyside Police has now released pictures of packages of drugs which were discovered on his device. One image shows brown parcels emblazoned with shamrocks, while another features an opened block.
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Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that the 44-year-old had 38 other contacts stored in his Encro phone and had been in contact with 15 of these users. Daniel Bramhall, prosecuting, described how Merseyside Police raided his house on Clocktower Drive on two occasions in 2020 and 2021.
The first, on August 7 2020, saw £15,000 in cash found in locked cupboards and "high value" watches seized. Then on March 30 2021, the date he turned 43, Whitney told officers "it's my birthday, this is a joke" as they arrested him while executing a search warrant.
This revealed £590 of bank notes, with a Cube hybrid electric bike and Ghost mountain bike also taken by the force. His secret chats demonstrated that he supplied or agreed deals for at least 3kg of cocaine and 5kg of heroin as well as 2kg of ketamine and in the region of 30kg cannabis.
It has previously been suspected that he was involved in dealing 83kg of class A substances and 60kg of cannabis. Whitney has 12 previous convictions for 34 offences, this being his third for drug trafficking.
In 2011, he was handed nine years and four months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. The then 32-year-old defendant - who was living in Fazakerley at the time - was described as being the boss of the Whitney family, which peddled drugs next to school playgrounds and lived a life of luxury off the back of it.
Relatives and associates had spent years at the top of a massive Anfield-based criminal network, with a stranglehold across much of Liverpool. They made selling heroin and crack cocaine a 24-hour business, running a cash and carry-style operation - with 13 members of the gang ultimately handed 82 years in total.
Whitney conducted his business using no less than 17 different mobile phones. He had no official job and according to reports from the time "seemed to spend much of his time fishing", but lived in a house on a sought-after street in Aintree.
With a number of safehouses on Watford Road, Hildebrand Road, Cherry Lane and City Road, his operation ran a "cash and carry system" - trading with customers on street corners. Body armour was later recovered at the home of Carol Whitney, while the family also kept an SA80 military assault rifle which had been stolen from Salisbury army barracks in 2005.
Ian Whitehurst, defending, told the court that his client's brother had died earlier this year while he was remanded in custody and was unable to attend the funeral. He added: "Due to his own stupidity, he has exposed his family to difficult times ahead.
"It is a sad state of affairs for a man of his age to be back before the courts yet again for supplying class A drugs. Events outside of prison have brought it home that this offending has got to stop and he needs to rebuild his life."
Whitney admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis and conspiracy to launder money during an earlier hearing. He was jailed for 14 years and nine months on Wednesday by Judge Robert Trevor-Jones.
As the sentence was handed down, the defendant shook his head and gesticulated towards family members in the public gallery then stood with his arms folded before saying: "That's a f***ing joke that. You give someone 14 years for 100 kilos the other day.
"I sold two. I done two, two got sold.
"They sentenced me on stuff I haven't done. It's a f***ing joke."
Whitney could now be ordered to repay his ill-gotten gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and will be brought back before the court next year.
Detective Inspector Peter McCullough said: "This is a welcome result in this latest court sentencing for Whitney who we put before the courts for his drug dealing crimes. Whitney demonstrated that he had a significant role.
"He thought he could fly under the radar and escape justice. Whitney agreed between him and other handles regarding the supply of cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
"He also provided his home address on his Encrochat device, which evidenced that kilo amounts of heroin were delivered there. I hope this result shows that Merseyside Police will leave no stone unturned in our pursuit of people who think they are above the law, and we will continue to target criminals like Whitney by thoroughly examining any evidence, messages and images we find.”
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