A cocaine dealer known as 'The Unit' moaned that police had 'taken all [his] trainers and everything' after his role in the criminal underworld was exposed. Cornelius McFadden, 47, was unmasked as a 'trusted' courier linked to huge amounts of cocaine and also handled cash in excess of £300,000.
Despite living in a 'cramped' house in a state of 'disrepair', he had a genuine Cartier watch worth £9,450 and numerous pairs of trainers. The shoes were initially thought to be designer, but an investigation revealed they all were counterfeit apart from a genuine pair of Balenciaga trainers worth £700, Manchester Crown Court heard.
McFadden, from Stockport, has been locked up for eight years after he was unmasked as being behind the EncroChat username 'The Unit'. Law enforcement were able to hack in to the highly encrypted network, which had previously provided criminals with a secret and undetectable messaging channel.
