A drugs boss involved in crime on a 'vast' scale was able to secure a government Covid loan. Lee Walsh, 34, has now been jailed for 14 years for his involvement in peddling heroin, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis.
In secret messages recovered by police, he told of having access to drugs factories in Scanadanavia and Ireland, and of his plan to send cannabis to both locations. Within the encrypted Encrochat network, which was cracked by law enforcement, messages revealed that Walsh, from Tameside, was linked to at least four kilos of heroin, 700 kilos of amphetamine, 97 kilos of ketamine and 195 kilos of cannabis.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Walsh, who had previously been jailed in 2011 for being concerned in the supply of drugs, was able to secure £18,000 in Covid grants. In EncroChat messages using his handle 'Green Champ', Walsh told of having two businesses.
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"It transpired that Walsh received about £18,000 in grants during the period April 2020 and January 2021," prosecutor Julian Goode said. The loans were introduced to help firms struggling during the pandemic to stay afloat.
Mr Goode said the chats on the EncroChat network only gave an 'insight' into the conspiracies, which were 'well established' before the authorities were able to access the messages between March and June in 2020. Walsh was arrested in June 2020 under the Operation Venetic, the UK police's response to the EncroChat hack.
Analysis of the data revealed that Walsh had been in contact with at least 14 other users on the system. Speaking of the data, Judge Maurice Greene told him: "It involves you in the high end supply and production of multi kilo quantities of class B drugs an the supply of heroin," describing the quantities of class B drugs referenced as 'vast'.
GMP said the messages showed Walsh was involved in importating chemicals into the UK from Europe to be sent to the 'chef', who would produce the drugs. The force said that a large quantity of cannabis linked to Walsh was intercepted after being discovered concealed in a shipment of chicken arriving from Ireland.
The judge said Walsh had submitted a basis of plea which stated there was 'no evidence' of the 'resultant production or supply of drugs'. "But certainly inferences can be made that it is likely there was indeed some production and supply," the judge said.
Walsh also said that he acted as a broker for someone else to purchase the four kilos of heroin, but that three of the four kilos 'went missing' prior to delivery. The debt then became Walsh's responsibility and he received threats against himself and his family, the court heard.
Walsh, of Bakestones Avenue, Delph, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drug heroin, two counts of conspiring to produce class B drugs, amphetamine and ketamine, and three counts of conspiring to supply class B drugs, amphetamine, ketamine and cannabis. He will serve half of his 14 year sentence in prison.
After the hearing, Detective Constable Rick McIvor, of GMPs Tameside Organised Crime Unit, said: "This investigation is part of 'Operation Venetic', which is a National Crime Agency led operation tackling serious and organised crime across the country and is one of the largest and most significant operations of its kind in the UK.
"The use of encrypted devices, which are utilised almost exclusively by criminals to be able to communicate openly about criminal activity, is becoming more and more popular and the technology becoming increasingly sophisticated so we have to continually keep on top of the new technologies being used so that are able to recover key evidence that is used to bring these people to justice.
"Walsh played a significant part in the supply of drugs not only into Manchester but nationwide, and I am pleased that we now have one more criminal off our streets. Drugs destroy communities and we will not tolerate it.
"This sentencing is another positive step towards preventing organised crime and I hope it reassures our communities that we are committed to adapting and using innovative techniques to tackle this type of crime and the advances in criminal technology."
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