A drugs gang boss who pocketed more than £126,000 from peddling misery has to pay back less than £15,000 of his dirty cash.
Ryan O'Connor was a leading figure in a heroin and cocaine supply network that was smashed after police infiltrated encrypted chats. The Gateshead -based dealers thought they were above the law while operating under the radar on EncroChat - using monikers including Peach Pear and Rookie Fox.
But when police hacked the system, the evidence of what they were up to was laid bare. We reported last year how O'Connor and trusted sidekicks Keith Robert Brown and Steven Cairns were jailed for more than 28 years while Cairns' partner, Tanya Brown, got a suspended sentence at Newcastle Crown Court.
