A man who supplied firearms to organised crime groups across the UK has been jailed for more than 19 years as part of a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation under Operation Venetic.
Michael Derrane, 50, orchestrated, supplied and transferred firearms and multiple kilos of class A and B drugs wholesale, selling them on to criminals for a profit using encrypted communications platform EncroChat.
Evidence from encrypted messages showed Derrane, from Morpeth, was well known to serious organised crime groups in Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, the Midlands, and London and would travel up to 700 miles to exchange illicit goods.
