A dad embroiled himself in 'very large scale' cocaine dealing after being seduced by the prospect of 'easy money'. Kurt Jervis described the murky world he descended into as 'proper serious and organised crime'.
He worked as a courier for Stockport based drugs boss Aaron Wright, who was at 'the top of the tree' of the crime gang. Wright, 37, was said to be involved with at least 60 kilos of cocaine, while Jervis was linked to 39 kilos of the class A drug.
The huge scale of their involvement in the criminal underworld was exposed when law enforcement gained access to the EncroChat network, the encrypted phone system previously thought to be impenetrable. In one message to Wright, using his EncroChat username 'One Sicario', Jervis, 37, who has a teenage son, said: "Proper serious and organised crime this bro. Kilos drops before 11am and 1000s passed before 1pm, no f****** about. All while ur sat scratching ur a**."
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Another exchange of messages between Wright and an EncroChat user named 'Tyrion Lannister', said to be the leading light in the gang alongside Wright, revealed the scale of the dealing they were involved in. Lannister said: "F****** hell mate, we done 60 jobs in last six weeks."
Wright, who was known as 'Hedgeracer' and 'The Big Axelrod' on the encrypted platform, replied: "Exactly." Lannister continued: "We need our own f***** TP (transport)."
"If was off 1 guy we be flying...ano bro," Wright replied. While Lannister said: "Bro serious now if we was buying at cost we would out sell anyone."
Police estimate that if the messages were correct, the pair could have made a profit of about £84,000 over a six week period. Sentencing, Judge Nicholas Dean KC said: "The EncroChat cases have revealed a layer of criminality of a type that previously only quite rarely came before the crown courts. This was very large scale dealing."
Wright was sentenced to 13-and-a-half years in prison, while Jervis received nine years and four months. Defending Jervis, Michael Lavery said the defendant became involved after finding himself in 'dire financial circumstances' following the breakdown of a relationship. "He turned to his involvement in this conspiracy really for easy money," Mr Lavery said.
"It has proved to be far from that." Defending Wright, Oliver Cook said the defendant had made efforts to improve himself while on remand.
Wright, of Beacon Road, Stockport, and Jervis, of Deane Avenue, Stockport, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply a class A drug and conspiring to conceal criminal property. They will serve half of their sentences behind bars.
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