A group of criminals used an encrypted chat platform to organise the supply of industrial amounts of cocaine and heroin across the UK. Three men from Nottingham are among the 22 people who are now facing a total of more than 200 years in prison after Encrochat - a communication service found to be used by criminals to plan and co-ordinate illegal activity - was taken down.
The men, aged between 26 and 58, were all sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Monday and Tuesday, January 9 and January 10 respectively. They pleaded guilty between April 2021 and August 2022 to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
In 2020, a joint operation between UK, French and Dutch authorities led to the takedown of ‘Encrochat’. Infiltrating access to the platform gave European agencies, including the UK’s National Crime Agency, access to millions of messages and images exchanged between users in relation to criminal activity and led to a massive breakthrough in the fight against serious and organised crime.
