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Chronicle Live
Chronicle Live
National
Sara Nichol

Tyneside dealers jailed for being involved in trafficking £310,000-worth of cocaine on EncroChat

EncroChat Cocaine Paul Cross Tyneside Police Mark Giuliani Northumbria Police

Two drug dealers have been jailed for a total of more than 16 years after being concerned in supplying £310,000-worth of cocaine on EncroChat.

John Gates and Andrew Brierley, who were also involved in 4kg of cannabis "grows", had been using the encrypted communications platform to deal 7.75kg of the class A drug on Tyneside. A court heard that, while 2.25kg of the cocaine was returned because it was too poor in quality, the remaining 5.5kg was sold to users for a total of £200,000.

Prosecutors heard that Gates had a leading role in the criminal enterprise by sourcing the drugs from "upstream suppliers", while Brierley acted as his "trusted lieutenant" by dishing them out and taking the payments. However, the pair's secret scheme came to light when French police managed to intercept EncroChat in 2020 and their details were given to Northumbria Police..

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