Drug kingpin jailed for 12 years after five years on the run in Dubai

Max Matthews, 31, led a West Essex cocaine, heroin and cannabis ring before fleeing to Dubai in 2021. He was extradited in February and sentenced to 12½ years.

Essex drug lord sentenced after Dubai extradition

Max Matthews, 31, of Albion Drive, London, was jailed for 12 years and six months on Thursday 6 August after admitting his role as the head of an organised crime group that trafficked cocaine, heroin and cannabis across West Essex and London, Essex Live reports.

Matthews had absconded from police bail in July 2021 and fled the country as investigators from Essex Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit closed in on his network. He spent almost five years abroad before detectives, working with national and international partners, tracked him down in Dubai. He was extradited back to the UK in February this year.

At court, he pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis, and to conspiring to commit money laundering. The investigation established that Matthews sat at the top of a criminal hierarchy responsible for moving large quantities of drugs and criminal cash between March and July 2020.

EncroChat intelligence cracked the case

The case against Matthews was built in significant part on intelligence obtained through Operation Venetic, the national law enforcement response to the infiltration of EncroChat — an encrypted communications platform used exclusively by criminals. EncroChat had around 60,000 users worldwide, approximately 10,000 of them in the UK, and was widely used to coordinate drug trafficking and money laundering.

Information supplied by international partners allowed detectives to identify members of Matthews' group through their EncroChat aliases. Matthews himself operated under the handles 'Kingspainard' and 'Encrogeezer', maintaining detailed ledgers of the organisation's activities and directly overseeing the purchase of multi-kilo quantities of Class A and Class B drugs.

The group moved hundreds of thousands of pounds in criminal cash every week. Evidence recovered from the platform included discussions about drug shipments, images of drugs and records documenting the movement of substantial quantities of narcotics and money. On one occasion, Matthews offered £20,000 to have an individual assaulted, revealing the violence that underpinned the operation.

Seven co-conspirators already sentenced

Seven members of the conspiracy have already been sentenced to a combined total of more than 40 years in prison. Among them was Matthews' second-in-command, Henry Allpress, jailed for 13 years in 2023. Allpress, who used the EncroChat handle 'Comebackking', directed the delivery, collection and purchase of drugs and laundered criminal proceeds. Officers working alongside the National Crime Agency traced Allpress to Spain and secured his extradition before he was convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs and money laundering offences.

Detective Inspector Frazer Low, of the Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said the investigation had exposed a group "operating on an industrial scale, trafficking significant quantities of cocaine, heroin and cannabis while moving millions of pounds in criminal proceeds."

"The evidence recovered through EncroChat gave us an unprecedented insight into the group's activities and Matthews' leading role within it," Low said. "Even after he absconded and left the country, our investigation continued."

Low added that Matthews' extradition, guilty pleas and sentence were "the culmination of years of work by officers and partner agencies, and a clear reminder that organised criminals cannot simply evade justice by fleeing overseas."

Source: Essex Live