EncroChat gang jailed for 174 years after Manchester drug and firearms bust

Seven men were convicted after a six-week trial over a major drugs and firearms trafficking operation in Greater Manchester. Six have been sentenced to a combined 174 years.

EncroChat messages cracked: Manchester gang behind UK's biggest firearms trafficking network jailed

Six men have been sentenced to a combined 174 years in prison after police dismantled what investigators described as the largest firearms trafficking operation ever encountered on British soil, Manchester Evening News reports. A seventh member of the gang will be sentenced in January.

The organised crime group (OCG), led by Omar Malik under the EncroChat alias 'payyabills', was distributing cocaine, amphetamine and MDMA at wholesale level while trafficking automatic weapons to criminal networks across the United Kingdom. Plans were already in motion to expand the operation internationally before law enforcement intervened.

Operation Venetic closes in

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) brought the network down through Operation Venetic — the UK arm of a pan-European law enforcement effort that infiltrated the EncroChat encrypted communications platform in March 2020. EncroChat was described by Detective Superintendent Joseph Harrop, senior investigating officer for Operation Glassy, as "the criminal WhatsApp."

"It's one of the encrypted communication systems used by top tier criminals. They were happy with it as it was safe and secure, they could talk openly on it," Harrop told Manchester Evening News exclusively.

Messages recovered from the cracked handsets revealed a gang that believed it was beyond reach. One read: "Feds can't get in them can they." They were wrong. Officers had already been inside the system and were reading every communication.

Roles within the gang

Each member of the OCG held a defined function. Malik directed operations from the top. Adrian Gonzalez, operating as 'terryf\\\\\*gtibbs', controlled a stash house in Ancoats and brokered deals between rival gangs. Conor Sandlan, known as 'stellarboat', was responsible for the same stash house as well as the couriering of drugs, cash and firearms.

Daniel Gibbons, using the handle 'humblewaffle', began by supplying drugs, firearms and cash before taking on a more senior role — establishing a front company intended to serve as a conduit for importing weapons into the country. Daniel Waters, alias 'obscuretwig', started as a courier and later took charge of recruiting additional couriers for the group. Andrew Cooney ('fernpirate') was involved throughout in the supply of drugs and firearms, and Sean Hogan ('dullhyena') was active in drug supply and purchased a firearm from Cooney during the surveillance period.

Arrests and evidence

The first arrest came in April 2020, when Sandlan was detained. The move alarmed the rest of the gang, who began clearing the stash house at Cotton Field Wharf, one of Ancoats' most sought-after apartment blocks. Their efforts came too late.

On 14 June 2020, Malik was arrested at his home on St Mary's Parsonage. The following day, officers stopped Gibbons and Waters at an address in Reddish after observing the pair carrying large bags inside. Gibbons admitted on arrest to concealing tablets, cocaine, ammunition and firearms in his wardrobe.

The haul recovered from that address included two sub-machine guns, two self-loading pistols, two magazines of ammunition, a bag containing 1,098 rounds, large quantities of cocaine and amphetamine — the latter found stored in a freezer — and a suitcase holding £616,000 in cash.

That same evening, Gonzalez was arrested in the city centre after officers spotted him heading toward an underground car park. He was blocked in his Mercedes and taken into custody. On 25 June 2020, Hogan was arrested at a property in Denton, and Cooney was detained at his home in Alderley Edge.

Sentences handed down at Minshull Street Crown Court

On 15 December, six of the seven defendants appeared before Minshull Street Crown Court via video link from Forest Bank prison. Her Honour Judge Bernadette Baxter told courtroom five that the scale of their offending was "among the highest level of firearms trafficking in the UK."

"The EncroChat messages were chilling because they revealed how casual you were with this day to day criminality," Judge Baxter said. She added that the operation functioned like a well-run company, with members treating one another as close colleagues. On that basis, and given the risk of further harm to the public, extended licence periods were applied to each defendant — meaning they will serve two additional years beyond the standard licence term.

The sentences handed down were as follows:

Adrian Gonzalez is due to be sentenced on 26 January.

Scale of the operation

Detective Superintendent Harrop explained that EncroChat's exposure came in June 2020, when what he described as "the cat getting out of the bag" prompted the formal launch of Operation Venetic in the UK. The collaboration between European law enforcement agencies that made the infiltration possible had begun three months earlier.

The seven convictions follow a six-week trial in which the full extent of the OCG's activities was laid out — millions made, weapons trafficked nationwide, and an international expansion that never came to pass.

Source: Manchester Evening News