Twenty-two men face a total of more than 200 years in prison after an encrypted chat platform they used to organise and facilitate the supply of industrial amounts of cocaine and heroin across the UK was dismantled.
In 2020, a joint operation between UK, French and Dutch authorities led to the takedown of ‘Encrochat’ – a communication service which was found to be used by criminals to plan and coordinate illegal activity.
Following the dismantle, specialist officers from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) began mounting an extensive investigation which highlighted the vast scale of offending by the 22 men – involving multiple kilos of class A drugs being distributed nationwide, primarily between January and September 2020.
Following the evidence being gathered, police carried out enforcement operations throughout 2020 and 2021 – arresting the 22 defendants and recovering huge quantities of cash and class A drugs.
Find out more, here.