Dealer sent message saying rival ‘needs to go’

Two accused cocaine dealers organised a hit on a drugs runner ‘because he stole and needs to go’, a court heard. James Harding, 34, was arrested after law enforcement agencies across Europe cracked the EncroChat messaging system favoured by criminals in 2020. He was allegedly found to have arranged the hit of an unknown individual in the drugs world alongside his second-in-command Jayes Kharouti, 39. Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, used the two EncroChat handles ‘besttops’ and ‘topsybricks’. He has admitted…