Encrochat coke dealers face jail

Four cocaine dealers behind a £1million drugs plot have been jailed after police cracked their Encrochat phones.

Matthew O’Brien, 32, Georgie Norris, 20, Mark Breagan, 38, and Alfie Whitbread, 21, were caught after officers hacked into software used by organised gangs to sell drugs and launder money.

More than £980k in cash and 11kg of cocaine were seized as part of the operation.

The conspiracy was split in two, with O’Brien, Norris, Breagan and Whitbread making up the west London side and three others, Jack Lee, 33, Gareth Morris, 58, and Lee Willets, 28, in east London.

The east Londoners were sentenced in September 2021 with Lee getting 16 years and the other two seven.

In the beginning the west London side would arrange to send multiple kilos of cocaine to their east London associates, who would prepare it for distribution across Kent and the South East, sending more than 10kg a week.

The two groups then formed a partnership, sharing information and collectively importing over 100kg a week.

During the investigation, police observed Morris on May 13, 2020 giving bags to Whitbread containing £23,595 in cash.

Two days later they caught Willets leaving his house with 11kg of cocaine of 80-87% purity.

Then on August 4 officers arrested O’Brien, Norris, Breagan and Whitbread at their homes and found at Breagan’s address an Encrochat device and £50k in cash.

Material on the device dated between March and June 2020 showed photographs of cocaine stamps and large quantities of cash, as well as messages arranging distribution of cocaine and money laundering, with messages being exchanged daily.

The four west London dealers all pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court on March 18 to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

O’Brien, of Northdown Close, Ruislip, was given 15 years and nine months.

Norris, of Burnham Way, Ealing, was given 12 years and eight months.

Breagan, of Evergreen Court, Ealing, was given 10 years and four months.

Whitbread, of Cambridge Road, Ealing, was given eight years and 10 months.

Detective Inspector Stephen Masterson, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Unit, said: ‘There is no doubt the content of the messages from their Encrochat devices demonstrated the scale of the operation being run by this crime group which has led to such significant sentences.

‘The link between drug-dealing and violence is clear and the consequences cause misery in communities across London. We will continue to stop drug suppliers from operating and profiting from their illegal activity, and bring them to justice.’