'Chilling' murders of drug rivals by crime bosses were thwarted by EncroChat bust - NCA chief

WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Grisly murder plots involving acid attacks, shootings, and the removal of limbs by crime bosses were thwarted by the infiltration of the EncroChat criminal network.

NCA director of investigations Nikki Holland said she had seen messages that “chilled her to the bone” as drugs kingpins discussed ways they wanted to torture and kill their rivals.

“This was criminals talking about how they were going to see off their competition”, she said. “They range from the removal of limbs through to acid attacks and shootings.

“It wasn’t a case of going and shooting someone, some of them wanted to do really incredible things to them before getting to that point.”

Ms Holland said the infiltration of the EncroChat system has been likened by NCA staff to “cracking the enigma code”, uncovering an “Aladdin’s cave” of evidence against organised crime groups.

Cash seized during the operation

Law enforcement agencies and police forces from across Europe were involved in the operation, leading to hundreds of arrests in the UK alone where 10,000 of the EncroChat devices are held.

Asked if she is aiming to round up all 10,000 users, Ms Holland said: “Yes, I’d like to”, adding that massive operations announced today across all UK police forces were just the “tip of the iceberg”.

The Met Police said it has launched 34 investigations on the back of the EncroChat information, making 171 arrests for crimes including conspiracy to murder, possession of firearms, money laundering and conspiracy to supply drugs, and seizing £5 million in one single bust.

Scotland Yard said it has swooped on a “high-harm Organised Crime Group”, run by “successful, respectable business people” living luxury lifestyles in multi-million pound homes.

Glock 19 handgun

It said one investigation has uncovered a supply chain of drugs and guns through UK, Europe and the United Arab Emirates.

In another operation, police seized £14 million of deadly “street valium” from a drugs factory in Rochester, Kent, thanks to the infiltration of the EncroChat criminal network.

Officers from the National Crime Agency, Scotland Yard, and Police Scotland busted the crime gang on June 12, arresting six people and taking hold of 28 million tablets destined to be sold north of the border.

Street valium has been blamed for hundreds of deaths on the streets of Scotland, earning it the nickname ‘Blue Plague’.

1 kilo blocks of cocaine

In other success stories, a county lines drug operation in Derbyshire was broken up with the seizure of £1.4 million in bank notes, gold bullion worth more than £6,000 and 19 vehicles believed to have been bought with criminal profits.

Police seized 7.5kg of cocaine and £620,000 in cash when they busted another county lines drug network between Nottinghamshire and Liverpool.

The NCA says it has disrupted a drugs supply chain into Britain from South America, where a cruise liner was being used to ferry in the drugs.

Ms Holland revealed today that some law enforcement officers have also been arrested, suspected of corruptly helping criminal gangs. She confirmed no senior officers were involved, but refused to be drawn further on details.

She added that they had worried in April that the coronavirus pandemic would disrupt the police operations, sparked by the cracking of the EncroChat system in France, but said it had actually worked to their advantage as more people were home when arrests were made.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in