Drug dealer sold heroin by the kilo
ACOMMERCIAL-SCALE drug dealer who sold thousands of pounds’ worth of heroin used the EncroChat phone network to carry out business.
Yusuf Ali, 30, of Newport, made regular trips to the Bristol, Staffordshire, and Manchester areas in order to meet up with drug dealers higher up the chain and would order kilos of heroin to be delivered to his house by couriers. In total he admitted selling six kilos of heroin between March and June last year.
Most of the operation was run via EncroChat with Ali using the handle ShakyNinja. The network was one of the world’s largest encrypted communication services and was frequently used by criminals who believed they were safe from police being able to access their messages.
But following a breakthrough by the French authorities in 2020 police were able to crack the wall of security surrounding the system, which had enabled organised crime gangs to operate without detection.
A sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court heard Ali was snared as part of Operation Venetic, run by the National Crime Agency.
Describing Ali’s operation, prosecutor Andrew Jones said: “The defendant used [EncroChat] to communicate with other suppliers on a commercial scale and a network of distributors. It’s quite clear he was sourcing and distributing consignments of heroin and selling them to other members of downstream groups...
“He was organised in the buying and selling on a commercial scale and had established links and influence on others in the supply chain and expected a high financial gain.”
The court heard Ali was in frequent contact with a Liverpool-based dealer with the EncroChat handle FancyBandy and spoke about buying heroin for around £20,000 per kilo. On a number of occasions a courier delivered “samples” to the defendant’s address in Adeline Street. He was also sent photos which depicted blocks of heroin.
Similar conversations were had with other suppliers and Ali travelled to Bristol, Stafford, Bolton, and St Helens in order to purchase drugs from FancyBandy and others.
Having either received heroin from deliveries or picking them up himself Ali was able to sell the drugs downstream almost immediately and messages revealed he wouldn’t sell heroin below-kilo weights.
The defendant was arrested in June last year and made no comment in police interview, but he later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin on the basis he had supplied up to six kilos of the drug. Mr Jones also said Ali had four previous drug-related convictions, the latest of which dated back to 2014.
Defence barrister Jonathan Rees QC said his client’s dealing was “relatively small” compared to other defendants and suggested his client now felt “significant remorse”.
Judge Jeremy Jenkins jailed Ali for 12 years.