A Warrington drug dealer involved in distributing dozens of kilos of cocaine and heroin into a Leicester-based organised crime group has been jailed for more than 16 years.
James Morris, 49, was one of 22 men who face a total of more than 200 years in prison after an encrypted chat platform used to organise and facilitate the supply of industrial amounts of cocaine and heroin across the UK was dismantled.
The men, aged between 26 and 58, were all sentenced at Leicester Crown Court after pleading guilty between April 2021 and August 2022 to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Morris, 49, of Dial Street, Warrington, who was involved in distributing dozens of kilos of cocaine and heroin into a Leicester-based organised crime group, was sentenced to 16 years and eight months imprisonment for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
In 2020, a joint operation between UK, French and Dutch authorities led to the takedown of ‘Encrochat’ – a communication service that was found to be used by criminals to plan and coordinate illegal activity. Infiltrating access to the platform gave European agencies, including the UK’s National Crime Agency, access to millions of messages and images exchanged between users in relation to criminal activity and led to a massive breakthrough in the fight against serious and organised crime.
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.
Officers were able to gather evidence which showed three of the defendants, Christian Kelly, Morris and Michael Estrin, who were based in Cheshire, were responsible for distributing dozens of kilos of cocaine and heroin into a Leicester-based organised crime group, centred around Nigel Julien, Ashley Forde, Ross Sterland and Ashley Lunn.
The Cheshire trio were also dealing the drugs to South Yorkshire-based Ian Brennan and Ian Townsend.
In Leicester, once the drugs had been delivered, the group would then supply to a number of other Leicestershire dealers, including Ahmed Samankar, Tanveer Arkate, Reece Dagli, Ramone Anozie, Steven Freakley and Mohsin Raja.
Large quantities of class A would also be supplied between the Leicester group and Nottingham based Malachi McLeary. He also sourced commodity from Merseyside and Cheshire via Thomas Fitzpatrick and Michael Breen, as well as supplying to other dealers in the Nottinghamshire area.
Toby Poole, Jamie Holms, Stephen Lees-Rowe and Matthew Whorlow were used as couriers by various members of the groups to dispatch the drugs around the UK.
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.
