Drug dealers jailed after police crack EncroChat

Joseph Toole, 55, and 52-year-old Lawrence Hill both admitted drug offences

Two major drug dealers from Merseyside have been jailed after police were able to decode their encrypted messages.

Joseph Toole, 55, and 52-year-old Lawrence Hill were caught after international law enforcement teams cracked the supposedly unbreakable EncroChat network.

Merseyside Police said Toole discussed his own birthday and those of his children, as well as a relative's death and subsequent funeral, in the EncroChat messages. Hill, who delivered drugs under Toole's orders, discussed the name of his child and partner as well as details of her birthday.

Toole and Hill were respectively jailed at Liverpool Crown Court for 16 and 13 years.

'Relentlessly pursuing offenders'

Their arrests were part of Operation Venetic, an international operation targeting criminals who used the Encrochat mobile encryption service in an attempt to evade detection.

Police said Toole, of Belfield Crescent in Liverpool, used the handle 'Summerhill-New' between December 2019 and July 2020 and was linked to conspiring to supply about 250kg (39 stone) of cocaine and 125kg of heroin, along with nearly 450kg of cannabis.

He admitted conspiring to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis and acquiring/using or possessing criminal property.

Hill, of Longmeadow Road in Knowsley Village, used the handle Frosty-hand and conspired to supply about 260kg of cocaine and 111kg of heroin during the same period, police said.

He admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and heroin.

Det Sgt Craig Doyle said: "Our work continues under Operation Venetic to detect and arrest those involved in the sale and distribution of Class A and B drugs.

"We are committed to proactively investigating serious organised crime and we remain relentless in pursuing offenders."