Former Leeds United footballer among four drug dealers jailed

Carl O'Flaherty, Clinton Blakey, Dane Marshall and Paul Shepherd were arrested after EncroChat was cracked in 2020

A former Leeds United footballer is among four men jailed for dealing large amounts of cocaine after their encrypted messages were intercepted.

The crime network was uncovered after police stopped ex-footballer Paul Shepherd, 46, and seized cocaine and an EncroChat handset from his car.

Messages on the handset implicated Carl O'Flaherty, 38, who admitted to being the leader of the criminal enterprise.

They were jailed alongside two other men at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday.

Shepherd, who used to play for Leeds United and Luton Town, had denied the charges against him but was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, and was jailed for nine years and six months.

The court was told he was a trusted courier for the drugs, involved in collecting and delivering cash for O'Flaherty all over the UK.

Marbella arrest

O'Flaherty, 38, of Leysholme Terrace, admitted being the leader of the drugs network and running a wholesale drugs supply business.

He admitted three counts of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, dangerous driving and driving without insurance and was jailed for 17 years and 10 months.

He was sentenced alongside Clinton Blakey, 38, who was found to be a customer of O'Flaherty, buying drugs from him to sell in smaller quantities.

He had admitted conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs and intentionally encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence, and was sentenced to 12 years.

The court heard Blakey and O'Flaherty regularly exchanged messages about the sale and purchase of cocaine.

Blakey had been due to appear at Leeds magistrates in 2020 when he fled to Spain, spending three years on the run before being arrested in Marbella in May this year and extradited.

Another Leeds man, Dane Marshall, 42, who admitted conspiracy to supply a Class A drug and transferring criminal property, was ordered to serve six years and six months in prison.

He had helped set up a company used to launder the proceeds of the operation, the court heard, being employed by O'Flaherty to dilute, press and repackage the cocaine blocks to be ready for distribution.

He also set up a company named "Northface Landscaped Ltd" to launder the cash proceeds of the group's activity.

The four men were sentenced at Leeds Crown Court

The four men were arrested by officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) after the messaging service EncroChat - used by criminals across Europe - was cracked in 2020.

The NCA said O'Flaherty ran his drug supply operation from a number of addresses in West Yorkshire, including a flat in Bradford which was used as a laboratory, and a second address in Leeds where they stored and pressed kilo blocks of the drug for onward supply.

At the Leeds property, officers found 13 kilos of amphetamine, large quantities of chemicals used to dilute cocaine and equipment that showed 12 kilos of cocaine was repackaged there.

Nigel Coles, NCA operations manager, said: "Our extensive investigation has dismantled a dangerous criminal organisation that supplied large quantities of cocaine, a trade that fuels intimidation and exploitation throughout the UK.

"It was clear from EncroChat messages that O'Flaherty headed up the group and stopped at nothing to line his own pockets.

"The cocaine he was distributing would have undoubtedly contributed to violence and misery in our communities."