A number of criminals have been caged in Scotland after French authorities cracked the highly encrypted EncroChat messaging service in 2020.
Gangsters, drug lords, weapons dealers and county lines runners have been rounded up after their dodgy dealings were exposed on the app.
The Record’s new series will explore Scotland’s biggest encrochat busts – and the individuals behind the deals who believed they were untouchable.
Former Ayr United footballer, Paul Shepherd, was jailed for more than nine years after being exposed as a trusted courier for a major drug gang through the EncroChat hack.
The 48-year-old, was caught with a fist-sized bag of cocaine and a phone loaded with the highly encrypted messaging platform when he was arrested in Leeds in April 2020.
What officers did not know at the time was that French investigators had already infiltrated EncroChat – a service used by criminals around the world who believed their messages could never be traced.
The breakthrough gave police access to thousands of conversations between organised crime figures and would ultimately help bring down the four-man gang Shepherd was working for.
The former professional footballer, who also played for Leeds United, Luton Town and Scarborough, had been trusted to move and store cash and cocaine for gang boss Carl O’Flaherty.
Messages recovered from EncroChat showed O’Flaherty, 38, had instructed Shepherd to deal with the drugs found when he was arrested.
Investigators went on to uncover the full scale of the operation, with the encrypted messages laying bare how O’Flaherty bought cocaine, had it diluted and then sold it on for a substantial profit.
The gang leader would purchase three kilos of high-purity cocaine for £123,000 before using cheap chemicals to increase the quantity and selling four kilos for £150,000.
Dane Marshall, 42, was described as the gang’s “chef”, responsible for cutting the cocaine before it was repackaged for sale.
Clinton Blakey, 38, meanwhile, was a dealer who regularly bought kilogram quantities of cocaine from O’Flaherty before adding further cutting agents and selling it on.
EncroChat messages uncovered conversations between the pair, including photographs of cocaine blocks and discussions about prices.
Blakey was also involved in supplying cannabis, while Marshall used a landscaping business as a front and obtained a £50,000 Government bounce-back loan during the Covid pandemic.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), which investigated the gang, later raided a Leeds property linked to the operation.
Inside they found 13 kilos of amphetamine, large quantities of chemicals used to dilute cocaine and equipment showing that around 12 kilos of cocaine had been repackaged at the address.
O’Flaherty, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, was found to have played a leading role in the operation.
He admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, producing amphetamine and conspiracy to supply amphetamine and was jailed for 17 years and 10 months.
Shepherd, of Leeds, was found guilty following a trial of producing and conspiracy to supply drugs and money laundering. He was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison.
Marshall admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and acquiring criminal property and was jailed for six years and six months.
Blakey fled to Marbella in Spain before being brought back to face justice. He admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis and was jailed for 12 years.
The case showed the crucial role EncroChat evidence could play in exposing organised crime networks.
NCA operations manager Nigel Coles said the investigation had dismantled a “dangerous criminal organisation” supplying large quantities of cocaine.
He said the trade fuelled “intimidation and exploitation” across the UK.
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