Six men jailed for total of 174 years after police crack one of UK's biggest drug & firearm rings
An organised crime group from Greater Manchester have been jailed for 174 years, after police cracked their encrypted messages.
Police say the group believed that "feds can’t get in them". The drugs and firearms ring uncovered is believed to be one of the biggest in UK history.
Six of the group were jailed for their parts in the crimes on Friday.
Omar Malik (22/01/1985) was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to supply cocaine, MDMA and amphetamine. He has been jailed for 38 years.
Daniel Gibbons (11/05/1984) was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to supply cocaine and amphetamine. He was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply MDMA. He has been jailed for 28 years.
Daniel Waters (03/12/1981) was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, MDMA and amphetamine, two counts of possession of a prohibited firearm and possession of ammunition. He has been jailed for 26 years and five months.
Andrew Cooney (25/01/1984) was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to supply cocaine. He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine. He was found not guilty of conspiracy to supply MDMA and amphetamine. He has been jailed for 27 years.
Sean Hogan (12/08/1983) was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and ketamine. He pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon (Taser). He has been jailed for 24 years.
Conor Sandlan pleaded guilty at the commencement of the trial to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and Conspiracy to supply cocaine, MDMA and amphetamine. He has been sentenced to 30 years and five months
A seventh man, Adrian Gonzalez pleaded guilty at an earlier court hearing to conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to supply cocaine, MDMA and amphetamine. He will be sentenced at a later date.
The gang, who were attempting to expand their criminal network internationally, were taken down when messages from their encrypted mobile phones were infiltrated under Operation Venetic; a National Crime Agency led operation into EncroChat data – one of the largest providers of secure, encrypted communications.
Omar Malik was at the top of the OCG directing where the drugs and firearms needed to be, using the alias ‘payyabills’.
Adrian Gonzalez also known as ‘terryf*****gtibbs’ played a pivotal role, controlling the stash house in Ancoats, brokering deals between other gangs.
Conor Sandlan used the handle ‘stellarboat’ and was also responsible for the stash house and the couriering of drugs, cash, and firearms.
Daniel Gibbons went by the name of ‘humblewaffle. He was initially responsible for the supply of drugs, firearms, and cash. As he became more trusted in the gang, he was used to set up a company which would be the front for importing weapons into the country.
Daniel Waters, also known as ‘obscuretwig’ was initially a courier for the gang, later responsible for recruiting further couriers for the OCG.
Andrew Cooney used the handle ‘fernpirate’ and was involved in the supply of drugs and firearms throughout the conspiracy.
Sean Hogan used the handle ‘dullhyena’ and was involved in the supply of drugs and also purchased a firearm from Cooney during the surveillance period.
Detectives began a period of surveillance between May – June 2020 which showed the group were involved in the supply of industrial volumes of drugs and the sale of firearms – including sub-machine guns, estimated to be in the range of almost £150k.
Their 'stash house', located in Ancoats Marina, was used to store large quantities of class A and B drugs, firearms, ammunition and cash.
In April 2020, armed police searched a vehicle in West Yorkshire they believed to be linked to the group. They found a black handgun, bullets, and large quantities of cash in the drivers footwell. The occupants were arrested.
Later that evening, Sandlan was arrested at his address in Rochdale. When word of his arrest spread, Gonzalez was seen making numerous desperate attempts to contact Malik with one message saying, “Ted been arrested for firearms.” – Ted being a nickname of Sandlan.
Throughout the following day, numerous messages were being sent about Sandlan’s arrest, with attempts to cover up and distance people’s involvement.
Messages like “Feds can’t get in them can they” were being sent, offering police an insight into the minds of the offenders. Thanks to the infiltration of the encrypted communications platform, police were already in and could see everything.
Two months late in June, officers from the National Crime Agency visited an address in Manchester city centre linked to Malik. There, they found a mobile phone that had been stuffed down a seat cushion in an attempt to hide it from police. The mobile device was confirmed to belong to Malik throughout the whole conspiracy period. Police also seized a cardboard box full of cash, drugs, and large quantities of high value jewellery.
Soon after, police arrested Gibbons and Waters at an address in Reddish. Police found two sub-machine guns, two self-loading pistols, two magazines containing ammunition, a bag of 1098 rounds of ammunition, cocaine, large quantities of amphetamine found in a freezer, and a suitcase containing £616k cash.
That same evening, officers arrested Gonzalez as he attempted to leave his apartment in his Mercedes. Inside his address police found receipts from high value cash purchases and located a mobile phone that had been hidden underneath artificial grass on a roof terrace.
A day later, Conor Sandlan was re-arrested by GMP and charged. Later that week, Omar Malik was re-arrested and charged.
On Thursday 25 June, officers arrested Hogan at his home in Denton. They recovered a taser, a vacuum packing machine, large quantities of cash in different currencies, and high value items. Parked on his drive were two porches in which officers discovered quarter of a kilo of cocaine in.
On the same day, Cooney was arrested at his house in Alderley Edge. During the search of his home, officers recovered luxury watches, phones, and paperwork for an Italian villa. There were also two Porsches on his driveway, in one of the vehicles; officers discovered a quarter of a kilo of cocaine in the boot.
The only defendant to take the stand was Cooney, who categorically denied being linked to the encrypted phone handle and being involved in the conspiracy.
Speaking in court, the firearms expert in the case said: “The evidence I have considered in this case leads me to the opinion that the organised crime group acquired 52 Scorpion machine pistols (in more than one batch) and again, having kept a small number for their own use, by May 2020 had sold at least 48 of these machine pistols to various criminal associates.
“There is evidence to suggest that the Skorpion sub-machine guns were being offered for sale for between approximately £9000 and £15,000 each.
“These quantities of fully automatic firearms with compatible ammunition would put this operation, to my knowledge, among the very highest level of criminal firearm trafficking ever encountered by law enforcement in the UK. “
Detective Superintendent Joe Harrop, head of Serious Organised Crime at GMP, said: “These were very dangerous men who only cared about making vast amounts of money. They didn’t care how lethal their commodities were or the consequences for the communities and innocent people who would be irrevocably affected by this.
“They thought they were untouchable but working with colleagues from the NCA and the CPS North-West Complex Case Unit, we were able to systematically dismantle the group and show them this wasn’t the case.”
NCA Operations Manager Adrian Barnard said: “These men belonged to a dangerous network of criminals involved in the transfer of firearms and supply of drugs in the north west and across the UK.
“Sandlan was a major figure in this criminal enterprise. The wealth of contacts he used to transfer weapons across the country included criminals subsequently convicted following NCA investigations,
“It is chilling to see the volume of lethal weapons this criminal group moved, and we have seen the devastation that these kind of firearms can cause in the north west recently. However, gun crime in the UK continues to be relatively low compared to mainland Europe, and suppressing their availability to criminals is a priority for the NCA."