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Operation Venetic ‑ dubbed the deepest ever into serious organised crime ‑ saw officers access Encrochat, a supposedly secure messaging service used by criminals. The National Crime Agency yesterday revealed 2,631 people have been arrested since the operation began in May 2020. Of these, 1,384 have been charged and 260 convicted already.

Police have seized 5,646kg of Class A drugs, 8,789kg of cannabis, 165 guns, 3,404 rounds of ammunition and almost £76million in cash. Gangs are also believed to have used the handheld devices to plot attacks on rivals, plan ways of enforcing drug debts and arrange for money to be laundered.

And detectives have in recent weeks been celebrating high-profile successes.

Cocaine trafficker Nico Logan was this week jailed for 16 years after police caught him moaning about his drugs empire being curtailed by lockdown rules.

Logan, 28, from Manchester, sent Encrochat messages whining he could not strike face-to-face deals with smugglers in Spain as non-essential flights out of the UK had been banned because of Covid.

He also said he had debts of £26,000 as a result of the curbs and he had to recruit a woman working as a “key worker” to drop off cocaine, heroin and ecstasy. 

Before his arrest, Logan had arranged 3.18kg of cocaine, 2kg of heroin, 5,000 ecstasy tablets and 6kg of cannabis to be smuggled into the UK.

Liverpool drug dealer Harrison Laite was also jailed last week after using Encrochat to supply cannabis on the streets of Merseyside.

He was caught after sending messages under the username “Loadedsun” discussing the sale of £136,000-worth of cannabis.

Detective Constable Andrew Moore of Greater Manchester Police said: “Since the breakthrough of the Encrochat system police have been able to disrupt numerous Organised Crime Groups and stop criminal activity from harming our communities.”

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