A pair of south Essex drug dealers who used encrypted messaging platform EncroChat to run their criminal enterprise have been jailed for more than 25 years.
Officers from the Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit – identified supplies of around 80 kilos of cocaine as part of their investigation into the two drug dealers.
Robert Smith, 37, and Ismet Salih, 33, both from Grays, were also linked to the seizures of a further 123 kilos of cocaine, and had laundered profits of more than £1.25 million in cash.
Smith headed an organised crime group which supplied cocaine and cannabis to the Chadwell St Mary and Grays areas, and used Salih and Lee Twigg as his trusted seconds in command.
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Smith and Salih referred to themselves as the ‘Chadwell Cartel’ in EncroChat exchanges, and messages exchanged revealed their aspirations of becoming gangsters like Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
Smith used the handle ‘demonfern’ to source the cocaine from a Dubai-based seller, who went by ‘blacknarco’ and ‘darkestnarco’.
Salih and associate Lee Twigg collected the cocaine from Smiths’s suppliers in the UK and then stored and distributed the drugs for him.
They also ensured cash from the sale of the drugs made it back to the suppliers.
Smith and Salih exchanged more than 6,000 messages, predominantly about the sale of cocaine.
The pair were arrested in September 2021, with investigators finding three kilos of cannabis with a wholesale value of up to £15,760 in Salih’s garden shed and evidence of a previous cannabis grow in his loft.
Smith had £7,635 in cash in a plastic bag within his shorts at the time of his arrest.
Smith and Salih were subsequently charged with drugs and money laundering offences, and admitted these at Basildon Crown Court.
They were jailed for 16-and-a-half years and nine years respectively at the same court today (March 8).
Investigators established that Essex men Andrew Fraser and Christopher Low, Jamie Sheaves, from Kent, and Adil Bakali (drugs found in his car pictured above), from Wiltshire, were runners for Smith’s supplier. They have previously been jailed for a total of 39 years.
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The Organised Crime Partnership’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK law enforcement response to the July 2020 takedown of the EncroChat encrypted communication service.
Andrew Tickner, from the Organised Crime Partnership, said: “Robert Smith and Ismet Salih were behind a criminal network which saw vast amounts of cocaine sold in Essex and beyond.
“Their dream of becoming gangsters like the Kray twins was swiftly shattered by our investigation. Instead, their reality is lengthy prison sentences.
“Using the strong partnership between the NCA and Met Police, we will continue to pursue organised criminals fuelling the class A drug trade.”
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