Drugs gang boss caught at Channel Tunnel as he fled UK in BMW with girlfriend

Leader of Merseyside crime gang ‘thought he was untouchable’ on Encrochat, say police

Jordan Talbot used the handle ‘LittleNev’ while running the drug dealing operation on Encrochat (Merseyside Police)

The leader of an organised crime group supplying drugs across the north of England was caught at the Channel Tunnel as he tried to flee the UK in a high-powered BMW.

Jordan Talbot, 30, ran the gang based in Bootle, Merseyside, using the encrypted messaging platform Encrochat, which was infiltrated by police last year.

He used the handle "LittleNev" while directing trusted couriers to drive across the country in cars specially adapted with secret compartments for concealing drugs.

Merseyside Police said the gang distributed more than 500kg of class A drugs throughout the North West and North East of England between September 2019 and February 2020.

Talbot, from Formby, Merseyside, was jailed for 21 years and nine months at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday. His associates James Ward, 33, who used the Encrochat name "StableToast", and Jamie Carlton, 39, known as "StaleSloth", were jailed for 15 years and nine months and 12 years respectively for their roles in the network.

The drugs gang was exposed as part of Operation Venetic - described by the National Crime Agency as "the UK's biggest ever law enforcement operation" - which analysed messages sent by criminals over Encrochat.

Based on that evidence, detectives with the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit carried out a series of raids in Bootle, Formby and Waterloo in Merseyside in July 2020.

One of the cars used by the gang to distribute drugs across the north of England (Merseyside Police)

Talbot was arrested at the Channel Tunnel on 20 July 2020 as he tried to leave the UK in his BMW with his girlfriend.

He was carrying around £3,000 in cash and a further £6,000 was recovered from his flat. Talbot had also recently bought Rolex watches worth more than £43,000 during a two-week spending spree, the Liverpool Echo reported.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Pye said that Talbot "mistakenly thought that by using EncroChat he was untouchable".

"Unfortunately for him he was wrong, and he will now pay the price for his actions. These are significant sentences which reflect the extent of the conspiracy that these men were involved in.”

Drugs seized by police during investigation into organised crime gang in Bootle, Merseyside (Merseyside Police)

Talbot, of Elson Road, Formby, and Ward, of Southport Road, Bootle, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to supply Class A and Class B drugs. Carlton, of Church Road, Waterloo, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Encrochat had around 60,000 users worldwide, including 10,000 users in the UK, when it was infiltrated by infiltrated by law enforcement agencies in France and the Netherlands in early 2020.

The UK operation targeting criminals using the service saw the arrest of more than 700 suspects and the seizure of two tonnes of drugs and £54m in cash by July 2020.