A drug dealer planning to transport kilos of class A drugs was found with a block of cocaine locked in a vacuum in a closet in his house.
Michael Doyle led the movement of large amounts of cocaine, heroin and amphetamine during the first half of 2020. Bickerstaffe’s father was jailed today after an investigation uncovered his crime.
Prosecutor Charles Lander told Liverpool Crown Court that Doyle was caught after hacking the Encrochat network.
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The courier service, so encrypted that it was considered impenetrable, was favored by criminals as a method of communication for months. However, service piracy as part of a pan-European effort in 2020 has resulted in dozens of criminals facing justice across the continent.
Each Encrochat user has been assigned an identifier. Doyle, “Battle-Hawk,” was involved in the supply of Class A drugs during the first half of 2020. The 44-year-old had accumulated 55 contacts on his device and chatted with them about drug deals in Merseyside. and around the world in messages. heard today in court.
Messages downloaded by police only covered a three-month period between March and June, but Lander said the first traceable messages showed that Doyle had a well-established business in the spring of that year. He said: “After reviewing the encrypted messages sent and received by the accused, it is clear that he was in contact throughout the conspiracy period with several people about the supply of controlled drugs to others.
“As one tracks the messages, it is clear that the defendant participated in several successful transactions in connection with the supply of multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, but it is also important that he traded in quantities of kilograms of heroin and -k kilograms of amphetamine.
Mr. Lander noted a series of messages that saw Doyle talk to other users of Encrochat. One, in March, appears to be showing him arranging a drug collection from a closed pub in Merseyside. Another just a day later sees him chatting with someone who uses the “illusory” handling of paying £ 40,000 for a kilo of cocaine and discussing how they could sell it to pay other bills.
In other posts, they talked about “airplane work” and “fish work” in what a police drug expert said was referring to the air and sea drug movement. Lander said Doyle continued to be involved in drugs after the Encrochat rape in the middle of the year.
Police entered his home in April 2022 and found a large block of cocaine in a kitchen cupboard. It had been closed in a vacuum and ready for later supply. Doyle was charged with conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin and amphetamine, as well as possession of cocaine with intent to supply. He pleaded guilty earlier this year.
A judge today found that Doyle had arranged for the sale of at least 7kg of cocaine, although there was evidence of other possible exchanges that could not be fully proven. Michael Bagley, on defense, said Doyle fell into drug trafficking after becoming addicted to cocaine and now deeply regrets his actions.
He said: “I have in front of you someone who is contrite, who through his instructions tells me that he is happy that it is over. He is doing the best he can in prison to get better.”
Judge Judith Bond said Doyle was obviously in a well-established position in the drug trade to control large amounts of business. She said: “You are clearly directing the purchase and sale of drugs on a scale that can only be considered on a commercial scale.”
Heyescroft’s Doyle was jailed for 12 years.
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