Drug dealer used EncroChat to supply £1.5 million of cocaine and cannabis across Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk during COVID lockdown
A drug dealer who used encrypted communications platform EncroChat to facilitate the supply of drugs worth around £1.5 million across Norfolk and Cambridgeshire – including into Peterborough – has been jailed.
Norfolk Police said that Ricky Peppercorn, 36, used EncroChat, one of the largest global providers of encrypted communications - promising users anonymity by automatically deleting messages and completely wiping data if anyone tried to hack the device – to supply the drugs during the COVID lockdown in 2020.
The force said that international authorities cracked that encryption in 2020, and thousands of messages which had been sent between between criminals were then passed to police forces across Europe.
In Norfolk detectives analysed the encrypted data including messages and pictures sent and received by someone using the handle 'nextbush' to arrange the supply of cocaine and cannabis and identified that person as Ricky Peppercorn.
A spokesperson for the Norfolk Force said: “It's believed he brought at least 14 kilos of cocaine (with an estimated street value of £1.4 million) and 9 kilos of cannabis (estimated value of £60,000 - £90,000) into Norfolk between March and June 2020.
"To facilitate this he would travel from his home address in West Walton to Wisbech and Peterborough, all while the country was in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Police said that on Thursday 3rd June 2021 a warrant was carried out at Peppercorn's home on Salts Road, West Walton during which he broke his phone in half and tried to dispose of SIM cards in the toilet before officers could get them. Both were seized along with a quantity of cocaine that was in his kitchen cupboard.
Police said that in September last year, Peppercorn, of Salts Road, West Walton, was convicted of conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply cannabis and failing to provide his PIN code for a mobile phone seized upon his arrest.
Now he has been jailed for 12 years.
Stephen Dodd from Norfolk Constabulary's Serious Organised Crime Unit said, "Like many criminals who had used EncroChat for their illicit dealings, Ricky Peppercorn had been convinced he was operating under the radar.
"He felt safe enough to co-ordinate the sale and exchange of drugs. Little did he know we would be able to view those messages."