A major drug dealer who sold more than half a million pounds worth of cocaine using the notorious Encrochat encrypted mobile phone network has been jailed for more than 13 years.
Sikander Ali, aged 33, was a wholesale purchaser of the drug, who would then sell to other dealers in the West Midlands.
Ali used the name Buckglove on Encrochat, which was a network used by criminals who wrongly thought their messages would never be seen by law enforcement.
But Encrochat, which had 60,000 users worldwide, was infiltrated by an international law enforcement team in 2020, exposing a huge number of criminals and criminal conspiracies to trade in illegal goods, launder money, and arrange for killings.
An examination of Ali’s messages described at one point having 10kg available, and boasting about the quality of the drugs, saying: “U won’t have any complaints, it’s proper.”
Images showed him posing with an expensive Patek Philippe watch and a Mercedes G-Class SUV, as he flaunted his wealth.
In all, he admitted supplying 14kg of the drugs, which each 1kg block worth between £37,000 and £40,000, with a total value of £560,000.
Ali also admitted borrowing a .38 handgun from another Encrochat user for his own protection, at one point driving around Birmingham carrying the gun.
At one point, he tried to buy it from the owner, who declined the offer and said: “Bro if it was that easy I wouldn’t ask you for it back it’s not like there 38s all around the place like a sweet shop.”
Ali’s ‘Buckglove’ name came to our attention while detectives investigated another criminal gang who were plotting for a man to be shot dead in Birmingham.
Ali, of Measham Grove, Yardley, was arrested as he tried to fly to Dubai from Birmingham Airport in January last year and went on admit conspiracy to supply cocaine and transferring a firearm.
At Birmingham Crown Court on Friday (23 August) he was jailed for nine years and six months for the drugs offence, and four years, to be served consecutively, for the firearms offence.
Det Insp Matt Marston, from our Major Crime Unit, said: “Like a large number of other criminals around the world, Ali thought that using Encrochat meant he could operate above the law. Like so many others, he was wrong.
“His messages revealed a criminal operation, spreading misery through the buying and selling of Class A drugs.
“Ali is clearly someone who had no qualms about borrowing and carrying a deadly firearm to protect him from others in the criminal underworld.”
The success is part of Operation Target, which sees us take a defiant stand against a range of serious and organised crime offences – from drug dealing and burglary to cyber-crime and fraud.
Officers use local intelligence, seize goods, carry out warrants and target offenders as part of Op Target’s ongoing crackdown against serious and organised crime.