A pair of drug kingpins have been jailed for life for plotting to murder a rival and smuggling £30 million worth of cocaine into the UK following one of the largest EncroChat investigations in history.
James Harding, 34, and his “loyal right-hand man” Jayes Kharouti, 39, ran a vast criminal empire which made £5 million in profits from importing drugs over 10 weeks in 2020 alone.
They tried to recruit a hitman to put an unnamed rival courier “permanently out of business”, arming him with a gun and ammunition for the “full M” – a murder, the court was told.
At the time, Harding, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, was living in luxury in Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars.
The plot was scuppered by Scotland Yard officers who accessed the defendants’ discussions on EncroChat and trawled through thousands of messages.
They were handed the data after French police smashed the encryption code to the service favoured by the criminal underworld.
They were found guilty of conspiracy to murder while Harding was also convicted of conspiring with others to import cocaine, which Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, had admitted.
On Thursday, Judge Anthony Leonard KC jailed the defendants for life, handing Harding a minimum term of 32 years and Kharouti a minimum term of 26 years.
Judge Leonard said: “It is hard to comprehend that the quantity of cocaine that the EncroChat messages revealed was imported, or was about to be imported, in only a period of approximately two-and-a-half months. Those messages…detail somewhere in the region of 1,000kgs of cocaine being imported and then distributed in smaller quantities throughout the country.
“The street value of that amount of cocaine is in excess of £30 million and the profit on such quantities would have been very substantial. Without the benefit of EncroChat your scale of offending would never have been apparent.”
The judge noted messages in which the defendants discussed violence against anyone tempted to speak to the police about their drug business.
In one message, Harding said: “Bro u just have to know where their nan lives. They all love their nans. Then when they act up they know granny gonna get one in the head lol. Keeps them in check.”
In turn, Kharouti had threatened to arrange to “get a prisoner’s head bust open” if he talked to the police.
Harding had only been out of prison for four years when he opted to “trade up” from supplying Class B to Class A drugs which reaped greater rewards.
Kharouti also had previous convictions for the supply of cocaine and cannabis, the court heard.
Their Old Bailey trial was held amid heightened security, with an armed police escort to and from the central London court and prison.
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Casey, from Scotland Yard, said: “This sentencing shows the severity of the crimes the duo committed.
“Following one of the largest EncroChat investigations in the Met’s history, I am pleased that both criminals are serving the time they deserve.”
Three other members of the organised crime group had previously admitted drugs offences.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the trial the defendants discussed on EncroChat importing a tonne of cocaine over a period of 10 weeks.
Harding used the nickname “thetopsking” while Kharouti went by the handle “besttops” and “topsybricks”, the prosecution alleged.
In EncroChat messages the pair discussed the robbery of a drugs courier and Kharouti reported back on whether six or seven kilograms of cocaine had been delivered to a client the day before.
Mr Atkinson said it was Harding who first raised the idea of a “cryp robbery” – taking drugs from a courier – which became a plan to kill a courier instead.
The defendants discussed how and where the murder would take place, with Kharouti offering the potential hitman £100,000, the court was told.
Kharouti kept his boss informed about the plan who told him it should involve a “double tap” shot to the head and chest.
Despite a delay over transport for the hitman, the defendants worked on alternative solutions, even arranging the shooting near to the proposed gunman’s home.
Kharouti increased the offer to £120,000 but an EncroChat user trying to locate an individual for him said the price should be no less than £200,000, the court was told.
The alleged hitman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in the early hours of June 3 2020, which the defendants were unaware of.
Harding, who had previous convictions for drugs and false documents, was arrested at Geneva airport in Switzerland on December 27 2021 and extradited from Switzerland.
Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK on June 25 last year.
Giving evidence, Harding denied using the handle “the topsking”, saying it belonged to an “intimate” male partner called TK, who he refused to identify.
The case formed part of a wider operation targeting criminals who used EncroChat.
Previously, Calvin Crump, 29, of Redhill, Surrey, Khuram Ahmed, 38, of Slough, and Peter Thompson, 61 of south-west London, had admitted the cocaine conspiracy charge with Thompson also pleading guilty to possession a pistol. A man alleged to have been the proposed hitman was cleared.
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