A drug kingpin whose gang supplied nearly £82 million of cocaine - many stamped with their trademark “Rolex” - was caught after police cracked an encrypted messaging platform.
Redon Bushi, 32, of Cherry Crescent, Brentford, went on the run once he got wind officers were after him and stayed in a series of hotels.
Bushi directed couriers to deliver 832 kilos of Class A drugs under the username “Sealvermouth” on Encrochat, unaware texts had been infiltrated by European law enforcement agencies.
Metropolitan Police detectives discovered runners would only be provided with postcodes, times and a loose description of the recipient in an attempt to protect his wider criminal network.
But trawling through hours of CCTV and reviewing chats, officers were able to piece together the west London syndicate’s inner workings.
Drugs were embossed with the luxury watch brand’s name as a producers’ mark to indicate a high quality batch.
Officers stopped one vehicle belonging to courier Ahmad Jabarkhill, 32, and found nearly £700,000 on him in June 2020.
Alongside the National Crime Agency, covert tactics and intelligence identified three more members - Arline Sida, 23, Luke Ferguson, 32, and Kelvin Hoxha, 23.
Acting on this information, Sida and Hoxha were both arrested in Brentford in August 2023.
Searches were carried out and six kilos of cocaine found.
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Ferguson was detained at a “safe house” in Brentford and had 72 kilos of cocaine, worth about £6.24 million.
A camera had been set up at the location so it could be remotely monitored.
In addition to texts, fake identity cards were seized, as well as a van with a sophisticated concealment.
Police and the NCA then launched a manhunt for Bushi as his empire crumbled.
As he stayed at hotels, he bought a new phone, clothing and had more than £3,000 in cash on him.
Bushi directed others to check CCTV at various addresses to identify any police attendance or surveillance - but was arrested himself in Reading.
At Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court on Wednesday, he was sentenced to a total of 24 years and 10 months having pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply £81.6 million of Class A drugs and transferring or possessing criminal property.
For their parts Ferguson, of Becklow Road, Shepherd’s Bush, received 14 years, five months; Sida, of London Road West, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, got 12 years, nine months: Hoxha, of Field Lane, Brentford, 11 years, eight months; and Jabarkhill, of Vimy Close, Hounslow, two years, three months.
Detective Constable David Leitner, who led the Met’s investigation, said: “This case demonstrates our relentlessness in pursuing organised crime, while utilising the unprecedented opportunity that Encrochat represent to its fullest effect.
“Bushi clearly believed that these messaging platforms protected him from law enforcement, but they only served to provide us the very evidence to convict him and his associates.
“This shows the Met’s commitment to tackling offenders who are instrumental in supplying drugs to the streets of London.”
