Gun and drug dealer jailed for over 18 years after encrypted messages cracked
Asrar Rafiq used EncroChat to brag about making hundreds of thousands of pounds
A gun and drug dealer has been jailed for more than 18 years following an international operation which smashed the notorious EncroChat messaging service used by organised criminals.
West Midlands police say 35 year-old Asrar Rafiq used the network to brag about being in possession of hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash, obtained through illicit drug deals.
They say he also shared a list of weapons including AK47s and Uzis which he told associates he would be able to secure for them.
Rafiq was one of 12 people given a gang injunction in 2014 after being described as a leading member of a Bordesley Green gang.
But his criminality continued, and a major investigation by the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands (ROCUWM) established that he used 13 different phone numbers in an effort to evade detection. CCTV caught him using his phones while working out a local gym.
He was caught thanks to an operation to bring down EncroChat, an encrypted global communication service used exclusively by criminals.
There were 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 users in the UK – the sole use was for coordinating and planning the distribution of illicit commodities, money laundering and plotting to kill rival criminals.
Rafiq was one of those users, and went by the name ‘Wisehorse’.
Police say he would have conversations, which he incorrectly believed were secret, with other serious and organised criminals to arrange the supply of multi-kilogram amounts of heroin and cocaine.
He was arrested in June 2020, at a property in Aston.
Rafiq eventually pleaded guilty to encouraging or assisting with the sourcing, advertising and sale of prohibited weapons and ammunition, and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin.
Rafiq, who is of no fixed address, was jailed for 18 years and six months at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday (8 May).
DCI Peter Cooke, from ROCUWM, said:
“Rafiq tried to claim the messages were just bravado and that he was trying to big himself up to other drug dealers.
“The claim was described as ‘fanciful’.
“He was clearly a significant player in the criminal underworld of firearms and drug dealing, which causes so much misery on the streets of the West Midlands and beyond.
“This result shows that while Operation Venetic was launched five years ago, the fallout for those involved in serious and organised crime continues to this day.”