Crimefighting chiefs feared police leak would destroy Encrochat probes that snared Scots gangsters

Scottish Sun

4 days ago

A LEAK threatened to compromise the National Crime Agency's Encrochat probe that went on to snare scores of Scotland's most fearsome gangsters.
A mole working with the UK's answer to the FBI alerted criminals to the ongoing hacking of the encrypted phone network used by dangerous mobsters.
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The NCA's Matt Horne told of his shock at the discovery of a police Encrochat leak.
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Police Scotland poured over a vast haul of evidence from the Encrochat sting.
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An example of the weapons seized by cops during a wave of arrests in 2020.
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Forces across the UK seized millions in dirty cash as part of Operation Venetic.
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And NCA chiefs have now spoken in deeper detail about the moment they realised their ongoing investigations into drug smuggling, gun running and murder plots could be scuppered.
Matt Horne, NCA gold command, told how alarm bells started ringing when they realised texts between hoods included specific info about the secret probe that must have come from an insider.
Recalling the shock discovery, he said: 'What is deeply worrying here is the specific information about the 48 hour delay, the fact that we are prioritising the recovery of firearms.
'For me those two factors really do give me a sense that this is a genuine leak that is an absolute threat to this operation going forward.
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'My biggest fear was that this was the end of the entire operation globally with all the partners that were involved in it. The tensions were high.'
He added: 'Immediately all these devices could be chucked in the river, chucked in the sea, destroyed. Operations around the world could be stopped in their tracks.'
Among the most high-profile hoods caught up in the sting was Jamie 'iceman' Stevenson who used the handle 'BigTasty' when running his multi-million-pound drug racket.
He is serving 16 years for importing cocaine in bananas from Ecuador and running a Breaking-bad style street valium factory.
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Kingpin James 'The Don' White was also using Encrochat to orchestrate crime plots after taking over the gang formerly headed by missing brothers James and Barry Gillespie.
White, 47, of Gartcosh, Lanarkshire, was nicked in Brazil before his extradition to Scotland where he was sentenced to almost ten years
The DOWNFALL of Scotland's biggest gangster - Jamie 'The Iceman' Stevenson Part Two
White's sidekick Paul 'The Captain' Fleming, 40, of Kirkintilloch, was also snared for his role in shipping cocaine into the UK hidden in solar panels.
And another whose crimes came to light in massive probe included drugs-lab gangster Colin Wright, 38, of Motherwell.
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He used the handle 'Jack- Nicklaus' as he plotted with notorious Merseyside mobsters to traffick millions of pounds worth of heroin and cocaine on both sides of the border.
Messages they shared via Encrochat played a big part in helping bring an army of hoods to justice.
But a new four part doc on Channel 4 called 'Operation Dark Phone - Murder by Text' explains how it could have come to nothing if the NCA mole had not been discovered.
An intelligence officer in the anti-corruption unit named only as Sarah told of her horror at the thought a colleague was tipping off targets.
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She said: 'The information was so specific it had to be someone who really knew about the Encrochat operation and the intelligence pointed towards someone most likely working in our office that could be sat next to you.
'The risk that they posed was just massive.'
The race was on for the NCA to find out who was leaking details that could compromise the secretive work of crime fighters at home and abroad who were pouring over evidence gathered in real time.
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The NCA launched an internal probe to find the insider who was leaking info.
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Sarah added: 'It was just kind of, 'drop everything'. There was nothing else more important at the time.'
The Scottish Sun has reported extensively on the crippling impact the NCA's probe into Encrochat - Operation Venetic - has had on Scottish organised crime gangs.
The breakthrough moment came in 2020 when forces from Holland and France managed to infiltrate the encrypted devices used by thousands of criminals across Europe.
Info involving Scots hoods was gathered and shared with UK agencies including Police Scotland who poured over the biggest haul of evidence the force had ever seen.
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Unbeknown to users, the plots they were hatching using the network were being watched by investigators for months.
But as cops swept up millions of incriminating messages the NCA discovered a series of alarming notes shared between hoods with one claiming a cop had told him the phones were no longer safe from law enforcement.
The discovery triggered a fresh probe to find the mole's identity and stop a stream of info being leaked that could alert targets and destroy countless investigations.
John McKeon, head of the NCA's anti-corruption unit, explained: 'A message sent by an individual anywhere in the UK could very, very quickly end up in the hands for instance of someone in Holland or certainly across the globe.
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'I don't think I've seen anything on that scale in terms of potential consequences.
'My first thought was we need to catch them quickly before this information gets spread any further.'
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Jamie 'Iceman' Stevenson used the handle 'BigTasty' on the Encrochat network.
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James' The Don' White was one of thousands of hoods using Encrochat to plot crimes.
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Paul 'The Captain' Fleming's role as a high-ranking hood was unearthed in the sting.
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Colin Wright was known as 'Jack-Nicklaus' on the encrypted phone tech.
The doc then goes on to explain how they managed to snare corrupt Natalie Mottram - the Cheshire Police worker who was feeding top secret info to her gangland pals.
Mottram, 27, of Great Sankey, Warrington, was jailed for three years and nine months at Liverpool Crown Court in 2023.
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The court heard she was working as an intelligence analyst at the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit when she was arrested on June 12, 2020.
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Cheshire Police employee Natalie Mottram was jailed for leaking NCA secrets.
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Jonathan Kay was alerted by Mottram that he was being probed in the Encro sting.
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It emerged Mottram had told Jonathan Kay, 40, about the covert investigation and that officers had intelligence on him.
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On 24 April that year a friend of Kay's messaged another user to say he had learned that day about cops having cracked the messaging platform.
And he messaged a second contact, saying: "I no [sic] a lady who works for the police. This is not hearsay. Direct to me. They can access Encro software.'
He also mentioned key details revealing the cops trawl of the software was running '48 hours behind real time' and that they were probing firearms cases first.
He told Kay of his chat with Mottram : "Her words was are you on Encro, I said no why, I only sell a bit of bud. She said cool just giving you a heads up. Because NCA now have access.'
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We told how a leading crimebuster said the takedown of EncroChat phones "turbo-boosted" Scottish cops' fight against gangsters.
Miles Bonfield, deputy director of the NCA, previously hailed the impact of the hi-tech blitz that unearthed the activities of hundreds of hoods.
He told how evidence gathered unlocked thousands of encrypted mobile chats and also helped other probes - including Operation Escalade, a long-running crackdown on Scotland's most fearsome hoods.
Mr Bonfield said: "Operation Venetic produced a number of different evidential packages which informed existing operations like Escalade plus a number of new ones as well.
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"So it made a real difference to turbo-boosting some investigations that were already running and giving them the vital insight and evidential assistance they needed to prove their heinous criminality."