Latest news with #UKNationalCrimeAgency
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Yahoo
Man jailed for drug dealing and money laundering
A man given a suspended sentence 10 years ago after he was convicted in a multi-million pound money laundering case has been given a five-and-a-half-year sentence after admitting fresh offences. Rory Trainor pleaded guilty in 2024 to 38 new charges including drug dealing offences and money laundering, committed over a 10-week period in 2020. The 48-year-old from Dunbrae, Newry, was among hundreds of UK suspects arrested after European police infiltrated the EncroChat system. Criminal gangs around the world had been using the encrypted messaging service in the mistaken belief it was inaccessible to law enforcement agencies. The new charges Trainor faced included laundering or conspiring to launder more than £1.3m in cash in a series of communications with codenamed suspects. The largest single sum he was accused of conspiring to launder was £227,435, but several of the offences involved sums of £100,000 or more. His co-conspirators were referred to in the charges by their nicknames only, which included Knucklehead, Squarerevolver, Snailmallet and Restless. Trainor also admitted being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs, namely cocaine and cannabis. The offences all took place between March and June 2020. The judge at Londonderry Crown Court on Tuesday sentenced Trainor to four years for the drugs offences and 18 months for the money laundering offences. He ordered the terms should be served consecutively, giving a total sentence of five-and-a-half years. Trainor has been in custody since October 2023. Trainor was one of hundreds of people across the UK who were arrested as a result of the international EncroChat sting. EncroChat was a secretive communication network in which users could exchange encrypted messages on mobile phones that they believed police could not infiltrate. However, French and Dutch police managed to decode EncroChat's encryption system during the first Covid lockdown in April 2020. They then shared the data with international police forces via Europol, including the UK National Crime Agency (NCA). In response, the NCA began to monitor and then arrest hundreds of suspects who had used EncroChat to arrange drug deals and other crimes. The investigation was codenamed Operation Venetic, which the NCA described at the time as "the UK's biggest ever law enforcement operation". More than a decade has passed since Trainor was prosecuted for his role in one of the biggest money laundering cases to ever come before a Northern Ireland court. He previously ran a bureau de change business on the Dublin Road in Newry which he used to launder millions of pounds for drug dealers and other criminals. More than £63m passed through his small office in the space of two-and-a-half years and Trainor was put under surveillance by revenue and customs officers. Covert footage filmed by HMRC showed Trainor handing over a bag filled with cash to a convicted drug dealer in a west Belfast car park. Trainor's Newry home was also raided twice by HMRC officers during the original investigation into his bureau de change business dealings. More than £150,000 in cash was discovered hidden in a floor safe and a beer cooler in his property at that time. Prosecutors also established he had used a stolen identity to move money to bank accounts in Bulgaria. At that time, Trainor pleaded guilty converting the proceeds of crime for several criminal gangs, primarily drug dealers. Despite pleading guilty to laundering what amounted to several million pounds, he walked free from court in 2014. Instead of a custodial sentence, Trainor was made the subject of a serious crime prevention order. The judge in that case deferred the sentence for a year to see if Trainor would comply with the order. He was then given a suspended sentence in 2015.
BBC News
25-03-2025
- BBC News
Rory Trainor: Man jailed for drug dealing and money laundering
A man given a suspended sentence 10 years ago after he was convicted in a multi-million pound money laundering case has been given a five-and-a-half-year sentence after admitting fresh offences. Rory Trainor pleaded guilty in 2024 to 38 new charges including drug dealing offences and money laundering, committed over a 10-week period in 2020. The 48-year-old from Dunbrae, Newry, was among hundreds of UK suspects arrested after European police infiltrated the EncroChat gangs around the world had been using the encrypted messaging service in the mistaken belief it was inaccessible to law enforcement agencies. The new charges Trainor faced included laundering or conspiring to launder more than £1.3m in cash in a series of communications with codenamed largest single sum he was accused of conspiring to launder was £227,435, but several of the offences involved sums of £100,000 or co-conspirators were referred to in the charges by their nicknames only, which included Knucklehead, Squarerevolver, Snailmallet and also admitted being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs, namely cocaine and cannabis. The offences all took place between March and June judge at Londonderry Crown Court on Tuesday sentenced Trainor to four years for the drugs offences and 18 months for the money laundering ordered the terms should be served consecutively, giving a total sentence of five-and-a-half years. Trainor has been in custody since October 2023. Operation Venetic Trainor was one of hundreds of people across the UK who were arrested as a result of the international EncroChat was a secretive communication network in which users could exchange encrypted messages on mobile phones that they believed police could not French and Dutch police managed to decode EncroChat's encryption system during the first Covid lockdown in April then shared the data with international police forces via Europol, including the UK National Crime Agency (NCA). In response, the NCA began to monitor and then arrest hundreds of suspects who had used EncroChat to arrange drug deals and other investigation was codenamed Operation Venetic, which the NCA described at the time as "the UK's biggest ever law enforcement operation". NI's 'biggest money laundering case' More than a decade has passed since Trainor was prosecuted for his role in one of the biggest money laundering cases to ever come before a Northern Ireland previously ran a bureau de change business on the Dublin Road in Newry which he used to launder millions of pounds for drug dealers and other criminals. More than £63m passed through his small office in the space of two-and-a-half years and Trainor was put under surveillance by revenue and customs footage filmed by HMRC showed Trainor handing over a bag filled with cash to a convicted drug dealer in a west Belfast car park. Trainor's Newry home was also raided twice by HMRC officers during the original investigation into his bureau de change business dealings. More than £150,000 in cash was discovered hidden in a floor safe and a beer cooler in his property at that time. Prosecutors also established he had used a stolen identity to move money to bank accounts in Bulgaria. Serious crime prevention order At that time, Trainor pleaded guilty converting the proceeds of crime for several criminal gangs, primarily drug pleading guilty to laundering what amounted to several million pounds, he walked free from court in 2014. Instead of a custodial sentence, Trainor was made the subject of a serious crime prevention judge in that case deferred the sentence for a year to see if Trainor would comply with the order. He was then given a suspended sentence in 2015.
The Independent
21-02-2025
- The Independent
International efforts to hunt online sex predators explored in TV programme
International efforts to catch online sexual predators are set to be explored in a new TV programme. During the course of Hunting The Online Sex Predators, James Blake, a digital influencer from Northern Ireland, meets victims and speaks to officials from across the globe, including the US, the UK and the Philippines. The programme focuses on cybersex crime, which can range from online grooming to using sexual pictures and video to blackmail a victim, and the livestreaming of the sexual abuse of children. Blake previously presented the documentary Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang, in which he told how his identity had been stolen on social media and then used in scams. In this new follow-up film, he meets victims of cybersex crime, including a female who was just 12 when she was trafficked to the Philippines and abused. It also screens a claim based on University of Edinburgh research which suggests that 1.4% of the male population in Britain has engaged in a sexually explicit webcam interaction with a child – equivalent to more than 450,000 men. Cassie, which is not her real name, said she was trafficked to Manila by someone her parents thought they could trust and was abused over three years until the perpetrator was caught and sentenced to life in prison. 'Every day after school. If I don't do that, he is going to hurt me physically. I thought naked in front of these old men is just normal,' she said. Now at the age of 26, she campaigns to help children, and said she feels safe now that her perpetrator has been brought to justice. 'I don't call myself survivor anymore. I call myself victorious,' she added. Blake also hears about how an online investigation comes together. At the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington DC, he meets UK National Crime Agency officer Andy, and learns that they get around 100,000 reports of harmful content on social media reported to them every day. In the Philippines, he meets another NCA officer who works in a global task force made up of police from countries including the Philippines, Australia, the US and the UK. He learns there that, according to Filipino government data tracking online transactions, men from the UK are some of the biggest consumers of online content exploiting children. Blake described a 'truly eye-opening experience'. 'As someone who has grown up online and works in social media, I would say I am savvy about the digital world, but I had no idea how organised and cruel cybersex crime is, or about the incredible work that is being done worldwide to combat it,' he said. 'We hope this film raises awareness of the dangers that exist online and starts a conversation across the UK about internet safety.' Hunting The Online Sex Predators will be available on Tuesday February 25 on BBC iPlayer from 6am, and will be shown on BBC One and BBC One NI from 10.40pm.
