29-07-2025
Drug kingpin bragged about being famous singer's son in covert text messages
A 30‑year‑old man who had brokered multi‑million‑pound drug deals has been jailed after police pieced together his identity from encrypted messages referencing his famous father.
Thomas Hooton, of Victoria Road West in Crosby, Liverpool, used the messaging service EncroChat, under the name 'Ownraptor', to deal heroin, cocaine, cannabis and ketamine, with a wholesale value of approximately £1.3 million.
His arrest in April followed a covert operation by Merseyside 's organised crime partnership, comprising officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Merseyside Police.
The NCA said Hooton was involved in the supply of 42.5kg of cannabis, 3.25kg of heroin, 10 kg of cocaine and 1kg of ketamine. They also found that Hooton was in possession of about £400,000 and owed others £258,000.
They added he had messaged 41 different contacts using EncroChat, a messaging service that was infiltrated and taken down in 2020 by a European taskforce, and was running a drug supply operation that ran to Scotland and England's North East and South.
He was identified by police after sending a photo of his father, Peter, the lead singer of indie stalwarts The Farm, holding the Champions League trophy to contacts on EncroChat.
He also spoke in the messages about driving a black Audi A3, saying that his 'arl fella' had sorted the insurance for him.
The police then checked Peter Hooton's insurance and found that he had insured a car for his son, which was the same make and model mentioned.
Hooton pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to conspiring to supply Class A and B drugs between 26 March and 4 June 2020. He was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in jail on Friday.
Detective Chief Inspector Lynsay Armbruster said: 'It's clear Hooton was involved in organised crime for a long time before he was charged.
'His criminal and geographical reach will have taken considerable time to establish. His drug supply operations were on an almost daily basis, they were sustained and spanned the UK, working with high-level criminals.'
