Man and woman from Bolton have been jailed for eighteen and eight year’s respectively supplying class A substances after law enforcement agencies infiltrated the encrypted communications platform Encrochat.
Faruquz Zaman aged 45 was sentenced to 18 years and six months in prison.
Debra Charlton aged 36 who used her status as a key worker to transport the cash and drugs for Zaman throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, was jailed for eight years and six months.
this investigation, detectives identified that Faruquz Zaman was purchasing commercial volumes of cocaine and heroin from several international suppliers and selling to customers across Bolton. At his disposal, Zaman used Debra Charlton as a courier, and she would collect the money and drugs on behalf of Zaman and either deliver it or store it at her home address.
Of note, throughout COVID-19, Debra Charlton used her status as a key worker to transport the cash and drugs for Zaman without raising suspicion at a time when travel was limited.
In June 2020, when the news broke that law enforcement agencies had been able to recover data from Encrochat devices and were seeking to identify the users, both defendants swiftly disposed of their mobile devices and cars they’d been using throughout the conspiracy in an attempt to evade detection.
However, it was too late for the pair, and in August 2020, they were both arrested and questioned by detectives.
As a result of the takedown of Encrochat, Greater Manchester Police has had the unique opportunity to investigate high level serious and organised criminality and secure jail sentences for criminals who were once operating under the radar.
There was minimal information on the police computer systems about both Zaman and Charlton, but thanks to the evidence obtained from the encrypted phones, detectives had enough evidence to secure convictions and remove them from our streets.
