Guns, drugs, cars and £790,000 in cash seized after police crack secret gangster phone system
Some of Bristol's biggest drug dealers and gangsters have been taken out
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A huge national police operation to target gangsters who launder money and deal in Class A drugs has seen dozens of people arrested across Bristol and the West Country, police have revealed.
More than 30 arrests have been made, guns and kilos of illegal drugs seized, after the National Crime Agency managed to crack an encrypted communication system called EncroChat, which was used by criminals around the world.
Access to that secret and bespoke messaging service led the NCA, the South West's own Regional Crime Unit and Avon and Somerset police to launch a major operation to smash drug, gun and money-laundering networks, in conjunction with forces across the country.
It was called Operation Venetic and was the UK's biggest ever law enforcement operation, with raids, arrests and seizures across the country.
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In Bath and Bristol, a total of 11 people were arrested on suspicion of being involved in a conspiracy to supply wholesale amounts of Class A drugs in the region, and launder hundreds of thousands of pounds.
From those 11, six suspected encrypted phones were seized, as well as a Glock handgun, a kit to convert replica guns to real ones, a silencer, ammunition, eight kilos of suspected cocaine, four kilos of suspected crystal MDMA, thousands of suspected ecstasy tablets, a hydraulic press, £100k cash and a number of high value vehicles.
£30k seized by police in Shirehampton (Image: Avon and Somerset police handout)
Another £400,000 in cash was seized from a car that travelled down the M4 from London to Bath.
Hacking the EncroChat system also led investigators to arrest three men, from Weston-super-Mare, Shirehampton in Bristol and Portishead on suspicion of money-laundering and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs - and £30,000 in cash was seized from an address in Shirehampton, as well as a number of high value Rolex watches from two of those three people.
There were also arrests and raids in Bournemouth and Dorset, which saw 11 people detained and tens of thousands of pounds in cash seized, as well as £300,000 of Class A drugs, and a firearm.
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Police in the West Country hailed the Operation as a huge success, and people should be brought for the courts imminently for serious offences.
"These results are part of a phenomenal effort across law enforcement in the past few months, which has seen us target organised criminals based in our area, as well as support the wider network to disrupt those that harm our region," said Det Supt Tina Robinson, the head of the South West Regional Crime Unit.
Carbine Conversion Kit seized Bath city centre (Image: Avon and Somerset police handout)
"And this work continues. Criminals using these devices, which have a kill code to enable them to be wiped remotely, thought they could communicate freely and securely. Instead, they have provided evidence that could undoubtedly see them locked up for years and the wealth they've acquired stripped away.
"Intimidation and violence go hand in hand with serious and organised crime – that's clear when you look at the weapons seized both here and across the country. By collectively dismantling these groups, lives have been saved and communities across the region have been protected," she added.
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And nationally, there have been hundreds of arrests of some of Britain's top gangsters and drug dealers.
The deputy director of the National Crime Agency, Matt Horne said: "This nationally coordinated activity, against harmful organised criminal networks operating across the UK, is unprecedented in scale. It is without doubt the broadest and deepest ever operation against serious organised crime, targeting those at the top of the criminal tree.
Suppressor and extended magazine seized Bath city centre (Image: Avon and Somerset police handout)
"The NCA has worked with international partners and every single police force across the UK, but the extraordinary results we have achieved is testimony to the partnership we have with colleagues in the South West Regional Organised Crime Unit.
"By working together we have had tremendous success in penetrating and disrupting organised criminal networks, arresting the 'kingpins', seizing huge amounts of criminal cash, stopping firearms and drugs reaching our streets and protecting the people of the South West," he added.
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Avon and Somerset Constabulary
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