Lockdown hairstyle selfies led police to £1m drug plot

Two drug-dealers who were caught by police after sharing selfies of their hairstyles during the coronavirus lockdown have been jailed.

Anthony James Dean and William James Swann had used the mobile encryption service Encrochat to trade wholesale quantities of heroin, cocaine and cannabis, police said.

Together the pair had operated an extensive drug dealing network throughout the UK and also had contacts all over Europe.

Dean, 42, of Villiers Crescent, St Helens, was sentenced to 16 years and 39-year-old Swann, of Harrier Close, Liverpool, was sentenced to 14 years.

Det Con Kevin Mitchell, who led the investigation, said the men were part of a sophisticated and lucrative drugs operation.

Dean and Swann had worked together throughout coronavirus lockdowns in 2020, and at one point celebrated the vast profits of their enterprise.

Detectives said they were able to prove the men operated the handles from messages exchanged on the encrypted devices.

Dean of St Helens, used the handle “octo-jam”, while Swann of Maghull, Liverpool disguised himself with the name “octo-rain”.

But the men inadvertently led police to their operation after they revealed their identities in photographs they shared during the pandemic when hairdressers and barbers had been forced to close.

The pair were arrested and charged in January.

In April they both admitted conspiracy to supply 13kg of cocaine, 13.5kg of heroin, and 62kg of cannabis, plus conspiracy to fraudulently evade a prohibition by bringing into the UK a Class B controlled drug, as well as money laundering offences.

In addition, detectives found further evidence Dean was conspiring to supply at least 100kg of Class A drugs between May last year until his arrest in January.

“This was a sophisticated operation where the drugs they were peddling had a million-pound wholesale value,” Det Con Mitchell said.

“It was very clear from the messages exchanged that they managed the lucrative drugs operation.

“In one message Dean bragged that he only wanted to maintain his £6,250 a week personal wage and would reinvest any profits coming in over and above that figure.

“In a discussion about working too hard on a front business he had set up to clean the illicit money, Dean stated that he had to remember that it was a washing machine, not a business.”

Det Con Mitchell said bringing the men to justice had disrupted “not only the serious organised crime they were involved in, but street level drug deals and county lines operations involving vulnerable young people”.