Drug dealer caught after picture of him holding cocaine shows fingerprints
A drug dealer was jailed after police tracked him down using his fingerprints from a photo he took holding cocaine.
Stephen Hart, 54, was caught when officers obtained the image from encrypted messaging service EncroChat.
The picture matched his palm print on the police computer, and he was subsequently jailed for nine years and five months for drugs offences.
Hart, of Kent, transported cocaine from larger suppliers while his gang's operation was run out of a container within a secured yard near Romford.
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Each member of the 11-person group, which sold Class A drugs across the county, went by aliases on the dark web messaging service - with Hart's being "Interestingheart".
The group's leader, 54-year-old Michael Read, was known as "Positivity", while two others had pseudonyms of "Firefingers" and "Pinkplumber".
After four years of trying, agencies in Europe infiltrated EncroChat in 2020 before passing on intelligence about the Hart’s gang to officers.
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A police spokesman said: "Messages officers intercepted included those showing they had paid more than £100,000 for 3kg of cocaine in March or April 2020, and sold it for £180,000.
"Others showed discussions about arranging the importation and transportation of tens of kilos of cocaine, and images of drugs and vacuum-packed bags of cash.
"One photo showed the palm of someone’s hand holding a white substance in it.
"Comparing the image to fingerprints held on the police national computer, it was identified the palm belonged to Stephen Hart."
Following the unearthing of the messages, officers raided a number of properties in the south and west of Essex, including Grays, Wickford, Brentwood and Canvey Island, on 7 October, 2020.
During the search, police seized thousands of pounds in cash, drugs and a firearm.
Eleven people, including Hart, were later charged and pleaded guilty to a series of drugs offences.
At Basildon Crown Court, seven of them were jailed for a total of 55 years and eight months, while two others received suspended sentences.
Read, of Grays, has been locked up for 11 years and three months.
His second in command, Mark Gooch, 38, of Pilgrim's Hatch, was given a sentence of nine years and nine months.
Both were convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and transferring criminal property
DS Mike Monkton added: “Drugs are a plague upon our society and those involved in their importation and sale are responsible for ruining lives and destroying communities.
“This group made hundreds of thousands of pounds from causing misery to others.
“This was a thorough, widespread, and complex investigation but in the end, due to the sheer amount of evidence we had compiled against them, 11 people were left with no option but to plead guilty to the charges against them."
