Liverpool man jailed for Encro drug dealing

Today (Thursday 4 April) at Liverpool Crown Court, a man from Great Crosby has been jailed for 10 years for supplying multi kilos of Class A and B drugs.

Steven Jones, 37, of Little Crosby Road, Great Crosby arranged the supply of cocaine, heroin, and cannabis using an encrypted mobile platform EncroChat.

Unbeknown to Jones, his messages were recovered by French law enforcement and shared with the NWROCU as part of Operation Venetic – an international operation targeting criminals who used the mobile encryption service to try to evade detection.

Detectives reviewed messages Jones sent using the Encro handle ‘Livelymint’ to other EncroChat users abroad between 28 March 2021 to 6 February 2024. 

Photographs recovered from the conversations helped detectives prove Jones was ‘Livelymint’ and included photographs taken in his back garden and his place of work. In addition, a diary seized from his home address contained cash entries which are believed to be drugs lists and debtors.

Detective Inspector Dave Worthington from the NWROCU’s Investigation Team said:

“Jones mistakenly thought EncroChat was a safe space to conduct his drug deals – he couldn’t have been more wrong.

“My team gathered such overwhelming evidence against him that he had no choice but to plead guilty to his crimes.

"Operation Venetic has now been running for four years during which time we have worked in conjunction with the NCA and our regionals forces including Merseyside review the evidence and arrest those profiting from selling controlled drugs. We will continue to target other criminals like Jones by thoroughly examining any evidence and carrying out arrests across the North West region.”