Two convicted in first murder plot case involving EncroChat messaging system

Two convicted in first murder plot case involving EncroChat messaging system


Fontaine, 36, from Hackney, north London, and Sinclair, 34, from Cardiff, south Wales, were found guilty of plotting to murder Hassan and a string of other offences, after a trial at the Old Bailey. Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP

Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair convicted of plotting revenge shooting using encrypted messaging system.

Two men who planned a revenge shooting have been convicted at the Old Bailey in the first murder plot case involving the use of the encrypted messaging system, EncroChat.

Paul Fontaine, 36, from Hackney in London, and Frankie Sinclair, 34, from Cardiff, were found guilty of plotting a murder using the system, which was described in court by prosecuting counsel Kevin Dent QC as “an Amazon for organised criminals” in that it allowed them to purchase guns, drugs and counterfeit money clandestinely.

The convictions are the latest in a series of cases that have resulted after the French police gained access to EncroChat in 2020 and passed on information to the National Crime Agency in Britain; of the 60,000 EncroChat users around the world, who paid at least £1,000 for the system, 10,000 were in the UK.

A total of 746 arrests initially took place based on information in the messages and hundreds more have followed. At the time, the NCA director of investigations, Nikki Holland, described what became known as Operation Venetic as “like cracking the Enigma code”.

“It is ironic that the steps taken by both men to conceal their conspiracy sealed their fate,” said DCI Driss Hayoukane of the Met police after the verdict. “This is a testimony to the hard work of officers across England and Wales.” He said that Sinclair and Fontaine believed that their use of EncroChat rendered them “untouchable”.

Sinclair, a convicted drug dealer, was in a feud with Keiron Hassan, another dealer in Cardiff, who had shot up his mother’s home in March 2020. Sinclair, using the codename “Nudetrain”, contacted Fontaine, who used the codename “Usualwolf” to arrange a revenge attack.

Sinclair said in messages recovered: “I need 2 savages…Mum’s got lit up so retaliation can’t be no joke.” Hassan was not killed and is now himself serving 24 years for an attempted murder.

In a message to a third party Fontaine said of Sinclair: “He’s not a killer yet. I’ve been schooling him.” The guns on offer were a Walther PPK, which Sinclair described as “my James Bond ting”, and a Colt revolver. Fontaine was also convicted of conspiring to provide a firearm that was used in the murder of Abdullahi Mahmoud in Enfield in London in March 2020 – before EncroChat had been accessed.

Two expert witnesses, who have studied EncroChat in detail, gave evidence in the trial having produced a joint report. For the prosecution, Luke Shrimpton, who worked at the National Crime Agency as a senior technical officer for five years, outlined how and when EncroChat had been accessed.

For the defence, Duncan Campbell, the forensic communications expert, suggested that the evidence was unreliable. “In broad and general terms, we agree that records show that the implant and processing system were not reliable, in that the implants frequently and often stopped working, unless or until restarted,” the joint report stated.

Sinclair claimed that the threats to kill Hassan were not intended to be carried out and he denied that “Usualwolf” was Fontaine, who did not give evidence.

In her closing speech, Arlette Piercey, QC for Sinclair, explained why no one would expose the real identify of “Usualwolf”. “On the streets, snitches get stitches,” she said. “You don’t need to be watching Top Boy to know you’re a target in those circumstances.”

Fontaine, she said, was “a bog standard street dealer living at home with his dad”. Of the case against him “there was no DNA, no fingerprints, no eyewitness, no actual drugs or guns. Nothing. All the evidence depends on EncroChat.”

For Sinclair, James Walker suggested that “the text and the language are nothing more than bravado, just rhetoric.” Both were convicted on a majority 10-2 verdict of the conspiracy to murder and unanimously on all other offences involving weapons and drugs.

So far, 2,631 people have been arrested in the UK as part of Operation Venetic; 1,384 have been charged, 260 convicted and 5,646 kilos of class A drugs, 165 weapons and £75m in criminal cash has been seized, according to the NCA. The Met, whose EncroChat investigation is called Operation Eternal, worked with the NCA on the case.

Both men will be sentenced on 27 May 2022.


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