Anthony Ian Duncan, 32, of Westmoreland Place, Vauxhall, was sentenced to 12 years and eight months when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court.

Duncan had pleaded guilty to playing a leading role in conspiring to supply 25kg of cocaine and 87.95kg of cannabis.

His arrest in January this year was part of Merseyside Police’s response to Operation Venetic: an international operation targeting criminals who used a mobile encryption service, commonly referred to as Encrochat, in an attempt to evade detection.

Approximately £30,000 was seized from Duncan’s address following his arrest.

Duncan was identified as having used the Encrochat handle ‘mossyjade’ between March 2020 and May 2020. Users of other Encrochat handles had him saved as Dunc, Little Ant, and Dunc Scotty in their contact lists.

Duncan also gave out various clues to his identity including detailing relatives within the messages and an image of his child.

Duncan was also in close contact with the handle ‘townpepper’, who was attributed to his friend Shaun Doyle, who has already been arrested, charged and sentenced.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Atkinson said:  “Our work continues under Operation Venetic to detect and arrest those involved in the sale and distribution of Class A and B drugs.

“We are committed to pro-actively investigating serious organised crime and we remain relentless in pursuing offenders. I am pleased that the evidence we secured against Duncan was sufficient to put him in jail for a number of years.

“Our work to prevent criminals from targeting the vulnerable people in our communities with illicit drugs goes on and we would always encourage members of the public to contact us if they have any information which could assist with our enquiries.”
Anyone who has information about drug dealing in the community can contact us by sending a DM to @MerPolCC, calling 101 or contacting Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.