EncroChat Gang Hired Hitman Who Was Jailed Aged 14 for Killing, Trial Told

FW Pomeroy's statue of Justice stands atop the Central Criminal Court building, Old Bailey, London, on Jan. 8, 2019. PA Media

LONDON—A drugs gang who used the encrypted phone network EncroChat hired a hitman who had been convicted of killing a teenager when he was just 14 and agreed to pay him £50,000 to kill a target, a trial at the Old Bailey has heard.

Michael Ematuwo—who was jailed for six years for manslaughter in 2009—denies conspiracy to murder a “person unknown” between May and June 2020.

Mr. Ematuwo, 28, appeared in the dock at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, alongside Jimmy Gottshalk, 36, Calvin Crump, 28, and Peter Thompson, 60.

Mr. Gottshalk and Mr. Crump deny conspiracy to murder and Mr. Gottshalk denies conspiracy to evade a prohibition on the importation of cocaine and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Mr. Crump admits conspiracy to supply Class C drugs while Mr. Thompson has admitted conspiracy to import cocaine and possession of a firearm and ammunition but denies possessing a Steyr pistol with intent to endanger life.

Opening the case, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson, KC told the jury the gang were bringing huge amounts of cocaine into Britain in the spring of 2020 and were describing drug deals in detail in encrypted messages.

He said the gang communicated using EncroChat devices that “used a highly sophisticated form of end-to-end encryption, which was believed by them to be impregnable to any access by law enforcement.”

He said it cost up to £1,500 to buy an EncroChat device and six-month subscription to the network.

Mr. Atkinson said Mr. Ematuwo has admitted he was the user of an EncroChat device with the handle “Randommist,” while Mr. Crump admitted he used the handles “Blockmover” and “Brickmover” and Mr. Thompson accepted he was “Logicaldemon.”

Defendant Denies Being ‘Notnice’

But Mr. Gottshalk denies he was the man behind the EncroChat handle “Notnice.”

Mr. Atkinson said the four defendants were obeying orders on EncroChat from two individuals who cannot be named for legal reasons but will be identified as QQ and ZZ.

The prosecutor said: “Ematuwo accepts that his EncroChat handle was ‘Randommist.’ It is of relevance to the attribution of this handle to him, and to his being identified as someone suitable to undertake the shooting that Ematuwo was convicted of manslaughter when he was 14 years old.”

Mr. Atkinson said, “Gottshalk told ZZ about this conviction, information he had no doubt gained from Ematuwo, when reporting his recruitment to undertake the hit that is the subject of the conspiracy to murder.”

“The fact that he did so underlines that this was a true conspiracy to murder someone the drugs importers had a problem with and wanted to put permanently out of business,” he added.

The prosecutor said, “The fact that the person identified by Gottshalk and accepted by ZZ to act as the shooter had a conviction for manslaughter shows what their real intentions were.”

Mr. Atkinson said an analysis of the messages between the various gang members suggested it was estimated that “in the period of the conspiracy the conspirators made approximately 50 importations of cocaine into the UK with a total weight of approximately 1,000 kilograms.”

He said, “The messages also show that once the cocaine was in the UK, it was broken into smaller parcels, of between 5 kg and 10 kg, and distributed across the UK to purchasers, who would then sell to end users.”

“According to the messages, the conspirators purchased the cocaine for about £30,000 per kilo and sold it for up to £40,000 per kilo. An analysis of the messages that discuss money and financial gain suggests that the conspirators made £60–70,000 per importation, and about £5 million in profit overall over a period of just two-and-a-half months,” he added.

The prosecution claim the gang used EncroChat because they considered they were “safe from law enforcement gaining access to what they were saying.”

“They were therefore very frank, and thus very clear, about the criminality in which they were together engaged and about which they talked. It was a serious business which they treated seriously,” added Mr. Atkinson.

‘Large-Scale Criminal Enterprise’

He said this “large-scale criminal enterprise” was run by QQ and ZZ and he said they “determined that an unnamed individual who was, like them, involved in the drug importation and distribution business, had to be killed.”

Mr. Atkinson said: “The EncroChat messages shows that Gottshalk, at the instigation of QQ and ZZ, recruited Michael Ematuwo to shoot an unnamed individual. In late May 2020 ZZ initially asked Gottshalk to find someone willing to shoot the unnamed person, in exchange for £100,000. They subsequently agreed to pay the gunman £50,000.”

In the spring of 2020 the French gendarmerie’s C3N, a specialist digital crime unit, hacked into the OHV server in Roubaix which EncroChat used.

For several months the French were able to read the encrypted messages and identify evidence that helped them to identify many of the EncroChat devices. These were then shared with Britain’s National Crime Agency and many other European law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Atkinson said a fifth man, 37-year-old Khuram Ahmed, would have been on trial but he pleaded guilty last week to being part of the conspiracy to supply cocaine.

The prosecutor said Mr. Ahmed had three children and he said: “References were made to his children in the EncroChat conversations, which assists with the attribution of his handle to him. The prosecution allege that Ahmed was the user of the EncroChat handle ‘Ibuyanything.’ Ahmed accepted this attribution when he pleaded guilty.”

The trial is set to last for several weeks.