A 49-year-old Asian drug dealer who masterminded the import and sale of cocaine and heroin worth more than £4 million has been jailed for 18 years, after National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators identified him from secret phone messages.
British Indian Heemal Vaid, of Cheam, used EncroChat – an encrypted phone service for criminals – to broker deals, unaware that in 2020, an international law enforcement team would crack EncroChat’s encryption.
Thousands of unattributed messages exchanged by Vaid under the pseudonym “Starkcake” were passed to the NCA, which led Operation Venetic – the UK’s response to the takedown of EncroChat by international colleagues.
Investigators pored through the messages, subsequently identifying that Starkcake arranged for 96 kg of cocaine, worth £3.6m, to be imported from Brazil over a month in 2020, and for further amounts of up to 15 kg to be imported from the Netherlands every week.
The messages revealed that Starkcake was also arranging the supply of 20 kg of heroin and one kg of cocaine in the UK.
Lead investigating officer Luke Seldon said: “As investigators painstakingly examined each of Starkcake’s messages, it became clear that he was a linchpin in the criminal world. Starkcake had links to drug suppliers overseas and those selling potentially fatal substances on UK streets. His messages also revealed he was a professional money launderer, managing and hiding millions of pounds that he and others made from crime.”
Investigators found clues to Starkcake’s real-life identity in his messages, pairing these with cell site and financial data to verify it was Vaid.
One message to Starkcake indicated that criminal cash had been paid into the account of “H Vaid,” which investigators identified as corresponding with a transaction on Vaid’s bank account.
Officers also identified that Vaid made a payment at a café in Dubai around the time Starkcake told an associate he was in the country.
Investigators gathered cell site data that showed Vaid’s movements correlated with conversations about Starkcake’s whereabouts.
In one case, data indicated that Vaid was at a river near his then-home after Starkcake told an associate he was going for a riverside walk. Investigators subsequently arrested Vaid at his home address in April 2024.
Evidence gathered by investigators was so compelling that Vaid pleaded guilty to 12 charges related to drugs and proceeds of crime, as well as a count of conspiracy to blackmail, relating to threats he made to a debtor.
Seldon added, “Vaid attempted to fly under the radar by using an encrypted phone and getting others to do his bidding, but he underestimated the capability and tenacity of investigators.
“By taking a pivotal person like Vaid out of the service of organised crime groups, the NCA is disrupting the supply of the most dangerous drugs in the UK and removing the profit from ruining lives.”
(PTI)
Bob Blackman MP speaks during the event