- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
A BRADFORD man involved in a wholesale drug trafficking enterprise across the UK has been jailed for 15 years.
Faiz Rehman supplied cocaine, heroin and cannabis worth more than £4.2 million within a short period of 11 weeks in 2020, using the encrypted messaging platform Encrochat to traffic the drugs.
Bradford Crown Court heard the 37-year-old man communicated with people including a supplier in Liverpool codenamed ‘Stockygiant’ and a user known as ‘Hippocrown’.
Prosecutor Tom Storey said Rehman sold 1 kg of cocaine to another Encrochat user on April 20, 2020, and the following day, he told Stockygiant that he needed 50 kg on each delivery.
Stokygiant agreed to deliver cocaine and heroin separately to a Bradford address and a courier arrived on the afternoon of April 24.
Rehman offered to sell cocaine to Hippocrown and arranged to meet another Encrochat user near a corner shop that evening.
Stockygiant supplied more cocaine the next day, the court heard.
Rehman communicated with Lynxbasil, another Encrochat user who he had met in Dubai.
Storey said Rehman and Lynxbasil discussed the availability of handguns and “showed pictures of blocks of drugs with various logos and pictures of cash ready to exchange for drugs.”
Rehman was arrested on February 11 last year after West Yorkshire Police officers stopped a black Mercedes in which he was the passenger.
Investigators found several high-value watches and weighing scales which held traces of cocaine and heroin in his home.
He initially denied any offences but later pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring with others to supply class A drugs. He also admitted to one count of conspiracy with others to supply class B drugs.
Detective inspector Mark Atkinson said it was a complex investigation as Rehman used encrypted communications to traffic drugs across the country.
“Rehman was involved in what was a significant organised drugs line supplying Class A and B drugs”, Atkinson said.
