Two men have been found guilty of plotting a murder and running a drugs empire on an encrypted communications network.
James Harding, 34, and his “loyal right-hand man” Jayes Kharouti, 39, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder on Tuesday.
Harding was also convicted of conspiring with others to import cocaine, which Kharouti, from Epsom in Surrey, had admitted.
Three other members of the organised crime group had previously admitted drug offences.
The men’s criminal empire made £5m in profits from importing drugs over 10 weeks in 2020 alone.
The trial of both men was held at the Old Bailey in London amid heightened security.
The court heard they had tried to recruit a hitman to put an unnamed rival courier “permanently out of business”.
They armed him with a gun and ammunition for the “full M”, which the court was told meant a murder.
At the time, Harding, who told people he was a high-end watch sales executive, was living in luxury in Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars.
But the plot was scuppered by officers from Scotland Yard, who accessed the defendants’ discussions on EncroChat.
The force was handed the data after French police cracked the encryption code of the communications service.
‘Cannot hide’
Prosecuting, Duncan Atkinson KC, told the court the defendants used EncroChat to discuss importing a tonne of cocaine over a period of 10 weeks.
In messages on the platform, the pair discussed the robbery of a drugs courier, which became a plan to kill the courier instead.
The defendants discussed how and where the murder would take place, and the court was told that Kharouti had offered the potential hitman £100,000.
Kharouti’s boss told him the plan should involve a “double tap” shot to the head and chest.
The alleged hitman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in the early hours of 3 June 2020, but the defendants were unaware.
Harding was arrested at Geneva airport and extradited from Switzerland on 27 December 2021, while Kharouti was extradited from Turkey on 25 June last year.
Harding denied using the handle “the topsking” on the platform, and instead claimed that it belonged to an “intimate” male partner called TK.
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Detective Chief Inspector Jim Casey, who led the investigation, said the case showed “criminals cannot hide behind encrypted software”.
“We monitored their drug-dealing activity but then we saw the group discussing the contract killing of a rival. We moved fast to protect those in danger,” he added.
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Detective Inspector Driss Hayoukane, who oversaw the Metropolitan Police‘s wider EncroChat operation, said more than 500 criminals had been “successfully convicted since the EncroChat platform was cracked back in 2020”.
“This represents our commitment to combating illegal drug supply, as well as the serious violence that comes with it,” he added.
Both men were remanded into custody and will be sentenced on Thursday.
