A Harwich man who was involved in a drugs gang that supplied cocaine and heroin and laundered £24million has been jailed for almost 16 years.

Iain Harper was one of eight people sentenced at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday.

The court heard the group used an encrypted  communications platform to organise and facilitate the supply of 1,000kg of cocaine, 50kg of heroin and laundering of £24m of criminal proceeds between January and September 2020.

Officers from the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU) started investigating the group that April after the encrypted EncroChat platform was taken down as part of an international law enforcement operation.

Data from the network, which was used by criminals worldwide to discuss illegal exploits, revealed the scale of the group’s criminality. 

The network ran its criminal operation from an apartment in Rutland Street, High Wycombe.

The apartment, identified by police as the 'safe house', was used to store multi-kilo quantities of cocaine, as well as to process and stockpile millions of pounds of criminal proceeds.

Harper purchased quantities of cocaine from the criminal network and arranged for their onward distribution within Essex.

The 33-year-old was found to have purchased at least 18kg from the network.

Harper, of Jubilee Close, Harwich, was sentenced to 15 years and nine months in jail after previously admitting conspiring to supply a class A drug, namely cocaine, conspiring to supply a class A drug, namely MDMA, and conspiracy to possess criminal property.

Investigating officer DC Dale Lester, of SEROCU, said: "This organised crime group operated at the highest level – with members involved in the supply of vast quantities of class A drugs across the United Kingdom. 

"While many members of the group used encrypted devices to arrange their criminal exploits, believing they would not be detected, their plans to profit from others’ misery were halted by police. 

"The impact of their crime’s filters through communities up and down the country as we know the devastating impact and widespread harm of drug use and addiction can have on people.  

"Put simply, the actions of those who supply drugs destroys many lives."