A Colchester man has been charged as part of an investigation into the sale of drugs via a mobile phone application.
Ian Harper, of East Ward Mews, was originally arrested in March as part of an investigation into the sale of drugs on the EncroChat messaging service in the north of Essex.
He has since been charged with conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Harper, 30, was remanded in custody and was due to appear at Wycombe Magistrates' Court on June 14, and is next due to appear at a later date.
The investigation is being linked to Op Venetic, a major operation involving the cracking of a bespoke encrypted global communication service.
The now defunct EncroChat was targeted by agencies in France and the Netherlands to combat suspected organised crime groups, with data later shared via Europol.
It had around 10,000 UK users before it ceased operations in 2020.
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