Library image – Canterbury Crown Court
Two drug dealers whose criminal network used the encrypted Encrochat phone system to organise deals in east Kent have been ordered to repay more than £450,000.
Ryan Nicholl and his brother Jordan Nicholl used the encrypted communications system to buy and sell large quantities of drugs from organised criminals between March and June 2020, but the group were unaware that the network had been infiltrated by police and was being actively monitored.
Following their arrest and charge, Jordan Nicholl, 35, formerly from Folkestone, was sentenced to four and a half years in June 2022 and Ryan Nicholl, 39, also formerly from Folkestone, was jailed for 16 years in September 2023.
Kent Police’s financial investigators have since continued to investigate the pair and brought applications under the Proceeds of Crime Act before Canterbury Crown Court, where Ryan Nicholl was ordered to pay back £420,618 on Friday 6 December 2024. This came after Jordan Nicholl was ordered to repay £61,382 in July this year. Failure to repay the sums will see the men given longer prison sentences.
An investigation by detectives from Kent Police linked the pair’s activity to an encrypted mobile phone after £315,000 in cash was seized following a car being stopped in Deal in May 2020 and a man from Crawley arrested.
Analysis of the messages showed the sale of more than 30 kilos of cocaine had been organised through EncroChat, with photographs of illegal substances often shared before a price was agreed. The two brothers were arrested in November 2020, when simultaneous warrants were carried out at their Folkestone addresses by Kent Police and they were charged the following day.
As part of the investigation, a 37-year-old man from Crawley was also sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment in July 2020 for acquiring criminal property.
Detective Inspector David Godfrey said:
‘The infiltration of Encrochat has allowed police to take large numbers of organised criminals off the streets, protecting the public and ensuring justice is done.
‘Whenever possible, we will work to make sure crime doesn’t pay by seizing criminal cash and assets to stop the cycle of offending such money can fund.’