A man from Colchester has been jailed alongside a gangster rapper (who performed on BBC Radio 1Xtra) for running a huge heroin and cocaine dealing empire.
The rapper Rayal Eastwood, aka 'Champaz', used the encrypted EncroChat network to set up drug deals across Birmingham and London before spending the money on flash motors.
The 38-year-old portrayed himself on social media as a singer, rapper, and producer who creates 'some of the most controversial lyrics in dancehall scenery'.
He even boasted of working alongside Maxim from dance music legends The Prodigy to produce his debut single in 2018.
But in the reality, he was making money from running a large-scale drug dealing enterprise alongside 41-year-old Zadengel Raphael, from Colchester, and Dakarai Thomas, 37.
A court heard the trio used the phone messaging which they believed offered under-the-radar conversations police couldn’t trace.
But law enforcement agencies in Europe had developed a technique to infiltrate EncroChat and information was passed on to West Midlands Police.
Detectives found Eastwood and Thomas were using the handles 'Moralracer' and 'Regentcliff' discussing moving large quantities of heroin and cocaine.
In the messages they made arrangements to supply between £37,000 and £40,000 worth of drugs to other EncroChat users in London and the South East.
Eastwood was arrested on July 15 last year at his home address in Oxhill Road, Handsworth, Birmingham.
Police seized £53,950 in cash alongside his Audi A5 Quattro and a BMW X6.
Officers also recovered images on his phone of him posing at BBC Radio Xtra studios and information implicating Raphael in the drugs conspiracy.
Raphael was arrested on October 6 from his home in Colchester.
Police recovered £6,000 in cash plus bank statements showing the purchase of a boat and other sizeable money transfers.
Thomas was detained on November 4 from his home in Gannahs Farm Close, Sutton Coldfield, West Mids.
He tried destroying his phones as officers forced entry to his property but they were recovered and shown to be the same phones used by “Regentcliff”.
Officers also seized a gold Rolex watch valued at £14,000.
All three went on to admit conspiracy to supply drugs between December 2017 and July 2020 and today they were jailed for a combined total of 32 years.
Eastwood was jailed for 16 years, Raphael was put behind bars for 10 years and Thomas was given six years and nine months in prison at Birmingham Crown Court.
Detective Constable Daniel Wilson, from West Midlands Police, said: “These were very significant players pumping large quantities of Class A drugs into our communities and causing untold harm and misery.
“They thought their drug dealing was beyond the reach of police but they’ve found to their cost that wasn’t the case – and they’ve rightly been handed long jail terms.
“We’ve seized significant amounts of cash and property and will be seeking to permanently strip the offenders of those assets through the Proceeds of Crime Act.”
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