Indian-origin man sentenced to 20 years in UK firearms and drugs conspiracy

Three men sat in a courtroom in Bolton, in the industrial north-west of England, and heard the judge tell them they would spend the next two to three decades in prison. Naginder Gill, forty-seven, from the West Midlands, received twenty years. Carl Ian Jones, fifty-nine, from Greater Manchester, got thirty. Harly Wise, twenty-nine, was sentenced to twenty-five. The crime that brought them there was not impulsive or small. It was methodical, encrypted, and it involved the movement of military weapons and drugs across the country.

The three had operated on EncroChat, a platform designed to be invisible—encrypted communications that criminals believed were untraceable. Gill used the handle "indianocean." Jones called himself "stalehead." Wise cycled between "bluffcheatah" and "hungrykiller." On this platform, they discussed the trafficking of serious weapons. Jones had tried to arrange a deal for an AR15 assault rifle and fifty rounds of 7.62mm ammunition. He had also asked someone to store firearms he had hidden at a property in Mallorca, complaining to his contacts that his girlfriend was upset about the arrangement. Jones and Wise talked about moving AK47 rifles and an Uzi submachine gun. In May 2020, Wise arranged to sell two 9mm handguns and fifty rounds of ammunition to someone he knew through EncroChat, planning to complete the exchange near Eltham in south London. Two other men involved in that transaction were later sentenced to twelve and six years respectively.

But the weapons were only part of what they were doing. Investigators at the National Crime Agency analyzed thousands of lines of EncroChat data and found evidence of something equally systematic: the movement of Class A and Class B drugs. Jones and Wise were not just users—they were facilitators, people who transported drugs to customers and took their cut from the difference between what they paid and what they sold it for. Gill admitted to conspiring to supply a range of drugs. Wise later admitted to conspiracy to supply cocaine, cannabis, and methylamphetamine, as well as conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons. He also admitted to conspiring to kidnap.

The investigation that exposed them was called Operation Venetic, an NCA-led effort that dismantled EncroChat itself in 2020. The operation showed how thoroughly law enforcement had penetrated what criminals thought was their safest channel. Jon Hughes, the branch commander at the National Crime Agency, said after sentencing that the three men were "extremely dangerous offenders" and that the streets were safer now that they were locked away. The court heard the evidence. The judge agreed. And on Thursday, at Bolton Crown Court, the sentences were handed down.