A former professional footballer has been jailed for nine years after police cracked his drug operation due to a remarkably simple mistake: using his old club's name as his encrypted phone password.
Francis Ventre, 63, who played as a defender for Barrow AFC, used an EncroChat device codenamed 'Dillforest' between April and June 2020 to orchestrate the supply of cocaine and ketamine worth £479,500. However, the password he chose for the phone was 'barrow', which allowed investigators to link him directly to the deals.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Ventre was involved in trafficking one kilogram of cocaine (street value £38,500) and 63 kilograms of ketamine (street value £441,000). Messages showed he arranged deliveries, sometimes handling them himself, and shared images of the drugs.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) spent months sifting through thousands of messages to identify 'Dillforest'. Senior Manager Jon Hughes stated: 'It was clear from Dillforest's messages that he was playing a leading role in the sale of cocaine and ketamine, two drugs which are extremely harmful and a terrible blight on communities.'
Investigators pieced together clues including Ventre's birth date and postcode, but the clincher was the password 'barrow', exposed in the international EncroChat operation. Ventre was arrested at his home in West Derby, Liverpool, on 25 November 2025. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, ketamine, and to convert criminal property on 10 December, receiving a nine-year sentence.
