French authorities cracked the highly encrypted EncroChat messaging service in 2020, leading to a number of criminals being caged in Scotland. Gangsters, drug lords, weapons dealers, and county lines runners have been rounded up after their dodgy dealings were exposed on the app.
The Record's new series
The Record's new series will explore Scotland's biggest EncroChat busts and the individuals behind the deals who believed they were untouchable.
Tony Bennett: 'Mr Nice'
Gangster Tony Bennett, who styled himself "Mr Nice," played a major role in a multi-million pound international drug smuggling operation which landed him jail time. The 36-year-old from Cumbernauld conspired with 60 other hoods from around the globe to import heroin and cocaine from South America. He then set up secret laboratories in Scotland to process drugs before selling them on to dealers across the country.
As he exchanged messages on EncroChat with underworld associates, he used the pseudonyms "Mr Nice" and "Kind Killer."
Operation Venetic
EncroChat was meant to be uncrackable, but after criminals put their trust in the devices, the code was cracked by French cops. Bennett was snared as part of Police Scotland's Operation Venetic — a sting linked to a high-tech hack of EncroChat handsets carried out by French and Dutch crimebusters. The sweep unearthed messages and images later passed on to detectives in Scotland who turned up at Bennett's door on August 18, 2021.
In one note to a mystery user known as "Insane Club," he discussed setting up a drugs lab to bulk out their haul and bring in an "extra £800,000" in wages. The High Court in Glasgow heard Bennett and the other unnamed hood lived the good life while also discussing buying cocaine and "how it could net them a profit of £2.5million."
Bennett also planned to "purchase or transfer" a Skorpion machine gun on behalf of another associate from an EncroChat user dubbed "Primemuffin." Bennett was said to have suggested a trade off for the deadly weapon, writing "the boys wanting £12k off his bill." The individual selling the gun - valued between £6,000 and £12,500 - was later prepared to swap it for 300 grams of cocaine.
The messages included Bennett revealing he would be prepared to pay £45,000 to recruit a drugs lab expert to show cronies how to bulk out the powder.
Sentencing and proceeds of crime
Prosecutors described him as an "important link in the chain" with an international cartel in Ecuador to import large quantities of Class A drugs into Scotland. Bennett was jailed in 2023 for three years and nine months after he had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of being concerned in serious organised crime between March and June 2020 at locations in Glasgow, nearby Uddingston and Cumbernauld.
Prosecutors launched a proceeds of crime action against Bennett in a bid to recover his ill gotten gains. It was agreed he made £125,000 from his life of crime.
