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These Are the Code Words Used by Top-Level Drug Traffickers

We spoke to an expert who has spent years deciphering communication between drug dealers.
encrochat drug raid

Last summer, hundreds of arrests were made across Europe after police infiltrated Encrochat, an encrypted phone company authorities said was used exclusively by the continent’s criminals and drug traffickers.

Many of those arrests are now appearing before UK Crown Courts, from Bristol to Liverpool, and the cases are far from straightforward. A sizeable proportion of defendants claim police and prosecutors are misinterpreting the intercepted conversations, with disagreements over the kinds and quantities of illicit substances imported and supplied, as well as individual levels of involvement in the operation.

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Despite persistent reports to the contrary, the vast majority of Encrochat users remained security conscious, and used heavily coded and guarded communication to discuss their business affairs. Haulage boss Thomas Maher’s drug transportation side hustle was busted when authorities came across – and later interpreted – conversations in which he asked employees to bring a few “boxes” of “tops” back from “the flat”, while others were caught after discussing their “gardening” endeavours and how much “food” they had placed in their “trolley”.

So where do prosecutors – or alleged criminals looking for a defence witness – go when they need a helping hand interpreting these seemingly-nonsensical messages?

Former Scotland Yard Detective Darrell Jones works as an independent drugs expert witness and has offered his opinion on the conversations of over 60 Encrochat “handles”, having spending three decades intercepting drug traffickers in the Caribbean; carrying out covert surveillance and listening to and interpreting international phone intercept material for The Hague; and training the Metropolitan Police’s drug experts.

I spoke to Darrell about how organised crime group members are communicating in the 21st century global marketplace; where they’re inadvertently tripping up and alerting law enforcement to their activity; and why the police don’t always get it right the first time. 

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VICE: Tell me about your job. What do you get up to?
Darrell Jones:
As an independent drugs expert witness, I offer an unbiased interpretation of the evidence against people who have been charged with drug-related offences. An average day consists of offering advice on the phone; attending court; compiling reports; examining Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) case files; considering the CPS expert’s conclusions; and potentially offering an alternative view. By going from prosecution to defence, some see my role as working for the “dark side”, but I’m actually impartial, and it’s irrelevant who instructs me. 

For the Encrochat cases, my role typically involves analysing and interpreting tens of thousands of lines of heavily coded and guarded speech to identify substances, quantities, methods of transport and likely level of involvement, as well as offering an opinion on the likely representative value of the drugs to the person in technical control of them. These factors are often contested by defendants, who may argue they sold far less than alleged, or even that they ended up making a loss due to some unforeseen issue, which would then impact on any Proceeds of Crime order made by the court.

It’s rarely a straightforward calculation, as there are countless influencing factors and principles. This means it’s paramount that defendants’ actions, communications and explanations are explained to the judge, jury and counsel by an independent expert who has worked – for the prosecution and defence – in international, national and local drug arenas for many years.

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The person in possession of the drugs is not necessarily the person at the top of the supply chain. After all, a runner caught with several kilos of class A drugs is likely to have significantly less involvement than the boss, who is unlikely to have any substances at their house, and look to distance themselves from the commodities as much as possible.

What were the cleverest phrases dealers used to disguise the nature of their communication?
Back in the 1990s, criminals used to ask if the “donkey” [transport] would carry five “loaves” [kilos] of “brown bread” [heroin] to their mate – or who was “babysitting the kids” [guarding large quantities of drugs] tonight.

Language has evolved, but the principles are still the same, and these days I see “youtes” [youngsters] talking about dropping off “the p” [cash] and “reloading” [collecting more drugs]. Scouse import bosses heading for the “hot place” [Spain] to chat “green” [cannabis] business; and street dealers referring to “G packs of ‘HB n HW’”, which are half-sized deals weighing 0.05 grams of brown heroin and 0.05 grams white crack cocaine.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a rise in the use of emojis, especially at the lower end of the supply chain. For example, it’s not difficult to work out what a horse emoji [ketamine], or the snowflake and nose emojis [cocaine] followed by “£100 a G”, represents.

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Communication has always been paramount when commodities move from one country to the next, between organised crime groups or different levels of the same supply chain. But these days, the majority of participants, from international traffickers to end-consumers, use text-based communication platforms, be it a £10 Tesco burner or a military-grade encryption-enabled handset.

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It must be hard to maintain that level of code for a sustained period of time. Where did defendants tend to trip up?
Encryption-enabled handsets are most commonly used by people higher up the supply chain, and – correspondingly – the text data obtained from such devices often identified a methodical, disciplined approach to communicating about actions, commodities, prices, countries and methods of transport, as well as the law enforcement agencies looking to intercept their activity and business model. 

However, all parties need to be exceptionally disciplined and able to remember what is what, if they’re to successfully maintain the coded and guarded communication in the longer-term. They don’t always manage this, usually with someone being added to the chat and asking: “What does that mean?”, only to be followed by another person mentioning the original meaning. 

You mention that police and prosecution findings are often challenged by defendants, but how can there be any room for ambiguity – or error – when innocent people’s lives could be at stake?
Coded and guarded communications are employed with the aim of hindering law enforcement and offering a covert aspect to the actions being carried out. I’ve seen inexperienced police experts and officers offering their opinion and interpretation of text data, [who] plainly get it wrong. They may provide incorrect opinions on abbreviations – for example, wrongly interpreting “Colo”, which is representative of Colombia; or “Boli”, which is Bolivia.

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Text message data can, and often does, identify the role of the author of the messages. The context of such message data can be missed, misunderstood or incorrectly interpreted. The context of all message threads requires consideration: they should not be interpreted in isolation, no matter how obvious they may seem.

As someone previously involved in operations at all levels, from the street to the original source, it’s taken years to build up an understanding of the many facets of the supply chain, and the many roles that people are employed to carry out. But it’s this longer-term insight that makes it possible to offer an expert opinion on what’s taken place, and whether defendants are simply getting a “drink” out of it, or if they’re actually expecting a significant financial gain. Crucially, it’s this difference in expectation that can make a vast difference – of years – in sentencing.

Across the years of offering expert testimony for the National Crime Agency, Metropolitan Police and defendants, it’s certainly become clear that the role I carry out is paramount to a fair trial. 

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What advice do you have for someone awaiting trial or sentencing on drug supply or importation charges?
It’s an occupational hazard for those involved in the illegal supply of drugs that – if caught – they may spend time at Her Majesty’s pleasure. But there are many influencing factors concerning what has taken place, from roles carried out to levels of involvement, and they all require consideration and potentially an alternative opinion to that of the prosecution expert. It’s my view that, if convicted, you should be sentenced for the correct level of involvement and role, as identified within the evidence.

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I have had significant impacts at court, with defendants turning up to a trial with bags packed, tearful families, ready to be held at Her Majesty's pleasure, only for me to have a conference with the prosecution’s drug expert and for them to reconsider their initial opinions. On receipt of my report offering an alternative opinion and conclusion, they’ve agreed with what I suggest and charges have changed from PWITS [possession with the intent to supply] to possession and no custodial sentence.

You’ve had access to tens of thousands of the drug world’s most intimate conversations, about things they never thought anyone else could read. What have you learned about organised crime bosses throughout this time?
Despite the huge sums of cash, firearms and illicit substances involved, most criminals are overwhelmingly ordinary in many ways – even those at the upper echelons of the supply chain have the same personal and family concerns as everyone else, from colicky babies to nosy neighbours and elderly parents. You find yourself relating to them when they’ve had a bad day on the school run.

But they have the added stresses, “para” [paranoia] and occupational hazards their current employment status brings. They are painfully aware of what they are doing, and know that if caught they may lose their liberty. As the old saying goes: the police only have to get lucky once; dealers, every time. 

Traffickers and dealers became nervous during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 if they noticed an unfamiliar car with an adult male sitting alone, often fearing they were under police observation. There’s the opportunity to earn huge sums of cash, but I do wonder if it’s worth the worry. It’s a stressful lifestyle, and I know some have fallen into these roles by accident. Is the earning potential worth the paranoia?