Essex ‘Chadwell Cartel’ Drug Dealers Jailed for Over 25 Years
Two Essex drug dealers who ran a massive cocaine empire using the encrypted messaging app EncroChat have been locked up for a combined 25 years behind bars.
Cracking the Chadwell Cartel
Robert Smith, 37, and Ismet Salih, 33, both from Grays, Essex, were busted after a joint National Crime Agency (NCA) and Metropolitan Police operation uncovered their criminal network. Officers seized around 80 kilos of cocaine during the investigation, with a further 123 kilos linked to the pair. They had also laundered over £1.25 million in drug profits.
Smith led the gang, supplying cocaine and cannabis across Chadwell St Mary and Grays. His right-hand men were Salih and associate Lee Twigg. On EncroChat, the men called themselves the ‘Chadwell Cartel’ and dreamed of becoming as notorious as the Kray twins.
Encrypted Chats Expose Buyer-Supplier Links
Smith, known online as ‘demonfern’, sourced cocaine from a Dubai-based dealer using the aliases ‘blacknarco’ and ‘darkestnarco’. Salih and Twigg handled collection, storage, and distribution within the UK, ensuring cash payments made it back up the supply chain.
The pair exchanged over 6,000 messages about cocaine sales, tracking profits and stock orders in chilling detail.
Arrests, Seizures, and Long Sentences
Smith and Salih were arrested in September 2021. Police found three kilos of cannabis in Salih’s garden shed and evidence of an earlier grow in his loft. Smith was caught with £7,635 cash stuffed in a plastic bag inside his shorts.
Both pleaded guilty to drugs and money laundering charges at Basildon Crown Court and were sentenced on 8 March. Smith received 16-and-a-half years, Salih nine years.
Network Runners Also Face Heavy Sentences
The investigation linked other key players: Andrew Fraser and Christopher Low from Essex, Jamie Sheaves from Kent, and Adil Bakali from Wiltshire. These ‘runners’ for the supplier have collectively been jailed for 39 years.
- In October 2020, Fraser was caught at the M25 Dartford Crossing with 20 kilos of cocaine worth £1.6 million destined for Salih.
- The following month, Twigg transferred 21 kilos of cocaine, nearly £1.7 million street value, to Bakali’s car stopped at Northampton Services.
- Twigg was also found with 3.5 kilos more cocaine, plus a cannabis farm at home supplied by Sheaves, who was linked to the same Dubai dealer as Smith and Salih.
- Low was arrested with 40 kilos of cocaine valued at £3.2 million in a West London car boot and had supplied another man with five kilos.
Operation Venetic Shuts Down EncroChat Crime
This crackdown was part of Operation Venetic, the UK’s sweeping response to the 2020 EncroChat takedown targeting encrypted criminal communications.
“Robert Smith and Ismet Salih were behind a criminal network which saw vast amounts of cocaine sold in Essex and beyond,” said Andrew Tickner from the Organised Crime Partnership.
“Their dream of becoming gangsters like the Kray twins was swiftly shattered by our investigation. Instead, their reality is lengthy prison sentences.”
“Using the strong partnership between the NCA and Met Police, we will continue to pursue organised criminals fuelling the class A drug trade.”
