Encrypted Chats Crush £1.5 Million Drug Empire
A West Walton drug dealer has been slammed with a 12-year jail term after police cracked encrypted chats that exposed a massive £1.5 million cocaine and cannabis racket.
Ricky Peppercorn, 36, from Salts Road, West Walton, was caught red-handed in a conspiracy to supply vast quantities of cocaine and cannabis. He also refused to hand over the PIN on a seized phone, landing him in even deeper trouble at King’s Lynn Crown Court.
Encrypted App EncroChat Betrays Kingpin
EncroChat, once the encrypted messaging app favoured by criminals for its promise of total secrecy, became Peppercorn’s downfall. The app wiped messages instantly and erased devices if tampered with.
But police hacked EncroChat in 2020, exposing thousands of criminal chats across Europe. Norfolk cops traced messages sent by the user ‘nextbush’ directly to Peppercorn, revealing his role as a drug mastermind operating across Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
Lockdown Drug Runs and Phone Fail Fiasco
- Peppercorn moved at least 14 kilos of cocaine – worth around £1.4 million on the streets – plus 9 kilos of cannabis valued at up to £90,000 between March and June 2020.
- He carried out these lockdown drug runs between West Walton, Wisbech, and Peterborough amid COVID-19 restrictions.
- On 3 June 2021, police raided his home. Peppercorn smashed his phone and tried flushing SIM cards down the toilet — but officers recovered them all.
- Fags of cocaine were also found stashed in his kitchen cupboard.
Despite a trial delay due to illness, jurors found Peppercorn guilty last September.
Serious Crime Unit Vows to Shut Down Drug Lords
“Like many criminals who had used EncroChat for their illicit dealings, Ricky Peppercorn thought he was invisible. He felt safe coordinating huge drug deals. Little did he know, we were reading his every move. Today’s sentence sends a clear message: we will relentlessly hunt down those profiting from drugs and the damage they cause. We will use every tool to dismantle serious organised crime,” declared Stephen Dodd from Norfolk’s Serious Organised Crime Unit.
