A man is due in court later this month to face charges in connection with the sale of Class A drugs in Essex.
Matthew Hutchinson, of Talbrook, Brentwood, has been summonsed to appear at Basildon Magistrates’ Court on July 22.
The 51-year-old will face charges of conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to supply a Class B drug.
The investigation is one of those which came from Essex Police's Operation Venetic – a major operation involving the cracking of a bespoke encrypted global communication service.
EncroChat offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service with 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 in the UK.
Since 2016, international law enforcement agencies worked together to target EncroChat and agencies in France and the Netherlands infiltrated the platform.
The intelligence gleaned through this was then shared via Europol to UK law agencies.
In June 2020, EncroChat had 10,000 users in the UK alone. As a result of the infiltration, UK police has so far arrested more than 750 individuals, and intercepted more than two tonnes of drugs.
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