Watch: Gun and drug dealer who 'bragged' about his cash and supplies is jailed for over 18 years

Asrar Rafiq has been jailed for more than 18 years following an international operation which smashed the "notorious" EncroChat messaging service used by organised criminals.

The 35-year-old used the network to brag about his hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash which he obtained through drug deals, and shared a list of guns including AK-47s and Uzis which he told people he could secure for them.

Rafiq was one of 12 people given a gang injunction in 2014 after being described as a leading member of a Bordesley Green gang.

But Rafiq didn't stop, and another major investigation found that he used 13 different phone numbers to avoid being caught. 

CCTV showed him using the phones while working out at a gym.

Police say he was caught following the takedown of EncroChat - an encrypted global communication service used exclusively by criminals on mobile phones. 

The app allowed criminals to message each other in a secure chat, with the sole use of planning drug smuggling, money laundering and kill plots. 

But in 2020, the app was cracked by a joint international law enforcement operation involving agencies in France and the Netherlands.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) in the UK, along with other European agencies, played a key role in analysng the intercepted data resulting in thousands of arrests.

The NCA and police would monitor the criminals' every move. 

Rafiq was one of the users of the app and went by the name ‘Wisehorse’.

He would have conversations, which he thought were secret, with other serious criminals to arrange the supply of multi-kilogram amounts of heroin and cocaine.

He was arrested in an operation involving firearms officers in June 2020 at a property in Aston.

Rafiq claimed that he was being maliciously targeted by police due to his association with other criminals, but he eventually pleaded guilty to encouraging or assisting with the sourcing, advertising and sale of prohibited weapons and ammunition, and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin.

Rafiq, of no fixed address, was jailed for 18 years and six months at Birmingham Crown Court last Thursday (May 8), and was sentenced on the basis that he had or supplied 28kg of heroin and cocaine during a short period of just three months.

DCI Peter Cooke said: “Rafiq tried to claim the messages were just bravado and that he was trying to big himself up to other drug dealers.

“The claim was described as ‘fanciful’.

“He was clearly a significant player in the criminal underworld of firearms and drug dealing, which causes so much misery on the streets of the West Midlands and beyond.

“This result shows that while Operation Venetic was launched five years ago, the fallout for those involved in serious and organised crime continues to this day.”