One of the most wanted men in the UK has been put in jail for being in a gang that sold drugs and guns.
Dean Garforth used to live in Widnes, Cheshire. He was running away from the police for two years. They caught him in Marbella, Spain in 2022 while he was trying to escape on an e-bike.
The 31-year-old confessed to planning to sell illegal drugs and moving weapons and bullets.
He was given a prison sentence of 18 years and 8 months at Chester Crown Court.
Cheshire Police said Garforth was the leader and used the EncroChat network to talk about selling a lot of illegal drugs with other criminals.
Investigators started collecting evidence against him in April 2020, watching and studying his messages using the username Slickcliff.
The next month, a van didn’t stop when the police tried to pull it over on Bradley Way, Widnes.
It was later discovered parked in Norlands Park in Widnes.
The police found a phone that belonged to Garforth when they looked in the van.
Garforth used the device to send messages on EncroChat, but now EncroChat doesn’t work anymore.
Between March and July 2020, Garforth talked to his friends about getting and setting up lots of deliveries of drugs, guns, and bullets in the north-west of England.
Police went to his house in October 2020 with a warrant, but he had already gone to Spain, they said.
In January 2022, he was on a list of 12 wanted people in the UK who are thought to be hiding in Spain.
Garforth was riding an electric bike on a road in Marbella when he got arrested in a planned operation in October 2022 and was later sent back to the UK.
Detective Chief Inspector Nick Henderson said that Garforth, like many other criminals, thought that EncroChat was a safe and secure way to send messages without getting caught.
“He didn’t know it, but our detectives were watching. ”
The locked device used to be seen as a secure way to talk about crime without getting caught by the police. Once the police figured it out, it meant that people using it would have a hard time denying that they were involved in serious crime.
Tag: Chester Crown Court
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One of the most wanted fugitives in UK detained
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Mendy: “Alhamdulillah” man of few words after trial verdict
Following his acquittal of the remaining charges in his rape case, French international footballer Benjamin Mendy expressed his gratitude by saying “Alhamdulillah” (Thank God) in an interview with SkySports.
The jury, consisting of six men and six women at Chester Crown Court, took three hours to reach the verdict.
Mendy faced a retrial for one count of rape and one count of attempted rape involving two women, with incidents alleged to have occurred in October 2018 and October 2020.
These two charges were the final ones out of the total of 10 counts, as he had been found not guilty of eight counts in September of the previous year.
The jury’s inability to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining two charges necessitated a retrial.
The 28-year-old has now been cleared of all the charges.
Benjamin Mendy was released by Manchester City after his contract ended in June 2023 after he was suspended after his arrest in 2021.
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Man City to let go off Benjamin Mendy rape as retrial brew
Manchester City has made the announcement that Benjamin Mendy will be released from the club as his contract expires at the end of the month.
This decision coincides with the upcoming retrial for Mendy regarding rape charges.
The 28-year-old player joined Manchester City from Monaco in 2017, setting a record-breaking transfer fee of £52 million.
However, he has been absent from the team’s lineup for almost two years.
The footballer was first arrested in November 2020 and was later suspended by the club in August 2021 following charges of rape and sexual assault against several women.
During a five-month trial at Chester Crown Court earlier this year, Mendy maintained that all sexual encounters he had were consensual, denying the allegations made against him.
In February, he was unanimously cleared of six counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. However, the jury was unable to reach verdicts on one count of rape and one count of attempted rape, leading to a retrial.
Mendy’s co-defendant, Louis Saha Matturie, was found not guilty of three charges of rape, but the jury was unable to reach verdicts on six other counts against him. Those charges will be retried in September.
In response to the outcome of the first trial, Manchester City released a statement stating that, due to ongoing legal matters, the club could not provide further comment at this time.