Heemal Vaid, 49, used the nickname Starcake to arrange for 96kg of cocaine, worth £3.6m, to be imported from Brazil over a month in 2020, and for further amounts of up to 15kg to be imported from the Netherlands every week.
The messages on encrypted messaging software EncroChat revealed that Starcake was also arranging the supply of 20kg of heroin and 1kg of cocaine in the UK.
He has been jailed for 18 years after pleading guilty to all charges following a National Crime Agency investigation.
In 2020 an international law enforcement team cracked EncroChat’s encryption and thousands of anonymous messages exchanged by Vaid were passed to the NCA.
Lead investigating officer Luke Seldon said: “As investigators painstakingly examined each of Starkcake’s messages it became clear that he was a linchpin in the criminal world.
“Starkcake had the links to drugs suppliers overseas and those selling potentially fatal substances on UK streets.
“His messages revealed he was also a professional money launderer, managing and hiding millions of pounds he and others made from crime.”
Investigators found clues to Starkcake’s real-life identity in his messages, pairing these with cell site and financial data to verify it was Vaid.
One message to Starkcake indicated that criminal cash had been paid into the account of “H Vaid”, which investigators identified as corresponding with a transaction on Vaid’s bank account.
Officers also identified that Vaid made a payment at a café in Dubai around the time Starkcake told an associate he was in the country.
Investigators gathered cell site data that showed Vaid’s movements correlated with conversations about Starkcake’s whereabouts.
In one case, data indicated Vaid was at a river near his then-home after Starkcake told an associate he was going for a riverside walk.
Investigators subsequently arrested Vaid at his home address in April 2024.
The evidence gathered by investigators was so compelling that Vaid pleaded guilty to 12 drugs and proceeds of crime charges, and a count of conspiracy to blackmail, relating to threats he made to a debtor.
Lead officer Seldon concluded: “Vaid attempted to fly under the radar by using an encrypted phone and getting others to do his bidding, but he underestimated the capability and tenacity of investigators.
“By taking a pivotal person like Vaid out of the service of organised crime groups, the NCA is disrupting the supply of the most dangerous drugs in the UK and taking the profit out of ruining lives.”
