Over £400,000 of suspected criminal cash has been seized in police raids of a Wembley and Islington flat this week thanks to an Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) encrypted comms investigation.

Investigators from the OCP, a joint NCA and Metropolitan Police Service unit, uncovered a drug supply network believed to be running their business over the encrypted comms platform EncroChat.

Through analysing thousands of EncroChat messages referencing the movement of vast sums of cocaine and money throughout the UK, they gained enough intel to conduct a raid on Wednesday 26 May and seized over £400,000 in cash at a Wembley and an Islington flat, roughly £200,000 in each.

This cash was packaged up and taped in block shapes, some in £20 notes and some in £50 notes, the National Crime Agency sharing pictures of the money found in drawers next to what looks like jewellery boxes. 

Albanian Nationals Altjon Gjoni, 38, and Bejar Cozminca, 30, were arrested and have since been charged with drug supply and money laundering offences appearing at a Highbury Corner Magistrate on Wednesday and are due to next appear at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 23 June.

EncroChat was one of the largest providers of encrypted communications and offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service until in a massive breakthrough an international law enforcement team cracked the company’s encryption last summer.