A drug supplier who manufactured blocks of cocaine for an organised crime group has been forced to give up more than £30,000 in illegally-earned assets.
Ged Shone-Porter was jailed for 10 years and 10 months in January 2022 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and B substances along with possession of criminal property.
A total of £14,270 cash was seized from his home in Essex following his arrest along with two luxury watches valued at a combined £15,857.
Using legislation available under the Proceeds of Crime Act, financial investigators from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate applied for the assets to be confiscated as Shone-Porter was unable to demonstrate he had obtained them lawfully.
A judge at Maidstone Crown Court agreed and the confiscation order was granted following a hearing on Wednesday 23 November 2022.
EncroChat
Shone-Porter was part of an organised network of criminals with members in Chatham and Tunbridge Wells who bought and sold drugs in vast volumes and whose crimes were facilitated by the encrypted phone platform ‘EncroChat’.
Their supply chain was dismantled when their method to secretly send messages was infiltrated by police in France and the Netherlands in 2020, before the National Crime Agency provided this data to the relevant authorities.
Shone-Porter, 26, was identified in EncroChat communications as someone who would adulterate blocks of cocaine with cutting agents and then re-press them into new kilogram blocks.
The investigation linked him to an address in Maldon, Essex, and on Wednesday 18 August 2021 he was stopped by police as he was walking nearby. When questioned he replied: ‘You probably wanna get your bin bags ready if you’re coming here mate.’
Officers entered the property and found it was being used as a drugs processing factory, spread across the utility room and garage. They discovered a press, at least 12 kilograms of cocaine – most of which had been compacted into separate kilogram blocks and stamped with logos – as well as mixing bowls, cutting agents and other drugs paraphernalia. There was also three kilograms of cannabis.
Illegal
Detective Inspector David Godfrey said: ‘Most law-abiding members of the public do not leave more than £14,000 cash lying around in their house, nor do they have two luxury watches without being able to explain how they could afford them.
‘Combined with the huge quantity of illegal drugs found inside his property, there is no doubt that Ged Shone-Porter had made his money by manufacturing and selling cocaine and cannabis.
‘His case is yet another example of how the law will always catch up with criminals in the end, and how the Proceeds of Crime Act is used to ensure offenders like him are not allowed to reap the rewards of their illegal deeds.’