Police seized fake Rolexes and arrested one sibling in Spain after they were identified as the EncroChat users ‘Generic Bull’ and ‘Air Ear’
Anthony Edwards(Image: Merseyside Police)
A grandad plotted with his brother to import class A drugs from the Netherlands until their secret identities were revealed. Anthony Edwards and his younger sibling Vincent traded wholesale quantities of cocaine and heroin via encrypted communications platform EncroChat.
But they have now been sentenced to decades behind bars after they were unmasked as the account holders “Air Ear” and “Generic Bull”. One of the brothers was arrested on the continent, with cash and fake Rolexes watches being seized from the other.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that Vincent Edwards was “heavily involved in the supply and distribution of cocaine and heroin”, having utilised the handle Generic Bull on the messaging services before it was infiltrated by the French police during 2020. The ECHO previously reported that the 36-year-old, of Sulgrave Close in Childwall, was locked up for 16 years and eight months at Manchester Crown Square Crown Court in October last year after being extradited back to the UK from Spain.
Alex Langhorn, prosecuting, described the elder brother as “running his own boutique operation”, in which he employed a network of couriers and was involved in cutting drugs ahead of their onward supply across the country. Anthony Edwards, who went by the username Air Ear, was meanwhile said to have “sat slightly below his brother in the hierarchy”, being responsible for “organising the distribution of drugs to various customers”.
The 41-year-old, of Silverbrook Road in Belle Vale, however “sat above” but “closer to” another conspirator, Liam McHale. Also known as “LawlessFly”, the then 34-year-old received a sentence of 11 years in November 2022.
Edwards’ messages over the course of a three-month period showed his involvement in discussions with the likes of “GeneWilder” concerning the supply of a total of 10kg of cocaine and 6kg of heroin, as well as the importation of drugs from Amsterdam and “dummy runs” for shipments. A quantity of cash and fake Rolexes were seized by officers upon his eventual arrest on June 25 last year.
He has a total of five previous convictions for 13 offences, including an appearance for assisting an offender in 2002. Daniel Jones, defending, told the court this his client’s son suffers from a “serious illness”, with his partner also battling a “life threatening illness”.
It was also heard that Edwards’ daughter has a newborn baby, with his counsel adding: “The defendant has written a letter showing some contrition and giving some explanation. Of course the defendant understands that this is down to him, but it is right that the court hears the effect that this will have on his family.”
Edwards admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for a total of for 11 years.
Judge Simon Medland KC said that users had treated EncroChat as a “trading floor for class A drugs”, adding in his sentencing remarks: “I have been working in the court for 34 years or thereabouts now, and there has barely been a day gone by in the whole of that period where I have not had to reflect on how drugs, especially class A drugs, destroy people’s lives. Class A drugs have destroyed your life as well, because you are in custody inevitably facing a very long sentence for offending of this seriousness.
“You were one of a large number of men and women who thought that they could act with impunity in terms of the supply and arrangement of class A drugs, because you were hiding behind what was reckoned to be the uncrackable EncroChat system. That is what you did by way of your business.
“During those few months, you made criminal arrangements to supply 20kg of cocaine and 6kg of heroin. These are vast amounts which would have fed the habits of many, many thousands of people.
“I accept that you were not at the top of this tree by any means. You were subordinate to your brother in terms of role. You were broadly comparable with Mr McHale, but in a somewhat elevated state to him.
“It might be that the identified amount of drugs that he was dealing was greater than yours by considerable measure, but the amounts themselves are not the end of the story. They are part of the picture, but not the whole of it.”