A prison break, a £190m cocaine plot & money laundered through gold – two jailed in latest NCA Operation Venetic case

Two men who attempted to import multi-tonne quantities of cocaine from South America, and laundered the profits through a Hatton Garden gold merchant, have been jailed.

Matthew Byrne, 44, from Sevenoaks, and Beau Devlin, 33, from east London, were brought to justice by the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a joint National Crime Agency and Metropolitan Police Service unit.

The pair used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to discuss their offending, with Byrne using the handles ‘slickvalley’ and ‘officialcleaner’ and Devlin known as ‘scalpcleaner’.

EncroChat messages showed that the pair had attempted to import around five tons of cocaine between March 2020 and June 2020 via a number of ports in Europe including Antwerp, and the UK.

They also discussed smuggling between five and 10 tons of the drug at a time across the previous eight years.

Matthew Byrne (left) & Beau Devlin (right)

The pair had significant contacts in the criminal world – including a firearms dealer who Byrne plotted to break free from a prison van after he was arrested.

Byrne said of the plan: “I’m going to see if he want us to get him of the van mate I’ve a few bods who will do it and done it before.”

Byrne and Devlin had a detailed knowledge of cocaine smuggling routes, methods and contacts, including South American cocaine wholesalers.

They mostly used banana consignments as cover loads, creating companies to act as fronts. Byrne ordered Devlin to burn pallets that only contained bananas, and used as part of dummy runs, as they were unable to sell the fruit legitimately. There is reference to these dummy runs alone costing £300,000.

Byrne discussed the use of ‘plug cars’ or vehicles with specially constructed hides to conceal drugs and money, and communicated with a handle called ‘the plugboss’ who built these.

Byrne messaged another criminal associate to say that lorry drivers would be paid £50,000 each to smuggle 250 kilos of cocaine, but refused to reimburse their fuel costs.

Some messages showed that he and Devlin paid £3 million for one particular load of 600 kilos of cocaine, which they would have sold at a higher price in the UK.

Image of gold bars found on Matthew Byrnes phone

Byrne also traded in prohibited weapons and discussed buying Mac 11 submachine guns.

He supplied a contact called Jody Hall, who used the EncroChat handle ‘unbeatenmoose’ and arranged for a third party known as ‘The Boxer’ to inspect the firearms to confirm if they were a good investment.

Hall was arrested in July 2020 while collecting a firearm Byrne was selling via another contact, which turned out to be one which ‘The Boxer’ had inspected.

Further messages from Byrne showed he was aware of Hall’s arrest, discussing the type of police officers involved and the possibility of helping him escape by springing him from a prison van.

Hall, 51, of Carters Hill Close, Mottingham, Bromley, pleaded guilty to firearms and drugs offences and was jailed for 12 years in 2020.

Byrne and Devlin laundered their criminal profits through Chris O’Shea, who owned a jeweller in Hatton Garden and used the EncroChat handle ‘allstargin’.

Both men exchanged cash with O’Shea for clean money, gold bars and designer watches. Byrne laundered hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash at a time and bought gold for himself and others, including 10-15 at a price of around £40,000 per bar.

He tasked Devlin with transferring cash/gold to and from O’Shea. Devlin personally requested £100,000 in clean, new, £20 notes, for which he agreed to pay O’Shea 3% commission.

O’Shea, 56, of Avery Hill Road, New Eltham, pleaded guilty to money laundering and drugs offences in January 2024 and was jailed for 11 years.

Image of firearms and silencers sent by Matthew Byrne to criminal contacts

OCP officers arrested Byrne and Devlin in October 2020. At Byrne’s address they seized £20,000 in cash from a bedside drawer, correspondence showing large amounts of cash in bank accounts, designer clothing, a brand new Jaguar car and an EncroChat phone. It was also noted that he was building a house next door.

Byrne’s girlfriend’s address was also searched, where officers had to break through an expensive reinforced door. They found various other items showing signs of wealth inside the house, such as designer clothing and leaflets for villas for sale in Portugal. A taser and correspondence in Devlin’s name were found when they searched Byrne’s parents’ home.

Devlin’s then address in Weald Road, Sevenoaks, was also searched. Officers found CS spray, a surveillance bug detecting kit, around £5,000 in cash and a large number of designer items such as shoes, clothing and jewellery.

The NCA’s investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK NCA-led law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service in June 2020.

Byrne and Devlin pleaded guilty to drugs and money laundering offences at Maidstone Crown Court on 9 January this year. Firearms charges against Byrne will lie on file.

At the same court today (7 March), Byrne was sentenced to 21-and-a-half years imprisonment and Devlin to 17 years imprisonment.

Andrew Tickner, NCA Operations Manager from the OCP, said:

“Matthew Byrne and Beau Devlin were at the pinnacle of this highly sophisticated and organised criminal group.

“They were responsible for flooding the UK’s streets with enormous quantities of cocaine via their contacts for onward sale, laundering the profits via gold and expensive watches.

“They were across every stage of the drugs’ journey from South America, going to the trouble of organising dummy runs in an attempt to trick law enforcement into believing that they were running a legitimate business.

“Although Byrne’s firearms venture would have made him a useful contact to those in the criminal underworld, it’s chilling to think about the violence and intimidation these weapons would have unleashed. These are the latest in a very long line of extremely dangerous offenders brought to justice because of Operation Venetic.

“We continue to work with partners at home and abroad to target organised criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK by being at the forefront of the class A drugs and firearms supply chain.”

The Organised Crime Partnership (formerly the Middle Market Drugs Partnership) has been in operation for 20 years