A drug supplier who used an encrypted phone to hide his identity instead unwittingly gave himself away to law enforcement after he shared photos of police officers responding to a car crash.

Michael McNally, 42, of Bootle, Merseyside, was today jailed for 17 years at Liverpool Crown Court after a joint Merseyside Police and National Crime Agency operation proved he supplied cocaine and heroin with a total street value of £18.5 million between March and June 2020.

Some of the most incriminating evidence officers found included messages McNally sent on an encrypted EncroChat phone, about police officers who were responding to a car crash outside his house.

McNally was one of countless criminals who used encrypted EncroChat phones to organise their offending. They believed the platform was impervious to law enforcement. But, in 2020 international law enforcement infiltrated the platform and could read criminals’ messages.

Among many millions of messages passed to UK law enforcement, were those from someone using the handle ‘LankyPanda’.

LankyPanda’s messages showed him arranging the supply of 200kg cocaine and around 50kg heroin.

Investigators from the specialist Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership – comprising NCA and Merseyside Police officers – meticulously examined LankyPanda’s messages to find clues as to his true identify.

In one chat with another user, LankyPanda revealed that he was delivering drugs using a “white Kangoo van” that was “on a 66 plate”.

In another exchange, LankyPanda described in detail a car accident that had occurred near his house, and shared photos of police at the scene, taken from his garden. In the messages, LankyPanda described the presence of the “heavy Ken Dodd” – rhyming slang for “plod”.

Eagle-eyed investigators spotted that the photos showed a white Kangoo van in the garden.

They also examined police incident logs to identify the car collision that had been photographed, allowing them to pinpoint McNally’s garden – where his white Kangoo van was still parked when investigators discreetly visited the location.

OCP officers arrested McNally on 13 May 2025.

The officers were assisted by Merseyside Police’s Matrix Disruption team, which tackles high-risk organised crime in the county.

When officers searched McNally’s his home they found a semi-automatic pistol in the loft with ammunition. They also recovered ammunition and approximately £23,000 cash.

On 17 June, faced with the compelling evidence gathered by investigators, McNally pleaded guilty to drugs, firearms and criminal property offences at Liverpool Crown Court.

The NCA’s Jon Hughes, from Merseyside OCP, said: “Michael McNally thought he could get away with supplying harmful drugs by hiding behind an encrypted phone and the name ‘LankyPanda’.

“OCP officers skilfully and determinedly spent hours poring through messages to piece together LankyPanda’s identity and the extent of his criminality, and it’s thanks to their hard work that McNally has been jailed.

“This operation has successfully taken a drug supplier out of the community, a dangerous weapon off the streets and cash out of the hands of criminals.”