Three drug dealers who discussed trading military grade weapons have been jailed for 75 years in total.

Carl Ian Jones, 59, Harly Wise, 29, and Naginder Gill, 47, used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to plot a range of firearms and drugs offences.

Today (Thursday) at Bolton Crown Court, Jones was jailed for 30 years, Wise for 25 years and Gill for 20 years.

EncroChat was taken down in 2020 and the NCA led Operation Venetic – the UK’s law enforcement response to the threat posed by the platform.

The EncroChat evidence revealed how dangerous the offenders were.

Jones tried to broker a deal with other offenders over an AR15 assault rifle complete with 50 7.62mm bullets.

He also asked a contact to store some guns he had hidden in a property he owned in Mallorca because his girlfriend was “going mad”. He and Wise also discussed trading firearms including AK47s and an Uzi submachine gun.

In May 2020, Wise brokered the sale of two 9mm handguns and 50 bullets to an EncroChat contact and agreed an exchange near Eltham, south London. Two men were later sentenced 12 years and six years in relation to this.

NCA investigators waded through thousands of lines of data for both Jones and Wise relating to the daily movement of Class A and B drugs. Both men operated as facilitators, moving drugs to contacts for more money than they paid for them.

Jones, of Heath Court, Hale, Greater Manchester, used the EncroChat handle ‘stalehead’. He was convicted at trial of a range of drugs and a firearms charges.

Wise, of Wyndham Road, Ealing, London admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, cannabis, methylamphetamine and conspiracy to transfer prohibited weapons.

Gill, of Seymour Road, Oldbury, West Midlands, used the handle ‘indianocean’ and admitted conspiring to supply a range of drugs.

Wise, who used the EncroChat handles ‘bluffcheatah’ and ‘hungrykiller’, also admitted conspiring to kidnap. He discussed snatching a rival drug dealer from Birmingham over a £350,000 debt and suggested “the paddys” would help.

Wise wrote of the intended victim, that he: “can sleep mate u understand what I mean if u want”, and he attended a meeting in Greenwich Park in London to discuss kidnap plans.

NCA branch commander Jon Hughes said: “These men are extremely dangerous offenders and the streets are safer now they’re in prison.

“We’ve seen in recent years that entirely innocent victims can be tragically caught in the crossfire of feuding organised crime groups.

“Drugs and firearms crimes are often interconnected. The NCA will continue to work with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from these threats.”