EncroChat 'heavyweight' helped gangland boss 'the Headmaster' blackmail dad to save son's life

A “drug supply heavyweight” who helped a powerful gangland figure nicknamed “The Headmaster” to blackmail a man in return for his son’s life was convicted.

Edward Jarvis, 59, a key figure in a Merseyside organised crime group (OCG) led by Vincent Coggins, was involved in trafficking huge quantities of class A drugs worth millions of pounds. Jarvis helped orchestrate the gang’s supply of large consignments of cocaine and heroin to mid-level dealers across Merseyside and the rest of the country.

Jarvis, along with his boss Coggins and co-conspirators Paul Woodford and Michael Earle, also plotted a violent vendetta against a number of individuals who they suspected had robbed one of the gang’s stash houses and made off with over £1m of cocaine. Little did they know that their plans, which had been made over EncroChat, were being watched by investigating police officers after the encrypted messaging platform was hacked in April 2020 by European law enforcement.

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A series of court cases heard over the past four years involving members of the OCG have been subject to a media blackout. Reporting restrictions on the naming of Coggins and his role as the head of the gang can now be revealed after Jarvis, who denied one count of conspiring with others to supply class A drugs, another count of the same offence concerning diamorphine and a conspiracy to blackmail charge, was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

At the start of the trial, which opened on March 14, Alex Leach KC, prosecuting, told the court: “In the spring and early summer of 2020, in the first months of the first lockdown, a man named Vincent Coggins sat at the head of a group of organised criminals based in Liverpool. The group was engaged in the storing and supplying of wholesale, multi-kilo quantities of cocaine and heroin.

“They sold to people across the country, as well as locally on Merseyside. As the early spring and summer wore on, Edward Jarvis played a leading role in the organisation, orchestrating the large scale supply of drugs.”

The Coggins operation used EncroChat phones to conduct their business and communicated on a day-to-day basis. Conversations analysed following the hack of the network helped law enforcement to attribute various handles to gang members involved in the conspiracies. Coggins was identified by the handle “MoonlitBoat”, while Jarvis was unmasked as “SoftHerb”.

Mr Leach told the court that analysis of the messages revealed a stack of evidence that allowed investigators to attribute the handle to Jarvis. Mr Leach said messages showed “SoftHerb” organised a birthday celebration on Sunday, April 5 with Coggins sending him a happy birthday message. The court heard Jarvis’ birthday matched up to that date.

Jarvis meanwhile sent his boss a picture of himself enjoying the sunshine in his back garden, after which Coggins replied “haha, looks like u on a beach” before making reference to his partner.

Woodford, using the handle “KingWasp”, referred to him as “Jarvo” while another handle, “MexicanNova”, referenced his daughter Bobbie and her partner who worked as a plumber. Mr Leach told the court Jarvis’ communications saw him send a postcode for his address to two EncroChat users. He told “FrostyBoom”: “I’ll wait for you in road, fat, baldy head, just drive in car park.”

Another telling interaction saw Coggins and Jarvis use their EncroChat devices to “discuss the cooking instructions for the duck they had bought” and whether it could be “cooked from frozen or not”. This matched up with information that saw Coggins’ Costco membership card used on the same day and Jarvis’ personal phone connecting to a mast covering the store.

Mr Leach told the court Jarvis and the others had no idea that EncroChat had been compromised and that police were aware of their activities. Jarvis ran the day-to-day affairs and was in communication almost daily with other criminals. Mr Leach said: "Jarvis arranged deals with buyers and directed the couriers to deliver the drugs and collect the money."

Messages attributed to Jarvis revealed him discussing the sales of “tops” (cocaine) and “botts” (heroin). The EncroChat messages showed the gang discussing international shipments and deals, while also advertising their “belter” product to buyers in Scotland, South Wales and elsewhere.

After a stash-house on Croxdale Road West, West Derby was raided and £1m of cocaine was robbed, Jarvis and other co-conspirators resolved to help Coggins to find those responsible. Mr Leach said messages revealed the group’s identification and subsequent plan to attack three men - Brian Maxwell Jr, Michael Eves and Iyobosa Igbanovia.

Police took action to disrupt and frustrate the gang’s plans and issued threat to life notices, known as Osman warnings, to the three men, as well as Maxwell’s dad. Mr Leach said: “The EncroChat messages also revealed that Brian Maxwell and his father knew where the threat was coming from, and that his father sought to resolve it peacefully by alternative means, so as to avoid the loss of his son.

“Although Brian Maxwell Jr always denied that he had been responsible for the robbery, and indeed others altogether have now been convicted of that robbery, as a result of the unwarranted menaces or threats received, his father was so afraid that his son would be killed by Coggins or people acting on his behalf, that he agreed to pay Coggins the value of the drugs - over a million pounds - in return for lifting the threat to his son’s life.”

The court heard the defendants, including Jarvis, were arrested on June 16 2020 - three days after the EncroChat hack was made public - and he answered no comment to all questions asked of him. Michael Bromley-Martin KC, representing Jarvis, said his client denied committing any of the offences on the indictment.

During his defence, Mr Bromley-Martin presented to the court that Colin Cheshire, a man who lived downstairs from Jaris, was in fact the user of the phone when criminal activities were discussed. He added Mr Cheshire allegedly allowed Jarvis to access the phone at other times, such as when he sent photos of himself and details of his birthday to Coggins.

Mr Bromley-Martin said: “If he was using the phone to tell people his birthday or pictures were sent of him sunning himself in the garden, or he was talking about his family, that would not be in furtherance of any conspiracy to supply drugs and his use of that phone would not be him using 'SoftHerb' in fourth of the conspiracies.”

However, a jury disagreed and unanimously found Jarvis, of Breckside Park, Anfield, guilty on all three counts after 11 hours and 42 minutes of deliberations. Jarvis, who wore a blue shirt, did not react as the jury delivered its verdicts.

A date for his sentencing has yet to be set.

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