James Harding enjoyed lavish five-star hotels and drove Bugatti sports cars before their plot came crashing down
A pair of drug kingpins made £5 million in just ten weeks by smuggling cocaine to the UK and plotted to murder a rival courier using a hitman to put them ‘permanently out of business’.
In one of the largest EncroChat investigations in history, James Harding, 34, and his ‘loyal right-hand man’ Jayes Kharouti, 39, ran a vast criminal empire which made £5 million in profits from importing drugs over 10 weeks in 2020.
They also tried to recruit a hitman to put an unnamed rival courier, arming him with a gun and ammunition for the ‘full M’ – a murder, the Old Bailey court was told.
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At the time, Harding, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, was living in luxury in Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars.
Their plot then came crashing down following an investigation from Scotland Yard officers, who had accessed the defendants’ discussions on EncroChat and trawled through thousands of messages.
They were handed the data after French police smashed the encryption code to the service favoured by the criminal underworld. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the trial the defendants discussed on EncroChat importing a tonne of cocaine over a period of 10 weeks.
Harding used the nickname ‘thetopsking’ while Kharouti went by the handle ‘besttops’ and ‘topsybricks’, the prosecution alleged.
The court was told how, in EncroChat messages, the pair discussed the robbery of a drugs courier and Kharouti reported back on whether six or seven kilograms of cocaine had been delivered to a client the day before.
Mr Atkinson said it was Harding who first raised the idea of a ‘cryp robbery’ – taking drugs from a courier – which became a plan to kill a courier instead. The defendants discussed how and where the murder would take place, with Kharouti offering the potential hitman £100,000, the court was told.
Kharouti kept his boss informed about the plan who told him it should involve a ‘double tap’ shot to the head and chest. Despite a delay over transport for the hitman, the defendants worked on alternative solutions even arranging the shooting near to the proposed gunman’s home.
Kharouti increased the offer to £120,000 but an EncroChat user trying to locate an individual for him said the price should be no less than £200,000, the court was told.
The alleged hitman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in the early hours of June 3 2020, which the defendants were unaware of.
Harding, who had previous convictions for drugs and false documents, was arrested at Geneva airport in Switzerland on December 27 2021 and extradited from Switzerland. Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK on June 25 last year.
Giving evidence, Harding denied using the handle ‘the topsking’, saying it belonged to an ‘intimate’ male partner called TK, who he refused to identify. The case formed part of a wider operation targeting criminals who used EncroChat.
Their Old Bailey trial was held amid heightened security, with an armed police escort to and from the central London court and prison.
On Tuesday (June 24), they were found guilty of conspiracy to murder while Harding was also convicted of conspiring with others to import cocaine, which Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, had admitted. They were remanded into custody to be sentenced on Thursday of this week.
Judge Anthony Leonard KC warned the defendants they faced ‘substantial’ jail sentences. Three other members of the organised crime group had previously admitted drugs offences.
Detective Chief Inspector Jim Casey, who led the investigation, said: “This conviction sends a clear message: no matter how sophisticated the methods, criminals cannot hide behind encrypted software.
“This operation dismantled a major supply chain and is a testament to the relentless work of our officers.
“We monitored their drug-dealing activity but then we saw the group discussing the contract killing of a rival. We moved fast to protect those in danger. Harding and Kharouti planned to kill, we stopped that and put them before the courts.”
Detective Inspector Driss Hayoukane, who oversaw the Met’s EncroChat operation, said: “Thanks to the tenacity and commitment from Met officers, over 500 criminals have been successfully convicted since the EncroChat platform was cracked back in 2020, leading to well over 5,000 years of sentences being handed down to those involved.
“This represents our commitment to combating illegal drug supply, as well as the serious violence that comes with it.
“Our work doesn’t stop here – we will continue to pursue those who profit from bringing harm to our communities and will continue to deliver our mission of reducing crime.”
Previously, Calvin Crump, 29, of Redhill, Surrey; Khuram Ahmed, 38, of Slough; and Peter Thompson, 61 of south-west London, had admitted the cocaine conspiracy charge with Thompson also pleaded guilty to possession a pistol. A man alleged to have been the proposed hitman was cleared.