James Thacker instructed in first case to be charged in Operation Venetic

James Thacker has been instructed by the CPS Complex Case Unit in what is understood to be the first case charged in Operation Venetic which was commenced following law enforcement agencies ability to crack into Encrochat, a highly encrypted platform used by organised criminal networks.

James has significant experience of prosecuting cases involving encrypted telephones and during 2019 successfully prosecuted Operation Labootan, a case involving an organised criminal network that distributed in excess of a tonne of high purity cocaine around the outskirts of London. Several BQ Aquarius mobile handsets were seized that ran the Encrochat platform. He was also instructed in Operation Edge in 2020 where multiple handsets were seized that also ran the Encrochat platform.

Links to news coverage can be found here:

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53263310
• https://news.sky.com/story/operation-venetic-police-catch-hundreds-suspected-of-leading-secret-criminal-lives-by-cracking-codes-12019558