A Cowley plant worker drove cocaine and ketamine worth thousands around the country in his leased BMW.

Paul Jones had been equipped with a heavily-encrypted ‘Encrochat’ mobile phone and given the username ‘MikeSkinner’, the name of a rapper with popular group The Streets who scored a hit with debut album 'A Grand Don't Come For Free'.

On Friday, Jones became the latest member of an Oxford-based organised crime group that was responsible for supplying ‘at least 150kgs’ of cocaine around the country in 2020 to go to prison for their involvement in the network.

After racking up debts following the birth of twins and the development of a cocaine addiction, 44-year-old Jones was recommended to the gang’s lieutenants by an associate.

Seeing it as a way to make quick cash, he began acting under orders from those higher-up the chain and was sent as far afield as south Wales, Cornwall and Bury St Edmunds to supply kilos of cocaine or ketamine at a time.

Jones was responsible for handling around 18kgs of cocaine and between six and seven kilos of ketamine in about a month. 

Acting on the instructions of others, he had also broken up large quantities of cocaine – buying containers and knives from the Sainsbury’s superstore in Heyford Hill then following the step-by-step guide he had been provided with.

Prosecuting, Lisa Goddard said there was mention in the encrypted telephone messages that Jones would have received wages of around £1,000.

But Lyall Thompson, mitigating, told Oxford Crown Court on Friday (March 3): “He hadn’t got to the stage of being paid before he was arrested by the police.”

That arrest came not long after the Encrochat network was hacked by the police and, on June 13, 2020, the French-based business issued a warning message to its thousands of subscribers to physically destroy their telephones.

Jones was immediately apologetic, telling officers in interview: “I am very sorry. This will never happen again.”

Mr Thompson said the arrest had had a significant impact on his client’s life. He lost his job with BMW and his partner had left him.

Since then, he had managed to obtain further work and was in a new relationship; but had recently been hit-hard by the death of his father in law.

Knowledge that he faced a lengthy prison sentence had been hanging over his head for almost three years, his barrister added.

Jones, of Walton Well Road, Jericho, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine and conspiracy to possess criminal cash. He had no relevant previous convictions.

Jailing him for five-and-a-half years, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said: “You’ve only to sit in this court for a day or two to realise the utter misery that is caused by those who are addicted to such drugs, to those who get involved. It destroys their lives and their families’ lives.”