‘Drugs king pin’ who was caught with £160,000 stuffed in his bag is jailed

A ‘drugs king pin’ whose messages were intercepted as part of massive international police operation has been jailed.

Samuel De Vere-Hunt, 30, had laundered more than £6 million in cash and supplied hundreds of kilos MDMA, ketamine and cannabis in London, Kingston Crown Court heard.

He was sentenced to 12 years at a hearing on Friday having earlier pleaded guilty to 12 counts of supplying drugs and possessing criminal property.

Detectives trawled through thousands of messages between him and criminal associates on EncroChat – a telecoms system criminals believed to be secure.

But the system was found to have weaknesses which police across Europe managed to exploit and stuck would eventually lead to the jailing of hundreds of criminals such as De Vere-Hunt.

He used the handles ‘Modernfeet’ and ‘Immaculatetractor’ on EncroChat and was seen to move millions of pounds of cash and multi kilo amounts of ketamine and cannabis to be sold on the streets of London.

His secret location in Kelvedon Hatch, a quaint Essex village where he lived an affluent life with his girlfriend Rosie Wise, 25, was uncovered by police through their online footprint which included take away deliveries to the address.

Their home was on a street where the average property price exceeds £2 million. However, while they were openly wealthy, they lived an otherwise unremarkable life in public while running a huge criminal operation in private.

Wise was given a suspended 21 month prison sentence for supply drugs and possessing criminal property as De Vere’s accomplice.

De Vere-Hunt, described by police as a ‘drugs king pin’, had checked in for a flight out of the UK as police planned his arrest, the court heard. Officers raided his home on January 9 2025.

They found a haul of drugs and cash including 15kg of ketamine, 12kg of cannabis and over 6kg of Class A drugs made up of MDMA.

More than £179,000 cash was also found throughout the property and was seized.

De Vere-Hunt was arrested by officers as he walked out of his address with two boxes containing £160,000 in criminal cash in a carrier bag.

Analysis of his phone messages showed that between September 2024 and January 2025 he had moved £2.8 million in cash and supplied over a quarter of a tonne of ketamine and cannabis. The street value of the drugs was £6 million.

PC Bob Rosie, who led the Met operation, said finding De-Vere who had a series of code names and aliases had taken painstaking detective work.

He said: ‘Investigating De Vere-Hunt was like finding a needle in a haystack. He has been brought to justice today thanks to thorough detective work which was able to identify him as the owner of two Encrochat handles.

‘This ultimately lead us to his house in Essex where he had over 33kg of Class A and B drugs.

‘This investigation shows the Met’s relentless pursuit of organised crime and displays a key data-led approach to tackling offenders. Criminals should be in no doubt that we will identify them, track them and bring them before the courts.’

He said tearing apart criminal networks, such as the one run by De-Vere, was reducing violence on the capital’s streets where the murder level last year was the lowest for a decade.

He added: ‘Our work dismantling networks like this directly reduces the serious violence and exploitation that drug supply fuels on the streets of London – with a number of other offenders having been identified through this investigation and put before the courts. Every seizure, every arrest and every conviction undoubtedly makes London safer.’

Last year the Met reported a 63% rise on the in drug, cash and weapons seizures seizures and  charge and prosecution of criminals in organised crime groups.

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