An EncroChat heavyweight crook was instrumental in the operation of a notorious firm and played an “integral” role in a menacing blackmail plot. Edward Jarvis, 59, a key figure in the organised crime group (OCG) led by Vincent Coggins, was involved in trafficking huge quantities of class A drugs worth millions of pounds.
Jarvis helped to orchestrate the crime gang’s huge supply of consignments of cocaine and heroin to mid-level dealers across Merseyside and the rest of the country. During his trial at Manchester Crown Court, the jury heard the gang were involved in the supply of 150kg of cocaine and 215kg of heroin during a brief conspiracy in the early months of 2020, reports the ECHO.
Along with the gang’s boss, Coggins, and co-conspirators Paul Woodford and Michael Earle, Jarvis also plotted a violent vendetta against a number of individuals who they suspected had robbed one of their drug stash houses and made off with over £1m of cocaine. But, the gang’s plans, made over the encrypted messaging platform EncroChat, were monitored by police officers after the technology was hacked in April 2020 by European law enforcement.
A series of court cases over the past four years involving members of the gang were subjected to a media blackout. Reporting restrictions on the naming of Coggins and his role in the gang were only able to be revealed after Jarvis was unanimously found guilty by a jury at Manchester Crown Court in May. Jarvis was returned to the same court this morning, Friday, October 4 to be sentenced.
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 trial heard that the Coggins operation used EncroChat phones to conduct their business and communicated on a day-to-day basis.
Conversations analysed by cops 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.
The trial previously heard 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 “enraged” 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, Brian Sr. 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. Jarvis was charged with conspiracy to murder, conspiracy with others to supply class A drugs, another count of the same offence concerning diamorphine and conspiracy to commit blackmail.
During the sentencing today, the court heard the prosecution had not entered any evidence on the conspiracy to murder charge and Jarvis was found not guilty. A jury found Jarvis, formerly of Breckside Park, Anfield, guilty on the remaining three counts after 11 hours and 42 minutes of deliberations on May 9 this year.
In mitigation, Michael Bromley-Martin KC, defending, told the court today that his client’s role “was wholly subordinate to Vincent and Francis Coggins”. In notes agreed with the prosecution, Mr Bromley-Martin said Jarvis was personally concerned in the supply of 63kg of cocaine and 17.5kg of heroin out of the conspiracy.
Mr Bromley-Martin told the court his client also played a lesser role in the blackmail conspiracy. He said: “Robert Jarvis was not involved in the issuing or the carrying out of violence. Nor was he involved in any way of the gathering of weapons…nor was there any disruption notice issued by the police at a time when the police did know that Robert Jarvis was using the ‘SoftHerb’ handle.”
He added: “It must be rare that a person is convicted of a conspiracy to commit blackmail when that person is actually a friend with one of the victims of the blackmail. Robert Jarvis was an old friend of Brian Maxwell Sr, himself no angel, who thanked Mr Jarvis for his part in the negotiations.”
The court heard today that Jarvis had a number of health issues and had been taking medication in relation to a heart and vascular condition. The court also heard that Jarvis had been in prison since his arrest in June 2020.
Turning to financial gain from the conspiracy, Mr Bromley-Martin told the court: ” During the course of the conspiracy, there was no evidence of high financial gain or high living. The flat that Mr Jarvis lived in was provided by Vincent Coggins, to make a coffee he had a coffee machine that was given to him, to buy groceries he was taken to Costco by Vincent Coggins, that was heard as part of the attribution evidence.”
The court heard Jarvis had previously been involved in a plot to smuggle 600kg of cocaine from Venezuela on a yacht. Jarvis, who then lived in a luxury gated estate in West Derby, was sentenced in 2004 to 28 years in prison.
Sentencing, The Hon. Mr Justice Dove, told Jarvis that the Huyton Firm “were at the pinnacle of the drug trade” and he was “instrumental” in its operation. Mr Justice Dove said he accepted that Vincent Coggins and his brother Francis, who is still yet to be brought to justice, were at the top of the gang but EncroChat evidence showed Jarvis played a “senior management role”.
Mr Justice Dove said Jarvis “struck deals”, “instructed couriers” and “communicated with other gangs”. He told Jarvis that he directed and was dedicated to the business’ importation of vast quantities of overseas drugs which drew “obvious parallels” with his previous conviction.
Turning to the blackmail conspiracy, the judge told Jarvis he was “integrally involved in the plan by extracting the money from the targets and facilitating through the charging of a property in Widnes that included a punitive interest imposition”. Mr Justice Dove told him: “This was a very serious offence, while no weapons or hitmen were procured it involved credible threats to kill and a substantial amount of money.”
Taking into account Jarvis’ aggravating factors and “little personal mitigation”, Mr Justice Dove sentenced Jarvis to a total of 25 years’ imprisonment, handing consecutive sentences for the drugs offences and the blackmail conspiracy. Vincent Coggins was jailed for 28 years after admitting the same charges.
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