The above was in the Daily Record yesterday.

Where are UK drug dealers ‘Thickboar‘ and ‘Octo-hand’ from?

They are cousins from Merseyside, in the Liverpool area in England. Stephen Earle (EncroChat handle “Octo-hand”) is reported as being from Huyton (one later report says Crosby). His cousin Terence Earle (“ThickBoar”) operated with him from Merseyside. They trafficked heroin and cocaine between Merseyside and Motherwell in Scotland, using EncroChat, and were later jailed after the network was cracked in Operation Venetic / Operation Joyfully.

Terence Earle was sentenced to 16½ years in April 2023. Stephen Earle fled to Portugal in 2020, was arrested in Faro in January 2024, extradited, and later sentenced to 11 years and 4 months.

Motherwell eh? That’s new to us here though Liverpool drug gangs have been everywhere for years across Scotland, bringing a plague of addiction, death other crimes. See these:

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