Prosecutors outline case against Oxfordshire 'cocaine gang' accuseds

Richard Gray, 32, is said by prosecutors to have headed up the Oxfordshire gang through whose hands passed ‘at least’ 50kg of high purity cocaine between spring 2020 and early summer 2021. 

Together with his two couriers and one of his customers, the Witney man has already admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs. 

The drug wholesaler’s brother, Patrick Gray, 44, and the gang’s alleged Milton Keynes based customer Mohamed Ali, 50, deny involvement in the conspiracy. 

Prosecutors claim that Patrick was his brother’s second in command. Ali allegedly received kilo blocks of cocaine at a time from Richard Gray, who was seen going into the man’s home in the Beanhill area of the Buckinghamshire town.  

Opening the case for the Crown on Wednesday, prosecutor Michael Roques said the gang had bought two kilos of cocaine at a time from suppliers based in Preston and Bury, near Manchester.  

Under the username ‘CheetahSoda’, Richard Gray used heavily-encrypted mobile phone network Encrochat to communicate with suppliers ‘Famousoneisback’ and ‘Greymoon’ until the telephone system was shut down after police hacked it in mid-2020. 

He sent couriers north in hired cars to pick up the drugs and transport them back to ‘stash’ in his girlfriend’s flat in Songthrush Lane, Banbury, the court was told. 

Gray was said to have rented Lower Whitley Farm, near Farmoor Reservoir, where police later found ‘cutting agents’ used to adulterate high-quality cocaine.

He bought a Fiat Doblo van specially-adapted with a button-operated secret compartment. He set himself up with a cover courier business to explain why he was out during successive lockdowns, Mr Roques said. 

Thames Valley Police’s serious organised crime squad launched an investigation into the gang after ‘CheetahSoda’s’ Encrochat messages were passed on by the National Crime Agency. They put the gang under surveillance and installed an audio bug in the Fiat van.

The alleged gang members were arrested on May 26 last year - six days after Richard Gray was said to have set out to brother Patrick a dream of investing drugs cash into property so as to make them ‘untouchable’. Searches of the Banbury ‘stash house’ revealed 2.5kg of cocaine while Gray had £65,000 in cash at his flat, jurors were told.  

Encrypted messages

“We dodged a big f***ing bullet there,” Richard Gray was said to have told his brother, Patrick. 

The comment, allegedly made on May 17 last year, came as crime bosses across Europe were being arrested and their drugs stashes seized by the authorities after heavily-encrypted phone network Encrochat was cracked by French police.

Richard Gray was among those to use the network, sending his suppliers messagesunder the username ‘CheetahSoda’.

Jurors were told that in April and May 2020 Gray used his phone to set up deals with other Encro users ‘Famousoneisback’, ‘Johnghotti’ and ‘Greymoon’. The latter was said to have been organising his operation from behind bars.

The Encrochat network was shut down in June 2020 when its management discovered its servers had been hacked. Richard Gray’s drugs operation continued using different methods to contact dealers, prosecutor Mr Roques said.

Runs to the north

Opening the prosecution’s case, Mr Roques explained that Richard Gray sent couriers Jamie Shepherd-Smith and William White in hire cars to collect two kilos of cocaine at a time from suppliers in Preston and Bury. 

Gray was said to have mostly stayed down south, setting up the deals and communicating with his suppliers by phone while his couriers picked up the drugs.

The drugs would be stored at Gray’s mistress’s house in Banbury, the prosecution alleged.

April 24/25

Detailing how the trips north worked, Mr Roques told the court that on April 24, 2020, Richard Gray swapped messages with Encrochat user ‘Famousoneisback’ arranging for courier Shepherd-Smith to pick up two kilos of cocaine the following day. 

“What’s the earliest my driver can come tomorrow morning?” Gray was said to have asked.

“Soon as, bro. I’m an early bird,” ‘Famousoneisback’ replied.

The supplier was told that Gray’s driver didn’t have a ‘stash’ - slang for a vehicle specially converted with a compartment to stash drugs - but would have a ‘fresh’ car not known to police.

Gray was given a postcode for the meet near the Lostock Hall suburb of Preston, the court heard. 

The following day, April 25, at 8.06am Gray told ‘Famousoneisback’ that his driver hadn’t yet left. That changed eight minutes later, when the Oxfordshire dealer told the Preston supplier to expect his courier to arrive at 11.30am. 

Shepherd-Smith, driving a rented 69-plate grey Audi A3, set off down the A40, passed Wolverhampton at around 9.40am, Stoke-on-Trent at 10.17am and his phone was hitting masts near the meet site in Preston at around 11.20am, jurors were told. 

As an added layer of security, ‘Famousoneisback’ asked Gray to get his courier to say the ‘password’. 

“‘Famous’,” the supplier asked by Encro message. “Tell him to say ‘Famous’.” 

The deal complete, Shepherd-Smith headed back to his home in Brambling Cross, Abingdon, reaching it after 2pm. 

At 2.14pm, Gray confirmed to the Preston supplier: “He’s back, bro.” He received the reply: “Nice one.”

Later in the day, Gray was said to have been in contact with alleged conspirator Mohamed Ali. 

September 12, 2020

The date marked the first courier run by William White. Between September and January he was said to have conducted 13 trips north to collect cocaine for Richard Gray.

Prosecutors claimed the pattern of the trips were the same, with White meeting Gray at the latter’s home or at the stash house in Banbury before driving to Bury. 

White’s phone suggested he was in company with a supplier, named to jurors as ‘Bury 220’. He then drove back to Oxfordshire with the drugs, jurors were told.

Beaconsfield Services, off the M40 Picture: GOOGLE

‘Stand in’

Patrick Gray was said to have been his brother’s second in command.

On April 29, 2021, while Richard drove to Bury in the Fiat Doblo, Patrick allegedly met with customer Mark Hickman in Beaconsfield Services, off the M40. 

Hickman was said to have got into Patrick Gray’s VW Golf. Within two to three minutes he got out and ran back to his own Ford Ka. 

Prosecutors claimed that Hickman had called Patrick when he was unable to get hold of Richard. 

Coke with gas

May 7, 2021, was a big day, the jury heard. By nightfall, Richard Gray was said to have sold a kilo of cocaine to Mohamed Ali, taken delivery of 12 more kilos of the class A drug - and shifted eight of them.

At 10.44am that morning, Gray was recorded speaking to a man on the telephone, asking if he wanted ‘1,200’ or a kilo and confirming he’d be there in about an hour and a half.

At 11.23am, Gray was spotted getting out his white Fiat Doblo and going into his girlfriend’s flat in Banbury. He was inside for five minutes before returning to the van. 

Data from the Waze navigation app later obtained from Gray’s phone showed he’d entered the details for Ali’s home in Milton Keynes, jurors were told.

At 12.20pm, an hour and 36 minutes after his phone call, undercover officers saw Gray pull up outside Ali’s house in Chervil, Milton Keynes. He leaned into the vehicle then walked towards Ali’s home. 

Four minutes later he was back at his van carrying a white plastic bag. A surveillance officer heard a mechanical noise before Gray briefly got out of his vehicle. Mr Roques suggested to the jury that this was him placing cash payment for the drugs he’d just supplied into his Fiat’s push button-operated hide. 

On the way back to Banbury he was recorded on the police audio probe saying he had ‘150 or 155’. The numbers were said by prosecutors to be a reference to sums of £150,000 or £155,000 to buy his next consignment of cocaine. He allegedly also spoke to his brother, Patrick, saying he would need his help in about an hour

He got back to his girlfriend’s home in Songthrush Lane. 

At 1.45pm, officers saw him leave the flat with a large holdall. 

A minute later, at 1.46pm, a silver-coloured Mercedes pulled up outside the flats driven by an ‘Asian male’. 

Songthrush Road, Banbury Picture: GOOGLE

The Mercedes driver opened the boot and struggled to carry a large gas canister over to Richard Gray. In return, Gray was said to have passed over the holdall - supposedly containing cash. 

Within eight minutes he was speaking to a customer, explaining he was unwilling to break up the drugs he’d just received and instead sell them as whole kilo blocks. 

Prosecutors claim Gray then drove back to Lower Whitley Farm, where his brother helped him cut into the gas canister. 

Later, Gray was said to have spoken to a customer about the quality of the drugs - said to be ‘10 out of 10’ - and his encounter with the courier earlier that day. 

“What’s going on here,” he reported himself saying to the deliveryman after seeing the canister for the first time. “He goes ‘well, you’ve got to release the gas first, otherwise you’re going to blow the whole thing up’.” 

Gray praised the workmanship of the smugglers, explaining to his customer that the canister was rusted and you’d never have thought it contained cocaine. 

The Oxfordshire gang leader was full of admiration for the new suppliers, the court was told. “They’re giving us prices cheaper than anyone else, bruv, and they’re f***ing big [overweight blocks],” he was recorded saying. 

By 5.30pm Gray claimed he’d already sold 8kg out of the 12kg allegedly retrieved from the gas canister, the jury heard.

The hapless handover

On May 19, Richard Gray was said to have travelled to hand over £155,000 to the gang supplying him with drugs. 

Prosecutors suggested that Gray must have told the suppliers that he’d be wearing a high-visibility jacket to make it easier to identify him.

Unfortunately, the location chosen for the handover was flush with builder types - leaving the ‘cashier’ confused. 

He was said to have spoken to his brother later that day about the hapless handover. 

“Pat, Pat, Pat,” Gray was reported saying. 

“You know when I was on the phone to you I was…thinking when’s this, when’s the cashier coming. 

“He come [sic], he was stood across the road. He looked at me, yeah. He looked at me, I looked at him. He started walking alway. 

“I started looking back, I said: ‘You looking back at me?’ I’m thinking, what’s this cashier doing? Some person got in a van, just like a builder. I go, ‘come here’, and the guy comes.”

Mr Roques said: “None of that particularly evidentially interesting for us. What is evidentially interesting is he chooses to tell Pat about all of this confusion. Not a story you would choose to tell somebody unless they were involved in your drug dealing operation.”

Life of Ryan

On May 20, six days before they were arrested, the audio bug in the Fiat was said to have captured Richard Gray chatting to his brother Patrick, prosecutors claimed. 

Richard set out what Mr Roques described as ‘something of a business plan’ to his brother. 

“Before you know it, it’s me and you gonna have 10, 20 houses. Especially if we do things the right way,” he allegedly said.

The houses would be registered in others’ names meaning the police could not confiscate them, it was suggested. 

“Then it will get to the point where we are untouchable.”

He added: “B******s to them.

“I’m telling you now. We can have four 10 bar each [£4m each], f***ing easily.”

Mr Roques said Richard Gray referred to them living the ‘life of Ryan’ - misattributing the phrase ‘life of Riley’.

Arrests

Police swooped on the alleged gang members at the end of May 2021.

Found at Richard Gray’s flat in Barley Court, Witney, were more than 900g of cutting agents benzocaine and phenacetin, £65,628 in cash and the Fiat Doblo van.

At Gray’s mistress’ flat in Banbury, officers were said to have found 2.38kg of cocaine, 18g of crack cocaine and half a kilo of phenacetin.

Almost two-and-a-half kilos of cutting agent caffeine and 469g of benzocaine were discovered at Lower Whitley Farm. 

At Ali’s home in Milton Keynes, the officers found £890 in the pocket of a pair of jeans. 

All those arrested answered no comment to questions put to them in interview, the jury was told. 

Trial

Patrick Gray, 44, of Radford Close, Oxford, and Mohamed Ali, 50, of Beanhill, Milton Keynes, deny conspiracy to supply the class A drug between September 1, 2020, and May 26, 2021. 

Their trial, which is expected to last up to three weeks, continues. 

Gang leader Richard Gray, 32, of Barley Court, Curbridge, couriers William White, 35, of no fixed address, and Jamie Shepherd-Smith, 33, of Bramling Cross, Abingdon, and customer Lewis Court, 36, of Scott Close, Oxford, have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine.