'Cocaine dealer' appears in court accused of 'sourcing hitman to murder rival drug courier' and running £5m operation

29 April 2025, 20:24

Two men allegedly plotted a murder and imported cocaine worth £5 million into the UK using the encrypted EncroChat messaging platform, a court has heard.

James Harding, 34, was the “most senior player” in the drugs operation between April and June 2020, while Jayes Kharouti, 39, was his “loyal right-hand man” in the business.

It is alleged the pair also attempted to recruit a hitman to kill an unnamed individual involved in the business with a firearm in late May and early June of the same year.

Both men are charged with conspiracy to murder, while Harding is also charged with conspiring with others to import cocaine.

Opening their trial at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said the conspirators discussed making approximately 50 importations of cocaine – weighing around a tonne in total – on EncroChat over a period of 10 weeks.

He told jurors: “Each importation involves tens of kilos of cocaine.

"The messages also show that, once the cocaine was in the UK, it was broken into smaller parcels of between 5kg and 10kg, and distributed across the UK to wholesale purchasers, who would then sell to end-users.”

Harding, who was based in Dubai at the time of the alleged offences, used the handle “thetopsking” while discussing plans on EncroChat , while Kharouti has admitted using the handle “besttops” on the platform, the court heard.

The ‘besttops’ handle sent an image of Kharouti’s passport to another user on March 28 2020 to assist in arranging a flight to the UK, the court heard.

"The issue in the case of Harding is whether he was, as the prosecution contends, the user of ‘thetopsking’ handle,” Mr Atkinson said.

In messages sent on April 1 2020, “thetopsking” told other users when “lands” of cocaine were going to happen and provided them with co-ordinates to collect the drugs close to Dover, where they had entered the UK by lorry, the court heard.

Between March 23 and 29, “thetopsking” helped “besttops” to charter a private plane to the UK from Dubai following the death of his father.

An Uber booking was then made by “thetopsking” for “besttops” to the airport, with the company’s records showing that the “rider” for the journey in that car was James Harding and the booking was paid for using a Barclays credit card in the name of Harding’s father, Timothy Harding, the court heard.

The mobile number and email address used to book the charter flight for Kharouti were also used for flights booked with Emirates Airline in the name of James Harding in late 2019.

On May 6, “thetopsking” told a number of EncroChat contacts he was taking his “Mrs” to the Zuma restaurant in Dubai, and the same mobile number and email were used to reserve a table for two at the restaurant that evening in the name James Harding, the court heard.

Just over a week later, the handle asked a contact to send “50k” by telegraphic transfer to “TJ properties”.

This appeared to be a reference to TJ Property Services Ltd, a company owned by James Harding’s parents which received a payment of just under £50,000 from a Dubai-based company on June 9, Mr Atkinson told jurors.Kharouti changed his handle from “besttops” to “topsybricks” in May 2020.

The defendant was arrested on May 28 before being released on conditional bail, and on June 3 “topsybricks” discussed the exact same bail conditions imposed on Kharouti with “thetopsking”.

He and Harding continued to discuss their drugs operation on the platform after some of imports were seized by law enforcement, the court heard.

Mr Atkinson said: “Despite these seizures, the defendants and those with whom they communicated used this encrypted EncroChat because they considered that they were safe from law enforcement gaining access to what they were saying.”

Harding was “therefore very frank, and thus very clear, about the criminality in which he was engaged”, the prosecutor said.EncroChat messages between “thetopsking” and “besttops” in April 2020 discussed the robbery of a drugs courier, the court heard.

This plan developed and on May 25 Kharouti contacted an associate using the handle “brickmover”, asking for help in sourcing a bike or stolen car and a gun, specifying a Glock.Shortly afterwards, the defendant contacted another associate in the drugs operation, using the handle “notnice”, and asked him to provide a “shooter” to undertake “full M” – murder – the court heard.

Mr Atkinson said: “In other words, in late May and early June of 2020, Kharouti was discussing actual logistics for the planned murder with a number of persons trusted from the drugs operation, and serious players in that operation.”

EncroChat was a communications system which allowed users to communicate using an end-to-end encrypted messaging application, operating in a similar way to WhatsApp, the court heard.

It could only be obtained by purchasing a specific device, which normally cost between £1,200 and £1,500 and was distributed through a number of “authorised resellers”.

Messages sent using EncroChat would self-delete after seven days, but this set time could be changed by the user of the device, while all the data on the device could be wiped both by the user or remotely by the reseller, the court heard.

Jurors heard the National Crime Agency (NCA) had assessed EncroChat as being “exclusively used” by criminals.

Following an investigation started in March 2020 by France’s Gendarmerie police force and Interpol, the NCA was given access to data packages containing information on several EncroChat users, including the “besttops” handle, jurors were told.

That data was then passed to the Metropolitan Police in July that year.Data for “thetopsking” handle was captured from the EncroChat servers in France in May 2020 and stored until it was provided to the UK authorities in September 2023, the court heard.

On June 13 2020, the administrators of EncroChat sent a message to all devices which said its domain had been “seized illegally by government entities”, and advised users to “power off and physically dispose of your device immediately”.

Harding, of Dubai, and Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, both appeared in the dock on Tuesday.Kharouti has previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine, the court heard.The trial continues.