Kane Omar used the encrypted network to carry out his drugs trade remotely while living in sunny Spain
19:56, 24 Jan 2026Updated 19:58, 24 Jan 2026
Kane Omar(Image: Merseyside Police)
A drug dealer used the Encrochat handle “Shallow Zoo” to buy and sell heroin, cocaine and cannabis on a vast commercial scale in the North West while living in sunny Spain. Kane Omar, 28, used the encrypted network to carry out his drug dealing operation remotely.
After “his past caught up with him“, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs in relation to his use of the Encrochat phone and was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court in 2024.
Omar had admitted utilising this username in order to broker deals for heroin, cocaine and cannabis, but claimed the account was “shared” with other criminals who were supposedly responsible for the trade of firearms documented on the device.
Ben Jones, prosecuting, described how deals discussed on the handle amounted to the trade of 12kg of cocaine, 3kg of heroin and half a kilo of cannabis. But the defence counsel maintained that Omar had only been responsible for 4.5kg of cocaine, 0.5kg of heroin and 1.5kg of cannabis.
Daniel Jones, appearing on his behalf, said: “When he returned from Spain, he did get useful employment. He was a useful and valued employee. He had been working in proper, non-criminal employment. In short, this drug dealing happened while he was away in 2020.
“He himself has said I can be useful. I want to be useful, I want to look after my family. He seems to have done that, but his past has caught up with him.”
Omar has been a regular face in the ECHO over a decade of criminality. He first featured in the paper as one of 20 teenage gang members handed anti-social behaviour orders in April 2014 after “terrorising the streets of Toxteth“. It came after their “yobbish behaviour brought a flood of complaints from residents and businesses” in the Lodge Lane and Granby Street areas.
His name became more infamous within the south of the city in the following years. He was accused of a stabbing on Queens Drive, was the victim of a shooting which left him in a wheelchair, and was linked to the murder of Yusuk Sonko after a teenager accused of committing the fatal shooting was also charged with wounding Omar.
When EncroChat was hacked by authorities in early 2020, Omar was in Malaga, Spain, directing the supply of class A and B drugs via the handle “ShallowZoo”.
Upon his return to Merseyside he was said to have found “useful employment” in a “proper, non-criminal employment”. However, he was arrested in connection with the EncroChat offences and went on trial in January 2024 for allegedly directing the trafficking of drugs and firearms after he was alleged to have been pictured beside a handgun.
He was cleared of the firearms charge however, as he told the court he had “never dealt in firearms” and “only ever used the phone to deal drugs or collect money”.
Kane Omar aged 20, 22, 25, and 28(Image: )
His arrest also led to the capture of dodgy court officer Alexandra Power, who abused her position as an administrator at South Sefton Magistrates’ Court in Bootle to inform her drug dealer about a series of specialist raids targeting serious crime. Her dealer in turn send this information to Omar.
She appeared at Manchester Crown Court yesterday, Friday (January 23), where she was sentenced to two years in prison.
Omar, 28, of Alfred Street in Wavertree, was said to have become involved in Encrochat dealing after travelling to Spain in February 2020.
In one chat with fellow user “LeadFern”, he stated his girlfriend was the daughter of fellow user “IndelibleOsprey”, AKA Joseph Morley, who admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and cannabis in relation to his activities using this handle and was later locked up for 12 years. During his trial, he named Morley as “me bird’s pops”.
Other users were meanwhile said to have stored the Shallow Zoo handle in their phones under the names “Kane” or “KL8” – the latter of which matched his Snapchat username, this being a reference to the postcode of his previous home of Toxteth.
Mr Jones said it was accepted by the prosecution that the account had been used by Omar’s “close associate” Rhys Nze on two “very limited” occasions, but said that he had identified himself by his nickname “Rugz” or “Ruggez” during these messages. Both men were said to have been located in Malaga.
Omar said: “When we first went over it was just a rented apartment, then we took a long-term tenancy out where we rented the apartment for six months. Once that ran out we got a new apartment and carried the tenancy on.”
When asked whether he “knew other people out there”, he replied: “Yeah, there was quite a few people that we knew. Lots of Liverpool people over there that we all knew. I had money saved up. I went over there with the money I had saved up, paid for my apartment and stuff.
“Obviously money started running out. Probably after coming to the end of March or April.”
Omar claimed he “started selling drugs” after this, saying “there was bits of drugs over there, and obviously at home I was selling drugs”.
Of the Shallow Zoo handle, he said: “There were others using the phone. The phone was based in the flat in Marbella where we were all living basically. Not in the flat I was living, where everyone was living over there.
“I lived with my girlfriend and children. The flat was where everyone used to hang around and smoke weed, there was like four to five people that lived in the apartment.”
Omar showed no reaction as he learned his sentence, with Judge Stuart Driver KC telling him: “You have accepted dealing approximately 5kg of class A drugs. You certainly played a leading role.
“Your messages showed you organising, buying and selling on a commercial scale and directing others – with references to your workers. Your activity was part of a broader conspiracy.
“You bear some liability for the harm caused by the conspiracy as a whole, which involved quantities more than double that. It is aggravated by the use of a sophisticated EncroChat phone in order to avoid detection and your previous conviction for possession of a class B drug with intent to supply.”