{"id":307450,"date":"2025-07-31T20:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307450\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T20:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T20:27:11","slug":"liverpool-drugs-supplier-jailed-after-being-identified-from-messages-about-musician-father-birkenhead-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307450\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool drugs supplier jailed after being identified from messages about musician father \u2013 Birkenhead News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A man trusted to broker multi-million pound drug deals for organised criminals has been jailed for more than 10 years after a team of specialist investigators identified him from messages about his musician father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An associate sent Thomas Hooton, 30, a picture of his father Peter \u2013 lead singer with The Farm \u2013 and made comments that linked Thomas to his father.<\/p>\n

Hooton, of Victoria Road West, Crosby, Liverpool, used the handle \u2018Ownraptor\u2019 on the encrypted messaging service EncroChat to deal drugs with a wholesale value of around \u00a31.3m.<\/p>\n

Officers from Merseyside\u2019s Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) arrested Hooton in April this year and he subsequently pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine, cannabis and ketamine.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to 10 years and eight months imprisonment at the same court on Friday, 25 July.<\/p>\n

Officers pieced together Hooton\u2019s identity from clues contained in Ownraptor\u2019s messages.<\/p>\n

They included a picture he sent of his father with the Champions League trophy.<\/p>\n

Ownraptor also spoke in the messages about driving a Black Audi A3 and that his \u201carl fella\u2019\u201d arranged his insurance for him. Official checks showed Peter Hooton insured a black Audi A3 for his son Thomas.<\/p>\n

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Hooton had 41 different handle names in his EncroChat contacts, and he had a County Lines drug supply to criminals in Scotland, the north east and the south of England.<\/p>\n

At the very minimum, Hooton was involved in the supply of 42.5kg of cannabis, 3.25kg of heroin, 10 kg of cocaine and 1kg of ketamine. His messages said he was in possession of around \u00a3400,000 and owed \u00a3258,000. The offending was committed between 26 March and 4 June 2020.<\/p>\n

The Merseyside OCP is made up of officers from the National Crime Agency and Merseyside Police.<\/p>\n

Detective Chief Inspector Lynsay Armbruster said,<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s clear Hooton was involved in organised crime for a long time before he was charged.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis criminal and geographical reach will have taken considerable time to establish. His drug supply operations were on an almost daily basis, they were sustained and spanned the UK, working with high-level criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n

EncroChat was infiltrated and taken down in 2020 by a European task force. The NCA leads Operation Venetic \u2013 the UK\u2019s response to the takedown.<\/p>\n

Merseyside OCP officers are committed to protecting the public by stopping the flow of firearms and drugs into Merseyside\u2019s criminal markets and county lines networks.<\/p>\n

Image: Merseyside Police<\/strong><\/p>\n

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