An investigation into an organised crime gang suspected of drug dealing, abuse of vulnerable people and money laundering.
Operation Gallant was launched to investigate an organised crime gang suspected of multiple offences. Greater Manchester Police used Chorus to identify the offenders, their crimes and bring them to justice.
Products Utilised
Operation Gallant moved at a dizzy speed and in multiple directions, sometimes all at once. However, rather than always running to desperately keep up, using Chorus meant that the complex telecom analysis, rather than being a drag on the investigation, became the fuel to accelerate the entire case forward and the secure binding in pulling the disparate strands into a coherent picture.
Analyst, Greater Manchester Police
An organised crime came under the microscope after a drug user, based in Rochdale, died from an overdose.
As the investigation unravelled, further serious crimes were uncovered, including an axe attack on a 17-year-old male that supercharged the investigation.
The organised crime gang were also found guilty of money laundering and child criminal exploitation.
The phone of the drug overdose victim is downloaded, and a keyword search performed, to find an estimated 250 messages relating to drug supply.
Call data is then applied to find ‘Adam’ as being the key marketer for suspected county line drug dealing.
In addition, Chorus cleanses and maps key data to find possible home locations and highlight the concentration of suspected gang members.
A road rage incident between tree surgeons and a large gang leads to a 17-year-old male being attacked with an axe. Billing data interrogated in Chorus and witness statements pointed to the same suspects already being investigated in the ‘Adam’ organised crime gang.
Chorus identified this connection through the creation of an event timeline and map, which showed a sequence of calls that led to the convergence of suspects from the drug gang to the axe attack scene.
Arrests and charges were made for those involved in the axe attack. Warrants were also secured to search their premises and phones seized.
Analysis of the handsets revealed even further crimes. Suspected money laundering activity was identified involving the Naz Restaurant and the head of the organised crime gang based in Pakistan.
Chorus also performed an advanced keyword and image search through thousands of chat messages to reveal a conspiracy to supply drugs over 3 years and evidence of child criminal exploitation.
Cross-case analysis of numbers, names and locations confirmed links between child criminal exploitation and the ‘Adam’ organised crime gang.
Further investigation into the phone data and analysis of maps and association charts in Chorus identified ‘Stevenson Square’ as a hotspot for drug dealing and linked a number of key suspects there.
With the help of Chorus, Greater Manchester Police were able to successfully complete the investigation and supply key evidence in court with the following results:
