Latest news with #murderplot
The Sun
3 days ago
- The Sun
Botched hitman plot, a ‘gay love triangle' & school bullies… how calamitous drug lords' £100m cocaine empire fell apart
AT the height of their success, drug baron James Harding and his 'loyal right-hand man' Jayes Kharouti ran a vast £100million criminal empire - raking in a staggering £70,000 a DAY. Now, Harding and his cohorts have been jailed for plotting the murder of a gangland rival from his luxury base in Dubai after cops blew open one of the biggest EncroChat investigations in history. 16 16 When cyber cops snared Harding, 34, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, he was living in luxury at the The Nest apartment complex in Al Barari, Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars. The flashy narco's illicit business empire made a staggering £5million in just ten weeks, but it emerged he was prepared to do anything to keep his strangehold on the cocaine trade. Along with his henchman Kharouti, 39, he hatched an evil plot to murder a rival, going so far as to try to hire a hitman for £100,000. But the pair were scuppered by Scotland Yard detectives who cracked open the EncroChat messaging system - and tracked down the kingpin using vain shirtless selfies he had snapped on the same phone he used to arrange the hit. On the platform favoured by underworld criminals, Harding used the nickname 'thetopsking', while Kharouti went by the handle 'besttops' and 'topsybricks'. The pair, who were jailed at the Old Bailey this week, make an unlikely narco double act - with Harding insisting he was no murderer, but rather a suppressed homosexual involved in a bizarre love triangle, who had been bullied at school over his facial deformities. He denied using the handle 'thetopskiing', claiming instead it was actually used by his secret male lover. Meanwhile, The Sun can reveal Kharouti is an Afghan national who travelled to Britain as an asylum seeker in the Nineties with his mother - and has previously been busted over a nightclub drugs trafficking ring. In 2008 Kharouti, from Wallington in Surrey, was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to supplying more than half a kilo of cocaine to nightclubs across London. Using five different aliases, and five different dates of birth, he made £200,000 in just 18 months, with thousands of pounds found stashed inside a milkshake carton at his home. Moment drug-smuggling pals DIVE into water during boat chase as they attempt to flee Border Force with cocaine in hull Cops raided his home and unearthed more than £4,000 in cash – £1,000 stashed in his bedroom and £3,000 tucked a box in a kitchen cupboard. Officers also searched his car and found a staggering 620g of cocaine with a street value estimated at around £34,000. But after being released from jail he formed a murky friendship with Harding, who had been born with hemifacial microsomia, a condition causing the left side of his face to be under-developed. He endured multiple surgeries as a child and teenager to correct a deformed left ear, cheek and jaw. "I was alienated by everyone at school because of it," he confessed at his Old Bailey trial, which ended this week. Jurors heard Harding had feelings for "boys and girls" as a teenager, but "suppressed" his homosexual desires. 16 16 16 16 As a teenager, Harding, who grew up in Hampshire, began to sell legal highs to make money. He advertised the drugs using online classified adverts. But the scam backfired and in August 2012 he was arrested and charged with drugs offences and possession of false ID documents. In his bombshell Old Bailey this month, Harding returned to his childhood struggles for an extraordinary and elaborate defence. 16 16 16 16 The court had previously heard from cops that Harding used the handle 'thetopskiing' while hatching plans on EncroChat. In a remarkable twist, Harding insisted he did not use the handle - but was sleeping with the man who did. Harding's lawyer Clare Montgomery KC explained: "He (Harding) has for a long time been too ashamed to admit, and has always wanted to keep private, until this case has forced him to reveal his secret life. "That secret is that he had an intense and sexual relationship with 'thetopsking'." Before he was sent to prison the first time, Harding had fathered a child in 2010. His relationship with the little girl's mother broke down while he was in jail - when she apparently told Harding that he was not the child's biological father. But when Harding was released from prison in 2016 his ex-girlfriend contacted him to apologise for the way she had treated him. "I'd always felt rejected," he moaned. "And I wanted to know why she would leave me like that. "She explained to me she wouldn't have just left me for anyone. Her daughter's dad had got back into contact with her and wanted to rebuild a relationship with his daughter." Despite this, Harding said he went on to rekindle his relationship with the mother and she and her daughter moved into his home in Alton, Hampshire. But three years later, he claimed his girlfriend and her daughter left the UK and moved to Dubai where the real father, 'thetopskiing' , was living. 16 16 Harding later joined them - and recalled how HE fell for the mystery man too. He said he always found 'thetopskiing' or TK, good-looking and charming, but things changed after a boozy night out at the end of 2019. "We went to brunch at a place called Mama Zonia in Dubai, and after that a group of us went back to TK's villa, and after some time people were leaving," he said. "TK and I were drinking, and drinking quite a lot, and we ended up becoming intimate. "I wasn't proud of myself at all. I felt disgusted with myself." Harding claimed he was taken advantage of and used by 'thetopskiing' to book flights and restaurants. 16 Despite his denials, cops since proved that in fact Harding was 'thetopskiing' following a major cyber investigation. Harding gave away his true identity through a series of boastful selfies which showed his face, distinctive clothing and tattoos. They were able to prove that he and Kharouti had teamed up to import vast quantities of drugs. Their messages from 2020 revealed that "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. As a result Harding was arrested at Geneva Airport in Switzerland in December 2021, and extradited back to the UK. His second in command Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK last June.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Drug kingpins who plotted murder of rival jailed for life
A pair of drug kingpins have been jailed for life for plotting to murder a rival and smuggling £30 million worth of cocaine into the UK following one of the largest EncroChat investigations in history. James Harding, 34, and his 'loyal right-hand man' Jayes Kharouti, 39, ran a vast criminal empire which made £5 million in profits from importing drugs over 10 weeks in 2020 alone. They tried to recruit a hitman to put an unnamed rival courier 'permanently out of business', arming him with a gun and ammunition for the 'full M' – a murder, the court was told. At the time, Harding, who claimed to be a high-end watch sales executive, was living in luxury in Dubai, staying in five-star hotels and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars. The plot was scuppered by Scotland Yard officers who accessed the defendants' discussions on EncroChat and trawled through thousands of messages. They were handed the data after French police smashed the encryption code to the service favoured by the criminal underworld. They were found guilty of conspiracy to murder while Harding was also convicted of conspiring with others to import cocaine, which Kharouti, of Epsom, Surrey, had admitted. On Thursday, Judge Anthony Leonard KC jailed the defendants for life, handing Harding a minimum term of 32 years and Kharouti a minimum term of 26 years. Judge Leonard said the wholesale value of one tonne of cocaine imported was £30 million and the scale of the operation was 'unimaginable'. The judge noted messages in which the defendants discussed violence against anyone tempted to speak to the police about their drug business. In one message, Harding said: 'You just have to know where their nan lives. They all love their nans. They know granny is going to get it in the head lol.' Harding had only been out of prison for four years when he opted to 'trade up' from supplying Class B to Class A drugs which reaped greater rewards. Kharouti also had previous convictions for the supply of cocaine and cannabis, the court heard. Their Old Bailey trial was held amid heightened security, with an armed police escort to and from the central London court and prison. Three other members of the organised crime group had previously admitted drugs offences. Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the trial the defendants discussed on EncroChat importing a tonne of cocaine over a period of 10 weeks. Harding used the nickname 'thetopsking' while Kharouti went by the handle 'besttops' and 'topsybricks', the prosecution alleged. In EncroChat messages the pair discussed the robbery of a drugs courier and Kharouti reported back on whether six or seven kilograms of cocaine had been delivered to a client the day before. Mr Atkinson said it was Harding who first raised the idea of a 'cryp robbery' – taking drugs from a courier – which became a plan to kill a courier instead. The defendants discussed how and where the murder would take place, with Kharouti offering the potential hitman £100,000, the court was told. Kharouti kept his boss informed about the plan who told him it should involve a 'double tap' shot to the head and chest. Despite a delay over transport for the hitman, the defendants worked on alternative solutions, even arranging the shooting near to the proposed gunman's home. Kharouti increased the offer to £120,000 but an EncroChat user trying to locate an individual for him said the price should be no less than £200,000, the court was told. The alleged hitman was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in the early hours of June 3 2020, which the defendants were unaware of. Harding, who had previous convictions for drugs and false documents, was arrested at Geneva airport in Switzerland on December 27 2021 and extradited from Switzerland. Kharouti was extradited from Turkey to the UK on June 25 last year. Giving evidence, Harding denied using the handle 'the topsking', saying it belonged to an 'intimate' male partner called TK, who he refused to identify. The case formed part of a wider operation targeting criminals who used EncroChat. Previously, Calvin Crump, 29, of Redhill, Surrey, Khuram Ahmed, 38, of Slough, and Peter Thompson, 61 of south-west London, had admitted the cocaine conspiracy charge with Thompson also pleading guilty to possession a pistol. A man alleged to have been the proposed hitman was cleared.
CTV News
3 days ago
- CTV News
Group of fifth grade girls accused of plotting the murder of their classmate at U.S. school
Watch A group of 10 and 11-year-old girls were arrested in Arizona after allegedly plotting to stage the murder of a classmate as a suicide at the school.
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
‘Just end him': Four Year 5 girls' sinister plot to kill male classmate, fake his suicide
Four fifth-grade girls in Arizona devised a plot to kill a male classmate and make it look like a suicide – with one of the students caught smiling and laughing as she made excuses to investigators, police said. A newly released report from the Surprise Police Department revealed the disturbing facts behind the arrest of a group of girls, ages 10 and 11, who were set to stab a boy to death during their lunch break at the Legacy Traditional School in October, per The New York Post. The suspects had agreed to 'just end him' in the schoolyard over cheating allegations following a break-up, AZ Family reported. Each girl was allegedly given a role as they planned to lure the boy to an outdoor bathroom and stab him in the stomach, according to the police report. One was tasked with bringing a knife, while another would forge a suicide note to make it appear as though the boy had taken his own life. Another girl would serve as a lookout while the fourth would carry out the stabbing. The would-be murderer was also instructed to wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints on the knife. The girls set the date to enact the plan on October 1, 2024, but some other students had overheard the details of the murder plot and informed school officials before it happened. All four students were then arrested by Surprise Police and charged with threatening and misdemeanour disorderly conduct. Three of the girls showed remorse when confronted by police and school administrators, but officials noted that the fourth girl would start smiling and laughing when coming up with excuses over the murder plot. Surprise Police said the girls were released to their parents following their arrest and suspended from school with expulsion pending. The department said it does not plan to share further details about the incident. School officials did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. The twisted plot is reminiscent of the 2014 'Slender Man' stabbing, in which Wisconsin 12-year-old girls Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier lured their friend, Payton Leutner, to a park after a sleepover. In a savage attack that aimed to please the aforementioned horror movie character, Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier cheered on.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Arizona police uncover chilling 'murder plot by 5th grade girls against cheating boyfriend'
A group of fifth grade girls planned to murder their male classmate after he allegedly cheated on and broke up with one of them, police said. The four female students at a K-8 charter school in Surprise, Arizona, planned to stab the boy in the stomach and leave a phony suicide note, according to a police report obtained by AZFamily. The students, aged 10 to 11-years-old, hatched the scheme while at a lunch table during recess at Legacy Traditional School's West Surprise campus on October 1, 2024, the report claimed. Police said each girl had been assigned a role in the chilling plot. One would bring the knife, while another would write the suicide note to make it appear as though the boy ended his own life. The third girl would stand as a lookout, while the fourth would stab him to death. The plan was to lure him to an outside bathroom on the north side of the school building, according to police. The girls even planned to wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints on the murder weapon, the report said. The plot was foiled after another student overheard the plan and heard one of the girls say they wanted to, 'just end him', according to police. One of the students who overheard told their parent, who then contacted Assistant Principal Jerod Burleson. Burleson, who has been employed at the school since 2023, told the school resource officer that an eyewitness had heard, 'a group of students planning to kill a student at school,' the police report said. The next morning, on October 2, the girls came to the school's front office with their parents. Their bags were searched and they were individually questioned with their parents present. All four children were arrested on charges of threatening and disorderly conduct, both of which were misdemeanor level crimes. They were charged as juveniles. Three of the girls showed remorse, but the fourth kept smiling and laughing while making excuses for what she had done, according to the report. Daily Mail approached Legacy Traditional School for further comment. Surprise Police told the New York Post that the girls were released to their parents after their arrest and were suspended pending expulsion. AZCentral confirmed that one of the students involved participated in a juvenile diversion program as an alternative to court proceedings. This case bears some similarity to the 2014 'Slender Man' stabbing, when two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls lured their friend, also 12, into the woods and stabbed her over a dozen times. This case bears some similarity to the 2014 'Slender Man' stabbing, when two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls lured their friend, also 12, into the woods and stabbed her over a dozen times. Earlier this year, a judge made the controversial decision to initiate the release of Morgan Geyser, one of the girls who pleaded guilty to the stabbing. The case also drew comparisons to the Netflix show Adolescence, in which a 13-year-old boy stabs a female classmate to death after being radicalized by content viewed online. Child psychology experts have suggested that the girls involved in the alleged plot may have been exposed to inappropriate content on the internet and cautioned parents against allowing their children to have unfettered access. 'We should never ignore or dismiss delinquent behavior by young people, but we should address it with effective, evidence-based and promising interventions,' Liz Ryan, administrator for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, told AZCentral.
