'I kill them with you, mate': The messages that brought down the Coggins Firm

'This was completely unprecedented. Nothing like this had never happened before'

Good afternoon, members — today we’re excited to bring you Part Two of Matt O'Donoghue’s sprawling investigation into the rise and fall of the Coggins Firm. Matt has spent years following this case, interviewing the major players who brought the Coggins brothers down as well as combing through thousands of pages of their internal communications — messages they thought would be safely encrypted, but ultimately led to their demise.

This process, Matt writes, has been “both enlightening and frightening”. Sometimes, paradoxically, it’s even been quite amusing. One scouse drug dealer involved in the conspiracy, for example, was sentenced to 13 years in prison because of his love for blue cheese: he shared a photo over Encrochat of himself holding a block of Stilton, making him identifiable from his palm prints.

Plenty more incredible details like that one await you. But before you keep reading, make sure you’ve checked out part one below:

From Huyton to High Security: How the Coggins brothers came to ruin