A MAN has been jailed for Class A drugs conspiracy after officers were able to identified him from mud mask selfies.
Gary Burden plead guilty to conspiring to supply cocaine, heroin and cannabis at Liverpool Crown Court.
The 38-year-old from Halewood was identified by police after he shared pictures of himself in a face mask on an encrypted phone network called Encrochat.
After his sentencing, Merseyside Police posted on X: “He snapped a picture of himself enjoying a mud mask…but he won’t be getting many spa days where he’s heading…”
Burden was arrested on September 18, 2025, as part of Operation Venetic by Merseyside Police.
Operation Venetic is an international operation targeting criminals using a mobile encryption service, commonly referred to as Encrochat to evade detection.
Burden used encrochat under multiple different handles like Gary/Gaz B, GB, Burden and Gaz speak, to supply drugs.
He also referred to some of his family members by name, giving officers more clues to his identity.
Alongside openly discussing his drug operations on the encrypted phone network, he also sent pictures of himself in a face mask and lying in bed.
Police arrested Burden at Liverpool Airport.
Burden plead guilty conspiracy to supply 12kg of cocaine, 24kg of heroin and 72kg of cannabis.
He also plead guilty to conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert criminal property between January and June 2020.
Appearing at Liverpool Crown Court on January 20, he was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison.
Detective Inspector James Boardman said: “Burden clearly thought he was above the law but thanks to our painstaking investigation we were able to bring him to justice and he is now behind bars for a considerable period of time.
“Our work will go on to target other people involved in this type of criminality.
“I would ask our communities to continue to support us in our efforts, and encourage anyone who has any information about drug dealing in their communities to contact us so that we can take positive action.”
EncroChat phones were heavily encrypted devices used by criminals to communicate anonymously with each other under aliases.
An international law enforcement team cracked into the platform in 2020, enabling investigators to read millions of messages and rendering the platform defunct.
