EXCLUSIVE: RAPPER ON THE RUN: C Montana convicted in absence of major EncroChat drug import and supply conspiracy charges

A UK drill rapper behind a sophisticated drugs importation operation that turned over "more than £1 million of cocaine and heroin a month" has been convicted in his absence after breaching bail during the prosecution.

Arlten Lewis-Turner, 35, an up and coming London-based street rapper, was convicted of drug importation and supply charges at Snaresbrook Crown Court this week 16 months after he absconded.

Lewis-Turner was arrested in June 2020 as part of investigations into the use of the encrypted mobile phone system EncroChat by suspected organised criminals.

The court heard he was linked to an encrypted EncroChat device, alleged to have been used to arrange the importation and onward supply of heroin and cocaine, by his rapper stage name C Montana and a distinctive neck chain.

He was charged with one count each of conspiring fraudulently to evade the prohibition on the importation of cocaine and heroin between April 1 and June 18 2020.

He was also charged with two further counts of conspiring to possess with intent to supply 10kgs of cocaine and 38kgs of heroin between the same period.

The trial took so long to take place after he mounted a series of appeals in UK courts and to the European Court of Human Rights, over the admissibility of evidence amid claims it was a "live interception" of communications, which would not usually be admissible in British courts.

Yet, all appeals failed after the prosecution argued the data was not live as it had been briefly "stored" on the devices prior to sending and receiving.

The trial finally went ahead in his absence after he failed to attend a hearing in October 2024, and any further ones since, after losing the appeals.

He was initially remanded into custody after being charged with the offences in July 2020, but released in December that year after a successful bail application.

A CPS spokesperson said it had consistentlhy opposed him being granted bail.

Footage released on social media at the time of his release (above) showed a jubilant Lewis-Turner being greeted by friends outside HMP thameside as they declared him "fresh home."

The EncroChat probe began after in April 2020 French cyber police infiltrated the server of the Dutch encrypted mobile phone system that was believed to be used by tens of thousands of suspected organised criminals largely across Europe.

Historic and ongoing call and message data was intercepted and provided to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), which took on investigations and filtered other data down to local police forces such as the Met Police.

Opening the trial for the prosecution, Tom Nicholson, said: "This is a Metropolitan Police investigation, Operation Craney, relating to the large-scale importation and distribution of Class A drugs by Organised Criminal Networks, following on from the Encrochat investigation."

On May 19 2020 a co-defendant Nagib Omar, 35, was arrested in possession of a total of 38kgs of heroin and 10kgs of cocaine after he was seen taking two holdalls from a block of flats in Hayes into a white Citroen Berlingo van.

Police estimated the seized cocaine was worth £350-380,000 wholesale with a street value of £800k-£1m, while the heroin was estimated at £570-760,000 wholesale with a retail value of £3,800,000.

Three phones, including a VSmart EncroChat phone, a Nokia and an iPhone, were also found.

The Berlingo van was later found to have a sophisticated remote-controlled hide in the rear storage area, behind the driver and front passenger seats and running almost the full width of the vehicle, the court heard.

Found within more holdalls in the hide were half kilo packages of brown powder containing heroin.

More blocks of heroin were found inside the flat he had exited, as well as digital scales, more than £38,000 cash, sales ledgers, a hydraulic press and plates and another EncroChat phone that could not be accessed, the court heard.

Mr Nicholson added: "Further drug lists in (Omar's) possession, as well as Encrochat material, give a picture of a very large scale wholesale Class A drugs enterprise, with a turnover of over a million pounds a month."

He said detectives found an EncroChat phone in the possession of Omar, which was being used with the handle "adeptwaffle".

Omar pleaded guilty to onen count each of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine charges and acquiring and possessing criminal property on November 17 2023 was jailed for a total of 12 years.

Interrogation of Omar's device found "adeptwaffle" was working for another Encrochat phone user whose handle was "thetrap", who the prosecution said was Lewis-Turner.

The court heard that the device being used by "thetrap" was attributed to Lewis-Turner in a number of ways, including that it had a Dutch SIM card, which first connected to UK mobile networks on April 24 2020.

This was the same day that Lewis-Turner, who was not legally represented, flew into Heathrow Airport from Amsterdam, Mr Nicholson said.

CCTV taken at the airport showed him walking through arrivals and meeting two others, he said.

Mr Nicholson said he could be seen in one of the images wearing a distinctive metal necklace and when his home at the luxury Discovery Dock Apartments development at South Quay Square, Canary Wharf, was searched on June 18 2020, a "distinctive gold necklace" with words "Unique CM" was found.

The rapper features in a number of bling Youtube videos under the name C Montana, including some filmed in the US, and one called "Big Rich."

Mr Nicholson said: "We suggest he is known as 'C Montana' or 'Cash Montana' as part of his rap career. He is a modestly successful rapper and C Montana is another way of connecting 'thetrap' to Alton Lewis-Turner.

"It is the Prosecution case that the defendant was clearly and indisputably the person using ‘thetrap’ Encrochat handle, and that he was responsible for managing a very significant and lucrative multi-kilo commercial Class A drugs supply business."

Mr Nicholson told the jury the flight into Heathrow had been booked in an email name including "nevergiveupmontana" and the moniker for "thetrap" from some of those to which he was a phone contact included the name "C Montana", which he said was "a recognised pseudonym used by Lewis-Turner, namely Cash Montana".

Call data for the EncroChat phone used by "thetrap" showed the main cell site used by it was near to the Discovery Dock Apartments (below).

On May 18 2020 at 3:31pm, the phone was found to be close to the Eurotunnel at Folkestone, around the same time that Lewis-Turner travelled through the Eurotunnel in a Range Rover that was registered to him and he was also seen in CCTV.

The phone also connected in the UK when Lewis-Turner arrived back via the same route.

It also connected again near the Eurotunnel when he left the country on May 28 2020, ten days?? after the arrest of Omar, the court heard.

A message sent by "thetrap" at 4:32pm, with a photograph of the barrier of the entrance to the Eurotunnel, said "on way to Holland bro think my guy been arrested’, the jury heard.

Mr Nicholson said he then disposed of the EncroChat handset and replaced it with another one.

He said messages between Omar, thetrap and other suppliers and purchasers exposed the scale of the operation.

He said: "They illustrate that Omar, the user of the EncroChat phone, was involved in the high-level wholesale distribution of Class A drugs to a number of brokers and buyers using various EncroChat handles to purchase significant amounts of drugs.

"There is a long message exchange between Omar on adeptwaffle and his boss, thetrap’, from whom he takes his instructions. This includes reference to 15 turtles, 20 keyholds, 20 hurley, and photographs of all of the kilo and half kilo blocks of cocaine and heroin.

"This gives an idea of the scale of this enterprise, as do the accounting records, referring to a ‘tick total’, meaning credit extended to those purchasing drugs, of over £1m."

On June 18 2020 police executed two search warrants, one at Lewis-Turner's apartment at Discovery Dock East, where he was found and arrested.

As well as the necklace police found three Iphones on the sofa.

The other warrant was executed at a flat at Discovery Dock West.

Under interview Lewis-Turner replied no comment to all questions, the court was told.

On Thursday, after a four-day trial, the jury found Lewis-Turner guilty of all four charges after a short deliberation.

Lewis-Turner discussed his legal battle and time spent on remand in an interview first published on YouTube shortly after his release.

In one clip he said he had previously made between £100,000 and £300,000 a day trading in stocks and shares.

In another he said he was innocent and had never sold drugs and had spent £700,000 on legal fees with one of the best legal teams in the country representing him, including two senior solicitors, a junior barrister, a KC and lawyers in France and Holland.

He said: "I hope it won't go to trial. If I didn't pay for my legal fees, I would not have got bail... I don't know if I will end up in jail or be free or not."

He also described his five months on remand as a "living hell".

He said: "For the first two weeks in jail I was sweating... I'm looking at this place and the cell and my bathroom is like five times bigger than the cell and my sitting room is like ten or 20 times bigger. There is graffiti on top of the bed, the windows are barred and you are covering up the toilet with tissue and sharing a double cell, I wouldn't wish prison on nobody."

Shortly after his bail release he released the single "Boss Is Back" (above) in which he rapped: "the boss got locked, the boss came back, the boss came back winning... grown man got to sleep in bunk beds."

He is due to be sentenced on March 26, which may also go ahead in his absence if Lewis-Turner has yet to be found.

A court spokesperson said: "There was a bench warrant issued on October 25 2024 and it remains outstanding."