A high-ranking member of a Midlands-based drugs supply network has been found guilty in his absence following a National Crime Agency investigation.
Alexi Morgan, 30, from West Bromwich, failed to appear at Birmingham Crown Court for the start of his two-week trial.
On 23 April, a jury delivered guilty verdicts on all charges against him, and a judge sentenced him to 15 years and six months’ imprisonment.
Morgan was prosecuted with evidence obtained as part of Operation Venetic – the NCA-led UK response to the takedown of encrypted communications platform EncroChat.
NCA investigators identified Morgan’s ‘Denzelboss’ handle on the platform.
He liaised with other organised crime group members on EncroChat to peddle tens of kilos of cocaine and heroin.
These close associates included Birmingham pair Danyal Aziz, 30, and Michael Earp, 34, who were jailed for a combined 59 years in 2023 for supplying Class A drugs and sourcing firearms.
NCA investigators painstakingly sifted through thousands of EncroChat messages sent amongst the criminal network.
Messages laid bare Morgan’s role in supplying cocaine and heroin across the West Midlands.
In one example, on 4 April 2020, he organised the exchange of five kilos of cocaine and £188,000 in cash outside a primary school in Walsall.
From EncroChat evidence alone, Morgan was found to have peddled 27 kilos of Class A drugs across the region with a wholesale value of more than £800,000.
