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Man who smuggled £47m worth of drugs through Heathrow Airport caught after boasting about luxury lifestyle

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date15 April 2024
Publication titleMyLondon (England)
He used the handle “Luxuryfall” on the platform to supply cocaine and other illegal drugs to his criminal associates. Messages uncovered by the NCA in 2020 revealed that Luxuryfall was involved in supplying cocaine and mephedrone – a Class B drug

Messages were also found that discussed importing cutting agents such as a horse wormer called tetramisole, which would bulk out the drugs to increase potential profits. Rooney thought Encrochat gave him complete anonymity, and shared images of his cars, his garden and his house, and described the extensive work he was having carried out at his home.

Investigators managed to identify Rooney as the man behind Luxuryfall from these messages. One message read: “Mate I gutted this house its a nice area but looks like footballers moved in had it all k renders knocked walls out open plan massive kitchen dug all garden out on front made a massive drive fits 10 cars on…”

The NCA worked with Thames Valley Police TVP and Border Force who also launched investigations which identified Rooney was involved in supplying drugs. On May 24, 2020 Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport seized 336kg of tetramisole which they recovered from a flight inbound from Hong Kong.

The email address used on the paperwork for the cargo was Rooney's and he also shared an image of this on Encrochat -further identifying himself. The drug was estimated to have a wholesale value of around £47 million, once mixed with...

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