A drugs trafficker helped investigators uncover his own organised crime group by sending a picture of his dog that included his partner's phone number on its tag.

Danny Brown, from Bromley, was working with co-conspirator Stefan Baldauf on a plot to send 448 kilos of MDMA worth £45 million to Australia in a digger.

He sent the picture of his pet dog Bob to Baldauf on the encrypted communications platform EncroChat, using the handle "throwthedice".

National Crime Agency investigators were able to zoom in on the image to see the phone number and they used it, among other tactics, in an investigation to prove Brown was part of the conspiracy.

Brown, 55, and Baldauf, 62, also sent accidental selfies of themselves on Encrochat, which gave investigators additional proof they were involved in the plan, which saw the drugs hidden in the arm of an industrial digger and shipped to Australia.

In one message, Brown sent a photo to his crime group of his television which showed his reflection in it.

Baldauf, of Midhurst Road, in Ealing, also sent a picture of a brass door sign with his face visible in the reflection.

The OCG members sent the 40-ton Doosan digger to Australia under the pretence of selling it and organised an online auction to make the vehicle's arrival look legitimate.

The men bought the excavator, a Doosan DX420, for 75,000 Euros.

They rigged the auction by agreeing a pre-arranged bid with the intended recipients, however, the digger started to gain some traction online, with a number of potential buyers.

OCG member Leon Reilly, 50, messaged Brown on EncroChat saying: "There are six people watching it."

Brown replied: "****ing hell, that’s not good is it."

EncroChat ended up being taken down in 2020.

The trio and their conspirators plotted in late 2019 and early 2020 to send the drugs, which were 77.5% pure, to Australia where MDMA’s street value is a lot higher than in the UK.

Brown, Baldauf and Reilly were convicted in June at Kingston Crown Court of drugs trafficking with three other men.

Today, Brown, of Kings Hall Road in Bromley, was jailed for 26 years, Baldauf for 28 and Reilly for 24.

The NCA led Operation Venetic, the UK law enforcement response to the takedown, which provided investigators with messages offenders had sent thinking the platform was safe from global law enforcement attention.

EncroChat users’ real names did not appear on phone messages – instead, they all used a ‘handle’ which investigators needed to attribute to real world suspects.

Reilly, who was from Ireland, arranged for the digger to be moved from Leeds by his company ‘Mizen Equipment’.

The digger was housed in an industrial unit in Grays, Essex, and accomplice Tony Borg, 44, from Essex, took delivery of the machine at the unit and worked on it.

Philip Lawson, 61, from Staines-upon-Thames, designed the hide and arranged a welder to cut open an arm of the digger and seal the Class A behind a lead lining.

Lawson bought a powerful welding machine and arranged for a sign-making company to make some stickers to cover the markings once it had been repainted.

Investigators believe the drugs were hidden inside the digger on December 19, 2020.

In the days before and after this, the group members’ Encro phones were in frequent contact with each other and they also used the same cell sites at certain times.

Mizen Equipment paid a haulage firm £1,600 to move the digger to Southampton Docks and it took from January 14 to March 13 to arrive in Brisbane.

Australian Border Force officers x-rayed the digger, removed the drugs, then sealed the arm and installed a tracker and listening device before allowing it to go to its intended destination, an auction house in Sydney.

The digger was moved to a small site west of Sydney in May 2020 and Lawson forwarded the Australian OCG a drawn diagram of exactly where the drugs were hidden and how the digger should be opened.

On May 18, two men from the Australian OCG spent two days trying to find the drugs before realising something was wrong – EncroChat messages show the six UK men launched their own investigation and held meetings to find out who had stolen the drugs.

On June 15, 2020, Brown and Baldauf were arrested together in Putney, and Brown was in possession of his Encro phone.

Bob the dog was present while Brown was arrested.

Officers found an iPhone in Baldauf’s possession with messages on it showing that he told people his Encro handle was "Boldmove".

After being charged, the offenders repeatedly tried to get the case kicked out of court arguing the EncroChat evidence was inadmissible, however they were convicted by a jury.

Lawson was sentenced to 23 years, Murray to 24 and Borg to 15.

Two men were charged with offences relating to the Australian conspiracy following work between the NCA and Australian Federal Police.

Chris Hill, NCA operations manager, said: "These men thought they were safe on EncroChat but my officers did a superb and painstaking job of building the evidence against them through a mixture of traditional and modern detective skills.

"Brown and Baldauf’s accidental selfies and the photo of Bob the dog were the cherry on the cake in proving who was operating those handles.

"But the OCG went to enormous lengths, even rigging an auction, in a bid to transfer the drugs to Australian conspirators.

"The NCA works with partners at home and abroad to protect the public from the dangers of Class A drugs which wreak so much misery on communities in the UK."