A drug smuggler who plotted to bring in £190 million worth of cocaine from South America and break out of prison once arrested has been jailed alongside his partner in crime.

Matthew Byrne, 44, from Sevenoaks and Beau Devlin, 33, from east London would have earned millions by flooding UK streets with vast quantities of the Class A drug which they discussed disguising in banana shipments.

Police caught the criminals through their messages on an encrypted communications platform, EncroChat, and the pair have now been sentenced to a combined time of 40 years.

Byrne used the handles 'slickvalley' and 'officialcleaner' and Devlin was known as 'scalpcleaner'.

Chats showed their attempts to import around five tons of cocaine between March and June 2020 via ports in Europe including Antwerp and the UK.

They also discussed smuggling between five and 10 tons of the drug at a time during the previous eight years.

As well as smuggling, Byrne plotted to break free from a prison van after he was arrested using his significant contacts in the criminal world.

The duo also had a detailed knowledge of cocaine smuggling routes, methods and contacts, including South American cocaine wholesalers.

They mostly used banana shipments to cover their smuggling and created companies to act as fronts.

Byrne ordered Devlin to burn pallets that only contained bananas, as they could not sell the fruit legally, or to use as part of dummy runs which are thought to have cost £300,000.

Bryne discussed the use of 'plug cars' or vehicles with specially constructed hides to conceal drugs and money, and communicated with a handle called 'the plugboss' who built these.

He messaged another criminal associate to say that lorry drivers would be paid £50,000 each to smuggle 250 kilos of cocaine, but refused to reimburse their fuel costs.

Some messages showed that he and Devlin paid £3 million for one particular load of 600 kilos of cocaine, which would have fetched a higher price in the UK.

Byrne also traded in weapons and discussed buying Mac 11 submachine guns.

He supplied contact Jody Hall, who used the EncroChat handle 'unbeatenmoose' and arranged for a third party known as 'The Boxer' to inspect the firearms to confirm if they were a good investment.

Hall was arrested in July 2020 while collecting a firearm Byrne was selling via another contact.

Further messages from Byrne showed he was aware of Hall's arrest, discussing the type of police officers involved and the possibility of helping him escape by springing him from a prison van.

Hall, 51, of Carters Hill Close, Mottingham, Bromley, admitted firearms and drugs offences and was jailed for 12 years in 2020.

Meanwhile, Byrne and Devlin laundered their criminal profits through Chris O'Shea, who owned a jewellers in Hatton Garden and used the EncroChat handle 'allstargin'.

Both men exchanged cash with O'Shea for clean money, gold bars and designer watches.

Byrne laundered hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash at a time and bought gold for himself and others, including 10-15 at a price of around £40,000 per bar.

He tasked Devlin with transferring cash and gold to and from O'Shea. Devlin personally requested £100,000 in clean, new, £20 notes, for which he agreed to pay O'Shea 3% commission.

O'Shea, 56, of Avery Hill Road, New Eltham, pleaded guilty to money laundering and drugs offences in January last year and was jailed for 11 years.

Byrne and Devlin were arrested in October 2020 by the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) – a joint National Crime Agency (NCA) and Metropolitan Police Service unit.

At Byrne’s address, they seized £20,000 in cash from a bedside drawer, correspondence showing large amounts of cash in bank accounts, designer clothing, a brand-new Jaguar car and an EncroChat phone.

Officers also found he was building a house next door. The unit also searched his girlfriend's address where they had to break through an expensive reinforced door.

They found various other items showing signs of wealth inside the house, such as designer clothing and leaflets for villas for sale in Portugal.

A taser and correspondence in Devlin's name were found when they searched Byrne's parents' home.

Devlin's then address in Weald Road, Sevenoaks, was also searched.

CS spray, a surveillance bug-detecting kit, around £5,000 in cash and a large number of designer items such as shoes, clothing and jewellery, were all found.

Byrne and Devlin pleaded guilty to drugs and money laundering offences at Maidstone Crown Court on January 9. Firearms charges against Byrne will lie on file.

Today both men were sentenced. Byrne was handed 21-and-a-half years imprisonment and Devlin was slapped with 17 years imprisonment.

Andrew Tickner, NCA Operations Manager from the OCP, said the pair were at the top of a “highly sophisticated and organised criminal group”.

He said: "They were responsible for flooding the UK's streets with enormous quantities of cocaine via their contacts for onward sale, laundering the profits via gold and expensive watches.

"They were across every stage of the drugs' journey from South America, going to the trouble of organising dummy runs in an attempt to trick law enforcement into believing that they were running a legitimate business.

"Although Byrne's firearms venture would have made him a useful contact to those in the criminal underworld, it's chilling to think about the violence and intimidation these weapons would have unleashed. These are the latest in a very long line of extremely dangerous offenders brought to justice because of Operation Venetic.

The NCA's investigation formed part of Operation Venetic, the UK NCA-led law enforcement response to the takedown of the EncroChat service in June 2020.