WIREDGOV

An ex-footballer who used his club’s name as the password for an encrypted phone with which he made drug deals worth half a million pounds, was yesterday, 2 February jailed for nine years.

Former Barrow A.F.C. defender Francis Ventre, 63, of West Derby, Liverpool was unaware that the password would help investigators prove he was a leading figure in a conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine worth £479,500.

Ventre used an EncroChat phone to carry out the deals between April and June 2020.

EncroChat phones were heavily encrypted devices used by criminals to communicate anonymously with each other under aliases, but in 2020 an international law enforcement team cracked into the platform, enabling investigators to read millions of messages and rendering the platform defunct.

The messages included those of Ventre, hiding behind the handle “Dillforest”.

Dillforest’s messages were investigated by Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership – a joint National Crime Agency and Merseyside Police team dedicated to tackling serious and organised crime in the county.

It was evident from the messages that Dillforest was playing a leading role in the supply of harmful Class A and Class B drugs.

Dillforest offered contacts cocaine and ketamine – sometimes at discounted prices – and directed others where to deliver the illegal substances, or else delivered them himself. He also shared images of the drugs he was supplying and discussed the transfer of profits from and payments for the substances.

In total, Dillforest was involved in the supply of a kilogram of cocaine and 63 kilograms of ketamine, with respective street values of £38,500 and £441,000.When Merseyside OCP officers began their investigation, they had the password for Dillforest’s EncroChat account as it had been identified during the international operation, but the significance of the word “barrow” within the password only came to light once the officers began looking for clues to Dillforest’s real-world identity.

The tenacious investigators spent hours trawling through thousands of messages, identifying small details Dillforest had shared about his relatives and himself, including the day and month of his birth and his postcode. These, in combination with the password, enabled investigators to prove that Dillforest was the former Barrow A.F.C. footballer Francis Ventre.  

The officers arrested Ventre at his home address on 25 November 2025 and subsequently charged him with a number of drugs offences.

Faced with the evidence against him, Ventre pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, conspiracy to supply ketamine and conspiracy to convert criminal property at Liverpool Crown Court on 10th December 2025.

He was sentenced at the same court.

NCA Senior Manager Jon Hughes, of Merseyside OCP, yesterday said:

“It was clear from Dillforest’s messages that he was playing a leading role in the sale of cocaine and ketamine, two drugs which are extremely harmful and a terrible blight on communities.

“My officers spent countless hours sifting through messages to painstakingly piece together clues to Dillforest’s real-world identity, eventually uncovering Francis Ventre as the man behind the alias.

“The investigators’ hard work has ensured that Ventre is in prison, and not out in Liverpool, still selling, delivering and profiting from drugs.”