An unemployed man and his receptionist girlfriend have been sentenced for their roles in a multi-million-pound drug operation that funded exotic holidays and designer purchases whilst moving hundreds of kilograms of illegal substances through London.
Samuel De Vere-Hunt, 30, received 12 years imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on Friday after pleading guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy to conceal criminal property and drug supply offences. His partner Rosie Wise, 25, was handed a suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
The couple enjoyed trips to Portugal, Ibiza, Los Angeles and Mykonos alongside ownership of luxury items including a Rolex watch, despite De Vere-Hunt having no employment and Wise earning £13 per hour as a receptionist.
Metropolitan Police investigators painstakingly examined thousands of messages on encrypted platform EncroChat to identify De Vere-Hunt as the user behind handles “Modernfeet” and “Immaculatetractor”. European agencies cracked the supposedly secure communications service in 2020, believing organised criminals had been using it to coordinate drug supply and violent crime.
Evidence showed De Vere-Hunt had been a trusted member of an organised crime group, laundering over £6 million in cash and supplying massive quantities of MDMA, ketamine and cannabis. Messages from March to June 2020 alone revealed involvement in moving £3.5 million and dealing in cannabis and ketamine.
Officers tracked the couple to their School Road address in Kelvedon Hatch, Essex through various methods including phone data and food delivery records. When investigators discovered De Vere-Hunt had checked in for a flight departing the UK, they rapidly executed a search warrant on the morning of 9 January 2025.
The raid uncovered a substantial haul comprising 15kg of ketamine, 12kg of cannabis and over 6kg of Class A drugs including MDMA and 2C-B. Officers seized more than £179,000 in cash scattered throughout the property.
De Vere-Hunt was apprehended walking out of his residence carrying two boxes containing £160,000 in criminal proceeds.
Analysis of his mobile phone revealed a separate period of criminality from September 2024 to January 2025 during which he moved a further £2.8 million in cash and supplied over a quarter of a tonne of ketamine and cannabis. The street value of these substances in just five months totalled £6 million.
PC Bob Rosie from the Specialist Crime Developing Threats Team described the investigation as “like finding a needle in a haystack” but credited thorough detective work with identifying De Vere-Hunt as the EncroChat user and locating his Essex property containing over 33kg of Class A and B drugs.
Wise initially denied charges of being concerned in supplying Class A drugs and possessing criminal property at Kingston Crown Court in March 2025. She changed her plea to guilty in June 2025 after further evidence from her phone was presented.
The case represents one example of the Metropolitan Police’s intensified efforts against serious organised crime. Officers disrupted such gangs more than 21,230 times in London last year, marking a 63 per cent increase on the previous year through seizures, arrests, charges and prosecutions.
PC Rosie emphasised the investigation demonstrates the force’s data-led approach to tackling offenders and its relentless pursuit of organised crime networks. He stated that dismantling such operations directly reduces serious violence and exploitation fuelled by drug supply on London’s streets, with several other offenders identified through this investigation and brought before the courts.
