A court heard Craig Miller, 37, Elijah Stokes, 37, and Connor Palmer, 37, were collectively paid £100,000 to arrange the murder of a man on the orders of a high-order drug dealer based in Dubai.
The victim was shot five times in front of his wife and child by a hitman posing as a Tesco employee who tapped on his door and asked, “Are you expecting a delivery?”
Face, arm, and hand gunfire wounds left him fighting for his life, but he miraculously survived the Birmingham home invasion.
The target owed money to a high-level drug distributor from the United Kingdom residing in Dubai, and the group paid an assassin £40,000 to carry out the kill.
The jury was told that the victim’s companion opened the door to their Sheldon neighbourhood residence to discover a man wearing a Tesco windbreaker and a high-visibility vest.
He inquired if she was ‘expecting a delivery’ and stated, “He’s here, isn’t he?” before entering the residence and opening fire on the individual. Fortunately, a young infant who was in the home at the time was not injured.
In the weeks following the attempted assassination, the “Mr. Big” dealer in Dubai informed Miller that he desired the death of another individual. He sent a photograph with the caption “This is him,” to which Miller replied chillingly, “Clips going in his head.”
West Midlands Police stated that the communications discovered on Palmer’s encrypted EncroChat phone contributed to a decline in global organised crime statistics.
Detectives discovered that Palmer, Miller, and another man were part of a group that was paid £100,000 by a high-level drug distributor to murder their victim. Stokes organised for the delivery of the vehicle and weapon to the unidentified assassin.
Miller, of Epsom, Surrey, Stokes, of Earlsdon, Coventry, and Palmer, of Norbury near Croydon in South London, were convicted of murder conspiracy at Birmingham Crown Court.
Miller was convicted guilty of conspiracy to murder a second person following a three-month trial, even though the second homicide never occurred. The three defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
Detective Inspector Gemma Currie said afterwards: “The messages we uncovered as part of this investigation make for truly chilling reading and are like something from a movie.
“It was a miracle that the victim of the shooting in Sheldon survived. It was thanks to the EncroChat breakthrough that we were unable to unravel this conspiracy to murder.
“The gang thought that they were able to communicate securely about their murderous plans, but thanks to the international law enforcement community, we were able to show exactly what they were planning and how they planned it.”