Gang boss took a 'toothless selfie'... and winded up in jail

A gang boss who supplied vast quantities of drugs and plotted to acquire a shotgun to "give someone a leggy" contributed to his own downfall by taking a selfie of his missing tooth. Michael Riccio, 37, used the handle "LeadFern" on encrypted communications platform EncroChat to supply vast quantities of drugs and weapons to criminal contacts across the UK.

He was described as having "conducted his business" via the encrypted messaging platform EncroChat, which was compared to a "WhatsApp for criminals", before the service was infiltrated by the French police during 2020. Following the hack hundreds of thousands of messages between criminals were shared with UK law enforcement who began to piece together evidence to establish who was behind the anonymous handles.

However, Riccio - who had previously lived abroad before moving back to the UK following the outbreak of the Covid pandemic - sent fellow users a number of messages that made it easy for the police. During a trial at Liverpool Crown Court jurors were told that Riccio, of Ambleside Road in Allerton, was linked to the account after apparently referencing his birthday and associates noting the anniversary of his father's death on May 1, 2020.

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He was meanwhile said to have given out his mum's home address and sent a picture of himself in bed "with his feet sticking out from underneath the duvet" inside his own house. His associates were also said to have stored the handle under his nickname "Little", while he sent a contact a "selfie to show that he had lost a tooth" on May 4, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Holly Menary, prosecuting, told the trial: that finished in