The fatal mistakes, from selfies to Conor McGregor murals, that brought down these drug kingpins

Selfies, pictures of cheese, a mural of the UFC star Conor McGregor, and the sharing of personal information. These are just some of the ways that some major criminals have been brought to justice by police in recent times.

EncroChat phones, which cost around £1,200 for a three month contact, were thought to be 'unhackable' by detectives and were almost exclusively used by criminals, the National Crime Agency (NCA) says. But, the hacking of this network has since been described as the biggest boost to policing against organised crime in decades, the LiverpoolECHO reports.

French police first obtained a court order to infiltrate its networks in January 2020, after other police services spent years investigating the network. This led to a goldmine of intelligence and evidence for European crime fighters.

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Operation Venetic was launched after this in the UK by the NCA, which has since resulted in the prosecution of hundreds of criminals. These investigations revealed some eye opening mistakes by criminals who appeared to let their guard down by placing their trust completely in these devices.

Ryan Palin had clearly been making crime pay for some time when his operation was brought crashing down on Thursday, December 9 last year. His expensive home in Caldy, Wirral, was raided by police who seized luxury clothing worth around £136,000 and watches worth £129,000.

But one of the keys to making the case stick was the gaudy, colourful mural of the Irish UFC fighter McGregor daubed on a wall. Detectives examining EncroChat accounts suspected he was the man behind the handle 'Titch.com', which was implicated in the trafficking of up to 700kg of cocaine.