A British drug lord who racked up an £100 million+ empire after raking in £500,000 a week from selling cocaine has been jailed for at least 32 years after being brought down by EncroChat messages.

James Harding, 34, was found to have plotted the murder of a rival from his luxury base in Dubai and had planned to transport a tonne of cocaine into the UK over a 10-week period, in addition to all the cocaine he’d already imported.

Here’s the moment it all came crashing down as Harding stepped off his private jet in Geneva, Switzerland:

£500k a week dealer James Harding was nailed in an Encrochat bust – he claimed incriminating messages were sent by a mystery lover in Dubai who stole his phone. Here he is getting nicked.. https://t.co/JdJWsqrijl pic.twitter.com/NLklgbT59L

— CourtNewsUK (@CourtNewsUK) June 24, 2025

Harding had been living the dream in Dubai, where he posed as a luxury watch dealer while staying in private villas, 5-star hotels, and driving Lamborghinis and Bugattis.

He obviously thought Encrochat was extremely secure, as he’d freely text selfies of himself and his lavish lifestyle to other criminal contacts under the username ‘Thetopsking’, as well as arrange drug deals and the murder of a rival supplier, for which he was prepared to pay £100,000.

Ultimately, the whole Encrochat system came crashing down, and Harding is just one of hundreds of drug dealers around Europe who have been well and truly busted because of it, with their messages being uncovered by investigators.

Initially, Harding made up a story that the messages from his phone were actually sent by his secret gay lover, whose identity he couldn’t reveal, because he’s a very dangerous and mysterious gay drug dealer operating out of Dubai. When asked by investigators why this person would send other people topless photos of James Harding, he said he had ‘no idea’. Well, it was worth a shot I suppose.

And so, James Harding will spend at least the next 32 years behind bars, in accomodation that’s basically the complete opposite of what he was used to in Dubai for so long. Although I guess they do get Playstations and whatnot in prison these days, so it’s not all bad news. Still, you can’t go from being a top drug dealer in real life to playing one in GTA, can you? That’s just depressing.

Just goes to show that this lifestyle only ever ends up in one of two ways: dead or in jail. All in all, maybe he should count himself lucky.

For the ‘UK El Chapo’ who was also brought down through EncroChat and is now complaining that his 26-year sentence is far too long, click HERE.