Michael McNally, who operated under the EncroChat handle ‘LankyPanda’, has been jailed for 17 years
Michael McNally has been jailed for 17 years(Image: Merseyside Police)
A drug dealer who used an encrypted phone to try to conceal his criminal activity was caught after he shared photos of police responding to a car crash outside his home. Michael McNally, 42, from Bootle, was jailed for 17 years at Liverpool Crown Court after a joint investigation by Merseyside Police and the National Crime Agency (NCA) found he had supplied cocaine and heroin worth £18.5 million between March and June 2020.
McNally, who used the encrypted messaging platform EncroChat, believed his communications were hidden from law enforcement. But officers were able to read his messages after international law enforcement agencies infiltrated the network in 2020.
Among the millions of messages obtained was a stream of conversations from a user operating under the handle “LankyPanda”.
Investigators from the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership, made up of NCA and Merseyside Police officers, linked the account to McNally after analysing his messages and photographs.
In one chat, “LankyPanda” shared images of police officers attending a car crash near his home, describing their presence as the “heavy Ken Dodd” – rhyming slang for “plod.”
A semi-automatic pistol found in McNally’s home(Image: NCA)
Investigators noticed the photos showed a white Renault Kangoo van parked in a garden, which matched details from other messages in which LankyPanda said he was using a “white Kangoo van on a 66 plate” to deliver drugs.
Police compared the photos with incident logs from the car collision and were able to identify McNally’s address, where the same van was still parked when officers later visited discreetly.
McNally was arrested on May 13 2025 by officers from the Organised Crime Partnership (OCP), supported by Merseyside Police’s Matrix Disruption Team, which targets high-risk organised crime.
During a search of his home, police found a semi-automatic pistol, ammunition, and £23,000 in cash.
An investigation revealed McNally had supplied cocaine and heroin worth £18.5 million between March and June 2020(Image: NCA)
Faced with what prosecutors described as “compelling evidence,” McNally pleaded guilty on June 17 to offences relating to drugs, firearms, and criminal property.
EncroChat was an encrypted communications network used by criminals across Europe to coordinate large-scale drug supply and money laundering operations.
It was shut down in 2020 after being compromised by French and Dutch authorities, with millions of messages shared with UK law enforcement.
Jon Hughes, from Merseyside OCP, said: “Michael McNally thought he could get away with supplying harmful drugs by hiding behind an encrypted phone and the name ‘LankyPanda’.
“OCP officers skilfully and determinedly spent hours poring through messages to piece together LankyPanda’s identity and the extent of his criminality, and it’s thanks to their hard work that McNally has been jailed.
“This operation has successfully taken a drug supplier out of the community, a dangerous weapon off the streets and cash out of the hands of criminals.”