The Alton head of a multi-million pound criminal syndicate is facing a hefty spell in prison after being found guilty of importing and dealing cocaine and planning to murder a rival.

Drug kingpin James Harding, whose address has been listed by the Met Police as Alton but is understood to come from Holybourne, led a “sophisticated and successful” operation that made more than £5million in 10 weeks from distributing drugs throughout London and the South East in 2020.

The 34-year-old thought his network was impenetrable but was brought to justice by Met detectives in one of the largest EncroChat investigations in history.

Harding was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and conspiracy to commit murder by a jury on Tuesday following a seven-week trial at the Old Bailey.

He will be sentenced tomorrow alongside his second-in-command Jayes Kharouti who was also found guilty of conspiracy to murder. The 39-year-old of Depot Road, Epsom, admitted to his role in supplying drugs after appearing at the same court last November.

The court heard that Harding lived a lavish lifestyle in Dubai, with the sales executive of luxury watches staying in five-star hotels and driving top end cars.

But his lifestyle masked substantial criminality, with the pair overseeing 50 importations of drugs between April and June 2020.

The duo, who respectively used “thetopsking” and “besttops” handles on EncroChat also plotted a murder – they called it the ‘full M’ with a hitman being recruited and provided with a firearm and ammunition.

Their network – which delivered cocaine worth millions of pounds across London and beyond – and murderous intentions were brought to light after Met officers spent hundreds of hours trawling through thousands of messages thought to be impenetrable by law enforcement.

Their chats included details of the distribution of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine across the country, management of their vast finances and discussions about security threats.

Harding was arrested on Monday, 27 December 2021 at Geneva Airport, Switzerland. On Friday, 27 May 2022, he was extradited from Switzerland to the UK when he was arrested by Met officers.

Kharouti’s home was searched in 2020 after he was linked to the messages. Police found a handset with the same number he gave to Harding. He fled the country shortly after this, before being found in Turkey and extradited back to the UK.

“This operation dismantled a major supply chain and is a testament to the relentless work of our officers,” said Detective Chief Inspector, Jim Casey.

“We monitored their drug-dealing activity but then we saw the group discussing the contract killing of a rival. We moved fast to protect those in danger.

“Harding and Kharouti planned to kill, we stopped that and put them before the courts.”

This case is part of a wider operation to take down those who utilised EncroChat, after the National Crime Agency (NCA) passed information onto the Met after European agencies cracked the encrypted communications platform.