London man known as ‘scalpcleaner’ jailed for £190m cocaine plot

An East London man, known online as ‘scalpcleaner’, was involved in a £190m plot to smuggle cocaine from South America. Beau Devlin, 33, from East London, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for drug and money laundering offences at Maidstone Crown Court last Friday (March 7).

His accomplice, Matthew Byrne, 44, from Sevenoaks, was also sentenced to 21 and a half years in prison at the same court. The pair were responsible for “flooding the UK’s streets with enormous quantities of cocaine" and using a Hatton Garden jewellers as a front for their criminal activity.

The criminals used the encrypted communications platform EncroChat to discuss their crimes. Online, Bryne was known as “slickvalley” and “officialcleaner”, while Devlin was known as “scalpcleaner.” The pair had a whole host of criminal knowledge including South American cocaine wholesalers and smuggling routes.

EncroChat messages showed the pair had attempted to import around five tons of cocaine between March 2020 and June 2020 via a number of ports in Europe including Antwerp and the UK. They also discussed smuggling between five and 10 tons of the drug at a time over the past eight years.

Their criminal activity was hidden by shipments of bananas, used as cover loads, and fake companies which acted as fronts. Byrne ordered Devlin to burn palettes that only contained bananas that were used as dummy runs as they were able to sell the fruit legitimately - costing £300,000.

Byrne also discussed the use of “plug cars” to hide contraband and even discussed buying Mac 11 submachine guns. Other messages showed the pair paid £3 million for a load of 600 kilos of cocaine.

A customer, Jody Hall, who was buying firearms from Byrne, was arrested in July 2020. Messages showed that Byrne hatched a possible plan to help him him escape from a prison van.

The money which the criminal pair made was laundered through a Hatton Garden jeweller owned by Chris O’Shea, who Byrne and Devlin exchanged cash with for clean money, gold bars and designer watches. Hundreds of thousands of pounds was laundered through the business by the pair.

Byrne and Devlin were arrested in October 2020 by OCP officers. They seized £20,000 in cash from a bedside table, correspondence showing large amounts of cash in bank accounts, designer clothing, a brand new Jaguar car and an EncroChat phone at Byrne’s address.

A search of his girlfriend's address also showed designer clothes and leaflets for villas for sale in Portugal. At his parents home they found a taser and correspondence in Devlin’s name.

Tear gas spray, a surveillance bug detecting kit, around £5,000 in cash and a large number of designer items were also found at Devlin’s then home in Weald Road, Sevenoaks.

Chris O'Shea, 56, of Avery Hill Road, New Eltham, also pleaded guilty to money laundering and drugs offences in January 2024 and was jailed for 11 years. Jody Hall, 51, of Carters Hill Close, Mottingham, Bromley, also pleaded guilty to firearms and drugs offences and was jailed for 12 years in 2020. Firearms charges against Byrne will lie on file.

Andrew Tickner, NCA Operations Manager from the OCP, said: "Matthew Byrne and Beau Devlin were at the pinnacle of this highly sophisticated and organised criminal group.

"They were responsible for flooding the UK's streets with enormous quantities of cocaine via their contacts for onward sale, laundering the profits via gold and expensive watches.

"They were across every stage of the drugs' journey from South America, going to the trouble of organising dummy runs in an attempt to trick law enforcement into believing that they were running a legitimate business.

"Although Byrne's firearms venture would have made him a useful contact to those in the criminal underworld, it's chilling to think about the violence and intimidation these weapons would have unleashed. These are the latest in a very long line of extremely dangerous offenders brought to justice because of Operation Venetic.

"We continue to work with partners at home and abroad to target organised criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK by being at the forefront of the class A drugs and firearms supply chain."

Got a story? Please get in touch at katherine.gray@reachplc.com

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