Raja "ENCRO" Imtiaz

Raja Imtiaz, born and raised in South Manchester during the "Gunchester" era, had his first brush with the law was as a victim aged 15 when he was violently robbed at gunpoint. It seems that this had a detrimental effect on Raja which led to him getting involved with a local gang known as the Young Gooch Crew or YGC for protection before climbing through the ranks to reach the top of his local gang.

Described in 2006 by a judge as an extremely intelligent shrewd businessman, it is suspected by GMP, that Raja Imtiaz supplied different gangs up and down the country with firearms, ammunition and grenades. Raja was accused of selling to both sides in gang wars that erupted in Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham and others. However after a lengthy trial in 2009 he and 6 other were found not guilty on conspiracy to supply prohibited firearms with intent to endanger life after two separate juries failed to reach a verdict. The CPS did not pursue a third trial. Raja was also arrested but released without charge of the murder of London based contract killer "Halton McCollin" after the murder weapon was found at the address of his close friend and fellow gunman Asim "DOG" Bashir. Asim Bashir received a 6 year prison sentence for possessing the powerful .357 Smith and Wesson Revolver.

In his adult years Raja Imtiaz developed an obsessive interest in cryptography and this led to the creation of several companies under the "Encro" umbrella. The most famous of these was the "Encro Phones" brand which incorporated "Encro Chat" operating software. Described as the Whatsapp for criminals it allowed military grade encrypted secure communication before European law enforcement hacked the network in March 2020. Raja Imtiaz and his chief french technician "Hamido Al Khalid" were clever enough to discover the malware based hack and sent out a warning to its 60,000 strong userbase. However some users who had "handles" on the network, gave out personal information allowing law enforcement to identify them and pursue them.

Raja Imtiaz avoided charges but however was involved in a high speed police pursuit in January 2018 which lead to a 18 month prison sentence for dangerous driving and a handful of minor charges. Further controversy followed after a violent clash with a local crime family led to his henchmen, acting on Raja Imtiaz's instructions, violently assaulting a rival gang boss and making a mobile phone recording of the incident in which he was made to lick the arseholes of his attackers in a gruesome prison made video which was widely circulated online.

The NCA took out special measures in 2019 to prevent Raja Imtiaz to set up another encrypted phone network and got a Serious Crime Prevention Order and a Financial Reporting Order for five years which contained restrictive measures such as banning him from having any device with encryption capabilities such as Apple I Phones or carrying large amounts of cash over £1000 or holding company bank accounts without court approval.

Believed to currently reside in Dubai, Greater Manchester Police believe it is only a matter of time before Raja Imtiaz thinks of new innovative business schemes that will make life harder for them to pursue criminals and bring them to justice.