A gangland enforcer who charged £10,000 ($12,610) to blind someone with acid has been convicted after police cracked the secret underworld messaging system he used for taking orders from a senior crime boss.
Jonathan Gordon, 34, a member of the Deli Mob crime gang in Liverpool, north-west England, used the handle Valuedbridge on the EncroChat messaging system to offer his services to carry out acid attacks from £6,000 a time.
He was known to have thrown a container of acid at one victim and was involved in a series of gun attacks on the instruction of the senior gang leader, who has not been identified, according to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
Gordon temporarily blinded a victim in an attack in St Helens, Merseyside, in April 2019. Several months later, after his sight recovered, the victim was able to identify Gordon on an identity parade.
Gordon was not put off carrying out a second attack even after he and his accomplices were forced to abort an operation after police stopped their car.
He later told his criminal paymaster: “He getting blinded, bro.” But the attack was never carried out after police got wind of the operation.
The enforcer, from Kirkdale, Liverpool, organised another man’s house to be shot up and was involved in two other street shootings in Liverpool.
But his planning unravelled after EncroChat was cracked by French and Dutch police and they spent two months harvesting the data before closing it down in 2020. They shared their findings with law enforcement across Europe, leading to the arrests of hundreds of criminals.
EncroChat had 60,000 users worldwide, with the operators behind the service selling the special customised Android phones for €1,000 ($1,071) each with a six-month contract costing €1,500, European police body Europol said.
Gordon was caught after sending his boss a newspaper clipping about a gun fight he was involved with via the service. His hand was visible in the picture and a fingerprint expert was able to match it to Gordon.
Further forensic evidence linked Gordon with crimes in England’s north-west and he was found guilty of grievous bodily harm and weapons offences by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday.
Gordon, and two accomplices, will be sentenced next month.
“Jonathan Gordon is an extremely dangerous offender. His actions were exceptionally wicked, he thought nothing of blinding victims for money,” said Ben Rutter of the NCA. “He brought a really high level of harm to the streets as an enforcer.”
