Aspiring lawyer used alias ‘Grapejuice’ in encrypted chats
A Liverpool John Moores law graduate has been jailed for his part in a £1 million conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Neema Seifzadeh, 27, from Salford, was jailed for six years at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday.
The Mail Online reports Seifzadeh and his business partner, Jonathan Musgrove, also 27, used encrypted communications platform EncroChat to move £1.5 million in cash and supplied 20kg of ketamine to clubbers over a ten-week period.
The pair were eventually caught after detectives cracked their encrypted conversations.
Seifzadeh, who used the alias ‘Grapejuice’, graduated with a law degree from Liverpool John Moores University in 2016 and went on to complete the Legal Practice Course at BPP University Law School, according to a LinkedIn profile purporting to belong to him. The profile states Seifzadeh as “looking for legal work experience” and “searching for a training contract”.
Seifzadeh admitted his role in the conspiracy to supply ketamine, while Musgrove admitted buying and selling cocaine and ketamine, as well as acting as the intermediary in a firearms conspiracy.
The duo were arrested in the summer of 2020, with detectives reportedly seizing a haul of Rolex watches, designer clothing and shoes, as well as a £2,000 mountain bike.
Seifzadeh and Musgrove were jailed for six years and 16 and a half years, respectively.
In mitigation for Seifzadeh, Exchange Chambers barrister Michael Lavery said: “He was the junior partner in this enterprise, he was the downstream supplier to Musgrove, developing contacts to enable lower scale distribution… He had prospects and a future and now he has thrown it away for stupid involving in offending of such seriousness.”
Detective Constable Dave Moran, of the Serious and Organised Crime Group, said:
“These two men were responsible for the conspiracy that illicitly profited from flooding the streets of Greater Manchester with ruinous drugs that wreck lives and contribute to the violent crime we sadly so often see in our towns and cities.”
