Overview
- Harding, 34, and Kharouti, 39, were sentenced at the Old Bailey on 26 June 2025 to life imprisonment with minimum terms of 32 and 26 years respectively.
- Prosecutors traced roughly 1,000kg of cocaine smuggled into the UK between April and June 2020, with a street value exceeding £30 million.
- Encrypted EncroChat messages revealed the duo’s plot to hire a hitman for up to £200,000 to murder a rival courier using a “double tap” approach.
- During the conspiracy, Harding lived a luxury lifestyle in Dubai, posing as a watch sales executive and driving Bugatti and Lamborghini sports cars.
- The case followed French police’s crack of EncroChat encryption and data sharing with Scotland Yard, part of a wider operation that has secured over 500 convictions and more than 5,000 years of sentences.