Op Venetic: Liverpool man jailed for over nine years for Class A and B drugs conspiracy

A Liverpool man has been jailed today, Tuesday 30th April, at Liverpool Crown Court for his involvement in a Class A and B drugs conspiracy.

Shaun McInerney, 46, of Lyon Street, Garston, was sentenced to nine years and four months after having pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to the offences of conspiracy to supply 4.5kg of cocaine, 14kg of cannabis and 10kg of ketamine.

McInerney, was arrested at his home address on 13th February this year as part of Merseyside Police’s response to Operation Venetic: an international operation targeting criminals using a mobile encryption service, commonly referred to as Encrochat, to evade detection.

At the time of his arrest a quantity of cannabis, cash and a cash counting machine were seized at the address.

McInerney was attributed as using the encrochat handle ‘tamegun’, other handles saved tamegun as Sean, Sean Mac and Sean Mc.

He gave out clues by naming family members and took a picture of his Strava app showing the route taken on his daily run; this image also showed his username and his photograph.

He identified a white van that was linked to his company and directed buyers to a location near to the address he was living at with his partner.

McInerney worked closely with the handle 'tribal-quest', and in fact vouched for him saying “Its my partner so 100%.” An image was subsequently found of them in a group enjoying a night out.

Tribal-quest had previously been attributed to Stephen Christian who pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs - cocaine and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in March 2021.