A man trusted to broker multi-million pound drug deals for organised criminals has been jailed for more than 10 years after a team of specialist investigators identified him from messages about his musician father.
An associate sent Thomas Hooton, 30, a picture of his father Peter – lead singer with The Farm – and made comments that linked Thomas to his father.
Hooton, of Victoria Road West, Crosby, Liverpool, used the handle ‘Ownraptor’ on the encrypted messaging service EncroChat to deal drugs with a wholesale value of around £1.3m.
Officers from Merseyside’s Organised Crime Partnership (OCP) arrested Hooton in April this year and he subsequently pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to conspiring to supply heroin, cocaine, cannabis and ketamine.
He was sentenced to 10 years and eight months imprisonment at the same court today, Friday, 25 July.
Officers pieced together Hooton’s identity from clues contained in Ownraptor’s messages.
They included a picture he sent of his father with the Champions League trophy.
Ownraptor also spoke in the messages about driving a Black Audi A3 and that his “arl fella’” arranged his insurance for him. Official checks showed Peter Hooton insured a black Audi A3 for his son Thomas.
Hooton had 41 different handle names in his EncroChat contacts, and he had a County Lines drug supply to criminals in Scotland, the north east and the south of England.
At the very minimum, Hooton was involved in the supply of 42.5kg of cannabis, 3.25kg of heroin, 10 kg of cocaine and 1kg of ketamine. His messages said he was in possession of around £400,000 and owed £258,000. The offending was committed between 26 March and 4 June 2020.
The Merseyside OCP is made up of officers from the National Crime Agency and Merseyside Police.
Detective Chief Inspector Lynsay Armbruster said: “It’s clear Hooton was involved in organised crime for a long time before he was charged.
“His criminal and geographical reach will have taken considerable time to establish. His drug supply operations were on an almost daily basis, they were sustained and spanned the UK working with high level criminals.”
EncroChat was infiltrated and taken down in 2020 by a European taskforce. The NCA leads Operation Venetic – the UK’s response to the takedown.
Merseyside OCP officers are committed to protecting the public by stopping the flow of firearms and drugs into Merseyside’s criminal markets and county lines networks.
25 July 2025
