Man jailed for drug dealing and money laundering

A man named Rory Trainor has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for drug dealing and money laundering. Trainor, 48, from Newry, had previously received a suspended sentence for money laundering more than a decade ago. He admitted to new charges last year related to offences that occurred over ten weeks in 2020. Trainor pleaded guilty to 38 charges, which included dealing Class A drugs, such as cocaine, and Class B drugs, like cannabis. He also conspired to launder more than £1.3 million through encrypted communications. Most of the money involved large sums, the highest being £227,435. The judge at Londonderry Crown Court sentenced him to four years for drug offences and 18 months for money laundering, totaling five and a half years. He has been in custody since October 2023. Trainor's arrest was part of a larger operation called Venetic, which targeted users of the EncroChat messaging service. This secret network was believed to be secure, but it was hacked by police in France and the Netherlands during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. The information gathered from this operation allowed law enforcement agencies to arrest numerous suspects in the UK. Trainor has a history of money laundering, having run a bureau de change business that facilitated millions in transactions for criminals. In the past, he was caught with large amounts of cash and linked to several criminal gangs, but he initially avoided a prison sentence in 2015. However, his latest offences brought more serious consequences.