An ex-footballer who was caught selling drugs after police realised the password he used on his encrypted phone was his former club was jailed for nine years this week.
Francis Ventre, who played for Barrow A.F.C., ‘played a leading role’ in the sale of cocaine and ketamine worth £500,000 on the streets of Liverpool, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
Ventre used an EncroChat phone, a heavily encrypted device used by criminals, to carry out his drug deals in 2020.
Later that year an international law enforcement team cracked into the platform, allowing police to read all of the messages on it.
Ventre was using EncroChat to offer his contacts cocaine and ketamine as well as to ask others to deliver the drugs while delivering some himself.
While Ventre was hiding behind the alias of ‘Dillforest’, the 63-year-old made investigators’ life easier by setting his password on the platform as ‘barrow’, his former club.
He shared his birthday, postcode and information about his relatives on what he thought was an encrypted network. He also sent pictures of the drugs he was selling and discussed how his clients could make payments.
This allowed the police to prove that Dillforest was the former Barrow AFC defender Francis Ventre.
Francis Ventre, 63, ‘played a leading role’ in the sale of cocaine and ketamine worth £500,000 on the streets of Liverpool, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said
Known as Franny Ventre, he joined then non-league side Barrow in March 1995
He supplied a kilogram of cocaine worth nearly £40,000 and 63kg of ketamine, worth £441,000, according to the NCA.
He was arrested in November last year and admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and ketamine and conspiracy to convert criminal property, a money laundering offence at Liverpool Crown Court on 10 December 2025.
NCA Senior Manager Jon Hughes from the Merseyside Organised Crime Partnership said: ‘It was clear from Dillforest’s messages that he was playing a leading role in the sale of cocaine and ketamine, two drugs which are extremely harmful and a terrible blight on communities.
‘My officers spent countless hours sifting through messages to painstakingly piece together clues to Dillforest’s real-world identity, eventually uncovering Francis Ventre as the man behind the alias.
‘The investigators’ hard work has ensured that Ventre is in prison, and not out in Liverpool, still selling, delivering and profiting from drugs.’
Ventre, who is known as Franny Ventre, is from Liverpool. He joined the then non-league side Barrow in March 1995. He made a total of 27 appearances for the club without scoring.
He played on the right side of defence but struggled to make an impact on the side. He only started three games in the 1996 season.
But Ventre eventually managed the club as a caretaker before staying on in a management role until 1998.
He also played in other non-league teams such as Bootle, Vauxhall GM, Skelmersdale United, Burscough and Morecambe.
Barrow A.F.C. is now a professional football club based in Cumbria. The clubs plays in EFL League Two.