A drugs and firearms trafficker was caught up in a brawl which saw a man stabbed in a Liverpool city centre shoe shop.
Terence Clarke had contacts around the globe and boasted he was the "best in Liverpool" at producing crack cocaine. He bragged of having armed himself with an AK47 assault rifle and offered a Skorpion submachine gun and an Uzi up for sale via encrypted communications platform EncroChat, while also running county lines supply chains across England and Wales.
After being rumbled as the man behind the secret identity "SacredTruck", the dad now says he wants to bring to an end his decades of involvement in the criminal underworld. Clarke will first have to serve a lengthy prison term, which he was handed last week.
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The ECHO can now reveal his previous convictions include a previous plot to supply heroin and crack, as well as a vicious Christmas Eve melee. On this occasion, he was one of three thugs who set upon De Vere Ogungboro in the crowded Size? store on Bold Street on December 24 2013.
Liverpool Crown Court would later hear in 2015 that terrified customers watched on as then 26-year-old Clarke, his younger brother Carl Clarke and Sean Cleaver, both aged 21, punched their victim before one of the gang pulled out a knife and stabbed him twice to the chest. He was rushed to Royal Liverpool Hospital after suffering a collapsed lung.
Paul Becker, prosecuting, described how Mr Ogungboro had gone into the footwear store with his 17-year-old nephew at around 12pm before the "prolonged attack" occurred by the tills. He was said to have been "uncooperative with the police" following the incident, and it could not be "easily identified who was doing what in the attack" – including which defendant was the knifeman.
Terence Clarke, then of Beechtree Road in Wavertree, and Cleaver, of Moscow Drive in Old Swan, were jailed for 12 months each for affray while Carl Clarke, also of Beechtree Road, was handed 13 months after admitting affray and a bail offence. Judge Alan Conrad QC described the assault as "clearly an organised attack", adding in his sentencing remark: "This took place in a crowded shop when there was a number of terrified customers."
Clarke then appeared before Warrington Crown Court the following year after becoming involved in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine in Widnes. Recorder Guy Mathieson sentenced both him and 20-year-old co-defendant Jake Garry, of Middle Road in London, to three years and eight months after they pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.
A 17-year-old boy was also sentenced to two years and eight months. James Coutts, prosecuting, told the court the defendants were arrested by police at two "high end luxury apartments" in Liverpool in February 2016.
Searches uncovered 9g of cannabis, 21g of heroin and 10g of cocaine as well as items including snap bags and scales. A small camping stove with traces of cocaine, said to have confirmed the "cooking process" of the drug, was found in the second flat while £5,466 in cash was recovered from "in and around the apartment in a number of different locations".
Liverpool Crown Court then heard on Thursday, October 26, that the now 35-year-old was identified as the user of the Sacred Truck handle when the network was infiltrated by law enforcement in 2020. Nicola Daley, prosecuting, described how Clarke, of Lichfield Road in Wavertree, was shown to have involved himself in "arrangements for the supply of illegal drugs and the potential sale or transfer of lethal weapons and ammunition".
He was said to have been "told about various items", the details of which he had then "passed on to others". These weapons included assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, with a Skorpion being offered for £12,000 and an Uzi submachine gun being priced at £9,000.
However, Ms Daly stated there had been no evidence of a "direct transfer taking place". But Clarke himself had claimed in his messages to other service users that he was the owner of an AK47.
He was described during a trial earlier this year as an "astute, well-organised, careful drug dealer", while he told jurors that he had "been involved in buying and selling drugs for 20 years" and said he was "the best person in Liverpool at turning cocaine into crack cocaine". His involvement in the trade saw him "purchase wholesale quantity of drugs" before "breaking them down for onward supply".
Clarke was found to have operated "county lines supplies throughout England and Wales", while he also discussed having "connections in Scotland" and a network of safehouses in which drugs were packaged and stored. The father to a 14-year-old daughter meanwhile acted as a "broker" between buyers and sellers in deals for larger quantities of illicit substances.
His messages showed discussions concerning the sale of 15kg of cocaine, 1kg of crack cocaine, 19kg of heroin and 60kg of cannabis. Clarke was also involved in the "movement of large quantities of cash", with his various transactions seeing him pay out more than £200,000.
He had a total of 26 other handles stored on his Encro phone, and was shown to have been in communication with 20 of these. These contacts "appeared to have been based around the world, including those involved in the importation of drugs into the UK".
Clarke was arrested on February 7 this year. Under interview, he admitted to detectives that he had "been a drug dealer historically" but "denied being part of any ongoing large scale dealing".
His criminal records include a total of eight previous convictions for 13 offences. These include receiving 21 months in a young offenders' institute as a 17-year-old in 2005 for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, four years for the same offence in 2016 and a prison sentence for affray in 2015.
Jeremy Rawson, defending, told the court: "He has learned his lesson. He realises that there will be a long separation from his family as a result. He is determined never to darken the door of the courts again. He has a number of previous convictions, and they do him no favours at all.
"He left school very early. He drifted in and out of middling jobs and then resorted, ultimately, in a return to drugs, drug use and drug sales. It is significant that he was not an armourer. He did not take possession of any weapons, and no weapons were transferred or used in any criminal activity.
"He is bright and he is articulate. He is realistic.
"The sentence he is going to get today is going to be devastating. When he is released, he is going to be in his middle age."
Clarke – who held his head in his hands at times during the hearing – admitted conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and cannabis and was found guilty of conspiracy to sell or transfer prohibited firearms and ammunition by a jury. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool, he was jailed for 26 years.
Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool Judge Andrew Menary KC said: "As a result of diligent police work, you were linked to the EncroChat username SacredTruck. Using this device, you were arranging the supply of significant quantities of illegal drugs, and the potential sale and transfer of multiple lethal prohibited firearms with compatible ammunition.
"Messages show that you were purchasing wholesale quantities of class A and B drugs, and then breaking these quantities for onward supply. The officer in the case who gave evidence during the firearms trial described you as an astute, well-organised and careful drug dealer, as plainly you were.
"When giving evidence yourself, you admitted as much – describing how you had been involved in buying and selling drugs for 20 years, that that was how you made your money and that you were the best person in Liverpool at turning cocaine into crack cocaine, something you did for associates for a fee. It seems from the messages and your own evidence that you were operating your own county lines operations in numerous locations across England and Wales, with some activity also in Scotland.
"You also acted as a broker, moving on larger quantities. You had multiple other EncroChat handles stored in your device, with an association with other criminals around the world – including those involved in the importation of drugs into the UK.
"If all of that was not bad enough, the messages also revealed a determined effort by you to sell and transfer or arrange the sale and transfer of very serious firearms. Drugs may have been your principle trade, but when the opportunity presented itself you at least pretended to others that you owned an AK47 assault rifle, no doubt to give yourself credibility if that wasn't true.
"You spoke of acquiring a van to stash drugs and guns. When you were sent lists of guns and ammunition for sale, you actively sought to negotiate prices and do deals with others – including giving an indication that you would buy a serious weapon if it was available.
"The weapons being offered were assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns, including a Skorpion machine gun being offered for £12,000 and an Uzi submachine gun for £9,000. Bearing in mind the nature of the commodities being discussed in these messages, be they drugs or guns, and the abject misery and devastation that is caused by this trade in this city and across the country, the tone of these messages is remarkably mundane.
"That is because despite the highly criminal nature of these discussions, despite the items involved – hard drugs and lethal weapons – and despite the profits being made and the high stakes for which you were playing, you and those you were conspiring with thought that your activities would never come to light. You were plainly playing a leading role.
"The offending is significantly aggravated by your past offending. The reality is that these periods of detention were just interruptions in your otherwise continuous trade of selling drugs over many years.
"You were either a potential purchaser yourself or attempting to facilitate the transfer of firearms for gain. There is no clear evidence that any firearm was actually supplied.
"The separation from your family will, I accept, be devastating for you and them. I am prepared to accept that life for you may not have been easy, but you have had a number of chances to alter your behaviour.
"I have no doubt that when facing prison terms in the past, you have said similar things. I hope that now you have resolved to adopt a different life when you are finally released."
Clarke could now be ordered to repay his ill-gotten gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act and will be brought back before the same court next year. He was also handed a serious crime prevention order, which will begin upon his release and last for five years.
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