Five men from Hackney who sold drugs in Cambridgeshire via two ‘county lines’ were sentenced to over 36 years’ imprisonment, yesterday, Friday, 21 September at Wood Green Crown Court.
Rashayne Hunter, 20 of Evelyn Court, Amhurst Road in Hackney was previously found guilty of two counts of conspiring to supply a class A drug (heroin and crack cocaine). Yesterday he was sentenced to ten years and six months’ imprisonment.
The men, who all have links to a street gang in Hackney, sold the drugs in Peterborough and Huntingdon via dedicated phone lines nicknamed ‘Ricki’ and ‘TJ’.
They were arrested following a nine-month long investigation by the Central Gangs Unit, part of the Met’s Trident and Area Crime Command.
Jodeci Ofulue was arrested on 2 November 2017 as he approached an abandoned vehicle in Hawksbill Way in Peterborough. When police attempted to stop him he ran away, dropping his keys and the mobile phone controlling the ‘Ricki’ line. Police found nearly £14,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine, scales and used latex gloves in the car.
The other men were arrested at their home addresses on 1 March this year.
Detectives used phone analysis and police surveillance to link each man to the drug dealing network, demonstrating contact between the defendants’ phones, the two ‘deal lines’ and local drug users in Cambridgeshire, as well as the locations of the deal lines and the defendants’ personal phones.
During the course of the investigation, drugs with a street value in excess of £17,000 were seized, along with designer clothing, jewellery, cash in excess of £25,000 and a watch valued at over £20,000, which had previously been reported as stolen.
DS Gary Clarke of Trident’s Central Gangs Unit, said: “This was a complex investigation into a lucrative ‘county line’ drugs network, operating between Hackney and Cambridgeshire. Drug dealers prey on local users and use violence and intimidation, bringing with them misery and violent crime to local communities. These sentences demonstrate just how seriously the criminal justice system is taking the issue of county lines drugs rings.”
MetPolice News Desk
