Drug dealer on benefits: Wolverhampton crook's lavish lifestyle ends as he is jailed for 14 years
A drug dealer who claimed benefits while dressing in designer clothes was jailed for 14 years today after police seized drugs and £20,000 in his car.
Ishmail Lee, from Wolverhampton, claimed to be a mobile barber, but was actually running a drugs supply operation across teh West Midlands, police said today.
Lee, aged 29 from Leicester Street, Whitmore Reans, was arrested in March this year. Police found thousands of pounds worth of designer gear, as well as the cash and cocaine worth £2,000.
He has now been convicted of two counts of conpsiracy to supply cocaine and heroin following a trial lasting a week at Birmingham Crown Court.
Police say he was connected to Reial Phillips, 20, from Musgrave Road, Winson Green, who was jailed for 27 years this month, after he admitted his part in a series of turf war shootings across Birmingham city centre.
A total of eight people were injured.
Both men were believed to be working with Lee in his drugs conspiracy, police said.
Phillips was at the heart of a series of shootings across the city in 2015, Birmingham Crown Court heard, that were part of an on-going feud between rival gangs in the city.
It escalated when members of opposing factions uploaded rap videos online to taunt one another.
Speaking about Lee's case, Det Ch Insp Paul Joyce from Force CID said: "This conviction should send out a very clear message that the perceived glamorous world of drug dealing will eventually catch up with you.
"This sentence demonstrates that selling drugs and the misery that it brings has no place in our communities and the police will go to whatever lengths necessary convict those responsible."
