Members of 'complex' County Lines gang who sent children to 'trap houses' to deal drugs are jailed
A drugs gang who recruited children to sell crack and heroin have been jailed for 30 years.
After cornering the Wolverhampton and Stafford drugs market the gang opened up new drug lines in Corby, Northamptonshire and as far as Scotland.
Brian Asante, 23, from Canberra Drive, Stafford, would threaten and bribe vulnerable children to sell drugs for him in "trap houses" in towns, leaving them vulnerable to attack from rival drug dealers.
Jailing Asante for 13 years and four months at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Judge Simon Ward told him exploiting children was the lowest of the low.
Asante admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine but denied child exploitation. However, after a five-week trial in July he was found guilty after the jury was shown a flurry of Snapchat messages sent to one child. Police officers also revealed they intercepted one child before he was sent to a trap house.
He said: "You used children to be drug dealers, you exposed children to the dangerous world of drug dealers, they could have been attacked. You use children to insulate yourself from the danger of the police. However, I do have to take into consideration that you were 20 years old at the time so not that much older than your victims."
Asante, along with his associates, who were also sentenced by Judge Ward, created "a complex network of dealers" who used two lucrative phone lines, AB and Jay, which customers would ring for crack and heroin.
It took teamwork between four police forces - West Midlands, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire and Police Scotland - to bring the gang to justice for their criminality between February and September 2021. When police arrested Asante at his home in Canberra Drive, Stafford, they found SIM cards and phones used for the AB and Jay lines.
Coining it in from drug lines across the country, Asante could not stop himself flaunting his ill gotten gains - police found pictures of him posing next to piles of cash.
Judge Ward told Asante: "This was drug dealing on a commercial scale - the amount of employees, the different towns means it was bigger than an equivalent corner shop. I am sentencing you to 13 years and four months.
"When you get out of jail, hopefully it will have made a difference.
"However, I have to agree with the prosecution and police in their wish you be placed on licence for longer than the normal length of the sentence."
Judge Ward jailed Simon McTaggart, 38 of Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, for six years and 11 months after he was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
He said: "You were involved in this operation across its various locations. I understand you stopped being involved before the police investigation but that is not the point."
Others jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court included Maurice Reid, 55, of The Cloisters, Burton-upon-Trent, jailed for six years and 10 months after being convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine; James Carroll, 46, of Dumble Close, Corby, Northamptonshire, jailed for two years and two months after being convicted of facilitating travel for a child for the purpose of exploitation and Alicia Cox, 25, of Wesley Road, Bilbrook, South Staffordshire, handed a 20-month sentence, suspended for 24 months after being convicted of assisting an organised crime group by transporting a child for the purpose of selling drugs.
Other members of the gang will be sentenced at a future date. Meghan Lawrence, 21 of Manitoba Croft, Birmingham, was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine; Emma Gill, 42, of Convent Close, Wolverhampton, was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine; Dhillon Swarn, 20, of Moat Road, Walsall, was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and Gulam Izdani, 22 of Luddesdown Road, Swindon, was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.