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County lines in the drug networks

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“County lines” is a violent and exploitative form of drug distribution. A common feature of county lines is the exploitation of children, young people and vulnerable adults who are instructed to deliver and/or store drugs, and associated money or weapons, to dealers or drug users, locally or in other counties.


The line refers to the particular mobile number used to send bulk messages advertising drugs to hundreds. Operating networks will exploit vulnerable people to perform street deals or cuckoo their homes to use as drug bases.



Case Studies

  • Saed Ali was behind the AA line peddling heroin and cocaine across the midlands. Police uncovered the operation when raided a house in Nuneaton which was cuckooed. He admitted supplying heroin and crack cocaine and was jailed for five years and six months.

  • Lee Sheldon Carr ran the AKBG line transporting cocaine and Heroin from Birmingham to Leominster, Herefordshire. He took over the home of an addict to use a base for the operation. Police seized 2000 when they searched him home in chestnut road, Mosley. Convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and sentenced to six years.

  • Devonn Weston and Blake Sharpe ran six drug lines controlling vulnerable people to visits other towns and supply illegal substances. Two of the lines referred to as Alex and Nunny. Tamworth, Nuneaton and Welsh village of landrindod wells were amongst the locations the pair targeted. Admittedly conspiracy to supply class A drugs. Sharpe was sentenced to six years. Weston was sentenced to six years and eight months.

  • Martin Kamesa was caught trafficking drugs for the CJ line from Birmingham to Kent. He was identified as the runner. He admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin. He was sentenced to three years and nine months.

  • The Kano line was referenced after a gang were jailed for more then 45 years in total for pedalling £250,000 worth of drugs from Coventry to other destinations around the Uk. Levi pollard Merson ran the line which was named as the CJ name. He exploited addicts used to carry out deals and cuckooed homes of vulnerable people to use as supply bases. He was arrested with a one year old baby in his car along with cocaine and heroin.

  • The KD line drug gang peddled cocaine and heroin into Birmingham and Worcester converting their cash into gold bars. Ahmed Kadoora ran the eponymous operation and was found with a Rolex worth £32,000. He converted the money whilst Faisal Qazi collected the cash and supplied the substances to Faraz Rehman and Sohain Kassim who ran store houses. They were jailed for a combined 50 years.

  • Henna Ashraf is the first woman to be convicted of running a West Midlands county lines operation. She supplied cocaine and heroin into Devon. She had a habit of flaunting her cash on Snapchat and splashing out in London exclusive Knightsbridge. She was convicted of supplying of cocaine and heroin, and was sentenced to three and a half years.

  • Shadrach Tapper ran the Marlow line flooded drugs into Redditch. Address at a vulnerable drug user in the Worcestershire town. Arresting his detectives he was in charge of the lucrative supply line. Concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin, and was sentenced to five years and seven months.

  • Joshua Wilson ran the MZ county drugs line from Hall Green. Making 6000 deals in six months. He used vulnerable users to carry out street deals whilst he remained in the background. He changed the drugs line number four times as he served 150 or so customers but was still caught. He was sentenced to nine years after admitted supplying class A drugs.

  • Giovanni cooper-Clarke and kyden Williams-Parchment ran a county lines operation supplying drugs from Birmingham into Stratford upon Avon. They recruited others to do their drugs line work. It is estimated that they made between £60,00 and £140,000. They were convicted of drug offences and sentenced to nine years each.

  • Mohammed Arslan Ali ran the Shak line supplying illegal substances from Birmingham to Worcestershire. He even took the drugs phone to Alton Towers on one occasion. Henna would send out bulk messages to more then 100 people including adverts which said new fire gear. The police had found drugs, dealers bags, cash and high value clothes and jewellery despite him not having a legitimate source of income. He admitted to supplying drugs and was sentenced to five years.

  • Reshea Bell and Mathias Esheyigba were the shopfront for the drugs network known as the T line. Police seized up to £10,000 worth of cocaine as well as cash and Rolex. When they raided Esheyigba property they found the same clothes he had been wearing when CCTV captured him topping up the drugs phone. They admitted bring in the supply of crack heroin and crack cocaine. Newtown pleaded guilty to an additional offence of possession with intent to supply cocaine and was sentenced to five years. Esheyigba was sentenced to four years and one month.


In total, from July 2024 up to March 2025, policing activity through the County Lines Programme taskforces has resulted in over:

  • 1,225 county lines closed

  • 808 line holders charged

  • 2,038 individuals arrested

  • 2,192 individuals referred by police to safeguarding partners


As part of the Safer Streets Mission, the government has committed to £42 million investment in the County Lines Programme in 2025 and 2026 to continue to tackle county lines and the associated violence and exploitation.


Prosecution:

Prosecutors should assess the level of the role of suspects in an offence.  A person organising a cuckooing operation is likely to fall within a leading role. Those who operate as a local manager or enforcer of a drug supply operation of that sort would also fall within a leading role - see R v Ajayi ; R v Limby[2017] EWCA Crim 1011. Those who do not fall within a leading role but who are involved in the process of cuckooing would ordinarily fall into a significant role.

Prosecutors should note that in R v Nixon (Omori Tevon-Te) [2021] EWCA Crim 575, the Court of Appeal found that sentence was unduly lenient and sentencing for the drugs conspiracy on the one hand and the counts of trafficking on the other hand should be reached in isolation from each other, although at the end it is possible to look at the question of totality.  The prosecutor will identify to the court the factors which may define the offending as serious organised crime, for example the use of violence and / or firearms, kidnap, and ruthless debt control. The prosecutor will, where appropriate, identify to the court the aggravating features of trafficking and slavery for the purpose of sentencing.


Until the next Legal Thought


Elicia Maxwell


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