Dozens of dealers have been locked up in 2024 after they flooded neighbourhoods in the West Midlands with hard drugs. Many of them will have thought they were too smart to be caught, but their involvement in county lines dealing eventually proved to be their downfall.
County lines dealing usually involves gangs exploiting vulnerable people, often youngsters, and coercing them into dealing narcotics across the country. The name comes from dealers using mobile phone ‘lines’ to carry out their illegal activities.
Dealers use mules to transport drugs from one area to another, across town and city boundaries, and drug lines usually have distinctive names. For example, two dealers were jailed in October for their involvement in lines named after famous boxers: AJ, Bruno and Frank.
READ MORE: Birmingham county lines gangs who crumbled including family-run affair and cash flaunting thugs
But they were just two of many dealers jailed in the West Midlands this year. Read on to find out more about some of the most brazen drug gangs to blight the region’s streets:
‘AJ, Bruno and Frank’ lines in Staffordshire
Two dealers – including a Birmingham man – were jailed in October after three drugs lines named after famous boxers were shut down in Staffordshire. Police raided ten separate addresses simultaneously in Burton-on-Trent in April this year.
Officers found £20,000-worth of heroin and crack cocaine and mobile phones linked to dealing. The raids came in the wake of months of police investigation into men and women linked to county lines operating in Staffordshire.
The Bruno Line, AJ Line, and Frank Line drug operations were all shut down. The raids led to several people, including Joseph During and Christopher Zama, both 23, being charged.
Zama, of Gravelly Hill, Birmingham, was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and heroin and possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin. During, of no fixed address, was locked up for six years after admitting the same offences. He also received a three-month prison term, to run consecutively, after pleading guilty to possession of a knife or blade in a public place.
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Jailed: Christopher Zama (left) and Joseph During (right)
(Image: Staffordshire Police)
‘Turk’ line in Birmingham and Coventry
A gang who ran the ‘Turk’ line which saw Birmingham and Coventry flooded with Class-A drugs were handed huge jail sentences this year. The drug racket operated across Coventry between December 2022 and August 2023 and distributed to locations across the country.
The gang would use cars to deal drugs from, registering them under the false alias of ‘Florentin Iosif’ at various addresses, to avoid journeys used to drop off the drugs ever being linked back to them. Jyad Mohammedi, Walid Houssain, Zewar Younes, Sarwat Ahmed and Shahram Karimi were jailed for a combined total of more than 42 years for their involvement in supplying crack cocaine and heroin.
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A gang who flooded the West Midlands with crack cocaine and heroin have been jailed for more than 40 years. Pictured: Jyad Mohammedi, Walid Houssain, Zewar Younes
A gang who flooded the West Midlands with crack cocaine and heroin have been jailed for more than 40 years. Pictured: From L-R: Sarwat Ahmed and Shahram Karimi
(Image: West Midlands Police)
‘King’ line between Sutton Coldfield and Erdington
Three drug dealers were jailed in October for their involvement in the ‘King’ line which ran between Sutton Coldfield and Erdington. Zeeshan Hussain, Zoheeb Asghar and Qasim Akhtar were rumbled after officers seized mobile phones, weapons and packets of Class-A drugs.
On December 12, traffic officers stopped a car on Bradford Road, Birmingham, after it was seen being driven suspiciously. The driver was 38-year-old Akhtar, and his passenger was Asghar, aged 35.
A mobile phone was found in the car which was later analysed and found to have the same phone number as the King line. An axe was also seized from the vehicle and a search of the area revealed a number of packets containing Class-A drugs, believed to have been dumped from the car.
Police raided Hussain’s address in Birmingham where he was arrested and a number of packets, like the ones found at the roadside, were seized and found to contain crack cocaine and heroin All three were convicted of supplying crack cocaine and heroin and were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday October 11.
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Three drug dealers have been jailed after West Midlands Police dismantled a drugs line between Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield. Pictured: From L-R: Zeeshan Hussain, Zoheeb Asghar and Qasim Akhtar
(Image: West Midlands Police)
‘Faz’ line
Five relatives in a Birmingham family were locked up for running a drugs line through Alum Rock. The five, including three brothers, were convicted of operating the ‘Faz’ drugs line.
The line caused misery across communities in Birmingham after being set up in 2021, with West Midlands Police saying the Fazal brothers showed “no remorse”. Siblings Fazal Wahab, Fazal Akbar and Fazal Elahi were convicted alongside two others for their roles in supplying cocaine and heroin. All five defendants were sentenced together on October 4 at Birmingham Crown Court.
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Pictured from bottom left: Fazal Wahab, top: Fazal Elahi and bottom right: Fazal Akbar
(Image: West Midlands Police)
County lines dealer jailed after fleeing country
A county lines drug dealer who fled the country in an attempt to evade justice was finally locked up earlier this year. Mohammed Ramzan was the head of an organised crime group, who had direct control of others involved in the supply of Class-A drugs in and around of Telford.
The 48-year-old was found guilty several drugs-related charges in March this year. He was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine, being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine, being concerned in money laundering, two counts of converting criminal property and dangerous driving.
Ramzan ,of Princess Avenue in Arleston, failed to attend court, but was sentenced to 16-years in his absence. However he appeared before Shrewsbury Crown Court on Wednesday, November 27, where he was sent to prison to begin his lengthy spell behind bars.
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Mohammed Ramzan
‘AB and Jay’ lines
Nine people were convicted in the summer for their part in a county lines drug gang. The group helped to flood parts of the West Midlands with heroine and cocaine.
And their ringleader, Brian Asante, was convicted of using children to help move and supply drugs and child exploitation. The 23-year-old admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and after a five-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
Others were convicted of charges including conspiracy to supply heroin and crack-cocaine, assisting an organised crime group by transporting a child for the purpose of selling drugs and facilitating travel for a child for the purpose of exploitation.
The group ran drugs lines known as the AB Line and the Jay Line. Asante ran his criminal business from Wolverhampton and Stafford. He was assisted with his drug dealing business by eight co-conspirators who lived across the West Midlands, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire and Wiltshire.
Between them, they ran supply lines of drugs between February and September 2021, using mobile phones as contact points for customers. These county lines operated outside the West Midlands with one supplying drugs into Kettering, Corby and Peterborough and the second which operated primarily to serve Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire.
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Asante pictured next to a stash of cash
(Image: West Midlands Police)
How do county lines work?
Typically, drugs lines are run from mobile phone network lines, used to pump out bulk advertising messages to thousands of people at a time. Dealers then use mules to transport drugs from one area to another, across town and city boundaries.
It is almost always children or vulnerable people that have been coerced by gangs that are used to transport the illegal drugs. The ‘county line’ itself is the mobile phone line used to take the orders of drugs.
The National Crime Agency has warned that in the areas where the drugs are taken to there are increased reports of violence and weapons-related crimes. In January 2024, West Midlands Police set up a county lines taskforce to crack down on dealing.
West Midlands Police said on October 7 that they have arrested 130 and charged 119 people for county lines offences since the start of the year. You can read our full report on that here.