County lines kingpin is jailed for using children as slaves to sell drugs
Conviction is the first of its kind after Mail exposed scandal
A CoUNTY lines drug dealer who ‘stole the childhoods’ of teenagers by recruiting them to sell crack and heroin was jailed yesterday in the first conviction of its kind in the UK.
Zakaria Mohammed, 21, trafficked his vulnerable victims more than 100 miles from their homes and used them as ‘expendable workhorses’ to work for him in squalid drug dens.
Police said the children were found in a ‘filthy’ one-bed flat with two class A drug users, surrounded by used syringes.
Detectives had launched an investigation when two missing 15-year- old boys from Birmingham were found living in desperate conditions at a flat in Lincoln. Three other boys were then found in another freezing flat.
Mohammed’s youngest victim was a girl of 14, although police believe as many as 10 children were involved in his dealing network, which was raking in £500 a day.
Detective Inspector Tom hadley, of West Midlands Police, said he groomed children to deal drugs with false promises of money and the allure of an exciting lifestyle.
he added: ‘ In reality the place was filthy, cold and there was no food in the kitchen. The children looked drawn, tired and hungry. They were not wearing new trainers or designer clothes, they didn’t have new phones or gadgets.
‘They were not making money – they were having their childhood stolen from them by Mohammed, who considered them expendable workhorses.’
Mohammed was jailed for 14 years at Birmingham Crown Court after admitting four counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply and five counts of human trafficking relating to three children.
West Midlands Police said it was the first time a force had secured child trafficking conviction in a county lines investigation using the Modern Slavery Act.
County lines refers to organised gangs extending their drug dealing network from big cities to rural areas, using dedicated mobile phone lines.
They often recruit children to sell drugs, moving them across counties into the homes of vulner- From the Mail, September 17 able people, often addicts, they have taken over – a practice known as cuckooing.
A Daily Mail investigation revealed the scale of the crisis last month, with the Children’s Commissioner estimating up to 50,000 children could be involved.
Writing for the paper Nazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor for northwest From the Mail, September 20 england, called it the biggest scandal since the Rochdale sex grooming gangs he had helped bring to justice in 2012.
Mohammed, of Aston in Birmingham, was caught after detectives began a surveillance operation which tracked his Seat Leon making regular trips to Lincoln, often accompanied by teenagers.
Police seized the vehicle for having no insurance in February and found a phone used to run the drugs line, known as ‘Castro’. It had more than 100 contacts on it.
School clothes belonging to a missing child were found in the car, while DNA on a drink bottle and carton matched two others.
Police continued to monitor Mohammed’s movements and found he booked regular £100 taxis for himself and children between Birmingham and Lincoln.
Lincolnshire Police then filmed covertly as children passed drugs to punters in front of garages and other secluded locations, completing deals every 10 or 15 minutes.
Searches of properties in Lincoln found 25 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine hidden in a washing machine, knives and £1,400 in cash.
Detective Constable Max Gebhard, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘This is a hugely significant conviction for West Midlands Police and law enforcement as a whole across the UK.
‘It shows we can go after county lines offenders not just for drug supply but also under trafficking legislation. And that means stiffer custodial sentences.’
‘Expendable workhorses’ SCANDAL OF THE ‘CHILD SLAVE’ DRUG RUNNERS ‘County lines’ child drug slaves are the biggest scandal since the Asian sex grooming gangs I sent to prison