GUILTY Fasal Mahamud

like a horrible nightmare I couldn’t wake up from.” Malika was driven to secret locations to exchange the bags for wads of cash before being driven back to the house where she was kept alive on scraps of food. Talking of how the County Lines model operates she said: “Orders were given on a cheap mobile phone, so whenever it would ring I knew I’d be driven out to different places. “They were in alleys or sometimes people would come to the house and I’d have to pull bags out of my insides. “They would hand over lots of money, tens and twenties rolled up. When they finished dealing they would get a takeaway and bring it back to the house and give me the leftovers.” She added: “I remember being really hungry all the time and missing my family. I thought I’d never see them again and that I’d die in that house.” Malika said the boy and girl were also forced to sell the drugs.

But unknown to Malika, police had hacked into her Facebook and social media accounts when her university reported her missing.

They sent a special team to rescue her and the teenagers, who by then had been kept in the house against their will for nine days.

She said: “There was a bang at the door and suddenly the police were inside and asking me what my name was. I was just so happy to be out of that house.”

Muhamad was jailed for ten years and his right-hand man Yusuf was sentenced to nine years for people trafficking and conspiracy to sell class A drugs.

The twisted pair were also made the subject of a 20-year Slavery Trafficking Prevention Order, the first since the Modern Slavery Act 2015 was brought in.

But today police fear there are 900 similar County Lines networks operating in the UK.