Police worker drove boyfriend around city to deal drugs
Woman was criminal records officer for force
ACIVILIAN West Midlands Police worker helped her drug-dealing boyfriend by driving him around Birmingham as he supplied users.
Police secretly recorded conversations between Cherelle Ying and Derrick Dixon during an operation that lasted eight months.
In one conversation Ying told Dixon: “It’s like nobody can stop your flow anyway, babes.”
Prosecutors told Birmingham Crown Court that this indicated Ying was familiar with Dixon’s pattern of drug-dealing.
Dixon, 42, of Stoneyhurst Road, Erdington, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis and three charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, was jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Ying, 35, of Grindleford Road, Great Barr, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis, was jailed for 17 months, suspended for 21 months.
The court heard Ying was a criminal records officer with West Midlands Police since March 2008.
In July 2019, she became part of the Prevent team within the Counter-Terrorism Unit and had a flexible working pattern.
Harpreet Sandhu, prosecuting, said Ying drove a black Mercedes and she and Dixon had been in a relationship.
He said Dixon was actively involved in the supply of drugs from February last year.
Mr Sandhu told the court: “He was assisted in the supply of cannabis
by Ying. Much of Dixon’s drug supply took place in Erdington, Birmingham.”
The court heard that ‘in particular, Dixon used an alleyway to the rear of a flat on Station Road, Erdington, to deal drugs’.
Mr Sandhu said that was backed up by footage taken between June 30 and July 8.
Mr Sandhu said: “It showed Dixon engaging in hand-to-hand drugs exchanges.
“Ying drove Dixon to Erdington on a frequent basis. She waited for him whilst he supplied cannabis.
“She drove to other locations in Birmingham so that he could supply cannabis. She was fully aware of his cannabis-dealing activities.”
Mr Sandhu said that Ying also supplied cannabis to a friend of hers directly, that she did so frequently, and that it came from her boyfriend.
Between dates in June and
August conversations between the two were recorded, including while they were in the Mercedes While on a call to her friend, Ying told her that she was “out and about” and her friend responded by saying: “I was looking for a meal deal” – a reference to drugs.
Both defendants were eventually arrested when the Mercedes was stopped on Bracebridge Road on August 26.
When Dixon was strip-searched police recovered 30 wraps of heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine.
Alex Di Francesco, mitigating for Ying, said she was of previous good character and although the operation had generated money she had not benefited.
She had been employed as a civilian worker by the police for 12 years and had also worked as a sales assistant for 15 years.
He said Ying had been used by Dixon and that it was a “poisonous relationship”.
Benjamin Williams, mitigating for Dixon, said his client had worked as a cleaner and organised events but became unemployed during lockdown, led an aimless life, and developed a class A drug habit.
Judge Roderick Henderson said the couple had been observed dealing cannabis 28 times but told Ying he did not believe her former employment was an aggravating feature.
He said Dixon had been the “leader” in what happened.
Judge Henderson said: “You are both mature people who took a deliberate decision to deal in cannabis.”