Jailed, girl who took control of a county lines gang at age of 18
A YOUNG woman who wrenched control of a county lines drug gang when she was still a teenager has been jailed.
Saleha Saed was just 18 when she took over the Fat Boy line, which brought huge amounts of heroin and crack cocaine into a seaside town.
She caused misery and fear in the wider community by recruiting youngsters and trafficking people to take part in the operation. Evidence of her iron rule was apparent in a message she sent to the ex-lover she ousted as kingpin, boasting: ‘ You’re deluding yourself that the line is yours when it is truly mine.’
Saed, now 21, was jailed for five years after admitting two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs between July 2021 and June 2022 and arranging or facilitating the travel of a person with a view to exploitation.
She will serve the time in a young offenders’ institution because she was so young when she committed the offences, Norwich Crown Court heard.
The Fat Boy line brought 3kg of heroin and crack from London to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Those who took orders from her included her latest boyfriend, Nathan Si, 21, from London, and
‘Bringing in one of the young ones’
Tremayne Ndikumana, 20, from Essex, who were jailed last year.
Saed’s links to human trafficking were uncovered by a police probe after her arrest in 2022 which found messages including an order about ‘bringing in one of the young ones’.
Gordon Carse, defending, said Saed, originally from east London, had herself been exploited into joining the operation, adding that she ‘did not set up this line... she stepped into it and was groomed to do so’. County lines involves gangs coercing youngsters to supply drugs from cities into outlying areas.