"phone messages which proved he was the kingpin"
Aaqib Ali, aged 29, of Aston, Birmingham, was jailed for 10 years after he supplied cocaine and heroin on a commercial scale.
Police branded him a “key player” and he was said to make up to £3,000 a night just from selling cocaine.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that Ali supplied cocaine and heroin on a commercial scale on the streets after operating a County Lines network between Birmingham and Warwickshire.
In August 2021, the Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) executed warrants at addresses linked to Ali in Aston and Erdington.
At one of the addresses, Class A drugs were seized as well as £20,000 in cash and a phone Ali used for his drugs operation.
Police explained that a substantial amount of cocaine and heroin was discovered in Ali’s car.
When the phone was analysed, it was discovered that it had been registered in a false name.
Messages also revealed that Ali was running a drugs network.
One message claimed he was making around £2,800 a night from selling cocaine alone.
Ali pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.
The court heard that Ali had only been released from prison on licence in December 2020 after being convicted of other drug offences.
Ali was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After the case, Detective Constable Louise Ford, from the County Lines Taskforce at ROCU, said:
“There’s no doubt Ali was the one running this significant drugs supply chain.”
“There were vast phone messages which proved he was the kingpin and while he will have recruited others to help, he was the one coordinating it all.
“We’re confident we’ve managed to crush his network and remove a prominent drug dealer from our streets.
“It also shows that if you return to crime, you will be caught again, and face even more time behind bars.”
In a previous incident, a drug dealer’s operation was busted by two police officers who had been on their lunch break.
The officers had witnessed a deal take place near a Tesco Express on Constitution Hill, Birmingham, on February 5, 2021.
The off-duty officers had spotted two known drug users approach a parked car but the driver of the vehicle quickly drove off before they could be apprehended.
Meanwhile, both individuals were detained and police officers soon discovered that the pair had received text messages advertising heroin and crack cocaine for sale from a County Lines drug dealer.
Further enquiries found that Mohammed Nabeel had been the one responsible for sending the text messages.
A search warrant was executed at his flat.
Officers found drugs worth £2,000, £10,000 in cash and a kilo of cutting agent in his car.
Analysis of his phone revealed that he had sent over 5,000 bulk test messages advertising drugs for sale and received almost 6,000 orders between November 29, 2020, and March 9, 2021.
A video also showed him laughing and joking as he prepared the drug wraps in his kitchen.
Nabeel was jailed for four years and eight months.
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