An evil Birmingham gang supplying heroin, cocaine and cannabis on an “industrial scale” in a sophisticated drug dealing operation have been jailed for a total of 101 years.
The Handsworth-based network even sent out text messages advertising their products and used a chain of phones with dedicated names such as ‘The T Line’ to take orders from addicts.Kingpin Shaymas Ulhaq managed the group of drug runners and a string cannabis farms.
One of the drugs factories produced a yield worth £150,000 from the back of the Euro Tyres premises in Winster Grove, Erdington.
When West Midlands Police officers stopped the 32-year-old in a car in July 2014 he was wearing a diamond encrusted ring and a jewel-laden Audemars Piguet watch, while £1,000 in cash was found in one of his pockets. He claimed to be a successful car dealer – but analysis of his phone showed regular contact with other numbers linked to the drugs cartel, including texts issuing orders and instructions showing he was directing the enterprise.
Detectives later carried out a series of car stops and house raids netting drugs, dealer paraphernalia and a haul of phones. During one of the raids police discovered 50 wraps of heroin and blocks of crack cocaine at a home of one of the gang members.
Ulhaq, who was found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine and cannabis, was jailed for 18 years at Birmingham Crown Court.
Accomplices Masoud Ali, 32, of Wills Street, Lozells, and 22-year-old Mohammed Rahman-Harries, of Brunswick Road, Handsworth, admitted the same offences and were handed sentences of 11 and nine years respectively.
Brothers 35-year-old Narinder and Sandeep Kandola, 34, of Stanmore Road, Edgbaston, and pal Azim Thakur, 30, of Cuthbern Road, Winson Green, were imprisoned for 12, 11 and 10 years having been found guilty of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
