County Lines dealer flooded Hereford with Class A drugs

Bodrul Islam, from Newham in east London, ran the ‘Dee Line’ which dealt around £200,000 worth of Class A drugs a year onto the city's streets.

Bodrul Islam ran the ‘Dee Line’ netting yearly sales of up to £200,000

West Midlands Police said he recruited couriers − friends of his from the capital − to run drugs into Hereford where street level dealers did the dirty work on Islam’s behalf.

The force's regional organised crime unit worked alongside West Mercia Police and found Islam, 31, made frequent train trips to Birmingham’s Grand Central station where he restocked drug couriers and pocketed cash profits.

Islam at Grand Central after shopping for designer clothes

Police raided Islam’s home in Earlham Grove on February 9, 2018, and found him with the main drugs hotline plus thousands of pounds in cash.

Police added they had found advertising text messages sent from the line to at least 68 Hereford drug users, and it's estimated the Dee Line pumped up to 2kg of heroin and crack cocaine into Hereford.

London men Ramone Parkins, 22, Jeffrey Akyaa, 28, and Dylan Creffield-Foster, 20, all acted as couriers moving drugs from the Birmingham handover point into the cathedral city.

Fellow Londoners Michael Fadeyibi, 22, and Raylan Joseph-Wright, 21, coordinated supply activity in Hereford.

Then there was Hereford men Joshua Juson, 28, Harry Oakley-Davies, 21, Scott Lewis, 40, and Anthony Fish, 39, who all acted as street dealers for Islam.

The dealers used the homes of Gemma Peach, 33, Simon Matthews, 48, and Peter Neil, 40, as ‘safe houses’ from where the dealers co-ordinated their activity.

All 13 were charged with conspiring to supply Class A drugs; most admitted their roles with but Islam and Fadeyibi denied involvement.

However, Islam entered a guilty plea midway through a trial which started last month at Worcester Crown Court and Fadeyibi was found guilty by a jury.

And at the same court yesterday (Friday) Islam was jailed for 11 years.

Couriers Parkins (left) and Akyaa (centre) were both handed four-year terms − the latter sentenced in his absence as he failed to appear at court − while Creffield-Foster was jailed for three years on top of a three year sentence he’s already serving for a firearms offence in London.

Parkins, Akyaa and Creffield-Foster

Joseph-Wright (left) was imprisoned for three-and-a-half years, Lewis (centre) for three years and Fadeyibi − who’s only recently been released from prison for a similar drugs crime − for 12 months.

Joseph-Wright, Lewis and Fadeyibi

Neil and Oakley-Davies were both given suspended jail sentences for their roles, while Juson, Fish, Peach, and Matthews will all be sentenced later this month.

The convictions are the latest in a series of successes for a West Midlands and West Mercia Police campaign − codenamed Operation Ballet − targeting County Lines drugs networks.

West Midlands Police Detective Inspector Julie Woods, who oversaw Operation Ballet, said: “Islam only visited Hereford on a few occasions and went to great lengths to distance himself from the city and the drug dealing.

“However, he needed to re-stock his dealers with drugs… and we found he did that during trips to meet his couriers in Birmingham.

Islam (right) meeting with Creffield-Foster

“Islam had gained a significant foothold in the Hereford drugs market but his operation couldn’t have worked had it not been for the street dealers and local residents who allowed his couriers to use their homes as drugs bases.

“Islam has rightly been handed a long jail term for orchestrating the scheme but we will also go after others who facilitate such county lines dealing."

Information from the Hereford community played an important role in helping police bring down the county lines network.

If anyone suspects drug dealing in their community they should contact their police force on 101 or call the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.