Young drug dealers from London were found operating from the flat of a 70-year-old man in Swansea.
Police tracked down Kayon English and Tammam Al-Ziadi after becoming aware of a new heroin and cocaine dealing gang operating in the city known as the “JP line”. A subsequent investigation showed how the JP line had travelled back and forth between London and Wales with the defendants over a two-month period, and had been sending out bulk text messages to customers advertising drugs for sale.
Sending the defendants to prison, a judge said while some young men visited Swansea to enjoy activities such as surfing the pair had come to “poison the community” with drugs, and he told them they were wasting their youth.
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Swansea Crown Court heard that in February this year police in Swansea became aware of a new phone line in circulation in the city believed to be operated by a London-based County Lines gang known as the JP line. Officers turned to call data and phone cell site analysis information to track its movements back and forth between London and Swansea over the previous weeks. Brian Simpson, prosecuting, said the JP number had been used to send out bulk text messages advertising the availability of both heroin and cocaine.
On February 22 this year police executed a search warrant at a property on Gower View Road in Gorseinon, and as they forced entry they heard the toilet being flushed. When they checked the drains they recovered two bags containing 23 heroin deals and 18 cocaine deals worth together more than £1,200. Inside the house they found English and Al-Ziadi along with the occupant of the property, 70-year-old Stuart Lapping, and a female. Also in the property police found weighing scales, unused snap-seal bags, and a number of mobile phones. When the defendants were searched English was found in possession of £380 in cash and Al-Ziadi some £450 in cash. Both defendants answered “no comment” to all questions asked in interview.
When police analysed mobile cell site data they found the JP line phone had co-located with the defendants’ personal phones on numerous occasions throughout January and February not only in Swansea and London but in places including Reading, Milton Keynes, and Hemel Hempstead.
What is county lines?
County lines is when criminals from major cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, London and Birmingham expand their drug networks to other areas of the country. This activity brings violence, exploitation and abuse to rural communities.
The crime is so-called because a single telephone number is used to order drugs, operated from outside the area, across county lines.
County line networks are having a massive impact on rural counties. Vulnerable children and adults are being recruited in our large cities to transport cash and drugs all over the country. This keeps the true criminals behind it detached from the act and less likely to be detected or caught.
These gangs often set up a base in a rural area for a short time, taking over the home of a vulnerable person (also known as “cuckooing”). They then use adults and children to act as drug runners.
The increase in activity around county lines is also believed to have contributed to the rise in knife crime.
The court heard Mr Lapping subsequently gave police a statement in which he said the defendants had been at this property for three days prior to the police raid and he had been too scared to ask them to leave as he had been warned “never to cross them”. The prosecutor said the Crown accepted that no violence had been directed towards Mr Lapping, and he said in March this year Mr Lapping was given a suspended prison sentence for possession of cannabis and Valium with intent to supply and possession of an offensive weapon .
Kayon English, aged 23, of Pound Lane, Brent, London, and Tammam Al-Ziadi, aged 21, of Goldcroft, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, had both previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine, being concerned in the supply of heroin, possession of cocaine with intent to supply, and possession of heroin with intent to supply when they appeared in the dock for sentencing.
English has six previous convictions for 12 offences including the possession of cannabis with intent to supply, possession of heroin with intent to supply, and possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply. The 2020 conviction for Class A drug trafficking followed the discovery of a “large amount” of heroin and crack hidden in the steering column of the car English was driving. Al-Ziadi has three previous convictions for six offences, none of which are related to the supply of drugs.
Andrew Evans, for English, said following his release from a previous custodial sentence his client had asked probation to house him away from London because he realised he would be expected to pay off debts he had previously incurred but probation refused as he did not have ties to anywhere else apart from the capital. The advocate said given that decision it was “almost inevitable” that the defendant would return to his previous lifestyle in London and he found himself being sent to Swansea to “work-off the debt”. Mr Evans said English was “desperate” to move away from his previous lifestyle and to be a positive role model for his younger siblings.
Mahesh Karu, for Al-Ziadi, said his client had also found himself in debt as a result of “hanging out with the wrong people and making very poor decisions”. He said the defendant had undertaken courses while being held on remand in prison and wanted to change his life, and he asked the court to “show mercy to a young man who has made mistakes”.
Judge Huw Rees said it would be hoped that young men would come to Swansea to enjoy the area and engage in activities such as surfing but the defendants had come to “poison the community” with dangerous drugs. He told both English and Al-Ziadi they were wasting their youths but he said they had time on their sides to “redeem themselves”. With a 25 per cent discount for their guilty pleas English was sentenced to 49 months in prison, and Al-Ziadi was sentenced to 40 months.
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