Five jailed over Bognor 'county lines' drugs operation
The group were using the town to deal crack cocaine and heroin
Five people have been jailed for a combined 32 years for their roles in a 'county lines' drug supply chain operating between London and Bognor Regis.
Officers found substantial amounts of crack cocaine and heroin after carrying out raids in Ilford and in the West Sussex town last Saturday (August 28th).
Around 700 grams of Class A drugs was recovered from the Ilford address at Pittman Gardens with a potential street value of £66,000.
Also at the address was the 'deal line phone', controlling what was known as the ‘Henry’ drugs line selling heroin and crack cocaine on the streets of West Sussex.
Three men - Liban Abdulle, Abubaker Sahal and Igors Gogu - were arrested there.
At the flat in Berrymill Close in Bognor Regis, Holly Gittings and Adam Braggs were arrested, having been found with over 1000 wraps of Class A drugs with a potential street value of around £12000.
A car owned by Gogu was seized, which had been moving the drugs from Ilford to Bognor.
The five were sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on August 27th for being concerned in the supply of drugs.
30-year-old Liban Abdulle, from Pittman Gardens, Ilford who was out on prison licence when detained at the flat, was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment.
Abubaker Sahal, also 30 and of Leytonstone Road, Stratford, East London, was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment.
23-year-old Holly Gittings, from Lewisham, received a six and a half year prison sentence.
37-year-old Igors Gogu, from Ellasdale Road, Bognor Regis, was sentenced to six and a half years, and 33-year-old Adam Braggs, from Berrymill Close, Bognor Regis was sentenced to 35 months.
All apart from Gogu, had offered guilty pleas prior to a trial. He was found guilty after a two day trial at Guildford Crown Court on June 30th.
Sentencing the five, Judge Stephen Mooney described how Abdulle and Sahal, with no ties to Sussex, had overseen the distribution of heroin and crack cocaine onto the streets.
He said that Class A drugs ‘wrecked lives and communities and had a corrosive effect on society’.
Detective Inspector Alan Pack of the West Sussex Community Investigation Team said;
"This was another successful operation in collaboration with the Metropolitan Police Operation Orichi team, with whom we work closely to disrupt and bring to justice dealers seeking to bring dangerous and lethal drugs from London to vulnerable people in West Sussex."