JAILED: Drugs gang linked to Johnson crew caught in police sting
A group linked to the notorious Johnson crew gang have been jailed after police smashed a drugs ring in the Black Country and Birmingham.
Gang members have been locked up for more than 30 years in total with £120,000 of Class A drugs taken off the streets.
Officers caught the group red-handed in possession of the drugs thanks to a covert surveillance operation.
Police today welcomed the sentences saying people's lives had been 'ruined by their criminal behaviour'.
Anthony Johnson, aged 32, from Preston Road, Winson Green, Ashfaq Ahmed, 37, from Grasmere Road, Winson Green and Ravelle Hutchinson, 20, from Clissold Street, Hockley, all pleaded guilty to offences including conspiracy to supply crack cocaine, conspiracy to supply heroin and money laundering.
They were sentenced to between five years and nine years imprisonment each at Birmingham Crown Court on March 6.
Johnson also banned from driving for three years after he is released.
Augustine Duruji, 42, from Abbey Close, West Bromwich, pleaded not guilty to the same offences and was handed a ten year sentence.
Fellow defendant, 31-year-old Jermaine Tulloch, from Rockford Road, Great Barr, was found guilty of obstructing a police officer after he threw cocaine worth almost £9,000 out of his car window when he was stopped in his car in June last year. He was given a one year suspended sentence.
Narinderpal Sandhu, 37, from Bell Street, Tipton, was given a community order after pleading guilty to money laundering.
Detective Inspector James Mahon from the Regional Organised Crime Unit said: "This was a major operation to tackle the supply of drugs to the Winson Green, Smethwick and West Bromwich areas of the city and disrupt gang activity.
"Thanks to our surveillance work we were able to catch these men in possession of drugs in their cars and at their home addresses and mount a successful prosecution against them.
"Many lives could potentially have been ruined by their criminal behaviour and we are delighted that, thanks to the sentences handed, out these offenders and the drugs they would have sold have been taken off the streets."
