Jail term avoided by Tipton drugs ring man

A criminal from Tipton has avoided an immediate jail term for money-laundering as part of a heroin and cocaine peddling gang operating between Birmingham and Sussex.

Thirteen people were yesterday handed sentences totalling over 65 years at Birmingham Crown Court for their roles in a major drug-dealing cartel which was smashed in a joint operation by Sussex Police and West Midlands Police Gangs and Organised Crime Unit.

But Ngozi Abosi, aged 41, formerly of Lister Close in Tipton, was handed an eight-month suspended sentence after admitting money laundering for his part of the operation.

The ringleader of the gang, Kenneth Henry, from Winson Green, got 13 years for conspiring to supply heroin and cocaine.

Officers recovered drugs worth more than half a million pounds when they made the initial arrests as well as seizing more than £150,000 cash.

The sentences followed a nine-week trial, which ended in November. The investigation was codenamed Operation Pink Duck.