Black Country drug dealer jailed as heroin and cocaine gang busted

Manraj Thandi, from Smethwick, is among four people who have been jailed for their part in the conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

The Stoke-on-Trent-based drugs ring was uncovered after Thandi was caught with class A drugs in a Vauxhall Astra in Newcastle in September 2017, Staffordshire Police said.

Information on the 22-year-old's phone led police to other members of the gang and officers soon discovered more drugs and the phone line being used to supply them.

Thandi had details on his phone to meet fellow dealer Paulina Kurstak at a hotel in Newcastle. Kurstak was then arrested after police found drugs during a search of her home in Norton, Stoke-on-Trent.

Phones were seized and the drugs line was identified by detectives.

The group running the line was using a rented flat where Yassin Khan prepared the drugs for sale, before Kurstak and Israr Tariq conveyed them to drug users across north Staffordshire.

The flat in Dartmouth Street was raided in January 2018, when Kustak and Yassir Khan were arrested and £55,000 worth of drugs were seized.

The other members of the ring, including leaders Kamran Khan and Daud Khan, were then arrested.

Thandi, of Lonsdale Road, Smethwick, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine between 20 August 2017 and 7 September 2018.

He was locked up for three years at a sentencing hearing in Stoke-on-Trent last week.

Meanwhile Kamran Khan, Daud Khan, Yassin Khan and Kurstak - all from Stoke-on-Trent - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

Kamran Khan, 23 and of Davison Street in Burslem, and Daud Khan, 21 and of Barrett Drive in Burslem, were jailed for two years and three years respectively.

Kurstak, 22 and of St Nicholas Avenue in Norton, was jailed for two years and nine months.

Tariq admitted he had helped others by transporting them across the area to supply heroin and cocaine.

The 22-year-old, of Chaplin Road in Dresden, Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to a 12-month community order and ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.

Yassir Khan, 21 and of Emery Street in Cobridge, also Stoke-on-Trent, will be sentenced on January 13.

Det Con Paul Hollinshead, of Staffordshire Police, said: "This was a well organised conspiracy moving significant quantities of heroin and cocaine across north Staffordshire and south Cheshire.

“We hope these convictions send out the message we will not tolerate drug dealing in Staffordshire.”