Six people including two rappers jailed for drugs operation linking West Midlands and Scotland
Six people have been jailed for running a drugs line from the West Midlands into Scotland.
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Rikardo Reid, Joshua Nelson, Mickel Gardner, Ian Massie, Himesh Suri and Cree Dacres were all sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.
It followed an investigation involving West Midlands Police officers and Police Scotland into the supply of class A drugs.
Heroin and crack cocaine was being peddled from the West Midlands region into Aberdeen, Scotland.
Between 2017 and 2021, the group's drugs line, titled Flash, was running and providing drugs to users in Aberdeen, who would call a dedicated line operated in the West Midlands. They would then be provided with the drugs through street dealers in Aberdeen.
West Midlands Police said the drug dealing enterprise was headed by Reid, a Birmingham rapper known as Stardom, while Nelson – also a rapper, known as Pepc - was second in command in the drugs line.
Gardner would store the drugs before they were moved on to Aberdeen, where they were transported by Dacres and Suri. Massie would then assist in the sale of the heroin and crack in the area.
During the investigation, police seized heroin, crack cocaine and large amounts of cash.
The phone used in the Flash drug line was recovered from Reid's home in 2020.
Reid, Nelson, Gardner, Dacres and Suri pleaded guilty, and Ian Massie was found guilty after a three-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court. The six were jailed this week.
Rikardo Reid, aged 34, and Himesh Suri, aged 28, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs – heroin and crack cocaine – converting and transferring criminal property. Reid was jailed for 12 years and nine months, while Suri was jailed for nine months.
Joshua Nelson, aged 35, Mickel Gardner, aged 40, and Cree Dacres, aged 29, pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A drugs – heroin and crack cocaine. Nelson was jailed for 12 years and 10 months, Gardner for five years, and Dacres for three years and five months.
Ian Massie, aged 41, pleaded not guilty to supplying class A drugs - heroin and crack cocaine, and converting and transferring criminal property - but was found guilty following a three-week trial. Massie was jailed for 11 years and six months.
A further trial is due to take place later this year for nine other people linked to the drugs line.
