Drug dealers exposed by mobile phone and traffic data

Three drug dealers were exposed after a complex web of mobile phone and traffic data led police to their doors.

Jordan McIntosh, Merhawi Ghimbot and Sarah Sheenan were linked to two drugs lines selling large quantities of cocaine, heroin and cannabis.

The lines – mobile phone numbers used to advertise and sell drugs to customers – were investigated by officers and found to be selling drugs into Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Using cell site analysis officers were able to trace one the phones on a journey to and from a retail outlet in Oxfordshire.

Further analysis of traffic cameras along the route from Nottingham linked the phone to a vehicle used by McIntosh.

Officers were then able to use CCTV footage to prove he had been in the car with the phone.

Also in the footage was McIntosh’s associate Merhawi Ghimbot – an offender well known to officers.

A similar technique was used to link McIntosh to a second drugs line handset and to a car owned by his partner Sarah Sheehan.

This evidence was used to secure Crown Court search warrants for several addresses – including the home McIntosh shared with Sheehan in Beacon Road, Beeston.

Items seized at the address included designer handbags, several thousand pounds in cash and a large number of mobile phones and sim cards.

Damningly, one of the drug line phones was discovered in a bedside drawer. It was later found to contain bulk messages about the sale of Class A drugs and B drugs.

Cannabis worth between £5,500 and £8,000 was also recovered, along with a cutting agent used in the production of crack cocaine.

Additional financial analysis revealed extravagant levels of spending the pair were unable to account for.

Both McIntosh and Sheehan pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs, possessing cannabis with intent to supply, and concealing, disguising or converting criminal property.

Ghimbot, who was found to have been operating the first line, also pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs at an earlier hearing.

Appearing at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday 24 February Mcintosh, of York Road, Beeston, was jailed for 45 months.

Sheehan, of Beacon Road, was jailed for nine months. The prosecution accepted that she believed throughout that only cannabis was being sold, and that her actions were limited in scope compared to those of McIntosh and Ghimbot.

Ghimbot, aged 25, of Denison Street, Nottingham, appeared at the same venue in October and was jailed for five years and ten months.

Detective Constable Benjamin Slater, of Nottinghamshire Police, said:

“This was a complex investigation that started with a tip off from a neighbouring force.

“Armed with only a couple of mobile phone numbers we were able to use the latest technology to build up a far more detailed picture and conclusively link these numbers to McIntosh, Ghimbot and Sheehan.

“Further investigation revealed very significant evidence of drug dealing from these two telephone numbers.

“I am pleased that all involved have now been jailed and hope this investigation serves to reassure the public about the lengths we will go to bring offenders to justice.”