#2 The Champagne Criminals

[Intro voice over] – Spraying champagne, luxury cars and designer watches. A picture perfect lifestyle funded by the exploitation of vulnerable children. This is how detectives dismantled a violent Nottingham drugs gang and jailed them for more than 130 years.

[Music]

[Host] – Welcome to The Interview Room. Today we're going to talk about county lines and a massive investigation which concluded last year. I'm joined by Sergeant Ryan Millington and DI Beth Sheard to talk about the investigation, as we'll find out it involved a group of drug dealers flooding communities with class A drugs and exploiting children, all while they bragged about their profits.

The case ended up with 12 gang members in court last year, where they received combined jail sentences of more than 130 years. Ryan, you were the OIC, and Beth I think you were the DS on the county lines team at the time?

[DI Sheard] – Yes, that’s right.

[Host] – I know this is – sort of – you've lived and breathed this case for the last few years, but I just wanted to go back to the beginning. I suppose listeners might remember this case in particular because of the music videos that some of the gang members were involved in. They posed with champagne and Rolex watches and drove a white Rolls-Royce through St Ann’s, the sort of thing that gets noticed. So, with those things, with the champagne and the Rolexes, do you think they were trying to glamorise the criminality to younger people, to attract people into that lifestyle?

[PS Millington] – There was more than one instance where children were involved in the supply of drugs, you know, having been employed by this gang, essentially. I think a way to entice people into that sort of thing is to promise that lifestyle of Rolls-Royces and designer gear.

[DI Sheard] – And it's a cash rich lifestyle, the lifestyle of a drug dealer and I think they try and, one glamorise it, and two, I think it gives them some bragging rights. They try and, you know, show off their wares, as it were, and what they were getting from it and I think in that kind of, you know, that rap culture, that's a lot of what it's about and about a lot of the rapping is about their activities, what they're doing, and how they're doing it.

So, those music videos do provide a lot of information. But yeah, 100% done to kind of entice youngsters into that way of life.

[Host] – Yeah, but it kind of ended up being their undoing in a way didn't it? Because it actually provided you with quite a bit of information for the investigation. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

[PS Millington] – Yeah, I think there were parts of it, in particular we ended up using as evidence at Crown Court. Some of the lyrics that were written – sort of – essentially in the phone notes originally, you could see when those notes were created that were later seen in the music videos, the same words, but they were writing notes, like immediately after recorded police stops, like bragging about having not been caught with drugs, things like that. So, some of that kind of information where it was very specific and tied in perfectly.

[Host] – Very helpful, sort of piecing it all together overall?

[PS Millington] – Yeah.

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, also we would use, you know, images if they've got weapons or if they've got drugs or cash, we will use that in evidence as well.

[Host] – And I think they wrote some of it down as well, didn't they? I think one of the gang members, was it Ncube? Sipho Ncube? I think he wrote down about how much he was hoping to make a year through his activity.

[PS Millington] – Yeah, he left a notebook in his house with a numbered list of his goals. That list was numbered 1 to 3 and then 1 to 2 again after that, for some reason, and one of those – I think the first one – was something about wanting to make 20 grand a week and buy property somewhere in the Caribbean or something.

[Host] – Okay. So, as the investigation spiralled, I think a number of the gang were sort of arrested for seemingly unconnected things at the time and this is one of those arrests, a key arrest. This is when Sipho Ncube ran from police after a road accident and was caught after a foot chase.

[Police bodycam footage] – Hey! Stop there! Stop, stop, stop!

Turn around for me! Turn around! Turn around, hands out your pockets! Turn around!

[PS Millington] – Yeah, we got quite a lot from that. Initially, and for a good long while, we could only connect him directly to it, but two phones were found as a result of that and two of those – well those two phones, rather – were drugs line phones running into different places, one of them to Coalville in Leicestershire and another one from the city into Mansfield within Nottinghamshire.

But, you know, a good distance from where they lived. So, we picked up quite a lot of information from that.

[Host] – Yeah, that's interesting because I suppose we ought to explain a little bit about county lines itself. So, it generally means drug dealers based in a particular place, but they're selling drugs in other towns in the area. Is that right?

[DI Sheard] – Across county, yeah. So, it's not – I think some people think it means that you're going across a county line. You know, you go crossing from one county into another. You are, but it relates to the drug line. So, you would have the line holder would be sitting in one city, Nottingham, for example. They don't have any need to be in the other place. So, let's say Leicester or Derbyshire.

They'll do their dealing remotely. They'll have people in that area that are working for them and the county line refers to the drug line that they are kind of a little bit removed from, the activity around all the controlled substances and, you know, what violence might be going on in that area as a result of them being present dealing drugs because it can, you know, there is violence that comes with the running of a county line or drug dealing in general, sadly.

But yeah, so the term county line refers to the drug line and it's going from one city into another.

[Host] – Yeah, and I think there were 13 connected with this case?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, and they were quite far reaching. There were lines in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire. There was also one in Aberdeen. Where else are they going?

[PS Millington] – Just all over the place. Some of them, there was more than one line that would go into the same county, because there were 2 or 3 that would go into Derbyshire, but into different parts of Derbyshire. Same with Leicestershire, you know, you'd be looking at Lincoln, Lincolnshire is obviously a huge county, we're looking at Spalding and Lincoln itself. They were all over the place.

[Host] – So, a lot of communities affected by this, and Aberdeen is interesting. Does that kind of show the level of ambition? If we hadn't shut them down.

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, I think so. I mean they were quite prolific in terms of the number of lines that they did have. They weren’t dissuaded if a line phone was seized, they would immediately start up again, you know, so disruption they seemingly were able to deal with that because they were, you know, an organised group of people, you know, working together to achieve their kind of criminal aim, if you like.

So, being arrested, hazard of the job. Losing a line phone, we’ll just get another one. You know, they store all those contacts and it just carries on. So, being arrested and released from custody after a few hours really didn't dissuade them and they were quite resilient in that they were able to just go and carry on and replace, you know, one person with another just to keep that business going, albeit a completely illegitimate business.

But, you know, the lines are valuable, these were particularly valuable and, you know, a line could make, I don’t know somewhere in the region of £4,000 - £5,000 a week.

[Host] – Can you tell us a little bit more about how they actually worked these lines?

[DI Sheard] – So, say for example, I want to set up a drugs line. I'll buy myself a phone, I might go to the area where I want to set up my drugs line and I'm going to look for vulnerabilities in that area, say, where are the drug users? Where are they living? What drug supply is there already? Who's supplying those drugs? Do I think that I've got a bit more clout than them? And can I take business from them, basically?

If the answer's yes to all that, I might spend a bit of time there myself just to embed that line. I'll give out the line number, or I'll try and get contacts with people. It's just basically marketing, you know, but again, illegitimate marketing. I’ll then make contact, I'll offer drugs, usually at a price lower than what they’re already spending.

So, I'll undercut the competition for a little while, I might even give out some freebies and then I'll look for some young people that will be able to do my dealing for me. So, first things first is to identify who I'm going to be supplying. Is it sufficient? Is it going to make me money? Second thing is where can I put myself?

Because if you're running a county line, you don't really want to be out and about. If you can do it from within a property, then that's all the better. So, they'll look for a user to essentially cuckoo. So, that is a term kind of synonymous with county line drug dealing and drug dealing generally. But it's usually when a criminal or, you know, criminal associates have taken over somebody's address and they're paying them, either – it might be – they might be paid, you know, as in cash or they might be paid in a commodity, so like class A drugs let’s say if you’re a user.

And then there's that kind of agreement that I can use their property or my young people can use their property to deal my drugs when I come back to Nottingham, and that's how it basically is set up and run. So, I would then leave once I've established my market and once I've got my young people, I would give them the package, so that package will be usually heroin and crack cocaine, a decent amount so that I'm going to make, I don't know what, £1,500 a day?

[PS Millington] – Yeah, roughly.

[DI Sheard] – Obviously that young person is responsible for those drugs, so I keep the line phone. I bring that back to Nottingham with me, they have a phone that I contact them on. So, I know all the time what orders are coming in, how much, you know, of the controlled substances I'm selling, how much money I should be collecting from that young person.

So basically, I'm not going to be done out of any of my gear or my money, really, and then it just goes on like that.

[Host] – So very exploitative?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, hugely.

[Host] – And on a massive scale as well, I think. Are we able to put figures on the amounts of drugs, the amount of money they were making?

[PS Millington] – It was tricky to nail on because of the quantity of drugs sold wasn't ever 100% You only recover so much in terms of, you know, drugs that you seize from people or addresses. But the call data from the line phones, how many messages were sent out to drug users offering them drugs to buy, and then you take that data against the number of contacts you get back.

But the figure that we were able to work to in court during the prosecutor's opening speech in the sentencing notes was upwards of £1 million in this case.

[Host] – So on a massive scale?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah.

[Host] – So, as we've said, all the time evidence is being gathered and then we carry out a number of raids on the key members of the gang, and this is one of those raids when we executed a warrant and woke up Sipho Ncube at home in Nottingham.

[Police bodycam footage] – Police officers! Stay down! Show us your hands! Show me your hands! Police officers!

[PS Millington] – Yeah, so I think the first time that that occurred, he was there with another, I think it was Kamel Mantock, in a flat in the city centre. Quite a number of drugs line phones were found there, a lot of class A drugs, a lot of designer stuff, I think Rolex watches and expensive clothing, that kind of thing, that just helped us piece lots of bits together.

[Host] – All evidence which helps sort of uncovering the conspiracy?

[PS Millington] – Yeah.

[DI Sheard] – And these individuals, you know, they did not have legitimate employment. So, you know, to be able to afford a Rolex. Well, where are they getting that money from? You know, to be able to afford, you know, designer gear that cost like £300 or £400 for one item, you know, trainers that are £600.

[PS Millington] – Pair of jeans that was £450.

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, you know, how are you funding this lifestyle? You know, and jewellery grills.

[Host] – Gold teeth?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, exactly. So, you know, it's all indicative of a lucrative business, but that is not legitimate.

[Host] – So, you found drugs, you found cash, and I think you also found a gun in one of the raids on Jephte Fikula’s home address.

[PS Millington] – So yeah, we did two warrants at addresses connected with Mr Fikula and there were three firearms found. I think one of them was found to be fully converted and operational with ammunition. The other two had not yet been, but the likelihood was that that was going to happen because they were the same model. I think they’re like Turkish blank firing firearms that people could buy and convert quite readily.

[Host] – So, here is another of those raids, this time on Jephte Fikula’s home.

So, Jephte Fikula received the longest individual sentence, 21 years I think he got?

[PS Millington] – Yes.

[Host] – We mentioned before that combined, they got 130 years. How did it feel for you guys to see them in the dock given the amount of investigation time you spent on this? And obviously the importance of the investigation, the importance of county lines, how did that feel on the day?

[PS Millington] – Yeah, it felt pretty good. They had to get them in for sentencing sort of four at a time because of the number of them and the volume of people in the public gallery. But yeah, I wasn't sure that I'd ever quite see the day.

[Host] – I can imagine, yeah.

[PS Millington] – But yeah, we did. We got there.

[DI Sheard] – I mean, it took a long while to build the investigation and actually get it to that point where, you know, they were going to go on trial.

I think for me these individuals were involved in all sorts of crime. So yes they, you know, they had their illegitimate business of drug dealing, but they were also a group of violent individuals that had been involved in, you know, disorder in Nottingham City Centre. They'd been involved in other violent incidents. They were, you know, involved in violence in I think it was Derbyshire, wasn't it?

You know, and their sort of violence wasn't restricted to, you know, other kind of criminal associates or competition. You know, there were other people, you know, members of the public who had been caught up in, you know, assaults and the issues around disorder and things and had been injured as a result of these people, you know, so I think for me, I feel like we have taken some people out of the community.

We have made it safer, you know, unfortunately there isn't a measure for that. We can't quantify that and I wish we could because I do you think they posed, you know, a threat. They posed a threat to vulnerable individuals in communities all over the region, really, and further, you know, we established that they had a line running into Aberdeen.

So, you know, those vulnerable people are vulnerable adults, they are children, you know, and this is all kind of, they're inflicting sort of adverse childhood experiences on kids that, you know, they perhaps don't have those positive influences in their life and then you got individuals like these guys who, you know, can flash their money and a particular lifestyle.

And, you know, I think the way society is at the moment, everybody wants things quickly, you know, and I understand that if you're a teenager the prospects of earning, you know, £150 or £300 a week for being involved in this, that is a lot of money, you know, and it's a lot of money to anybody, but I think particularly, you know, if you're a teenager.

But, there are inherent risks with getting involved with this, not to mention, you know, the dangers of it, the threat around individuals that, you know, might be competition or, you know, disagreements over drug deals. They don't always go to plan, you know, and not to mention the negative impact it can have on somebody's life, their future, you know, getting arrested, being put before the court, you know, all as a young person, child or young person, it's exceptionally damaging.

So, it's all about making the most of the evidential opportunities that, you know, jobs give you and looking at them thoroughly to see where that evidence is going to take you. Obviously, we investigate, you know, to prove or disprove that, where the evidence is leading, particularly with a group like this, it can lead to a huge disruption, you know, which is positive, hugely positive for the community.

[Host] – And I'm sure people will be really interested in hearing about how you cracked the case today. But the public can help can’t they, with county lines?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, absolutely.

[Host] – Can you just tell us a little bit more about that, what people should be looking out for?

[DI Sheard] – So, cuckooing is essentially saying – I'll use myself as an example – so, I have a flat and my neighbours all know that I live in that flat alone, normally I don't have that many visitors. I do use drugs occasionally, but you know, I'm pretty quiet usually and there's not much going on at my address. And then cuckooing would be, I'm approached by a drug dealer and they say to me, we'd like to use your address to deal from, is that, you know, I mean, this is a very polite conversation that I'm having, but you know, can we use your address to deal from basically?

It will work out for you, we’ll provide you with your drugs. We'll give you it free of charge. If you just let my boys or girls come and stay here and deal from here. So, everything is within the address. So once that agreement is made and, you know, to me it sounds okay, I'm not having to go out shoplifting to fund my, you know, drug habit or anything like that anymore.

I'm not putting myself at risk. I can stay at home. I've got my drugs. They're going to be free because I'm giving them my place to live, but I stay there. But then, signs of cooking are then you've got other individuals that are not known, generally much younger than, you know, the person that is living in the property, spending a lot of time there.

There's a lot of toing and froing from the property. There's then people turning up for short periods of time. So, they are then going and collecting their drugs. You might then see a vehicle turn up, you know, a bit later on or through the course of the week, another exchange made and that might be another person that's dropping off a new pack of drugs for sale and collecting the money from the address. There might start to be some kind of elements of disorder.

And my address is suddenly starting to get a lot busier, but I'm still there. It may then transpire that as the person that lives in that flat, I then decide that it's not safe for me to stay there and I'm actually displaced and I leave that address and then it is completely taken over by the dealer of that line and whoever he is using to deal his drugs from there, so you know, it could be that there's just more activity at an address, or it could be that someone is completely displaced from their address because it's not safe for them to be there anymore.

[Host] – So completely exploiting them for their own gain?

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, absolutely. They're not bothered about the individuals that they're using. They're not bothered about the drug user who’s property they're taking over and they're not bothered about the children that are, you know, working that line for them. You know, these children will go to these properties, you know, they're not looked after. They're not given like, you know, food and rest breaks and, you know, all of that.

It's just like, well you know, fend for yourself, you’re there for one job. It's to deal the drugs and that's it. You earn your money, you know, and if it goes wrong there's a term called debt bonding. So, the responsibility for those drugs and for the money is placed on that child, you know, they're a child at the end of the day and should never be responsible for that, but the drug dealers will make them responsible and then once they’re debt bonded they just say, well you lost me £300, so you're going to have to stay and work for that.

I'm not paying you any more, you can just work that that back. And that's it, they’re then within that and don't feel that they can get out of it because they're then bonded by this debt, they know they've been doing something that, you know, is not legal. There might be elements of fear around repercussions from that.

The person holding the line, they may have been threatened with violence. They might be concerned about telling a parent or somebody, you know, another adult that they trust about what they've been involved in. What I would say if anybody has experienced that, just talk to somebody about it because we really won't look at it like that.

We'll try and help and get them out of that situation. Everything else we can deal with, you know, afterwards. It might need to still be dealt with and managed and reviewed, but first things first, we need to get them out of that situation because it’s unsafe for them.

[Host] – Yeah, and it's all further evidence of just how important these investigations are and how important it is that we shut them down.

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, absolutely. And I spoke about Crimestoppers earlier. So, they also have a campaign called Fearless, which is for people under the age of 18 who can report again anonymously to Crimestoppers, but it is set up specifically for that age group so they can talk about, you know, their peers, friends or a family member that they might be, you know, concerned about. So, that's another way for people to report.

[Host] – So there are lots of people they can talk to if they need to.

[DI Sheard] – Yeah, absolutely.

[Host] – If you want to find out more about the investigation, then please check out our website under the new section at Nottinghamshire Police, and there'll also be far more information about county lines on there as well.

And if you've liked what you've heard from The Interview Room today, please check out our Spotify and YouTube channels where there will be new episodes uploaded every month.

Thanks for joining us today.