A convicted Birmingham gangland killer, a fraudster who stole £27,000 off old people and a Seaside town shooter all feature in the list of dealers jailed by police in Operation Poetry this week.
But at the same time there were obvious inaccuracies in the police statement that could have been noticed easily.
Instead of looking further MSM has simply regurgitated the police narrative in their statement without checking the facts presented.
Northants police have made the bold claim that dealers have been given “221 years in prison”.
Plastered under the headline is the list of 72 convictions and anyone could quickly cross reference this with the number of years of jail time.
I was able to work out at least 25 of the 72 convicted didn’t receive jail time in prison they receive suspended sentences.
So that isn’t 221 years in prison as they claim.
Another statement on the twitter account is that there was modern slavery convictions, but again noone in this list was convicted of modern slavery.
They also say 18 county lines are destroyed.
So how can a gang be destroyed if half convicted never went to prison?
Notably alot of them are also addicts, so they must return to work in industry to support their habit and debt gained from losing drugs.
A cycle of misery and prison and tax payers money for small sentences.
In relation to the modern slavery element of the case this happened a month earlier.
Four men were totaled for a total of 39 years.
The question the media needed to ask is if the thousands of hours of police work for a average sentence of 2 years for each conviction.
The same people back out on the streets, but poorer and even more desparate.
If only 2 of the 74 convictions were modern slavery, that shows it is harder to convict that you may think.
It is important to analyse a police statement for anything that don’t add up.
We should never allow a narrative to be set.
Simply find the facts to the story.
Everybody wants child slavery to stop but inflating numbers does not help.
Punishing people for addictions is counter productive.
Operation Viper
Northamptonshire Police launched a probe at the beginning of 2019 to infiltrate both County Lines and local drug dealing gangs across the county.
Aways Osman, 28, Hussein Jimale, 26, Bruno Borges, 24, and Levi Bernard,33, were described as the ‘big players’ of the operation.
The London-based crooks were jailed for a total of 36 years for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Officers gained access to the secretive criminal network and unearthed evidence of gangs operating in London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Northampton and London.
Warrants were executed simultaneously and multiple arrests were made at the end of 2019 resulting in over £1.3million of drugs being taken off the streets.
A large-scale covert operation has achieved 72 convictions with 221 years of combined jail time and a number of County Lines completely decimated.
In recent years, drug dealing across this county had become so well-organised that typical methods of police investigation and surveillance had proven fruitless, and in time, detectives came to discover an underworld so enigmatic that drug addicts were vetted before they were able to gain access to the drugs they needed.
So Northamptonshire Police adapted, and at the beginning of 2019, a covert operation was launched in an effort to infiltrate both County Lines and local drug dealing gangs across Northamptonshire.
In time, officers gained access to a secretive criminal network which unearthed the true nature of these drug dealing gangs – where vulnerable children as young as 14 were used to sell drugs while the people at the top took none of the risks and simply sat in their homes counting their money.
The evidence these officers collected over time allowed detectives to build investigations against these drug dealing gangs, which ultimately led to numerous warrants being executed simultaneously across London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Northamptonshire at the end of 2019.
Multiple arrests and charges followed.
Now, the operation is coming to a close with eighteen County Lines destroyed, twelve local drugs lines destroyed, 72 convictions secured and a combined total of more than 221 years in prison.
Detective Chief Inspector Adam Pendlebury, said: “We have always been clear as a Force that it is the people at the top of these drug dealing gangs who we want to target.
And this operation has done exactly that, leaving no stone unturned from London to Northamptonshire in order to put these people where they belong – behind bars.
“Drug dealers like Aways Osman, Hussein Jimale, Bruno Borges, Omarni Bernard-Sewell and Levi Bernard truly think they are untouchable.
“They exploit vulnerable people like children and adults suffering with addiction, and make them take all the risks, while they sit at home counting their money.
There is no honour in this.
“Over the past two years we have warned them and their associates directly that one day, we would get them, one day we would come through their door, and one day they would be looking at the inside of a prison cell.
“Today is that day and I could not be prouder of the exceptional work that has gone into this investigation by a group of detectives, uniformed officers and experienced criminal analysts, who have made this operation their lives for the past two years.
“Of course our work is never done as there will always be people who think dealing drugs is an acceptable way to make money.
But I hope the success of this operation makes our relentlessness to pursue offenders clear and reassures the community.
“My advice to those drug dealers we haven’t caught yet is to look at the list below – perhaps there are names on there that you recognise.
There was a time when like you, their egos allowed them to think that they were beyond our reach. Don’t make the same mistake.”
Chief Constable Nick Adderley, said: “To say this was a phenomenal operation, led by DCI Adam Pendlebury, would be a complete understatement.
“The drive, commitment, determination, creativity, tenacity and relentlessness these detectives have shown here is incredible and I am so very proud of them.”
Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Stephen Mold, said: “These results are absolutely fantastic.
“I know that across Northamptonshire, people are concerned with the drug dealing and related anti-social behaviour that they see in their communities and they want to see it being dealt with robustly.
“This is a great demonstration of the work being done by Northamptonshire Police to make all of our communities safer and shows that the Force is putting the investments we have made to good use in cracking down on crime.”
Repeat offenders
On the list of convictions are some repeat offenders and some simple searches online, a journalist would learn that there are more layers to the story.
Let’s take Kyron Smye for example, he was jailed for 8 years for firearm possession and discharge and also 2 years for dealing.
The police found Kyron’s gun in raids on Northants gangs in the area, but the crime it was used in took place in Weymouth.
Kyron Smye, 22, shot from a converted 9mm handgun near a supermarket just as shops were closing on a busy Tuesday afternoon in May 2018.
Three men fled for their lives as Smye opened fire using potentially lethal blanks packed with steel shards in a bid to “scare” his targets over a cocaine debt.
In relation to his involvement in this case he was selling drugs on the Abra line
- Kryon Smye, of St Andrews Street, Northampton, aged 23, eight years and eight months
So we must take into account the crime he got 8 years for was in a different city and in 2018 and not part of Operation poetry.
Police found the weapon stashed in a garden in Penrhyn Road, Far Cotton, after Smye palmed it off to fellow gang member Niall Kelly.
The pair were trapped during a raid on Kelly’s house as part of Northamptonshire Police’s large-scale ‘Operation Poetry’ to tackle county lines drug-dealing.
The Chronicle & Echo reported earlier this week, Smye, of Omega House in the town, was given a 6½-year jail term for admitting possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence at Northampton Crown Court.
He was also sentenced to an additional two years for unrelated drug supply offences.
If the Chronicle newspaper report is correct that means police was wrong when they said 8 years in statement.
Kyron Smye
Also convicted on the Abra line was Kelly Nelligan, of Abington Avenue, Northampton, aged 39, two years suspended for two years
- Samir Mohammed, of Grafton Street, Northampton, aged 20, 20 months suspended for 20 month
AKI, Bobby Line
- Jake Moules, of First Avenue, Wolverhampton, aged 23, three years and two months
- Chris Finch, of Argyle Street, Northampton, aged 30, four years and six months
Andy County Line
- Kristina Rasnaca, of Semilong Road, Northampton, aged 29, 18 months suspended for 18 months
- Marcus Lee, of no fixed abode, aged 56, two years and ten months
- Belal Sesay, of Meakin Estate, London, aged 20, two years and seven months
- Andrew Bluck, of Alliston Gardens, Northampton, aged 37, two years and five months
- Robert Stratton, of Alliston Gardens, Northampton, aged 50, two years and seven months
Dee County Line
- Kayon English, of Elmstead Avenue, Wembley, aged 21, five years and seven months
Fenton Line
- Gemma Valentine, of Billing Aquadrome, Northampton, aged 36, two years suspended for two years
Frank County Line
- Darren Anderson, of no fixed abode, aged 50, two years suspended for two years
- Karl Spear, of no fixed abode, aged 40, 20 months suspended for 20 months
- David Howe, of no fixed abode, aged 51, four years and ten months
G&M Line – Birmingham Based
- Levi Bernard, of Brackley Avenue, Birmingham, aged 33, seven years
- Milcho Koroveshovski, of no fixed abode, aged 34, 22 months suspended for 22 months
- Daniel Jeyes, of no fixed abode, aged 35, 21 months suspended for 21 months
- Omarni Bernard-Sewell, of no fixed abode, aged 25, seven years
- Andrew Pettit, of Covington Street, Northampton, aged 40, 18 months suspended for 18 months
- Nathan Bettles, of Lindsay Avenue, Northampton, aged 31, 22 months suspended for 22 months
- William Bradshaw, of Adnitt Road, Northampton, aged 39, one year and nine months
- Chelsea McIntyre, of Brackley Avenue, Birmingham, aged 29, two years suspended for two years
Gangland murder
One of the leaders of the county line out of Birmingham was also convicted of murder in Febuary 2021.
The 24-year-old Omarni Bernard-Sewell was arrested from his home in Sturge Close, Selly Oak, on July 16 for the murder of Dante Mullings.
The gun used to kill Dante was found in a bag hidden in bushes in Charter Street, Leicester on November 4, 2019 and was found by ballistics experts to have fired the rounds that killed Mr Mullings.
Police said Ishaan Bernard and Omarni Bernard-Sewell, both prominent Birmingham gang members, orchestrated the murder plot in revenge for a serious stabbing less than 24 hours earlier that left a friend critically ill in hospital.
Detectives from West Midlands Police undertook a painstaking trawl of CCTV to track the Passat at various points throughout the day including the area of Great Hampton Row immediately after the murder.
Dante Mullings was in a car parked by shops in St Vincent Street West, Ladywood, at 5pm on May 7 2019 when a gunman opened fired from a passing vehicle.
At least eight shots were discharged from a pistol aimed out of the VW Passat’s passenger window, with one striking Mr Mullings in the lower back and two other passengers suffering gunshot wounds.
Carehome
The Birmingham gang also included Chelsea Mcintyre who is also no stranger to prison and has been convicted before.
Stole from pensioners
Chelsea McIntyre abused her position at Beech House in Lower Street to take more than £27,000 from her vulnerable victims five years ago, including £25,000 in life savings from one elderly man.
She splurged the cash on luxury jewellery, TVs, perfume and a sofa and was jailed for two years in December 2017, with a judge telling her she would spend half of her sentence in prison.
Only a matter of months after she was released and while still on licence, she added drug crimes to her criminal CV by playing a role in a huge county lines operation which peddled heroin and cocaine between Birmingham and the streets of Northampton.
At the head of the operation – known as the G&M line – were Levi Bernard, her partner and the father of her three young children, and Omarni Bernard-Sewell.
They were later jailed for seven years each for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Yesterday (Friday) Northampton Crown Court heard McIntyre, 29, allowed her vehicle to be used for six journeys between Birmingham and Northampton, believed to be to drop off drugs and collect cash, between February and April 2019.
On three of those occasions she was in the car.
Jimmy County Line – London Based
- Lloyd Green, of no fixed abode, aged 34, two years and three months
- Margaret Stanley, of Greenwood Road, Northampton, aged 46, 22 months suspended for 22 months
- Callum Sykes, of no fixed abode, aged 24, one year and ten months
- Karen MacDonald, of Argyle Street, Northampton, aged 44, three years and nine months
Leo County Line – London Based
- Aways Osman, of Romford Road, London, aged 28, nine years and six months
- Donte Charles-Lauder, of West Avenue Road, Walthamstow, aged 23, two years suspended for two years
- Farhan Ali, of Falmouth Way, Walthamstow, aged 24, five years and six months
- Hussein Jimale, of Kinsley Close, Dagenham, aged 26, five years and two months
- Joy Broadbent, of Wantage Road, Northampton, aged 55, two years suspended for two years
- Dale Edmenson, of Northwood Road, Northampton, aged 42, two years suspended for 2 years
- Lloyd Green, of no fixed abode, aged 34, two years and three months
- Robert Allen, of no fixed abode, aged 48, 20 months suspended for 20 months
- Sandra McKellor, of Campbell Street, Northampton, aged 51, two years and one month
- Vojtech Boraros, of no fixed abode, aged 35, 22 months suspended for 22 months
Individual Dealers
- Kelly Faulkner, of Purser Road, Northampton, aged 43, two years and 11 months
- Frantisek Pesta, of no fixed abode, aged 31, six months
- Lauren Kemp, of Wyberton Low Road, Boston, aged 32, 15 months community order
- Kelvin Augustine, of Spencer Road, Northampton, aged 35, three years and four months
- Paul Shaw, of Eastern Avenue North, Northampton, aged 32, two years suspended for two years
- Tim Harris, of Brook Lane, Northampton, aged 56, three years and two months
- John Muir, of no fixed abode, aged 41, two years and six months
LJ County Line
- Rashan George, of Half Way Street, Sidcup, aged 21, five years and four months
- Dionne Dunne, of Park Drive, Northampton, aged 49, two years and four months
Louise Line
- Darren Bason, of Birchfield Road East, Northampton, aged 50, two years and three months
- Louise Jones, of East Street, Northampton, aged 31, five years and three months
Mad As Line
- Leeroy Hudson, of Adams Avenue, Northampton, aged 18, two years and six months
- Jerome MacDonald, of Pennycress Place Northampton, aged 31, three years and three months
- Elliot Tevera, of Nicholls Court, Northampton, aged 18, one year
- Liam King, of Hopmeadow Court, Northampton, aged 21, two years and four months
- Harrison Rooney, of Hopmeadow Court, Northampton, aged 22, two years and four months
Marlon County Line – Wolverhampton Based
- Trey Johnson, of Ashbourne Road, Wolverhampton, aged 25, five years and two months
- Courtney Glassford, of Deans Road, Wolverhampton, aged 25, five years and ten months
Marlon County Line
- Bradley Buchanan, of no fixed abode, aged 33, three years and seven months
OT Line County Line – London Based
- Vaughan Coe, of no fixed abode, aged 30, one year
- Jessica Malpas, of no fixed abode, aged 31, 18 month community order
- Paul Scott, of Campbell Street, Northampton, aged 42, two years suspended for two years
- William Bradshaw, of Adnitt Road, Northampton, aged 39, one year and nine months
- Bruno Borges, of Bell Lane, Hendon, aged 24, six years and four months
- William Leitao, of Widecombe Gardens, Ilford, aged 20, four years and eight months
- Alexandra Gayle, of Campbell Street, Northampton, aged 40, one year and eight months
Rocks County Line – London Based
- Tyrell Taylor, of St Michael’s Road, London, aged 24, four years and ten months
- Ashan Senior, of Croxford Street, London, aged 19, two years suspended for two years
- Magloire Bendekila, of Stanley Close, London, aged 24, three years and seven months
Sam County Line
- Nathan Leadenham, of Aberdeen Park, London, aged 25, three years and six months
Skippy Line
- Simon Skipworth, of Byron Street, Northampton, aged 42, two years and eight months
- Liam Hodson-Hobday, of Boughton Green Road, Northampton, aged 27, two years and eight months
T County Line
- Tevin Forde, of Duckworth Dell, Northampton, aged 26, four years
Tesco County Line
- Bob Kisikidi, of Gurney Close, Barking, aged 21, three years and eight months
- Shayden Mullins, of Victorian Grove, Hackney, aged 19, three years and ten months
- Kaya Mugugu, of Newton Road, Northampton, aged 19, 21 months suspended for 21 months
X County Line (London Based)
- Donell Sanderson, of Sefton Avenue, Harrow, aged 23, three years and two months
Knifecrime
Courtney Glassford, aged 20, plunged a blade into the stomach of 22-year-old Lewis Croll at Faces in Bilston Street, Wolverhampton, a judge heard.
The victim suffered a serious injury, spent five days under intensive care following emergency surgery and was fortunate to survive, the city’s Crown Court was told.
Violence flared during an R&B DJ night at the club at around 1.50am on Good Friday last year.
Mr Ian Windridge, prosecuting, explained: “Trouble started on the dance floor with a fight between two men that spread to others.
“Lewis Croll was caught up in the trouble and was stabbed around half an hour later.”
The victim was seriously injured and police – called to the club after the disturbance started – gave him emergency first aid until paramedics could reach the scene.
As you can see there are many layers to this story to open.
Many involved in the case were career criminals.
A insightful glimpse into the world we are so keen to forget about.
What are your thoughts on the solutions to drug addictions and county lines?
Thank you for reading.
Mr D Hone.
