Hucknall drug dealer jailed after leading county lines operation

County lines is a term used to describe urban gangs supplying drugs to other parts of the UK using dedicated mobile phone lines.

The ‘county line’ is the mobile phone line used to take order of the drugs.

Musa Njie was attributed to two mobile phone numbers used as part of an operation to supply class A drugs from Nottinghamshire to users in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

The conspiracy involved using these phone lines to send out bulk marketing messages advertising the supply and availability of controlled drugs and instructing users where to go to buy them in the Banbury area.

Detectives used a range of different digital forensic techniques as part of their investigation to try and connect the dots and link Njie to the conspiracy.

These included the use of cell site data to map his movements and detailed analysis of phone content and transfer of data.

Through this painstaking mobile phone work, detectives were able to obtain evidence that Njie had been travelling from Nottingham to Banbury and had been in contact with lower-level drug dealers involved in the operation as well as customers.

Njie, aged 34, had been living at addresses in Hucknall and Eastwood while he was running the drugs line.

Following an extensive investigation, he was arrested after police stopped a car in the Radford area on March 11, 2021.

Searches were subsequently carried out at an address in Portland Road, Hucknall, where officers recovered quantities of white powder and drug paraphernalia and seized mobile phones from the property.

Njie went on to plead guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs and was jailed for seven years at Nottingham Crown Court on May 13.

Detective Inspector Luke Todd, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “We are continuing to do everything in our power to prosecute criminals involved in organised drug crime.”

“Our proactive county lines team, supported by other force teams and resources, continues to tackle this problem all year round and it’s testament to the hard work, dedication, and teamwork shown by officers that we are able to shut down operations such as this one.”