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Leader of County Lines drugs operation into Banbury jailed
16/05/2024
Njie had been in contact with customers and lower-level drug dealers involved in the operation
A man who was responsible for a County Lines drugs operation into Banbury has been jailed for seven years.
Musa Njie, aged 34, was the leader of an operation supplying Class A drugs from the Nottinghamshire area to people in Banbury.
The term County Lines is 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 drug orders. Musa Njie was attributed to two such mobile phone numbers.
Police discovered these phone lines were being used to send out bulk marketing messages to drugs users, advertising the supply and availability of controlled drugs and instructing customers where to go to buy them from an address in the Banbury area.
Between December 2020 and March 2021 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.
This painstaking work gave them the 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 had been living at addresses in Nottingham while he was running the drugs line.
Following an extensive investigation Njie was arrested on 11 March 2021 and subsequent searches of a property in Nottinghamshire recovered quantities of white powder and drug paraphernalia and seized mobile phones from the property.
At Nottingham Crown Court on Monday (May 13) Njie pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. He was jailed for seven years.
Detective Inspector Luke Todd, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “As our complex work in cases like this one shows, we are continuing to do everything in our power to prosecute criminals involved in organised drug crime and to safeguard our communities and vulnerable young people who they prey upon and exploit for their own gain.
“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 County Lines operations such as this one.”
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam