Three people traffickers are facing jail for using children to work as county lines drug mules, one of whom was kidnapped at gunpoint and stripped naked.
Dean Alford, Michael Karemera, and Glodi Wabelua, all aged 25, recruited youngsters from schools to expand their drug dealing network across London, Kent and Hampshire.
The trio were linked to three telephone numbers known as Mitch, Duffy and Fly which they used to send runners as young as 14 on deliveries.
One of their victims was kidnapped at gunpoint and stripped naked by the gang before forcing him into work as a mule.
Youngsters were enticed to work for them with promises of money and goods which they never received.
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Police arrested 15 children before arresting the ringleaders who were tracked through their phone numbers.
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The dawn raids were made as part of modern slavery crackdown Operation Pibera, involving at least 250 officers in the UKs first ever county lines investigation.
Speaking to a jury at Inner London Crown Court today, Kate Bex, QC, prosecuting, said: You have heard evidence that children make perfect couriers because they do what you want, they are less likely to steal the drugs or money, less likely to be stopped and searched on trains.
It is pretty brutal. A general member of the public would be likely to refuse. Pitch the job specification. You get to live in squalor while risking arrest.
Alford and Karemera, both of no fixed abode, admitted human trafficking for exploitation during their trial but Wabelua was convicted of the charge by the jury after more than 18 hours of deliberation.
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Wabelua, of Catford, South East London, recruited a 16-year-old from southeast London but claimed he had no idea that the boy was actually underage.
I guessed he was 18 or 19, just the way he was carrying himself, he told the court when giving evidence.
When he appeared with his friends he appeared to be the more dominant of them. He seemed like he could look after himself. He didnt appear young, dumb or vulnerable.
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But Bex showed the jury two photographs taken in 2014, one of Wabelua and one of the boy and said to the defendant: Did you really think he was the same sort of age as you?
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Once the boy got to Portsmouth, drug users contacted Wabelua on the the Fly line, and he called the boy to instruct him where to take the drugs.
Wabelua insisted that the drug line was only operational from 9am to 10pm and said the boy was being paid £500 per week plus travel expenses and had hotel accommodation provided.
He added: He was able to do what he wanted in Portsmouth as long as the phone was on. He could meet people in between, he wasnt trapped in the house all day.
But phone records showed Wabelua recieving calls from drug addicts in Portsmouth well past midnight and calling the boy seconds later.
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The reason I was chosen as phone operator is that I treat people fairly, I am good at staying in communication, was Wabeluas excuse.
Evidence showed hundreds of phone calls and teRead More – Source
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