County lines gang jailed for dealing Class A drugs

Three men have been jailed for running a county lines drug operation in Grimsby.

Officers went to a property in the town in January 2020 after reports that the address had been taken over by a gang from West Yorkshire in a case of "cuckooing", Humberside Police said.

Two people were arrested and a quantity of heroin and crack cocaine seized.

Hazrat Shah, 37, Andrew Fox, 39, and Jason Gladding, 34, were sentenced at Hull Crown Court on 16 April for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Cuckooing is when the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by criminals who use it as a base for illegal activities, such as drug dealing.

Shah, of Chatham Street, Bradford and Fox, of Kingsway Garth, Garforth near Leeds, were both jailed for nine years after being found guilty following a week-long trial.

Gladding, of Frederick Street , Grimsby, who police described as the group's local contact, was sent to prison for three years after pleading guilty.

Det Insp Tom Kelly said police had "disrupted a major county lines drug dealing gang".

"The investigation saw officers trawling through a vast amount of mobile phone data, along with tactical enforcements in order to put forward a thorough prosecution case," he said.

"Shah, Fox and Gladding have no regard for the lives of those they were using to run their drugs line, as well as drugs users purchasing the substances that they bring into our communities."

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