Leader jailed after county lines gang identified selling cocaine trafficked from Netherlands to Northampton

The man behind a county lines gang selling cocaine trafficked from the Netherlands to Northampton was among four people jailed for a total of 71 years.

Faisal Guled, aged 34, a Dutch national living in Camden, London, worked for a supplier on the continent.

He was arrested after National Crime Agency officers cracked an organised crime group (OCG) run by a convicted drug dealer from his prison cell.

Darryl Tawiah, aged 42, of South London, was already serving an 18-year sentence for drugs supply and firearms offences when he was arrested and charged last year.

Tawiah used phones in prison to contact the Netherlands-based drug supplier, who had also previously been convicted for importing cocaine after an NCA investigation.

Working with people within the UK and the Netherlands, Tawiah’s OCG is believed to have been behind at least two tonnes of Class A drugs imported into the UK.

Tawiah controlled a number of people on the outside, one of which was Londoner Steven Johnson, aged 37, who took delivery of the drugs on Tawiah’s instructions and distributed them across London.

Money-launderer Rosemond Agyemang, 59, was then arrested carrying thousands in cash outside a London tube station in July 2019 heading to a meeting with Dorian Vaciulis, a 34-year-old who worked for the Dutch supplier collecting cash and drugs.

Vaciulis was in regular contact with Ali Reza Shokrolahi, aged 41, who was the OCG lorry driver and linked to at least 30 kilos of cocaine seized at the UK border.

As the investigation continued, Guled was identified and arrested for his links to the group.

He was jailed for 11 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at Wood Green Crown Court on Wednesday (April 20).

NCA operations manager, Jason Hulme, said: “This three-year investigation took apart an established criminal enterprise which had imported tonnes of cocaine to the UK, where its trade fuels addiction, violence and exploitation.

“Tawiah operated a network outside that did his dirty work for him, with all taking a slice of the profits.”