Three drug dealers were involved in “24 hours a day, seven days a week” phone line operation that supplied heroin, cocaine and crack across Bolton.
Samoweel Yagoub, 25, Zakaria Haffow, 21 and Khalid Yahya, 22, were involved in the “Tyrone” and “Nasty” drug lines that operated “like a takeaway”, delivering hard drugs to users.
Manchester Crown Court heard how the two drug lines operated “independently” but with “significant overlap.”
Prosecutor Adam Lodge said: “Those county lines, the Tyrone and Nasty lines, were first identified around March 2024."
He added: “These were lines operating on virtually a 24-hour basis.”
Mr Lodge told the court how five phones linked to the lines had sent out as many as 26,000 messages by the time the three men were arrested.
He said that the phone lines were found to frequently be calling taxi firms in Bolton as well as a home in Runnymede Court in Deane, appearing to operate a drug delivery service.
Mr Lodge said that they seemed to be running a “24 hours a day drop off service.”
But this was brought to an abrupt halt when police raided Runnymede Court on May 2 this year, where they found Haffow and Yagoub who “were effectively cuckooing that address.”
The raid was part of "Operation Peacemaker", which was aimed at tacking county lines drug dealing across Bolton.
Three other people were found to be living there, who were not involved in drug dealing, while Yagoub was sitting on a “burner phone”, linked to the Nasty line which was “constantly ringing.”
Officers also found several wraps of cocaine and heroin on Yagoub with around £100 in cash.
On searching his home address on Briercliffe Road, Deane, the officers found another 775 wraps of Class A drugs, worth around £19,000.
Haffow was found to have had £920 in cash on him, while a search at his home on Beaconsfield Street, also in Deane, found a Nokia phone linked to the Tyrone line.
Mr Lodge said that there was also £846 in cash, designer shoes and an electric e-bike.
That same day police also raided Yahya’s home on Netherfield Road, Great Lever, where they did not find the defendant himself but did find a phone linked to the Tyrone line.
Yahya eventually handed himself in to Bolton Police Station and was arrested on May 8.
He confessed to three counts of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs before the start of his trial, while Haffow and Yagoub admitted to the same three offences after the trial started.
The total amount of hard drugs dealt over the five month period was estimated to be just under five kilograms.
But Haffow had also been brought to court for a robbery he had been involved in more than four years ago in Bolton town centre.
Mr Lodge told the court that he had been one of a group of men who had robbed a 14-year-old boy of his £1,000 iPhone and a small amount of cash on Newport Street on February 23 2020.
Mr Lodge said the boy was left afraid to go into the town centre after dark because of the robbery.
Haffow was caught and pleaded guilty to robbery, but had been involved in the drug dealing while on bail.
Paul Simon, defending Yagoub, said that he was still a relatively young man who’s life “took a wrong turn when he started taking drugs.”
He said that the fact the Nasty line was in operation for 24 hours a day must mean that there were people other than Yagoub, who has four previous convictions for four offences, involved.
Mr Simon said that Yagoub had partly been motivated by trying to pay off a drug debt.
He said: “This is a young man who has never seen much money, there is no evidence of any luxurious lifestyle.”
He added: “There are no flash cars, there are no flash cars, there are no flash trainers.”
Irfan Arif, for Haffow, said that though there was no evidence of exploitation, it was still likely that there were other people operating above him.
He said: “It would be unlikely that a 20-year-old would have woken up one day and known how to operate a drugs line.”
Mr Arif said that Haffow had worked at a legitimate job and where the robbery was concerned he was acting as part of a group of which he was the youngest member, at just 16-years-old at the time.
Keith Jones, for Yahya, said that the 21-year-old had been involved in the drugs trade for a much shorter time and was only linked to one phone line.
He said that he too had worked up a drug debt and had been told to work it off.
Judge Alan Conrad KC accepted these points but reminded the court of the devastation wrought by the trade in hard drugs.
He said that the 24-hour drug operation had been run “like a takeaway.”
Judge Conrad said: “It is well known that trafficking in Class A drugs brings about degradation and sometimes death and that other crimes often result”.
He added: “You were not immature boys, nor were you trafficking to feed addiction.
“You were in it for profit and each of you showed some awareness as to the scale of the operation".
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Judge Conrad jailed Yagoub for six years, Haffow for seven years and Yahya for 51 months.
He closed by congratulating the officers involved in the case for their “diligent detective work.”
After the hearing PC Andy Shaw, from Greater Manchester Police's county lines team, said: “We have secured strong sentencings against three drug dealers who were blighting the community of Bolton.
“The early morning warrants were a direct result of the team’s work in tackling county lines drug supply and the exploitation of vulnerable people in the Bolton area.
“Our investigation found a network of criminality from phone data and the vast amount of drugs and cash located at the addresses and on the persons of those arrested and subsequently charged."
“Drugs investigations are complex pieces of work, but they all rely on information shared to us first by members of the public."
He appealed for anyone with any information to contact police on 101 or independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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