A South London man has been jailed for selling extraordinary amounts of drugs through a county line.
Ajay Stephens, 21, of Parry Road, Croydon, was sentenced to eight years and seven months in prison at Inner London Crown on Thursday, November 11.
He was found guilty following a trial in May of two counts of arranging and facilitating the movement of people.
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He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing in September 2020 to two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
He also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and possession with intent to supply a Class B drug (cannabis) last month in relation to a separate matter, for which he was sentenced at the same time.
The court heard that Stephens was the holder of the ‘P’ line – a county line running drugs from London to Hastings, Kent.
Stephens got unsuspecting women to book and pay for accommodation in Hastings where he made two vulnerable teenage boys, aged 15 and 17, travel to from their care home in Manchester to deal his crack cocaine and heroin.
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The investigation began on 9 March 2020 when detectives from the Met received intelligence from Sussex Police about the ‘P’ line.
Fast-time enquiries, including mobile phone and ANPR analysis identified Stephens as the line-holder and also revealed that he was exploiting two children by getting them to travel from Manchester to London to collect the drugs before travelling to Hastings where they would stay to deal to Stephens’ customers.
After the children were safeguarded, which was the officers’ priority, more slow time enquiries continued to build evidence against Stephens. Detectives were able to prove that Stephens had been dealing Class A drugs in Hastings since April 2019, which he admitted to.
The court heard that approximately 1.45kg of drugs were sold through the ‘P line’ between 11 November 2019 and 30 March 2020, netting Stephens a healthy profit.
Detectives also found that when Stephens was out of the country, his step-brother Amun’Ra Teko, 19 (15.07.02), of Loughborough Estate, Lambeth, and his half-brother Shaquille Boreland, 26 (09.11.95), of no fixed address, ran the line in his absence.
Stephens, Teko and Boreland were subsequently charged and all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, with Teko and Boreland awaiting sentencing.
While this investigation was ongoing, a new county line called the ‘JB’ line started in May 2020 and supplied drugs between London and Kent.
On 1 May 2020, prior to the line starting, officers stopped a BMW in Old Kent Road which was being driven by Boreland. Another half-brother of Stephens, Tai Diedrick, 23 (28.06.98), of Dunheved Road West, Croydon, was a passenger in the vehicle.
Both were searched and Diedrick was in possession of a burner phone that would later be linked to the ‘JB line’.
A police dog searched the vehicle and found MDMA and cocaine hydrochloride hidden in an air vent. Both men were arrested and subsequently released under investigation.
Meanwhile, detectives who were investigating the ‘P line’ connected the dots and uncovered that Teko was also involved in the ‘JB line’, which officers found was being run by Diedrick.
Diedrick, along with his associates Trey Foster, 27 (21.10.94), of Myatts Field South, Lambeth, and Romario Genus, 19 (10.10.02), of Paxton Grove, Croydon, pleaded guilty at separate hearings to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Diedrick also pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property.
Another associate, Jamie Danquah, 23 (02.05.98), of Strathmore Road, Croydon pleaded guilty in May 2021 to possession of criminal property and possession with intent to supply Class B.
Boreland and Teko denied involvement but were found guilty by a jury in October, with Boreland being convicted of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and Teko being convicted of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
All six await sentencing.
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