Jail for county lines drug dealer

A county lines drug dealer was sentenced to seven years in prison for offences committed in Cambridge and Luton.

Maruf Miah, 20, of Long Street, Birmingham, was found guilty of two charges of possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin following a three-day trial at Peterborough Crown Court.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison for each offence, to run concurrently, while a ten-month suspended sentence he had received for a previous burglary was activated and will also run concurrently.

In May this year Miah was found in a flat in Cambridge which was being used by county line dealers in a process known as cuckooing. Cuckooing involves drug dealers using a property belonging to someone else, who is often a vulnerable person, to conduct their business.

Miah was released but several days later he was stopped by police in Cambridge and found to be in possession of 35 wraps of cocaine and heroin, believed to have a street value of £350.

At the time of his arrest Miah was on bail for an offence committed in Luton in November 2016 when he was found to be in possession of 60 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin with a street value of around £600.

He was sentenced for both offences at Peterborough Crown Court on Wednesday (26 October).

PC Matt Smith, the officer in charge of the case, said: “This is a long sentence and should serve as a stark warning to anyone involved in county line drug dealing that if you take part and are caught in Cambridgeshire you will end up in prison.

“We will not tolerate drug dealing and there is nowhere to hide in this county for drug dealers and those who seek to exploit the vulnerabilities of others.”