A county lines drug dealer was arrested in a dawn raid after cops caught him running his criminal empire from his family home.
Dramatic footage shows Mohammed Arslan Ali, 25, who sold heroin and crack cocaine to users between Birmingham and Worcestershire via the ‘Shak Line’, being arrested.
Detectives also discovered he had sent out bulk marketing messages to more than 100 customers boasting about having high quality drugs to sell.
One message read: “New fire gear, new stone” while another said: “Very gud gear, gud stone.”
Ali told users they could buy drugs from his family home in Birmingham between 9am to 9pm seven days a week.
Police bodycam footage shows officers raiding Ali’s home in Erdington in a dawn raid last November.
Ali, wearing a dressing gown, is caught desperately trying to scratch the number off his SIM card which he had used to run the drugs operation.
One cop asks him: "I need to know if you've got any phones at the address. You've got that one which you messing about with when I came in.
"Have you got anything else here? Any drugs or cash? We'll turn this place upside down."
A bleary-eyed Ali shakes his head and tells the officer: "No, do what you want."
The cop replies: "We will, we definitely will."
Analysis of the phone revealed Ali kept the phone on him at all times and even took it with him on day trips to London and a theme park.
Police seized Class A drugs, dealer bags, cash and high-value clothes and jewellery, despite Ali having no legal income.
He admitted drugs supply between April 25 and November 4 last year and was jailed for five years at Birmingham Crown Court last Thursday.
Detective Constable Ollie Payne, from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) County Lines Taskforce, said: “The drugs line had been used with numerous mobile devices and the primary device recovered from Ali’s home address during the warrant.
“We suspect he used drugs runners to carry out the street deals on his behalf while he tried to distance himself from the dirty work.
“It’s shocking that Ali was running a drugs supply line from his family home and dealing in crack cocaine and heroin around children.”
