Drug dealer now serving 20-year jail term ran 'deplorable' drugs supply line into Shropshire
A dealer serving a 20-year-prison sentence for the gunpoint kidnap of a £50k jackpot winner ran a "deplorable" County Lines drugs operation, a court has been told.
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Shrewsbury Crown Court heard how the 'Scouse J' line – selling crack cocaine and heroin, was run out of a 'cuckooed' property in Trewern Avenue in Gobowen, near Oswestry.
Between December 2021 and January 2022 the line was estimated to have supplied around £25,000 of Class A drugs into the county.
Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said that two men had been discovered by police at the property when they raided it on January 4, 2022.
One, Carlton Mullen, 24, of Liverpool, admitted four charges – possession of diamorphine and crack cocaine, and being concerned in the supply of diamorphine and crack cocaine.
A second man, Keelan Doran, 27, of Alderwood Avenue, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to charges of possession of diamorphine and crack cocaine.
Mullen was jailed for 20 years in January 2023 for his part in a kidnap plot where a man was taken from his flat at gunpoint, assaulted, shot, and left in a road.
That incident had reportedly been sparked in an attempt to ransom the victim, who had won a £50,000 jackpot weeks earlier.
Mr Edwards explained that the Shropshire raid had come after a tip-off from the public that a resident was being 'cuckooed' – a term for when drug dealers exploit vulnerable people and take over their property as a base for drug dealing.
