Fesal Mahamud and Mahad Yusuf trafficked woman who was forced to carry drugs from London to Swansea

Two gang members who ran a so-called “county line” drug network have been jailed for human trafficking offences.



Mahad Yusuf, 20, and Fesal Mahamud, 19, pleaded guilty in December to trafficking a vulnerable 19-year-old woman who was forced to transport drugs from London to Swansea.

On Friday, Yusuf was sentenced to nine years in prison while Mahamud was jailed for 10 years. Both men were also made subject of a 20-year slavery trafficking prevention order.



The case is thought to be the first in UK legal history in which police have successfully used powers under the Modern Slavery Act to target members of a city gang supplying class A drugs into county or coastal locations.

The investigation, which started in March last year, focused on a London-to-Swansea “county line” operated by members of a street gang based in Enfield, east London.



On 25 May, officers from Trident, working in conjunction with South Wales police, identified an address in Swansea suspected of being used by the gang to supply class A drugs.



During a search of the premises a 19-year-old teenager who had been reported missing from her home in London was found. She had been beaten and forced to store class A drugs inside her.

The gang had lured the teenager into a car in north London five days earlier following a brief exchange on social media. She was then driven to south Wales to be met by Yusuf, who told her “she belonged to him”. Her mobile phone was destroyed.



DI Rick Sewart, of the Met’s Trident and Area Crime Command who led the investigation, said the victim has suffered a “horrendous ordeal” and paid tribute to her “courage and bravery”.

“Her bravery has undoubtedly prevented other people from being exploited,” he said. “Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of this heinous crime and sends a message that the exploitation of young people will not be tolerated.”



Det Supt Tim Champion, lead officer for the Met’s county lines investigations, said: “Drug supply is not new, however the exploitation of young and vulnerable people by criminal networks, to move and supply drugs across the country, takes this offending to a new level.

“We will prioritise these criminal networks and utilise all legislation available to disrupt their offending and safeguard those caught up in ‘county lines’. These offenders are trafficking young people to maximise their profits in the drug market and the use of the Modern Slavery Act is a proportionate and necessary response.”