'County lines' drug dealer who trafficked children jailed

A drug dealer who trafficked teenagers to sell heroin and crack cocaine through his "county lines" narcotics network has been jailed for 14 years.

Zakaria Mohammed, 21, groomed them before transporting them from Birmingham to rural Lincolnshire.

West Midlands Police said it was the first time a drug dealer had been convicted of trafficking children under the Modern Slavery Act.

He admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs and trafficking charges.

Police said Mohammed, from Aston in Birmingham, was "cynical, deliberate and ruthless" in befriending young and vulnerable children, aged 14 and 15 at the time, to use as a commodity to further his drug-dealing business.

Children, who had previously been reported as missing to the force, were found inside three flats in Lincoln when police conducted raids and recovered money, drugs and weapons.

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