Three Hackney men jailed for running county lines drug dealing operation in Brighton
Andre Phanor, Christopher Saili and Joshua Samuels. - Credit: Archant
Three Hackney men have been jailed for their part in a Sussex county lines operation.
Andre Phanor, 29, of Laundress Lane, Upper Clapton, was identified as "Mr Big" in the Scotty Line, which was cracked by Brighton police last year.
He and 22-year-old Christopher Saili, a care assistant of Clissold Crescent, Stoke Newinton, and Joshua Samuels, 33, of Seven Sisters Road, were responsible for "cuckooing" a vulnerable elderly man's home in Brighton.
All three were jailed at Hove Crown Court on Friday June 7 following a three week trial.
Phanor was found guilty of conspiring to supply crack cocaine and conspiring to supply heroin. He was jailed for 10 years.
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Saili and Samuels were found guilty of the same offences and were jailed for six and seven years respectively.
Phanor and Saili, a former sea cadet who won a Jack Petchey award for his work, were arrested at their homes and Samuels later handed himself following a warrant at his home.
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Officers began investigating in late 2017 and identified Samuels as a manager for the Scotty Line basing himself in Brighton.
Phanor, based in the Camden, controlled the dealing phone and directed the street runners. Saili managed the flow of drugs between London and Brighton.
Judge Paul Tain said to Phanor: "You are in the rare position of getting caught, when the County Lines model protects those at the top, with normally only the lower level street runners being the ones detected.
"A mixture of excellent technological analysis and your own mistakes got you caught."
Addressing all three, he added: "These are very serious offences with disastrous consequences and now they have disastrous consequences for you."
