BBC/ Derbyshire Police
- A taxi driver accidentally left his dashcam on and recorded incriminating conversations with a drug gang.
- The footage led to the conviction of 10 members of the "Marlow Lines" drugs ring.
- The taxi driver, Shahid Iqbal, was also convicted. He has been sentenced to four years in jail.
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Members of a notorious British drug gang have been jailed for a total of 43 years after a taxi driver who they recruited to ferry drugs, dealers, and young couriers accidentally filmed incriminating encounters on his car's dashcam, Yahoo reported.
Shahid Iqbal had been paid by the Nottingham-based "Marlow Line" drug gang to help transport a significant amount of crack cocaine and heroin to dealers at two properties in Derby, UK, between March and July last year, DerbyshireLive said.
Iqbal was arrested after Derbyshire Police performed traffic stops while investigating the gang's activities last summer, according to MailOnline. Officers seized his taxi and found a dashcam with hours of recorded footage detailing the Marlow Line's activities, the paper said.
The incriminating videos, shared by Derbyshire Police and published by the BBC, were used as evidence to bust the drug gang and led to Iqbal's conviction.
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In one of the clips, Iqbal can be heard swearing a gang member to secrecy while coordinating plans. "I'll be honest with you, bro, whatever goes on between me and you stays between me and you," he says.
"You see, this run here, it's at least once a day," Mohammed Haely, a Marlow Line member who has since been jailed for six years and nine months, can be heard replying.
"You keep me running around. It's going to put something on my table," Iqbal adds.
In another section of footage recovered from the dashcam, Iqbal can be heard coaching a runner - a young courier paid or forced to deliver drugs - on how to go about a drug sale.
He advises the young man to top up his cellphone with credit.
"You'll get used to this one, bro. You'll make some Ps," Iqbal advises. The taxi driver then tells the runner to wear a mask before entering the home of a woman being used to supply drugs, the footage shows.
Iqbal has been sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, the BBC reported.
He "used his role as a taxi driver to willingly transport drugs and runners between Nottingham and Derby," said prosecutor Gareth Weetman, according to DerbyshireLive. "He had daily operational involvement in the chain," Weetman added.
The taxi driver's lawyer, Mark Sharman, said: "I must accept Mr. Iqbal performed an operational role but there is no suggestion he involved others. What was his downfall was financial motivation."
Ten members of the gang were also jailed on May 21. Their sentences add up to a total of 43 years and three months, MailOnline reported.
The drug gang's ring leader, Bright Norman, was sentenced to 9-and-a-half years behind bars, the paper said.
The Marlow Lines are a county lines gang. These groups often use networks of vulnerable children and adults to move drugs across county borders in the UK, according to the BBC.
Police forces across the country have launched a crackdown on county lines gangs, resulting in the arrest of 1,100 people and the seizure of almost 300 weapons between May 17 and 23, the BBC reported.
There are currently thought to be around 600 of these gangs operating in the UK, the media outlet said.
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