Jail for drug gang member who peddled heroin from Sheffield into Nottinghamshire

Officers from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) started looking into the gang in 2016, and spent six months gathering evidence.

Throughout the investigation, Bassam Yousuf made two taxi journeys from his home city of Sheffield to rural Nottinghamshire.

The 26-year-old made exchanges with criminals in Nottinghamshire, before being driven home by one of his associates.

Officers found that the Nottinghamshire arm of the gang was stashing their drugs along rural nature trails, and keeping their cutting agents in storage containers.

In June 2016 two members were involved in a police pursuit throughout Nottinghamshire.

The pair drove dangerously through housing estates as they threw packages between cars, dumped some of the drugs in the road and poured cutting agent out of the window, smearing the windscreen of the police car.

However, the two groups continued to meet up and swap drugs for cash, but everyone involved was arrested over the coming months.

Despite trying to keep their hands clean, forensic evidence helped link those at the top of drug chain to the conspiracy.

On July 19 2019 ten men were sentenced to more than 94 years in prison. The highest sentence was given to 29-year-old Liban Abdullah, formerly of Holme Lane in Sheffield.

He was sentenced in his absence to 14 years in prison after failing to appear at court, and remains wanted.　

Yousuf, formerly of Ellesmere Road in Sheffield, was dealt with separately.

He first went to trial in February 2019, but a jury failed to come to a decision.

The prosecution decided it would be in the public’s interest to go ahead with a retrial, and Yousuf pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs on the second day of his trial on November 19 2019.

He appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday, November 25, and was sentenced to three years and six months. 　

Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Andy Jones said: "Yousuf is the last person to be sentenced in what has been a long and complex investigation and I am pleased it has concluded with him admitting his guilt.

"Each man involved had complete disregard for where the drugs they were supplying could have ended up; whether it be in the hands of young or vulnerable people in our communities, or acting as the catalyst for further crime on our streets.

"We suspect that these men will have benefitted tens of thousands of pounds from their crimes and they don’t deserve to come out of prison to a nice pot of cash waiting for them.

"The Proceeds of Crime Act allows us to apply to the courts to strip them of any assets or benefits they gained through criminality, and we’ve already started the ball rolling on this."