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Feb 4, 2021 Police have sent text messages more than 2,000 customers found on a county lines drug dealer's phone. Subscribe to our daily newsletter! Sign Up A text message sent by police to customers on a drug dealer's phone The phone was seized as part of an investigation into a drugs network that is supplying up to £3,000 worth of cocaine a day across Birmingham and into Worcestershire. Four men have been charged with drugs supply and are on remand in prison awaiting trial. Analysis of the dealer hotline revealed the mobile numbers of more than 2,000 contacts who were receiving SMS marketing updates from the drugs line.
05:57 EDT, 3 February 2021 Police have busted a suspected £1million county lines drug operation after dealers posed as key workers to fool lockdown patrols. Couriers allegedly delivered drugs - mostly cocaine - to 2,000 customers across Birmingham and Worcestershire by dressing up as care home staff. But the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (WMROCU) shut down the hotline. A 12-gauge self-loading shotgun was recovered as part of the operation and four men - aged 24, 31, 33 and 35 - have been charged with drug offences. Detectives also fear young people may have been groomed and exploited to supply the drugs - much of it to 'middle-class customers'.