The remaining members of a county lines gang responsible for supplying crack cocaine and heroin from Liverpool to Macclesfield have been jailed for a combined total of more than 34 years.

The final members of the 'Mitch' gang were sentenced on 11 June at Chester Crown Court, following on from the four who were sentenced on 14 December 2020.

Between July 2019 and July 2020, Jamal Conteh (22), Zakaria Ahmed (24) and Ammin Hassan (25) worked as a team with no hierarchy, using two graft mobile phones during the 12-month operation.

The first graft phone was activated on 16 July 2019 when Conteh and Hassan travelled to Macclesfield to develop the line, sending various 'flare' messages to vulnerable users in our town.

Conteh even recruited three youths from Northamptonshire to assist with their Macclesfield-centric drug dealing operation.

Hassan and Ahmed took turns in managing the graft phone in Liverpool while Conteh spent his time in Macclesfield, dabbling in street dealing when he felt like it.

When Conteh wanted to 'sit off' he would order Edson Pereira (20), Oluwafemi Odumuyiwa (30) and Dawson Road resident Cheryl Hamand (43) to do it on his behalf.

In a bid to step up the operation, Odumuyiwa began hiring vehicles and chauffeured Conteh to deals while even couriering their commodity from Merseyside into Cheshire.

Hamand would allow the gang to operate from her property the town.

Officers raided this address in October 2019, discovering 91 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine along with three knives believed to be for protection and more than £330 in cash.

Pereira was arrested after attempting to evade officers by jumping out of a window of a flat. When he was detained £1,742 in cash was in his possession.

Officers stopped a taxi in neighbouring Wilmslow with Conteh inside, he was arrested and passed two packages containing 249 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine which had concealed inside him.

While in custody both Hassan and Ahmed repeatedly attempted to get in contact with Conteh.

Not long after Ahmed was arrested at his Liverpool home where officers discovered £19,470 in cash in his wardrobe along with a Norwegian passport and Dior training shoes worth around £850.

Two months later, Hassan handed himself in to a police station after a wanted appeal was issued by Cheshire Constabulary.

Of the six involved, Jamal Conteh recieved the highest sentence. They'll serve 12 years behind bars.

Ammin Hassan and Zakaira Ahmed will both serve seven years and six months behind bars each.

Oluwafemi Odumuyiwa gets 44 months imprisonment for their involvement in the gang.

Macclesfield-resident Cheryl Hamand got 31 months, which was reduced to 20 months following appeal.

Meanwhile, criminal window-jumper Edson Pereira got 20 months.

Detective Constable Luke Browczuk, of Macclesfield County Lines BIT Team, said: "This was a particularly complex case and after a 12 month operation, it is great to see the sentence handed down by the courts.

"The arrests occurred in the wake of coronavirus but we were determined to bring the gang to justice by cutting off the supply and removing dealers from the streets, putting an end to the misery that they had brought to Macclesfield.

"I hope that the sentence provides reassurance to the communities of Macclesfield that this gang is now off the streets and we will continue to do all we can to make the area a safer place to live and visit."

There were 42 drug crimes in Macclesfield Central between March 2020 and February 2021.

While that number is one of the highest in our county, Cheshire actually has one of the lowest drug crime rate in the UK, and unlike the rest of the country, drug offences actually fell during lockdown.

Detective Inspector Adam Alexander said: "I would like to echo the comments made by DC Browczuk and thank him and the team for all their hard work on this lengthy case.

"By bringing this gang to justice, I hope that this acts as a deterrent to those who think they can get away with bringing organised crime into Cheshire.

"We will not stop pursuing those who come into the county to commit crime and will continue to do all we can to make Cheshire a hostile environment for criminals."

For legal reasons, here are listed the names and addresses of those sentenced:

Ammin Hassan, 25, of no fixed address but of Liverpool

Edson Pereira, 20, of Gannet Lane, Wellingborough

Jamal Conteh, 22, Newport Road, Northampton

Zakaira Ahmed, 24, Millennium Road, Toxteth, Liverpool

Oluwafemi Odumuyiwa, 30, Union Street, Liverpool

Cheryl Hamand, 43, Dawson Road, Macclesfield

Last week we reported on the jailing of another Class A drug dealer in Macclesfield.

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