Nine jailed as multi million pound Birmingham County lines gang smashed

Dear Resident,

Nine men have been jailed for more than 60 years, as our County Lines Taskforce has smashed a Birmingham drugs gang.

The group were jailed following complex enquiries into a multi-million pound conspiracy to supply cannabis, and a major conspiracy to supply Class A drugs – which overlapped due to the shared locations being used by the men.

As part of their work disrupting the supply of drugs across the West Midlands, our taskforce had been investigating the ‘Smila’ line, which was used to deal heroin and crack cocaine in the Lozells area of the city.

That investigation found the number associated with the line was involved in almost 200,000 calls between August 2024 and March 2025, and was active 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Unfortunately for those behind the drugs line, so are our officers.

As detectives established the scale of activity involved in the line, it transpired that drugs with an estimated street value of more than £1.4m were supplied through it.

In August 2024, a car was spotted several times in just a few minutes around Lozells, before failing to stop for officers.

When it did eventually stop, the driver - Mohammed Muhaimin - was caught and arrested.

Two phones, more than £2,000 in cash, and quantities of drugs were seized from him.

Enquiries continued and Mohammed Mumen was later arrested, and an address linked to him in Handsworth was searched, while a search of his phone led to the discovery of a video of him with a gun.

Then, in November 2024, Mohammed Mazharul was arrested following a police pursuit in Hockley, while Rijwanul Islam was arrested at an apartment building in Birmingham city centre in January – where officers seized more than £9,000 in cash – and linked him to the supply of cannabis.

Both were found to be linked to Muhaimin and Mumen, and the Smila line.

Our enquiries into the line were continuing, and in March, Itisham Mahmood was arrested after the car he was in failed to stop and then repeatedly rammed into police officers.

When he was detained, he was found to be in possession of a large quantity of drugs and two mobile phones, one of which held the Smila line.

Wahiyet Rahman was then arrested in April 2025, in possession of cash, drugs, and two phones, while Mohammed Rahman was arrested just days later.

Because of our investigation, all seven admitted the charges and were then sentenced as follows:

TOP L-R: Mohammed Habibur Rahman, Itisham Mahmoud, Mohammed Mumen, Mohammed Hussain Saleem, Rijwanul Islam
BOTTOM L-R: Vikas Saleem, Mohammed Mazharul, Mohammed Muhaimin, Wahiyet Rahman

The operation into bringing down this gang also saw two brothers charged with conspiring to supply cannabis – dating back to October 2021.

They both admitted the offence, and at Birmingham Crown Court in January of this year, Mohammed Saleem, 23 of George Street, was jailed for six years.

Vikaas Saleem, 32 also of George Street, was jailed for six years and four months.

Det Insp Mark Robinson, from the County Lines Taskforce (CLTF), said: “This was a significant and complex investigation into what was clearly a highly active drugs line.

“There can be no doubt from our enquiries that these men were responsible for a variety of drugs on a commercial scale – which we know bring misery to communities.

“The group may have thought at one stage or another that they’d got away with this, but I hope the fact they’re now serving long prison sentences is a message to other drug dealers that we’re not letting up in our work to disrupt drug networks across the West Midlands.”

In the last 12 months our specialist CLTF has closed more than 400 drug lines and put dealers behind bars for nearly 600 years.

To read more about their work, click HERE.