Dealer who helped flood Birmingham with drugs made surprising claim to police

A West Midlands drug dealer made a surprising claim to police while under interview for his involvement in running a £500k drugs line. Sarwat Ahmed was part of a convicted five-man gang who ran the 'Turk' line, which flooded Birmingham, Coventry and areas up north, including Manchester, with crack cocaine and heroin. Detectives said the line, estimated to be worth over £500,000, "caused misery" in communities.

West Midlands Police confirmed Jyad Mohammedi, Walid Houssain, Zewar Younes, Sarwat Ahmed and Shahram Karimi were jailed for a combined total of more than 42 years for their involvement in supplying crack cocaine and heroin.

Following sentencing, West Midlands Police revealed that all men kept quiet while under interview. However, Ahmed told the force's County Lines officers that he "did know what Class A drugs were" after he was arrested for his involvement in running the 'Turk' line.

READ MORE: 'Turk' line smashed as police unmask gang who helped flood Birmingham with drugs

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A West Midlands Police spokesperson explained: "During the interview, most of the group gave ‘no comment’ answers to the majority of questions. Ahmed even claimed to not even know what Class A drugs were." The force told of how the Turk Line racket operated across Coventry between December 2022 and August 2023 and distributed to locations across the country, including Birmingham.

The gang would use cars to deal drugs from, registering them under the false alias of ‘Florentin Iosif’ at various addresses to avoid journeys used to drop off the drugs ever being linked back to them. It was this fake name they provided to officers when stopped in the months leading up to their arrest.

Houssain and Mohammedi were stopped in one of the cars multiple times, with Mohammedi giving his details as being ‘Florentin Iosif’. However, records also placed the Turk Line phone at the same location as the stopped car along with personal phones belonging to the pair.

Between December 2022 and April 2023, the Turk Line was used to send out more than 8,000 bulk messages to multiple people advertising drugs for sale. Drugs were then often transported in cars registered to ‘Florentin Iosif’ but driven by different members of the group around Coventry, Birmingham, Manchester and other parts of the country.

Following a search warrant, police discovered a mobile phone and keys to a safe containing a large amount of cash. You can read more on what they discovered during that search warrant last year in our report here.

Four of the group were sentenced last Thursday, November 14, at Warwick Crown Court. The fifth man was sentenced at a previous hearing.

The five were sentenced as follows:

Jyad Mohammedi, aged 23, of Mansel Street, Coventry - was jailed for 11 years and 7 months for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Zewar Younes, aged 31, of no fixed abode - was jailed for nine and a half years for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Sarwat Ahmed, aged 22, of Eastwood, Manchester - was jailed for nine and a half years for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Walid Houssain, aged 23 of no fixed abode - jailed for nine years and 11 months for conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Shahram Karimi, aged 23 of The Old Yard, Coventry – was jailed for three years for possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin at Warwick Crown Court on 10 June 2024

Detective Constable David Cockbill, from West Midlands Police's County Lines Taskforce, said following sentencing: "The taskforce have worked hard to put this group behind bars where they can’t cause further misery to our communities.

“We won’t stop in our fight against organised crime and will continue to remove drugs off our streets and bring those involved to justice, while also protecting and safeguarding the vulnerable people caught up in these lines.

“We can’t do this without information from the public and I would encourage you to get in touch if you have any information. Something small, could be something big to our investigation.”