County lines gang jailed for 100 years

Police smash heroin & crack network that netted £1.2m a year

- ADAM DUTTON

A DOZEN people have been handed long jail sentences after police smashed a huge county lines drugs network which made £1.2million a year.

Some of the close-knit coalition which peddled heroin and crack will serve terms of almost 13 years.

In all, the judge handed down sentences of more than 100 years.

The probe into the gang - codename Operation Hunterian - was the biggest ever by West Midlands Police.

Det Sgt Craig Tennant said: "This group which caused misery in our communities will be behind bars for a very long time." County lines is where organised crime groups use phone lines to move and supply drugs, usually from cities into smaller towns and rural areas.

But this operation was described as rare because four different "lines" worked together as a coalition, taking more than 1,000 calls a day.