TWO men who forced a missing teenage boy to peddle heroin and cocaine in a county lines drug operation have been jailed.

Following a joint investigation led by British Transport Police (BTP) Patrick Kargbo and Jerome Ferusa were found to have exploited a vulnerable 16-year-old boy into supplying drugs.

Another two members of the gang have now also been sentenced.

October 26, 2020, the boy was approached at Eastbourne station by officers from BTP’s County Lines Taskforce.

He was later found to have been reported as missing by his family.

He was taken into police protection and referred into the National Referral Mechanism for safeguarding, in conjunction with Children’s Services, before being returned home.

Detectives then launched an investigation into the gang controlling the boy to distribute their drugs.

The teenager’s phone data revealed he was shuttling by train between Eastbourne and Ferusa’s address in Hastings.

Each time he arrived in Eastbourne, a broadcast message was sent to hundreds of recipients from the “Blue” county line, advertising the sale of the class A drugs.

Further analysis of the communications on the phone linked the Blue line to Ferusa, Kargbo and Brandon French.

All three were tracked down and arrested in December 2020 and search warrants were executed at their home addresses.

During the search, officers seized equipment used in the trio’s drug supply business, including mobile phones and SIM cards.

One of the phones seized from Ferusa’s address was found to be another deal line supplying heroin and cocaine in Nottinghamshire.

After being released on conditional police bail, Kargbo was stopped by Sussex Police officers in an alleyway in Eastbourne.

He was accompanied by Bayleigh Cameron-Green who was carrying small pieces of paper with the same phone number written on.

Both men were arrested on suspicion of drug supply offences and Cameron-Green was further arrested for assaulting a Sussex Police officer as he was being apprehended.

Kargbo’s Eastbourne property was again searched following his arrest and officers found 29 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin and another mobile phone sending broadcast messages.

The complex investigation conducted into the communications data across multiple mobile phones and SIM cards resulted in the gang being connected to the Blue line and responsible for drug supply across the South East of England.

All four men were sentenced on Wednesday, February 23 at Brighton Crown Court.

  • Kargbo, 18, of Royal Sussex Crescent, Eastbourne, pleaded guilty to human trafficking of a child and supplying Class A drugs.

He was sentenced to four years and nine months imprisonment and handed a five-year Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order.

  • Ferusa, 20, of Rushton Road, Northamptonshire, pleaded guilty to human trafficking of a child and supplying Class A drugs.

He was sentenced to three years and eleven months imprisonment and was also handed a five-year Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order.

  • French, 20, of St Mary’s Road, Hastings, pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.
  • Cameron-Green, 18, of Mogul Lane, Dudley, pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs and assaulting an emergency worker. He was handed an 18-month Community Order.

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