Hucknall man one of six gang members convicted of multiple drugs and weapons offences

A man from Hucknall who was part of a violent, gun-toting gang of drug dealers who flaunted their wealth, has along with five other men, been convicted of multiple drugs and weapons offences.

Kiefer Smith, 28, formerly of Dallman Close, just off Park Drive, was part of the gang, which sold vast quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of Nottingham, Mansfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield and other areas of Nottinghamshire.

The undisputed leader of the gang was Akeem Chand, 27, formerly of Melbourne Road, Aspley.

The other four men convicted were:

• Orlando Escoffery, 26, formerly of Fenton Road, Basford;

• Quarnell Simpson, 23, formerly of Nuthall Road, Aspley;

• Devante Neufville, 24, of no fixed address;

• Alexsandro Woolery, 27, formerly of Portland Road, Carlton;

They were convicted by a jury of two charges – conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to possess ammunition without a certificate. Each of them had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A and class B drugs.

The convictions came after a trial that had lasted more than 15 weeks.

Ravan Mather-Simpson, 25, formerly of Mansfield Road, Nottingham, also pleaded guilty before the trial to conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs.

Sarah Aplin, 27, of Wyton Close, Bestwood, had previously admitted to a charge of allowing a premises to be used for the supply of controlled drug.

They will all will be sentenced on Monday 25 October.

The gang came to the attention of police after a series of shooting incidents in late 2018 and early 2019.

In one incident in May 2019, a member of a rival criminal gang was shot in the neck as gang leader and aspiring drill music star Akeem Chand fired multiple shots into his car as it travelled along a residential street in the early evening.

Between July 2018 and June 2019 the gang made extremely large sums of cash which they flaunted with the purchase of expensive jewellery, designer clothes, holidays and the production of music videos, in which they boasted about their drug-funded wealth.

At one point in March 2019 several members of the gang – who had almost no legitimate income between them – flew to Mexico's Caribbean coast where they strayed in a lavishly appointed private villa and even hired a luxury motor yacht.

Both were used as locations for a professionally produced music video recorded on the trip. In it the gang bragged about dealing drugs, posed with their jewellery and boasted about how they needed a 'Money Counter' to count their profits.

In another music video – published on YouTube under Chand's stage name Brutz – members of the gang were filmed in and around a block of flats at in Bestwood that they used as a safe house for storing drugs and guns. Detectives were further helped by high-definition aerial drone footage of the location.

After falling under police suspicion the gang became the subject of an extensive covert police operation, during which a listening device planted in a car caught the gang openly discussing the sale of drugs and the shooting of rivals.

For several days the device recorded Chand and his associates conducting multiple drug deals, including discussing the best wording for a text message advertisement they were planning to send out to tout their illegal wares to their very many customers.

Now armed with very compelling evidence the Detectives moved in and arrested the gang. Subsequent property searches revealed significant quantities of drugs, cash, and guns, one of which was forensically linked to a shooting in Hazel Hill Crescent, Bestwood which the gang had also been overheard plotting.

Detectives were not able to prove conclusively who pulled the trigger in every offence and successfully argued instead that the men had all conspired together to store and use the weapons in a way that posed a clear and obvious risk to life.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Bull, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: "This was a very dangerous gang whose members were making huge sums of money from a wide-spread and sophisticated drug dealing network. Ultimately, however, they were undone by their own arrogance, recklessness, and meticulous police work.

"Here we had a group of young men with almost no discernible legal income between them living the lives of music stars or footballers – spending quite incredible sums on jewellery, holidays, designer clothes and the other trappings of wealth.

"All the more incredible was the fact they made so little effort to spend their money discreetly – choosing instead to brag on social media posts about just how much of it they were spending. It was, however, their ready use of violence that led to their undoing.

"When guns are discharged in the street there is always a reason. In this case that reason led us very quickly to Chand and his associates, who by that time were effectively boasting openly of their drug dealing and violence online. We knew exactly what they were up to but were still faced with the challenge of getting enough evidence to prosecute them.

"Our subsequent covert investigation unearthed a treasure trove of damning evidence that has ultimately led to the men's convictions. We should be under no illusions that these are very dangerous men who thought nothing of discharging firearms in residential streets. I would like to pay tribute to the witnesses that came forward and the dedicated detectives who helped to bring them to justice.

"I want to reassure the public that the use of firearms remains extremely rare. These convictions show that we will use all investigative means at our disposal to pursue those responsible for their use and put them before the courts."