Johnson Crew members jailed
Mar 27 2009 by Mark Cowan, Birmingham Mail
FIVE members of Birmingham’s notorious Johnson Crew street gang have been sentenced for their part in drug dealing operation that blighted a Birmingham suburb.
Reuben Bell (28), Junior Hewitt (22), Andre Henry (22), Dejon Collman (21) and 19-year-old Rikardo Reid were caught in a police sting in Erdington after peddling heroin and crack to undercover officers who posed as drug addicts.
They were sentenced to between two years six months and five years after pleading guilty to drugs offences at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday.
Reid, a budding footballer who once had a contract with Derby County, was given a 12-month suspended sentence after the judge offered him a last chance to change his ways.
Sentencing the men, His Honour Judge Salmonsen, told them: “You were part of a significant drugs-related operation, albeit at street level. This network was able and willing to deal in drugs. The supply of Class A drugs was the tip of a considerable iceberg.”
The court was told the gang used an elaborate system to protect themselves and to put a “barrier between themselves and thecustomers” by using local go-betweens.
They used a number of different pre-pay telephone lines, nicknames and cars to protect their identities.
