Two Birmingham based drug dealers who supplied heroin and cocaine to the streets of Stratford-upon-Avon have been jailed following a major operation by detectives in the West Midlands and Warwickshire.
Aaron Josephs (pictured left) and Julian Barnes made a fortune peddling the Class A drugs by using middleman George Stephens − who has also been jailed for his role in the conspiracy - to get the illegal substances distributed to end users.
But their empire came crashing down on 16 March this year when armed police stopped the pair in Barnes’ Audi RS Q3 on Bishopton Lane in, Stratford-upon-Avon - just as they were about to meet with Stephens.
Both men had large quantities of cash on them and searches of their homes revealed further damning evidence of their illicit activities.
At 29-year-old Josephs’ house on Farley Road in Erdington a large quantity of heroin and cocaine was recovered from a shoebox in a bedroom, valuing over £26,000. His fingerprints were found all over the packaging.
At 41-year-old Barnes’ house on Starbank Road in Small Heath, quantities of cutting agent were found, along with numerous mobile phones. These were subsequently examined and showed evidence of drug dealing via text messages and whatsapp.
A search was also conducted at an address linked to an associate of Barnes’ in Thornthwaite Close, Rubery. In a bedroom cupboard, detectives found a 1kg brick of heroin, worth over £100,000, which was later linked back to him.
And at yet another address, on Rodbourne Road, officers found another Audi S3 belonging to Barnes. Inside the boot was more than £10,000 in cash wrapped in cling-film bundles.
Enquiries subsequently linked the men directly to 20-year-old Stephens − who had been arrested two months earlier − and showed that between May 2015 and March 2016 over 177 trips had been made by the men between Birmingham and Stratford.
The weight of the evidence was so strong that all three men admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs at Birmingham Crown Court.
On Wednesday 7 September, a judge jailed Barnes and Josephs each for nine years.
George Stephens, of Holly Walk, Stratford-upon-Avon, was handed a five year term for the conspiracy as well as an additional five years to run consecutively for possession of a firearm, relating to a stun gun officers recovered during the investigation.
His girlfriend Daisy Bayliss, 21, of Wasperton Lane in Warwick, was jailed for two years and eight months for her part in the conspiracy − driving Stephens to Birmingham and back to collect the drugs.
Andrea Petropolous, 22, of Church Street in Alcester, was handed a sentence of five years eight months for acting as a sub-dealer for Stephens in Stratford.
And Olivia Stephens, aged 40, of Holly Walk, Stratford - George Stephens’ mother − got a suspended sentence for allowing her son to use her address as a base from which to deal the drugs.
Pictured left to right: Stephens, Bayliss, Petropoulos
DC Tom Frenchum, from West Midlands Police Force CID, said: said: "These sentences send a strong message to other dealers who damage our communities with the drugs they sell, that they face a long stretch in prison when we catch up with them.
"I’m confident the streets of the West Midlands and Warwickshire are much safer with this supply network dismantled, but it doesn’t stop here. We’ve now frozen their assets and are working hard to recoup the cash they made from their illegal activities.
"I want to thank Warwickshire Police for working so closely with us throughout this case and most importantly to the public who help by providing us with all the crucial information we need to launch investigations like this in the first place."
If you have any information about drug dealing you can contact police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
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