Drug gang caught after flaunting lavish lifestyle in music videos

A gang of drug dealers are facing jail after they were caught boasting of their wealth in music videos.

Gang leader Akeem Chand - aka rapper Brutz - flaunted his drug earnings with lavish videos which helped incriminate him and his co-defendants.

Chand and six other men were last week convicted of a string of drugs and weapons offences following a 15 week trial at Nottingham Crown Court

Chand had been arrested following a spate of shootings across Nottingham which took place in late 2018 and early 2019, including when a rival gang member was shot in the neck as Chand fired multiple shots into his car.

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Detectives found the gang were "living like footballers or music stars" making large sums of cash selling cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin across Nottinghamshire.

They spent the cash on expensive jewellery, designer clothes, holidays and the production of music videos between July 2018 and June 2019.

Several gang members even flew to Mexico’s Caribbean coast where they stayed in a private villa and hired a luxury motor yacht.

The villa and boat were used as locations ​for a music video recorded on the trip, eventually leading to their downfall.

Another music video - published on YouTube - showed members of the gang filming around a block of flats they used as a safe house for storing drugs and guns.

Detectives were further helped by high-definition aerial drone footage which directed them to the location.

The gang became the subject of a covert police operation and listening devices planted in a car caught them openly discussing the sale of drugs and shooting rivals.

The cycle of tit-for-tat shootings came to an end on 27 May in Aspley, when a shotgun was fired through the front window of Chand’s then home address.

Police arrested the gang and stormed their homes where they uncovered significant quantities of drugs, cash and guns.

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Chand, Orlando Escoffery, 26, Quarnell Simpson, 23, Devante Neufville, 24, Kiefer Smith, 28, and Alexsandro Woolery, 27, were found guilty of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to possess ammunition without a certificate.

The Nottingham men previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply class A and class B drugs.

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

Another woman, Sarah Aplin, 27, of Nottingham, previously admitted to a charge of allowing a premises to used for the supply of controlled drug

All will be sentenced on 25 October.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Bull, of Nottinghamshire Police, saids: “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.”