County lines dealer gets four-year sentence

A Worcester county lines drug dealer has been sentenced to four years at Worcester Crown Court.

Scott Lannie, 35, of Back Lane South, Worcester, was found guilty of possession with intent to supply class A drugs - crack cocaine when he appeared at court on Thursday 19 September.

Lannie was handed a 49-month term for the offence and ordered to pay a £224 surcharge.

He was also charged with possession with intent to supply class A drugs – heroin and given a 49-month sentence to run concurrently. A further charge of acquire / use / possess criminal property was ordered to lie on file.

Lannie was caught dealing class A drugs direct to users using a dedicated ‘deal line’ to run his illegal enterprise.

He was spotted by covert police officers on April 9 who observed his activities in the Back Lane South residential area of Worcester.

When Lannie realised police were in the area, he ran back to a friend’s address where he tried to flush a package down the toilet but was stopped by officers.

That package contained over 50 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine and a large block of crack cocaine. Drugs paraphernalia and £1,625 cash were also recovered.

He was arrested and charged the next day (April 10) at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court before his Worcester Crown Court hearing.

Detective Constable Paul Modley, of South Worcestershire County Lines Team, said: “We are pleased to get another county lines dealer convicted and sentenced following intelligence built upon community concerns reported to us.

“We would like to encourage members of the public to continue to help us keep the likes of Lannie off our streets by reporting anything they think is suspicious to us – we will always act on your concerns as we showed in this case.

“We will not stop in our efforts to prevent and halt the damage and harm drug dealers and the drugs they sell reap upon our communities and you can play your part in this by making South Worcestershire a no-go area for them.”

• The local community can help us by continuing to report any signs of criminal activity – the easiest way to do this is on our website. Any bit of information, no matter how small it may seem, could help make a big difference. You can report online at Report a crime | West Mercia Police .

• If you have information about drugs and drugs supply and don’t want to speak to police, you can report information anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or Crimestoppers
• This investigation forms part of Operation Target – West Mercia Police’s work to tackle serious and organised crime. New operation launched to target serious and organised crime | West Mercia Police

JI, Corporate Communications