A NAÏVE youngster who took part in a drug dealing network which saw heroin and cocaine supplied to users in Colchester and Chelmsford has been put behind bars.
Kevaughn Henriques, 20, followed the orders of ringleaders heading up drug dealing lines in Essex.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard he sent out “mass marketing” texts to drug users, bagged up and held Class A drugs and supplied runners.
Judge Timothy Walker said: “Your involvement in the conspiracy as a whole was to assist your older cousin Dejah in the running of the TJ line.
“You were, it is accepted by you, his assistant.”
The court was told Henriques was present on three occasions when an undercover officer was supplied with drugs.
He had “regular contact” with one of the lead conspirators, Amy Goldfinch, as well as his cousin Dejah Henriques.
Judge Walker said: “You confirmed to Miss Goldfinch you had heroin bagged up and you were involved in supplying one of her runners with drugs at her request.
“You were far from being at the top of the chain, but you were a person well able to assist Miss Goldfinch with various tasks she set you to, including the sending out of mass marketing messages and the bagging up and holding on to of drugs, as well as providing those to a driver.
“You must have had some awareness and understanding of the scale of the operation.”
The court heard his reasons behind getting involved in the conspiracy “were financial and naive”.
A report found he is a young man with “extremely low IQ and mental capacity, in terms of being able to make appropriate decisions about what to do and what not to do”.
Henriques, of Amersham Avenue, in London, admitted two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
Amongst eight co-conspirators sentenced at an earlier date, Dejah Henriques, 23, of Digby Road, Hackney, was jailed for six years and nine months, while Amy Goldfinch, of Church Road, London, was sentenced to nine years behind bars.
The sentences followed a two-year investigation led by a specialist drug team into the Captain, Max and TJ drug lines operating in Colchester and Chelmsford.
Temporary Detective Chief Inspector Neal Miller said: “This group of people believed they could carry on their business of exploitation because they were above the law. They were wrong.
“They had no idea our teams were building overwhelming cases against them so that when we did strike, they had very little option but admit their crimes and accept the sentences handed down to them.
“The streets of Colchester and Chelmsford are safer and cleaner places with these people behind bars.”
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