Drugs gang jailed over £38k heroin and crack cocaine bust in Bath and Keynsham

Clockwise starting top left: Sylvia Bearman, Jamaal Newman, Courtney Tanner-Mulholland, Oliver Lynes and Lubabalo Hale. Credit: Avon and Somerset Police

Six people have been sentenced after £38,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine were found in drugs busts in Bath and Bristol last October. 

The county lines drug network was dismantled following what police have described as a "complex investigation". 

Five warrants were carried out at properties in Bath and Keynsham. 

Officers made arrests and seized the drugs, as well as large knives and an estimated £15,000 in cash. 

What are county lines gangs?

County line gangs often recruit children, young people, and vulnerable adults to move and store drugs and money, often exposing them to a world of coercion, intimidation, violence and weapons. 

Dealers may also take over the home of a vulnerable person as a base for drug dealing.

The investigation resulted in the following people being sentenced:

  • Courtney Tanner-Mulholland, 18 and of Keynsham, sentenced to five years.

  • Jamaal Newman, 19 and of Hercules Way in Keynsham, sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a young offenders’ detention centre. 

  • Lubabalo Hale, 20 and of no fixed address, sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.    

  • Oliver Lynes, 20, of Beckford Gardens in Bathwick, sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years. He was also given a curfew, ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and to complete a 30-day rehabilitation activity order. 

  • Sylvia Bearman, 38 and of Shaws Way in Twerton, sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. She was also given a nine-month rehabilitation order requirement.  

  • A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sentenced to a two-year detention order in a young offenders’ detention centre. 

 Investigating officer, PC James Abbott from the County Lines team, said: “These are predominantly young people with their lives ahead of them, who’ve been influenced by the false and harmful ‘kudos’ of dealing class A drugs for cash.  

“Drugs have a devastating impact on our communities, and negatively impact people in many ways including addiction and as victims of crimes linked to this illicit trade.

"We’ll continue working hard to gather and act on intelligence, so we can work with the public to make our neighbourhoods a hostile place for these networks to operate in.”