Whitechapel-based heroin trafficking gang behind bars

A GANG of drug traffickers and dealers caught with more than �5 million of heroin have been sentenced to 98 years in jail.

Harold Morris, 46, of Glyn Road, Homerton, his niece Shelon Morris, 34, of Mare Street, Hackney, Delroy Small, 33, of Garham Close, Stoke Newington, Hikmet Sevim, 45, of Ilford, and Florina Burducea, 39, of Seven Sisters Road, Finsbury Park, had their illegal business smashed by Operation Trident following a huge investigation which began in September last year.

Shelon Morris and Small, operating from a flat in Raven Row, Whitechapel, were the pair in charge of bringing heroin into east London.

From there Sevim and Burducea would take it and distribute it to Harold Morris who acted as a wholesale distributor within east London.

The drugs came from Europe via Turkey and Romania.

Small rented the flat in a false name to evade detection and the gang used vans to transport boxes of heroin to and from their customers.

Cops recovered two kilos of heroin from a car when they stopped Small in September last year and later found another 20 kilos of heroin in the flat, worth around �1.5 million.

They also recovered over �177,000 in cash and seized a drugs ledger containing all of the gang’s customers’ details.

At Snaresbrook Crown Court on Tuesday December 21 Shelon Morris and Small were sentenced to 18 years each for drug trafficking while Sevim and Burducea were given 22 years each for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and Harold Morris 18 years also for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Det Insp Chris Jones, from Trident, said: “Today’s convictions coupled with the seizure of such a significant quantity of heroin will have seriously undermined the activities of a number of criminal networks across London. The individuals concerned were driven by personal greed and gave no thought to the misery caused through the unlawful supply of heroin within London’s communities.”