Couple jailed for trafficking teens to sell drugs

Omorie Nixon and Itman Ismail were jailed for trafficking teenage boys to sell drugs as part of a county lines operation

A drug dealer and his care worker girlfriend have been jailed for trafficking teenagers to sell drugs for a county lines operation.

Omorie Nixon, 20, and Itman Ismail, 28, used teenage boys to bring heroin and cocaine to Devon and Cornwall.

The pair, from South London, admitted three counts of human trafficking relating to four boys aged 15 and 16.

At Exeter Crown Court, Ismail was jailed for four years and Nixon for seven years and nine months.

Nixon had also admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and possession of a mobile phone in prison.

Devon and Cornwall Police said Ismail, who worked for a care group in London supporting vulnerable young adults, had a specific interest in working with young male gang members.

The court heard she was a deputy care manager providing supported accommodation for teenagers and young adults, and became Nixon's key worker in 2018. Their relationship began in 2019.

On 24 January 2020, the pair were stopped in a car in Torquay, with two boys in the back.

The boys were searched and found to have 191 wraps of heroin and cocaine within their bodies.

A forensic toxicologist found if the packages inside the boys had split, they could have died.

Itman Ismail and Omorie Nixon used at least seven different hire cars to make multiple journeys to Devon and Cornwall

The couple clocked up nearly 11,000 miles in seven different hire cars over four months making at least 11 trips to Devon and Cornwall, where they set up base in Airbnb houses.

Sentencing Ismail, Judge David Evans said: "You have moved from performing charitable and worthwhile work supporting young people to the cold-hearted exploitation of the vulnerable and marginalised."

After the hearing, specialist human trafficking investigator Det Con Ben Paul said it had been an "extremely complex investigation" and he hoped the convictions would "send a message to organised crime groups" considering committing these types of crimes.

He added: "Human trafficking and the use of vulnerable youths as commodities to assist with the dealing of these drugs is an extremely serious crime."