Justin Yang’s client running the ‘Adam’ drug line avoids custodial sentence after cell site analysis.

Justin’s client was alleged to have played a leading role in running the ‘Adam’ drug line, a county lines operation supplying Class A drugs between Manchester and Peterborough. The Adam drug line was the focus of the BBC documentary The Detectives: Taking Down an Organised Crime Group. The Adam OCG was described as one of Greater Manchester’s most significant and violent drug gangs. The documentary detailed the group’s activities dating back to 2017, including an incident in Rochdale where a man’s hand was nearly severed with an axe during an altercation.

The Crown’s case relied on Snapchat messages suggesting a managerial role overseeing the drug activities, as well as cell site data placing Justin’s client at various locations, including trap houses where workers packaged and sold drugs. The client, already known to the police and under surveillance, was stopped in a hired vehicle with multiple phones, including Nokia “burner” devices. The IMEI of one burner phone was confirmed as being linked to the Adam drug line.

Justin conducted a meticulous analysis of the cell site evidence for the phones, including the use of azimuths, which show the direction of a phone relative to the cell tower it connects to. Through this scrutiny, he argued that the individual whom the Crown claimed was in the leading role was in fact an associate of his client, living just one street away. After numerous disclosure requests, the Crown eventually accepted that Justin’s client had acted under instructions as a courier and de facto accountant for the group.

Through careful submissions in mitigation, Justin persuaded the court to impose a suspended sentence, enabling his client to continue his life outside prison. This was a particularly welcome outcome, as the client had faced a starting point of 8.5 years’ custody at the outset of the case.

Justin was instructed by Henry Williams of JMW Solicitors.