Police capture sleeping drug dealer as county-line gang members receive lengthy jail terms
Body-cam footage shows 21-year-old Asa McIntosh being woken and arrested while asleep, part of a county-line network now sentenced.
A body-camera recording released by West Midlands Police shows an officer shouting “police” and shining a torch on a sleeping Asa McIntosh, 21, before reading his charges. McIntosh was part of the “P Line” county-line network that supplied heroin and crack cocaine through Smethwick, Wednesbury, Walsall and Birmingham. Detectives from the County Lines Taskforce uncovered thousands of calls and messages, revealing a round-the-clock operation that ran 22 hours daily.
In 2025 the taskforce raided multiple addresses, arresting all seven participants. At Birmingham Crown Court each defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, receiving sentences from six years for Rees Macdonald to twelve years for Quarnay Lee-Taylor. The judge highlighted the gang’s meticulous planning and the harm caused to local communities.
Why it matters
The convictions dismantle a major drug supply chain that threatened public safety in the West Midlands.
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