Man who threatened children to sell drugs jailed

A man who took children to a secluded area and threatened them in an attempt to sell drugs has been jailed.

Police said Donnell J Magezi, 26, travelled from London to Leicestershire and made threats of violence towards teenagers in a bid to force them to sell Class A drugs in the county.

Leicestershire Police said the victims, who are now both adults, had previously been drawn into selling cannabis by a mutual school connection. However, they were "debt-bonded" to the gang who then wanted them to sell Class A drugs.

Magezi, of Almond Avenue, in Ealing, West London, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison at Leicester Crown Court on Friday.

The force said the threats to the teenagers began on 8 January 2022, when they were forced into a car and told they were not able to leave until they agreed to sell drugs.

Police said they were taken to their knees in a secluded area on the outskirts of Loughborough and threatened.

Threats, officers said, were made to one of the victims that he and his family could be harmed before they were eventually taken home – and told not to tell their families or police what had happened

The following day, threats continued, with Magezi saying on the phone that gang members from London were going to come to Leicestershire and hurt them and their families, as well as demanding access to their homes.

The force said, fearing for the safety of his family, one of the victims told his parents what had happened and they called the police.

Magezi, who ran a drugs line called the "Adam Line" between West London and Loughborough, was arrested on 9 January 2022.

Following a trial in November, he was found guilty of two counts of being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug of Class A, two counts of attempting to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour and doing an act intending to pervert the course of justice.

Det Con Tara Mellowes said: "This type of offending – known as county lines – is the movement of drugs across the country and often brings drugs from bigger cities into the small urban areas via people such as Magezi.

"The county line looks to exploit younger, vulnerable people who can be controlled by fear and violence.

"The victims were extremely brave in speaking out firstly to their families and then to officers. They were clearly very scared about the consequences of not carrying out what was being asked of them."

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