Idiot drug gang convicted after making music video rapping about drugs, cash and violence
AN idiotic group of drug dealers has been convicted after making a music video in which they rap about drugs, money and violence.
In the YouTube video Shaun Barnhurst, Kyle Esty and Remi Carty hold huge wads of cash and pose in a swimming pool with models and a bottle of champagne.
The footage was used as evidence at the trio’s trial at Birmingham Crown Court after a three-year investigation by West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU).
Among other lines of evidence, the video helped prosecutors convict the three men of a series of drug-related crimes,
DCI Ronan Tyrer, from ROCU, said: “This has been a protracted investigation but diligent phone, investigative, CCTV and forensic work showed these three were all acting together in this criminal enterprise of conspiring to supply drugs and, in the case of Carty and Barnhurst, possessing firearms.
“They had a friendship spanning many years, which was evidenced on their mobile devices, including the YouTube video where they rap about shootings, cash, drugs and the police.
“Carty and Barnhurst were childhood friends and went to school together.
“But that friendship evolved into criminality and I am pleased with the sentences handed out today, which will put a stop to their activities for the foreseeable future.”
YOUTUBE ERROR
Carty, the man who raps the most in the video, was caught with a firearm in a fast food restaurant in Birmingham back in 2016.
In September 2018 detectives came to his house following his release from prison.
The then 20-year-old was seen on CCTV fleeing from the property in his socks.
Officers found a large quantity of class A drugs, a loaded 9mm pistol, a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition in two bags in a shed in the back garden.
Barnhurt’s fingerprints were then found on the evidence.
In November the 21-year-old was stopped by firearms officers as he was driving to his home in Stirchley in an Audi.
DRUG RAID
During a search of the property officers found 71 wraps of heroin and a lock knife, a stolen sawn-off shotgun, crack cocaine, cash.
More heroin was found in a Seat Leon parked nearby.
Barnhurst was arrested and Carty, who had fled the vehicle, was later approached by cops.
During the investigation, Kyle Etsy retrieved items from a wheelie bin at Barnhurst’s address.
The 22-year-old was found to have made several street-level drug deals between November and January this year.
He was caught by cops in possession of 90 wraps of Class A drugs, with more at his home in Northfield, on January 9.
DRUG GANG JAILED
Carty, from Stourbridge, was arrested in the same month.
On July 8 the trio were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.
Barnhurst was sentenced to 15 years for possession with intent to supply firearms and ammunition, and possession with intent to supply class A drugs after pleading guilty on December 13 last year.
Carty was sentenced to 15 years for conspiracy to possess firearms and conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, after pleading guilty on June 7.
Esty was sentenced to six years and nine months for conspiracy to supply and possession with intent to supply class A drugs after pleading guilty on 27 February.
In 2018 a London machete gang were jailed for possession of weapons after rapping about shooting their rivals.
The masked thugs sang in online videos about using mopeds to ambush other gangs with blades and guns, leaving them “splattered” in blood.
Officers who had monitored the Notting Hill gang’s social media for two years complied a huge dossier of evidence of them promoting and glorifying violence with lyrics intended to taunt rivals.
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