Two county lines drug gang members have been jailed for hunting down a mother and claiming her son had been kidnapped for ransom before carrying out a knife raid on her relative's home.
Gullaid Ibrahim, 27, of Pimlico, and Adam Nur, 23, of White City, were each jailed for six years for hunting down the young mother, in her 20s, after she got cold feet about laundering money for them.
The woman, in her 20s, answered an advert on Snapchat about earning extra money before being told she would be paid to launder money for criminals operating a county lines operation called the 'Sergio line'.
Luton Crown Court heard the woman's ordeal began in October last year after she responded to an advert on Snapchat asking if she wanted to earn some money.
She was told she would receive a £6,000 payment into her account, from which she would take a cut.
But within days, the woman started receiving phone calls and texts threatening her and her family over the money. The woman checked herself into a hotel in London - but Ibrahim and an associate managed to find her from her booking reference after they got access to her online accounts.
Gullaid Ibrahim (pictured), 27, of Pimlico, and Adam Nur, 23, of White City, were each jailed for six years for hacking the woman's computer and tracking her to the hotel room she was hiding in after she responded to their advert about earning extra money
They attempted to force their way into her room and were only blocked from doing so by her boyfriend. Hotel staff ejected the men before police arrived.
Officers moved the victim to a secure location, while she also disposed of her phone over fears it was being tracked.
A few days later, men armed with knives turned up at the woman's address in London looking for her. On that same day, the gang's search also brought them to Bedford where a scooter was thrown through a window of the house where the woman used to live.
They also attempted to get inside a family member's address by pretending to be from the police before attempting to blackmail the woman's ex-partner. They called him and lied that they had kidnapped their young son, and demanded £8,000 for his return.
In a separate incident in Bedford, three men pushed their way into the home of another family member, whose children were at the address at the time, and demanded to know where the woman was.
One of the men was carrying a knife and said that they would hurt the victim at this address if they did not settle the £35,000 debt they claimed was owed to them by the original woman.
Detectives have since issued a warning around 'deets and squares' operations where people are
