Former Hucknall man jailed for 17 years for drugs offences

Kiefer Smith was part of a gun-toting gang that sold vast quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of Nottingham, Mansfield, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Sutton-in-Ashfield and other areas of the county.

He was convicted of conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to possess ammunition, along with four other men, by a jury in October.

He previously admitted conspiring to supply class A and class B drugs.

The gang, whose members spent large sums of money on designer clothing and jewellery, came to police attention after a series of linked shootings in early 2019.

In one incident, in May 2019, a member of a rival criminal gang was shot in the neck as gang leader and aspiring ​drill music star Akeem Chand fired multiple shots into his car as it travelled along a residential street ​in the early evening.

Smith, described as a ‘busy dealer of heroin and cocaine’, was on ‘high alert for rivals’ after one revenge shooting, and ‘rode around in possession of a firearm’.

He received eight months in prison for smuggling cannabis into HMP Nottingham, when visiting Chand, and has previous convictions for offensive weapons and drugs, but he was not directly involved in the shootings.

Chand and four other men were jailed in October for a total of more than 80 years for their part in the conspiracy, which was exposed in part by a covert listening device placed in a car used by the gang.

Just months before they were arrested, members of the gang enjoyed a luxury break to Mexico’s Caribbean coast, where they stayed in a private villa and even hired a motor yacht.

Both locations were used to film a professionally-produced drill music video which was later published on the internet.

In it the men bragged about the amount of money they were making from their illegal activities.

Smith and fellow gang member Alexsandro Woolery, 28, both appeared at Nottingham Crown Court on December 22 for sentencing.

In court, Laurie-Ann Power, for Smith, asked for a sentence which would ‘allow him to come out of custody and make something of this life and raise his young children’.

She said, although he was responsible for ‘street-level dealing’, he only acted on instructions, and ‘made no extravagant purchases because he was in significant debt’.

Sentencing him to 17 years in jail, Judge John Sampson said Smith will serve two thirds of the sentence before he is released.

Woolery, formerly of Portland Road, Carlton, was jailed for 22 years and will have to spend a further five years on extended licence.