Barking man jailed over role in grime artist ASCO’s drug-dealing gang

A BARKING man has been jailed for his role in a county lines drug-dealing operation.

Bradley Faponle, 33, of Great Galley Close, was given a nine-year-and-three-month sentence for supplying Class A drugs.

He was one of several associates of grime artist Asfa Allen – who performs under the name ASCO – who were jailed for their role in the drugs gang.

Allen, 32, of Pegasus Way in Gillingham, Kent, got 12 years and six months. He was described as the leader of the outfit.

Allen, Faponle and several others were sentenced at Blackfriars Crown Court on Friday, September 13.

They were brought down by Operation Halmist – a proactive operation set up by the Met Police’s Specialise Crime North group, formerly known as the Trident Central Gangs Unit.

The operation was set up to ‘disrupt organised Class A distribution routes into county forces’, focusing on activity in east London.

Officers received intelligence that Allen was the organiser for at least four drug lines out of London and into the home counties, with the supply chains beginning in Hackney.

In December 2017, executed 15 warrants across London and the home counties, seizing £25,000 and roughly half a kilogram of heroin.

DS Gary Clarke said: “These prolific drug dealers targeted vulnerable people and managed multiple drug lines for the sole purpose of financial gain.

“Allen, who also went by the name ASCO, had landed a successful and lucrative recording contract with a major label, where he could have left his life of crime and violence behind.

“However, he could not release his grip on running a county lines route and will now be spending time behind bars instead of working on his music.”