{"id":30272,"date":"2025-06-03T17:38:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rolls-royce-rap-video-lured-children-in-nottingham-into-drugs-network\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T17:38:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:38:26","slug":"rolls-royce-rap-video-lured-children-in-nottingham-into-drugs-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/rolls-royce-rap-video-lured-children-in-nottingham-into-drugs-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Rolls-Royce rap video lured children in Nottingham into drugs network"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Jeremy Ball<\/span><\/p>\n

Social affairs correspondent, BBC East Midlands<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The court was shown Godpraise Bouwen and Sipho Ncube boasting about their wealth in drill videos<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Twelve drug dealers have been jailed for running an “industrial” supply network that flooded heroin and crack cocaine into towns across the East Midlands and Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

The Nottingham-based ringleaders sprayed champagne from a white Rolls-Royce, in one of several “drill” music videos that boasted about their weapons and wealth.<\/p>\n

Nottingham Crown Court heard how they protected their turf with knives, a loaded pistol, and bombarded drug users with marketing texts.<\/p>\n

They also set up local distribution hubs at addicts’ homes and recruited children to move and sell their drugs, to reduce the risk of getting caught.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NottinghamshireNottinghamshire Police<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Rolls-Royce drill video depicted them showing cash and Rolex watches<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The video in a hired Rolls-Royce shows more than 20 young men posing at familiar locations around St Ann’s in Nottingham, their faces covered with black masks.<\/p>\n

It features 22-year-old Godpraise Bouwen rapping about “junkies asking for testers”, and defending his turf with weapons. Bouwen had previous convictions for robbery and knife offences. <\/p>\n

PC Ryan Millington, who led the investigation for Nottinghamshire Police, says the lyrics and images were designed to recruit young drug dealers.<\/p>\n

“Stacks of cash. Rolex watches. It makes it very easy for young people to become indoctrinated in that lifestyle,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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PC Ryan Millington says the drill lyrics helped the police secure convictions <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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PC Millington says other lyrics, found in their phone notes, were evidence that helped prove their involvement.<\/p>\n

“I’d be able to see the lyrics were written within hours after a police stop, where they were talking about that exact thing, and making reference to hiding drugs from us,” he added.<\/p>\n

Officers treated teenagers, who were sent to sell their drugs in surrounding towns, as victims of exploitation.<\/i> PC Millington says they included a 15 year old who was driven to Mansfield.<\/p>\n

“He would stay at a drug user’s house to deal from,” he said. <\/p>\n

“That boy would be armed with a knife. They would do this because the young people have no criminal connection back to them.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Police bodycam shows moment gang member arrested<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Their network was headed by Jephte Fikula, who had the loaded pistol, and Sipho Ncube, the man spraying Dom Perignon champagne from a Rolls-Royce in their music video.<\/p>\n

The investigation began after officers caught Ncube running away from a car crash in September 2022.<\/p>\n

They found vital evidence on a mobile phone that he tried to throw away – it was the group’s Coalville drugs line.<\/p>\n

At Ncube\u2019s home, they seized a Rolex watch worth between \u00a311,750 and \u00a314,550, alongside hand-written notes about how dealing drugs could earn him up to \u00a320,000 a week. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What are county lines?<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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County lines are a lucrative drug-dealing model that criminal networks use to expand their customer base across different areas within the UK. <\/p>\n

The National Police Chiefs Council says gangs often coerce or intimidate children and vulnerable adults into moving and storing their drugs and money.<\/p>\n

The NSPCC<\/a> adds county lines gangs aim to evade the police by using sophisticated “grooming” techniques that are “a form of child abuse”.<\/p>\n

The National Crime Agency says the county line<\/a> is the mobile phone line used to take orders, and it causes “increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The police traced this network of County Lines across the East Midlands and another to Aberdeen<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The investigation in Nottingham focussed on 13 separate county lines that also supplied heroin and crack to Long Eaton, Ilkeston, Ripley, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Hucknall, Grantham and Spalding. <\/p>\n

Officers identified over 33,000 “bulk marketing” messages that advertised drugs to more than 1,400 customer numbers, and over 113,000 incoming calls in response.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Cox, prosecuting, described it as an “industrial scale” operation that tried to dominate the class-A drugs market and also sought to target Leicester.<\/p>\n

Mr Cox said the group tempted vulnerable people who were “gripped by addiction” and they were “shameless in their dealing”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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An addict’s home on Albert Road in Coalville was used to store and sell drugs<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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PC Millington said two drug users in Coalville and Mansfield allowed the group to use their homes to store and deal drugs. <\/p>\n

He said Kevin Wilde and Jeanette Talbot were given free heroin and cocaine as payment, and the impact on those communities was huge.<\/p>\n

“People living in the area will see the effects, people who are homeless or in a poor state of health because of drug use, teenagers who will be sent to these places often armed with a weapon,” he said.<\/p>\n

Some residents in Coalville told the BBC that hard drugs were widespread in the town and blamed that trade for shoplifting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Nottingham Crown Court was shown this video of Sipho Ncube spraying champagne in front of a white Rolls Royce<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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His Hon Judge Mark Watson said Talbot was a “hapless addict” whose home was cuckooed and who was the victim of her circumstances.<\/p>\n

He deferred her sentencing for six months to allow her to demonstrate further progress in tackling her drug habit.<\/p>\n

Wilde failed to appear for his sentencing, and the court heard that attempts have been made to arrest him.<\/p>\n

The other twelve defendants have received sentences of between six and 21 years.<\/p>\n

The judge said they were involved in “street dealing of vast proportions”, selling highly addictive and dangerous drugs that ruined lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NottinghamshireNottinghamshire Police<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Left-right: Jephte Fikula, Ramone Campbell, Sipho Ncube, Godpraise Bouwen<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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