Two county lines drug dealers who posed with guns and bundles of cash in photos, while boasting about making ‘mad bread’, have been jailed. 

Alexi Da’Costa, 24, and Tyrone James, 23, ran a crack cocaine and heroin operation but were captured thanks to incriminating photos and messages on their phones.

Mobile phone snaps showed the pair flaunting their wealth by posing with wads of cash and wielding deadly firearms at their homes. 

A court heard the pair had been been best friends until they had a falling out — and one stabbed the other leading to a series of events which then led to their arrest.

Detectives found messages on phones linked to the ‘Rocky’ and ‘Mitch’ lines, run by the duo, included damning texts from Da’Costa.

One read ‘I got to make a profit. I ain’t trapping for nothing’ and another said: ‘I’m making mad bread.’

There was also messages showing how he actively tried to recruit others to join his team with one saying: ‘You want to trap? Who for? Me.’

James, of Yardley, Birmingham, and Da’Costa, of Corby, were found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs at Leicester Crown Court.

Alexi Da’Costa and Tyrone James posing with the cash they earned from drug dealing

Tyrone James pictured with the cash made by the gang – he has been jailed for five years and four months 

A court heard the pair (pictured) had been been best friends until they had a falling out — and one stabbed the other leading to a series of events which then led to their arrest

Da’Costa was jailed for seven years and James was jailed for five years and four months at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday, August 29. 

Sentencing, His Honour Judge William Harbage KC said: ‘Drug dealing is an evil trade.

‘It causes misery to the end users, the addicts who take drugs. It affects their health and causes them to fall into debt. Often threats are made, often threats of violence.

‘There were photographs found in a number of phones of the two of you posing with bundles of cash enjoying the trappings of drug dealing.

‘There were photographs of the two of you with firearms.

‘Mr James when you were interviewed you said you’d moved out of Corby because Mr Da’Costa had stabbed you.

Tyrone James holding a gun in a photo which was later found on his phone

‘Before that you’d been the best of friends. You were operating together as equal partners.’

Letters written by relatives had described Da’Costa’s most recent offending as an ‘aberration’ but Judge Harbage said: ‘It was not an aberration.

‘It was a pattern of offending which you have been engaged in for at least four years.

‘You were described as vulnerable but you are not quite so vulnerable as you make out.

‘At trial, you interrupted the prosecution to make your point in cross examination.

‘You’re not as suggestible as you are made out to be.

‘There were obviously others above you in the chain and some pressure but you were not compelled to do what you did.

‘You enjoyed the money you made and you had plenty of opportunity to stop if you wished to do so.’

The court heard the pair, along with other members of their gang, were rumbled when police raided a property in Corby and found drugs and phones ‘ringing off the hook’.

Weapons used by the gang laid out on a mattress

The drug lines supplied crack cocaine and heroin to addicts across Corby and further afield into the West Midlands and Norfolk.

After the case, neighbours told how the men brought trouble to the quiet, suburban streets they lived in.

A man living close to where Da’Costa lived said: ‘They were in and out at all hours with different people visiting, none of them desirable.

‘This is a nice street and people pay good money to live here.

‘He was arrested several times and you often saw the police driving by. It’s awful to think of what was going on in that house. We don’t want our kids around drugs.’

Detective Inspector Torie Harrison said: ‘Tackling drug harm is a matter of priority for Northamptonshire Police and we hope that this investigation demonstrates that drug dealing is taken seriously by both police and the courts.

‘We hope that the successful conviction of these men also sends out a clear message to those involved in the illegal drugs trade.

‘Whether you’re a street level dealer or orchestrating wholesale supply, if you choose to go down this route, we will disrupt your activities and bring you to justice.’