Photos of gun-toting Corby drug dealers Alexi Da’Costa and Tyrone James with piles of cash revealed
Two best pals who ran county lines in Corby together then fell out after one of them stabbed the other posed for photos with guns and bundles of cash.
A court heard yesterday how Alexi Da’Costa and Tyrone James posed for the photos to show off the ‘trappings of drug dealing’ that they both enjoyed.
Text messages found on Da’Costa’s phone also showed him actively recruiting others to join his team.
The men had been best mates, each running their own crack cocaine and heroin county line, until they fell our and Alexi Da’Costa, of Lowry Close, stabbed Tyrone James, of Pascal Close, resulting in him fleeing to Birmingham.
In court, the pair both blamed each other for their crimes.
Now police have revealed disturbing images showing the men with firearms and cash, found on their phones after their arrests.
The youngsters happily posed with the money they made from exploiting others in the town.
Messages found on phones linked to the Rocky and Mitch lines, run by the pair, included a text from Da’Costa saying: “I got to make a profit. I ain’t trapping for nothing” and “I’m making mad bread.”
There was also a recruitment message sent out saying: “You want to trap? Who for? Me.”
Both were ‘third-strikers’, having been sentenced twice before for dealing class-A drugs. Each had received suspended sentences for their previous crimes but both went straight back to dealing during the period of the suspension.
In court, His Honour Judge William Harbage KC described drug dealing as ‘evil’ and said that, when giving evidence at trial Da’Costa had been keen to not be seen as a ‘snitch’.
"You clearly had an expectation of significant financial gain,” he said.
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 suggestable 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.”
Neighbours today told this newspaper 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.”
Da’Costa, 24, was given seven years in prison and James, 23, was given five years and four months for conspiracy to supply class-A drugs.
Their co-defendants Billy Hynds, Stephen Donnelly and Tyler Tierney were all given suspended sentences.