Manchester drug dealer who boasted of his criminal exploits in rap videos posted online is jailed for nine years

Justin Shaw (04/03/2002) of Richmond Grove East, Longsight, was sentenced to nine years at Manchester Crown Court yesterday (Thursday 13 February 2025).

Shaw was charged with being concerned in the supply of class A drugs over a five-year period starting in 2019 and ending in 2024.

On Tuesday 25th October 2022, officers from our City of Manchester Central Challenger team conducted a warrant at an address linked to Shaw in the Longsight area.

They recovered iPhones, over £1,000 in cash and a quantity of cannabis.

The two phones were examined and following a review, both were littered with messages and videos that clearly showed Shaw being involved in the supply of class A drugs to members of the community.

Officers seized another device and arrested Shaw on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs in September 2023.

The evidence gained by officers showed that over the five-year period, Shaw was running a drug line known locally as the MJ line, which was an extremely busy class A drug line supplying both crack cocaine and heroin to users.

The line would also be utilised to sell cannabis. Shaw was shown to be the leading figure of this drug supply line operation and employed vulnerable people in the community to supply drugs on his behalf. Shaw also targeted vulnerable people to use their addresses to prepare and store drugs for onward supply.

In a one-week period in February 2024, the MJ line made was found to have made 732 outgoing calls, with 3,026 incoming phone calls. Detectives calculated that if the line was this busy between 2019 and 2024, Shaw would have conducted drug deals of crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis totalling over £5,234,000.

Shaw boasted of his criminal exploits in several rap videos that were published to YouTube under his rap name “JS” or “J SHAW”. These videos glorified the criminality that he was engaged in and how much money Shaw was making from these exploits.

Detective Constable Shahhet, of our Challenger Team, said: “This was a lengthy investigation into a prolific and dangerous drug dealer. We conducted several warrants and seized a large amount of cash and devices which allowed us to fully investigate Shaw.

“Our Challenger team was able to work out that Shaw had conducted drug dealings estimated to be worth over £5million in a five-year period.

“We’re pleased that today’s sentence is the culmination of a thorough investigation, resulting in Shaw being put behind bars for a long time, making the streets of Greater Manchester safer from a man who not only exploited young and vulnerable persons to work for him, but also exploited vulnerable people addicted to class A drugs for his own benefit.

“Programme Challenger is Greater Manchester’s response to tackling serious and organised crime. It tackles all manner of serious crime: county lines, exploitation of young children and vulnerable adults, modern slavery, immigration and economic crime and the use of firearms.

“Our Challenger teams across Greater Manchester are committed to tackling county lines and we will act upon any concerns or information the community give to us to tackle serious and organised crime for good.

“If you are concerned about criminal activity within your area, you can report this to us directly on 101 or by reporting information using our online report tool at www.gmp.police.uk”