A NORTHFIELD man involved in a Birmingham gang has been jailed for 16 years.

Jamael Scarlett was convicted on three counts of possessing firearms and ammunition on Thursday, February 15.

Scarlett, from Dordale Close in Northfield, had previously admitted possessing Class A and B drugs with intent to supply.

The 21-year-old did not have an extensive criminal record but was lured into gang culture in south Birmingham believing it to be an attractive, lucrative way of life.

He was snared by West Midlands Police’s Organised Crimes and Gangs Team – alongside investigators from the Force Priorities Team – which uncovered a stream of message exchanges linking him to firearms and organised crime.

Courtney Farrell, also 21, has also been convicted on three counts of possessing firearms and ammunition and jailed for nine years.

On July 26, a warrant was conducted in The Green, Northfield, where Farrell was arrested for dealing cannabis and cocaine.

West Midlands Police officers, who were guarding the scene, spotted Scarlett drive past the property in a Ford Focus which was later found by plain clothes firearms officers outside an address in Epping Close, Frankley.

Scarlett emerged from the house and was seen to discard an object – later found to be a shotgun round – and caught after being chased down an alleyway.

Farrell was stabbed in the chest on August 5 in Wareham Road, Frankley, by a rival gang member and 20 days later police raided his home in Blackmoor Croft, Sheldon, and seized mobile phones.

Detectives uncovered messages between Scarlett and another man Jamaal Ahmed – from Westminster Road, Handsworth – revealing how Scarlett was attempting to acquire a firearm after the arsenal from Bedlam Wood Road was seized by police.

Ahmed was also jailed for six years after admitting conspiracy to supply guns.

West Midlands Police raided a house in Bedlam Wood Road, Birmingham, on June 6 last year where they found a pellet pistol converted to fire live rounds, an antique .22 single-shot handgun and a sawn-off shotgun in a bag alongside a pink sock containing gun cartridges.

Examination of the sock revealed a forensic link to Scarlett.

Another man, Reece Brivitt, and a 16-year-old male – who cannot legally be named – were arrested during the 4.15am raid after being spotted hurling bags containing the firearms from a bedroom window in an attempt to distance themselves from the evidence.

The weapons were found by West Midlands Police officers and 24-year-old Brivitt was also jailed for seven-and-a-half years, while the teenager will spend three years in a youth offenders institute.

West Midlands Police Chief Inspector Nick Dale, who heads up the Birmingham Organised Crime & Gangs Team. said: “We really understand people’s concerns about gang-related activity that has surfaced in the last year, especially in the south of Birmingham. We’re talking about a small group of people who are causing concern for the wider public.

“We’ve responded with an intensive operation targeting suspects, people who are involved in drug dealing and linked to firearms – and are exploiting impressionable teenagers and grooming them into gangs to commit crime for them.

“It’s involved regular “lockdowns” in key locations with police, armed officers and independent observers on the lookout for suspects and vehicles with gang links. We’ve made arrests, charged suspects, and seized a significant quantity of weapons.

“These are notable convictions against people affiliated to south Birmingham gangs: since their arrest and people linked to them, we’ve seen a significant fall in the number of reported firearms discharges in the area they operated.

“And it should act as a wake-up call to anyone who believes gang life is somehow lucrative or attractive: every day these people run the risk of being sent to prison for a long time, or killed or seriously injured through their own actions.

“This result should reassure our communities, especially in south Birmingham, that West Midlands Police will not tolerate gun crime and if you carry guns you will be caught and face many years behind bars.”