The rise and fall of The Eldene Boys
The jailing of a Fagin-like drug gang who exploited Swindon kids in their criminal enterprise
You’re reading a special free edition of The Ink - curated community news straight to your inbox in association with Swindon Link.
By subscribing, you are supporting the most exciting and ambitious media venture in the South West enabling us to keep you informed and up to date with everything Swindon. A subscription gives us the ability to send news analysis, updates and features direct to your inbox.
If you upgrade to be a paid subscriber you will get news sent directly to your inbox four days a week.
Upgrade now and get your first month free. The ultimate try before you buy.
It only costs £5.99 a month - less than one Crème Brulée Iced Brown Sugar Oat Shaken Espresso at Starbucks a month - and you'll be supporting independent quality journalism in Swindon.
“Gangs that seek to exploit children to undertake their dirty work will always draw the attention of the police”
In the wake of the jailing of a drug gang called ‘The Eldene Boys’ who exploited children to do their dirty work, Ink Editor Jamie Hill writes about his personal experience of an attack that potentially could have killed him that was a direct consequence of this type of criminal exploitation of children.
By Jamie Hill
County lines is a form of criminal exploitation.
It is when criminals befriend children, either online or offline, and then manipulate them into drug dealing. The 'lines' refer to mobile phones that are used to control a young person who is delivering drugs, often to towns outside their home county.
Young people aged 14-17 are most likely to be targeted by criminal groups but there are reports of seven-year-olds being groomed into county lines.
Primary school children are seen as easy targets because they're less likely to get caught. The grooming might start with them being asked to 'keep watch' but it soon escalates to them being forced to stash weapons, money, or become drug couriers.
This was the case with Swindon gang ‘The Eldene Boys’ who were jailed yesterday after an extensive police operation called Op Yuma, who used a County Lines style model.
For me, personally, these types of gangs have a particular significance.
Back in 2018 I was left unconscious and bleeding from multiple head wounds after being attacked by a gang of three muggers wielding a snooker ball in a sock in the middle of the night in Old Town.
The attackers were all 16-years-old and they had gone on a spree that summer evening, attacking four other victims that night in different muggings across Swindon.
I was very lucky to not have been more seriously injured.
You can read all about the attack in detail here from an article I wrote at the time for Swindon Link.
It turns out that the muggers were teenagers that had been exploited by a County Lines drug gang and had gone on the spree to pay back some of the debt owed to the criminals.
So for me the adult criminals who exploit these children for their criminal enterprises are definitely the lowest of the low.
They are modern day Fagins who set up youngsters to be part of Swindon’s dark underworld with often traumatic results.
It was on Monday that the Eldene Boys were sentenced for their part in supplying cannabis, cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin across the town.
The ‘Eldene Boys’ controlled multiple supply lines across Swindon, as well as being involved in violent offences including knife attacks on rival gangs and even within their own ranks as they dealt with distrust amongst themselves.
Following an extensive Wiltshire Police investigation, named Op Yuma, nine members of the gang were sentenced as follows:
Billy Livingstone, 25 of Woodcutters Mews, Swindon – 8 years, 4 months
Zhilwan Rezaee, 25, of Horta Close, Tadpole Garden – 9 years
Shepherd Murombedzi, 30, Hazel Crescent, Kidlington – 10 years 6 months
Tre Mitford, 30, of The High Street, Kidlington – 6 years 9 months
Callum Harvey-Mackenzie, 28, of Bowleymead, Eldene – 5 years 11 months
Grant Townsend, 27, of Norwood Close, Liden – recalled to prison plus 9 months
Owen Hemmings, 26, of Cloche Way, Stratton St Margaret – 20 months, suspended for 2 years
Charley Hunt, 29, of Lowes Close, Swindon – 24 months, suspended for 2 years
Leo Morris, 19, of Homington Avenue, Swindon – 30 months in a young offender’s institute
The drugs operation
The gang operated a County Lines style model, with one person controlling the phone and others holding and supplying the commodity.
Children as young as 12 were documented as working with the gang and were used to hold the phones and drugs overnight.
The children were paid for their services with clothing and electric bikes, which were the delivery method of choice for the gang’s street level supply.
Operation Yuma sought to target the upper tiers of the gang through proactive policing and the use of covert assets to evidence their criminality and to cause maximum disruption to the gang.
The investigation
Billy Livingstone, 25, was the head of the gang. In February 2024, he was stopped driving a car having just been to collect a fellow gang member after their release from prison.
Livingstone’s addresses were searched, and he was found to have more than 800 grams of heroin with a street value of more than £50,000, as well as deals of cocaine and cannabis, at a safe house in West Swindon.
Evidence was recovered showing his control of the group, arranging drug supply lines for people that he had assessed as showing promise, as well as arranging properties for them to operate from.
He had discussions with other street dealers about the purchase of their lines when they themselves were due to go to prison, as well as extensive communication with his right-hand man and co-leader Zhilwan Rezaee.
Discussions with Rezaee were documented about the gang’s supply chain, current stock takes and finances, as well as all other aspects of the gang’s activities including their online marketing of their drugs using the name ‘EBEXOTICS’.
Livingstone was charged and remanded into custody.
Livingstone’s partner at the time, Charley Hunt, was the keeper of the safe house, storing the drugs on behalf of Livingstone, as well as supplying cannabis to her own customer base. She was also charged with her involvement.
Rezaee took sole command of the gang after Livingstone’s remand – however he was soon arrested in March 2024.
Rezaee was found to have cocaine stored in a vehicle close to his home address in Tadpole Garden Village, as well as scales and around £7,000 in cash.
It was identified that he was using the address of Owen Hemmings in Covingham to store the rest of his drugs, resulting in Hemmings also being arrested. During the subsequent search, Hemmings opened his safe to reveal more than 350 grams of cocaine valued in the region of £30,000, which he stated he was storing for an unnamed person.
Rezaee and Hemmings were both charged and remanded.
Street level suppliers Leo Morris and Grant Townsend were also identified, arrested and charged as a result of their involvement in the criminality of the gang.
The investigation moved onto the gang’s suppliers. It was evidenced that the cocaine was coming from Oxford, being supplied by the telegram name of ‘DUSSELDORF’.
It was established that this was in fact Shepherd Murombedzi, a semi-professional footballer playing for Brackley Town FC.
He had recruited a former teammate, Tre Mitford, to store and supply the drugs for him. Surveillance evidence showed that when Mitford travelled to Swindon, he was now meeting with another gang member, Callum Harvey-Mackenzie, from Eldene.
Exchanges would take place in Windbrook Meadow, Swindon, before Harvey-Mackenzie took the drugs back to a nearby address, where it was then distributed from.
On May 17, 2024, Mitford made the trip again, but police were waiting from him. Harvey-Mackenzie entered Mitford’s vehicle and exited a short while later. Harvey-Mackenzie was stopped and arrested nearby, and he was found to be in possession of 1kg of cocaine, with a value of up to £80,000.
Mitford was stopped and arrested on his way back to Oxford and was found with a bag containing £22,000 on the front seat.
A warrant was then executed at Murombedzi’s home address. He attempted to dispose of the dealing phone, but in his panic threw away his personal phone and left the drug line in his address. £50,000 cash was then found under his bed.
A search of Mitford’s address was conducted and around 1.5kg of cocaine was found in a box under his bed. This was split into everything from bulk deals down to one gram street deals, bagged and labelled accordingly.
Investigation of Murombedzi’s phone showed a long history of high-level drug supply, with imports directly from Europe and even South America through an extensive network. He had physically been in possession of over 25kg of cocaine during 2024 alone.
Mitford, Murombedzi and Harvey-Mackenzie were all charged and remanded, and a restraint order was issued against Murombedzi’s house so that it can be sold to repay the profit that he has made.
All of those involved pleaded guilty.
DS Neil Hilton of the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) said: “Gangs that seek to exploit children to undertake their dirty work will always draw the attention of the police.
“We would encourage parents to take an active interest in what their children are doing, who they are associating with whilst away from their house and what they are bringing home with them.
“If they return with new clothes that you haven't bought, or with bikes that you know they can't afford, then this could be a sign of their involvement in drug supply.
“Always ask questions about bags they say they are looking after or their friends have left, as this is the model that drugs gangs are choosing to use.
“Serious and organised criminals often operate in plain sight. The police have a good idea of who they are and what they are doing, but sometimes need that final snippet of information from the public to fill in the blanks.
“I encourage you to report anything that you think may be suspicious or worthy of attention as it could be the missing piece of the jigsaw.
“The Eldene Boys considered themselves to be above the law, administering their own justice to their rivals and amongst their peers.
“The gang has now been left in disarray with their senior members serving lengthy custodial sentences. This should serve as a warning to those aspiring to fill the void that you will be caught, and you will be sent to prison.”
The exploitation of children is a grim business.
I remember thinking back in 2018 what would drive effectively children out onto the streets of Swindon in the middle of the night so desperate for money that they would carry out muggings that could have had potentially lethal consequences for their victims.
About a year after the attack on myself, and after two of the 16-year-olds had been jailed, I had a visit from a social worker who wanted to talk to me about the third attacker.
It’s a tragic tale and the social worker wished to stay anonymous in a bid to keep her job.
She told me about the boy’s upbringing. A cycle of abuse and neglect which led him to falling into the hands of the County Lines gang who exploited him.
Him and the other two teenagers soon succumbed to being hooked on their own supply which led them into a spiral of debt to the County Lines gang which is why, desperate for money, they ended up on the streets of Swindon in the middle of the night attacking strangers with a snooker ball in a sock in a bid to get some cash.
She didn’t excuse his actions but said after the publicity generated about the attack on myself she spoke to the teenager who was full of remorse.
A month later he was dead of an overdose. She doesn’t know if it was intentional or accidental, but this answered the reason why this boy never appeared before the court like the other two attackers.
She suspected that he took his own life but we’ll never know.
For myself, the news that this young boy had lost his life, was devastating. I felt responsible even though I knew that the real responsibility lay at the feet of the adult criminal County Lines gang who had exploited him and ultimately led him to his death.
At the time my own son was the same age as the attackers which really brought it home for me.
And that is why we need to do everything we can to take gangs like these ‘Eldene Boys’ off our streets as they wage their secret war with the police.
There has been enough tragedy already so as parents, educators and neighbours we need to make sure that our children are safe and not being exploited.
That is why we should take the advice from the police and keep a watchful eye and do all we can to support officers in their vital work as these tragedies and these exploitative gangs need to be stopped.
The Ink News Briefing
NHS chiefs praise Swindon school's teeth brushing sessions - Health bosses say supervised in-school toothbrushing sessions are helping children in Swindon and across the region. Full Story here
Man jailed for inciting child to engage in sexual activity - Akhi Rara, of no fixed address, approached a 14-year-old girl in Regent Street on February 12 while she was walking to school and incited her to engage in sexual activity. Full Story here
Buses test new Fleming Way layout - Swindon's two bus companies have tested the new Fleming Way Road layout. Full story here
An auction to help end domestic abuse
Kate Rowland, Interim CEO of Society Without Abuse (SWA), takes us through the charity’s current fundraising campaign to help bring about an end to domestic abuse.
If there’s one thing that we can be proud of, it’s the way that our community comes together. Over the past few months, we’ve been busy behind the scenes organising our latest fundraising campaign, the SWA 50 for 50 auction, which launched on International Women’s Day and will run until 8pm on Sunday 30 March.
We were overwhelmed by the support shown to us, with 50 items donated for our 50th year, including a number of money-can’t-buy items. We have high ambitions for this online auction and we would love to raise over £10,000 – a feat that we are already well on our way to achieving thanks to people coming together to combat domestic abuse.
The star items of the auction is a diamond encrusted, mother of pearl watch donated by Deacons. There are also tickets to music events, private flights across the county and exclusive activities including access to members’ day at Goodwood and joining Time Team’s Dr Phil Harding in exploring the landscape around Stonehenge.
Smaller treats also feature throughout the auction, with prizes on offer including meals out in and around Swindon, beauty treatments and signed books and memorabilia.
All the money raised will be used to directly fund our children’s and young peoples’ programmes to help educate the next generation on healthy relationships and also fund recovery programmes for children who have been exposed to domestic abuse in the home.
Witnessing domestic abuse in the home as a child can have damaging, long lasting effects both on their achievement and their expectations of their own relationships as adults. If we can help repair the damage done, as well as educating young people to expect more, we can move towards one day seeing a society without abuse.
To see the items available as part of the SWA Fundraising auction, visit www.jumblebee.co.uk/50for50.
For more information on SWA, visit www.societywithoutabuse.org.uk
If you need advice for yourself or a friend relating to Domestic Abuse, call Swindon’s domestic abuse helpline on 01793 610610.
Anyone can suffer abuse. If you are in immediate danger, don’t delay – call 999
If you are affected by any form of domestic abuse, either yourself or are worried about someone you know, do ask for help
· Refuge – national free domestic abuse helpline 0808 2000 247 (24 hours)
· Swindon Area Residents in need of help – Call 01793 610610 (24 hours)
· Residents in the rest of Wiltshire can call Fear Free on 01225 775276 (9am-5pm) or out of those times call 01225 712880
· National Domestic Abuse Helpline - 0808 2000 247 (24 hours)
· Men’s Advice Line – 0808 8010327
· National Helpline for LGBT+ Victims & Survivors of Domestic Abuse – 0800 999 5428
The Swindon Link Magazine Archive
Over on The Ink’s sister publication Swindon Link’s website you will find an impressive archive of the past 45 years of Swindon Link magazines, giving you a huge glimpse into the town’s recent past from the beginnings of West Swindon to now. You can find the archive here.
The latest magazines
For the North West Swindon Link Magazine click here
For the South East Swindon Link Magazine click here
To contact The Ink directly email - theink@positive-media.co.uk