A drug-dealing gang who bragged about their crimes in rap music videos have been sentenced after the footage was used as evidence against them.

Rapper Jeff Onuh, who uses the stage name ‘VI’, referred in lyrics to paying for “Da Vinci (designer) teeth” using the money he made from selling cocaine, Essex Police said.

In a music video, the 27-year-old and two other gang members, Leon Frroku and Dylan Mills, appear to discuss running a Class A drug line.

The three men are seen in the footage to handle large sums of cash and to pass packages to other men.

Onuh refers to his phone “popping” and needing “more credit” to send messages.

Frroku and three more men, Chay Maguire-Baker, Kieran McNamara and Paul Harding, admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and were sentenced at Basildon Crown Court on Wednesday, Essex Police said.

Onuh was found guilty following a trial and was sentenced with the others, the force said.

Mills, who was the main line holder, was sentenced in July 2021 to three years and eight months in prison for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and possessing criminal property.

The line was supplying Class A drugs into Southend, as well as Bournemouth, in Dorset.

During examination at his trial, Onuh claimed he regularly took lyrics from other artists and passed them off as his own.

He claimed to have no idea what the lyrics meant, but a jury rejected his account.

Essex Police said specialist officers were able to show “overwhelmingly how each of the men were connected to the drug line using a variety of police tactics”.

Onuh, of Peckham Rye, south London, was jailed for seven years and six months.

Maguire-Baker, 27, of Peckham, south London, was jailed for seven years and six months.

McNamara, 23, of Bournemouth, was jailed for two years and eight months.

Harding, 39, of Southend, was jailed for 18 months.

Frroku, 19, of Shoebury, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months in jail, suspended for two years.

Mills, 22, of Southend, was handed his sentence last year.

Detective Inspector Scott Fitzmaurice, of Essex Police, said: “We were able to prove beyond any doubt that these men played a variety of roles in supplying Class A drugs into Southend and indeed into Bournemouth.

“The evidence that we were able to collate left the vast majority of them with no other option but to admit their guilt.

“Onuh, however, tried to lie his way out of it.

“He claimed to have no knowledge of Class A drug supply; he said he stole lyrics for his rap songs from other artists and passed them off as his own; and even more unbelievably, he claimed to be completely unaware of what those lyrics meant.

“Thankfully, the jury in his trial saw through his lies and excuses and found him guilty.”