CHIEF CONSTABLE VOWS ‘COUNTY LINES’ CRACKDOWN Child drug dealers is ‘as big a problem as terrorism for N.Wales’
GANGSTERS sending children from big cities to deal drugs in North Wales is the number one priority for the region’s police force, according to Chief Constable Mark Polin.
Speaking before councillors on the North Wales Police and Crime Panel, Mr Polin said the practice – known as “county lines” – had become a big problem for the region on a par with terrorism and child sexual exploitation.
He said: “The other big threat to us and across the UK is around county lines drug dealing.
“Particularly drug dealers domiciled in metropolitan areas plying their trade across counties, which is why it’s called county lines.
“Through individuals who live locally or by moving their own supply network into the area, that’s giving rise to real challenges across all forces in England and Wales in terms of protecting vulnerable people.
“We have put more resources across that. It is the number one priority for our organisation.” Mr Polin described a recent case where gang members took over the home of an elderly man as a base for drug dealing.
“I was in Rhyl the other week and the two cases that the uniform staff were dealing with on that day were county lines-related offences,” he said.
“One was protecting a vulnerable elderly man who had seen his house taken over, and another one was where a threat had been levelled by one group against another.”
Councillors also heard from Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, who said that progress had been made in stopping two particular county lines gangs.
His report said: “Intelligence demonstrates that two county lines-organised crime groups have moved out of the force area, due to police activity consistently pursuing and disrupting the individuals and premises involved.”
Mr Jones added that dealing with the exploitation of youngsters by criminal gangs who were using them to commit crimes was becoming as big a problem as sexual abuse of children.