SCOURGE PLAGUING ALL OF BRITAIN
SCANDAL OF THE ‘CHILD SLAVE’ DRUG RUNNERS
MORE than 1,000 ‘county lines’ gangs are thought to be operating across the country, affecting all 43 police force areas.
Children in their early teens are being used to ferry drugs from large cities to suburban and rural areas.
The gangs then take control of vulnerable local addicts’ homes in a method known as ‘cuckooing’.
In Gloucestershire, children as young as 14 are bringing in heroin and crack cocaine, while boys of 13 were found acting as ‘ watchers’ at homes in Yorkshire. Dealers attracted by a lack of competition have targeted Yeovil and Taunton in Somerset.
Children are enslaved by gang members, lured in with the promise of cash and alcohol then trapped.
In Swansea, South Wales, a young woman was imprisoned at a house and forced to sell drugs, her phone having been smashed.
In Suffolk last year 51 children were arrested for dealing, while in Cambridgeshire detectives report children hiding drugs in body cavities.
In Hampshire, police identified more than 120 active county lines active in 2017/1 , with four of London’s ten most violent gangs involved.