Child slave drug gangs: The fightback begins
Suspect kingpin held in dawn swoops on ‘county lines’ network
ON an affluent estate with BMWs and Audis parked in driveways, police raid the home of an alleged drug kingpin linked to the scourge of ‘county lines’.
Days after Home Secretary Sajid Javid called for tougher action against the menace threatening towns and suburbs, officers in Cheshire swooped before dawn on the fivebedroom property.
Police used a battering ram to smash through the door of the detached home in Widnes as part of an eight-month investigation known as Operation Rider.
The house, previously described in an estate agent’s blurb as ‘a beautifully presented, spacious’ property, is not far from the home of former footballer Joey Barton, now the manager of Fleetwood Town FC. A woman inside yelled obscenities as officers in stab-proof vests forced their way in at around 5.30am. Shortly afterwards a man in a hooded top was seen apparently saying goodbye to the family dog before being led away in handcuffs.
At the same time, a series of raids involving 140 officers were carried out as far as 100 miles away, with a further 14 suspects arrested and cocaine worth £140,000 seized along with £20,000 in cash. Police said they were targeting a major organised crime group that had spread its tentacles as far as Cumbria and East Yorkshire.
They said a ‘county lines’ system – in which child drug runners have sometimes been used elsewhere to flood new areas with drugs and controlled by untraceable mobile phones – is just one of its tactics.
Detective Chief Superintendent Aaron Duggan of Cheshire Police said: ‘Today’s arrests follow a lengthy proactive operation to gather evidence and intelligence around those believed to be involved in serious and organised crime. We are committed to disrupting those intent on preying on the most vulnerable people in our communities.’ Mr Duggan said that while county lines – which has been highlighted by the Daily Mail – was only ‘an element’ of how this gang worked, the ‘business model’ was a problem in Cheshire. Our investigation revealed how county lines networks have increased six-fold in three years, with more than 4,000 suspects arrested, including children as young as 12 caught ferrying drugs. Only last week nine men from nearby Ellesmere Port were jailed for almost 50 years for a ‘county lines’ drug ring whose recruits included a 15-year-old boy studying for his GCSEs.
The raid came after Mr Javid, writing in the Mail, pledged a ‘fightback’ against the criminals who ‘ruin lives and damage society’. Of the 14 arrested in dawn raids, ten men – aged between 19 and 41 – were held in Warrington and one in Widnes, as well as a 23year- old from Carlisle and two men in Humberside.
A fifteenth suspect, a 28-year-old man, was produced from prison. All were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, specifically cocaine.
The gang is not accused of exploiting children.