COUNTY LINES BURGLE BOOM
Lockdown crimewave
COUNTY Lines gangs are cashing in on the lockdown by sending teens to raid empty pubs and houses, the Daily Star Sunday can reveal.
Dealers as young as 15 are setting up bases in deserted towns and villages to peddle heroin and crack to local junkies.
But instead of taking their cash straight back to the city, they are plundering houses, farms and pubs left vacant in the coronavirus crisis.
Stolen cars, mopeds and motorbikes worth thousands are sold on websites such as eBay and Gumtree or kept under new number plates.
We spoke to a north London gang boss who sends young teens to the West Sussex countryside. Calvin, 24, said: “I send them to places like Chichester where there’s a lot of rich people. Since the lockdown started there’s no police on the streets so it’s easy pickings.
“Motorbikes and mopeds are there for us. And top-end motors like Porsches, Mercs and BMWs.
“We strip them and take the parts off and sell them individually on eBay, Gumtree and Instagram.
“If I want to keep a car, I’ll change the plates.”
Calvin said teenagers also targeted empty pubs for cash and farms packed with tools. County Lines gangs are plundering property all over the UK during the lockdown.
North Wales Police said “five big city gangs” from Merseyside, Manchester and the Midlands are involved in “serious crime”.
Det Supt Sian Beck added: “It is a very lucrative market for the gangs and they can change their methodology very quickly to adapt to how we operate.”
Last week gangs stole jewellery in a series of raids in Hampshire villages. And Staffordshire Police said there has been a spike in valuables being stolen from cars