Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Armed kids in £1.8bn drugs trade
THOUSANDS of child slaves are being armed with knives to fend off rival gangs behind a £1.8billiona-year drugs trade, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.
So-called County Lines bosses groom kids as young as 11 and force them to deliver cocaine and heroin ordered via special hotlines.
But the level of violence is soaring and youngsters are handed weapons in case rivals try to steal their stash.
We can also reveal that exploited children are even being “traded in” as gangsters sell off lucrative hotlines.
Dealers build up a client base of drug users before selling the list for tens of thousands of pounds – and throwing in their child workforce.
The National Crime Agency believes more than 1,000 gangs are operating hotlines. The NCA has at least 200 live operations in place to smash the rings.
Each line can make £5,000 a day – £1.8million a year. The grim trade sees:
Children having drugs forced inside their bodies – known as “plugging” – and trafficked nationwide.
Horrific videos of attacks and revenge beatings shared on social media to intimidate rivals and warn gang members wanting to break free.
Recruits subjected to sexual abuse or forced into prostitution.
Social media sites like Periscope used by gangsters “like CCTV” to keep tabs on youngsters out on the streets.
STUCK
Junior Smart, who leads the SOS Project with the St Giles Trust, said: “People are saying this is happening in deprived areas with specific demographics. People expect it to be typically a black youth, hoodie up and wearing a manbag.
“That’s not how it works. It can start with simply being offered drugs and within days they have debt bondage and are stuck in the criminal world.
“Even middle class children are getting involved because their families have the means to pay off debts and gang leaders can earn cash.
“People have been recruited from primary school age. Others have mental health problems, learning difficulties. Gangs hang around school gates and see those who are being bullied, alone and are easy targets.
“They target youth hostels, referral units. It’s an immediate workforce for them. One of the biggest problems is children – thousands of them – not being reported when they go missing.”
The revelations come just days after police seized a 10in hunting knife as they smashed a gang supplying heroin and crack cocaine from London’s East End to Ipswich, Suffolk. And in April gang leaders Mahad Yusuf, 21, and Fesal Mahamud, 20, were jailed for a total of 19 years for trafficking a teen from Enfield, North London, to Wales.
Kids are promised cash, a flashy lifestyle, friendship and respect. But once sucked in they are invited to share drugs – only to be landed with massive debts that they must work off.
It is understood 5,000 children were picked up by authorities last year over fears they were forced into slavery. That was 35 per cent up in a year.
The NCA has revealed grim details of sexual abuse, while politicians have told of their fears for trapped kids.
Labour’s Ann Coffey, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults, said: “The extent of the violence is new – and it’s reaching into almost every small town in the UK.”
In January Labour’s Joan Ryan told MPs that in her Enfield North constituency 20 operations had led to the arrests of 100 suspects and the identification of 50-plus vulnerable children and adults.
She said: “Vulnerable children are forced to go missing from home for long periods. They are used as drug mules with their orifices
plugged with
Class A drugs. At all times, they are at great personal risk of arrest – probably the only time they are really safe – or of physical and sexual abuse. There is extreme violence. These are cases of modern-day slavery.”
Rhiannon Sawyer, of the Children’s Society’s, said gangs were using new tactics to exert power and control. She said: “Girls are at risk of sexual exploitation while boys can experience sexual abuse and rape as a punishment or a way to control them. They see horrific things.”
The Government insists it is tackling the problem and earlier this year pledged £3.6 million to develop a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre.
dan.warburton@trinitymirror.com