‘County lines’ drug gangs cause record number of deaths in seaside town

 Police inability to deal with “county lines” gangs has led to 12 drugs deaths since Christmas in a small Cumbrian town.

Barrow-in-furness has been struggling against a tidal wave of class-a drugs, particularly heroin and cocaine, being supplied by gangs from Manchester, Liverpool and London.

The issue – known as “county lines” – refers to gangs setting up drug dealing operations outside of their usual areas, particularly criminals from cities targeting rural towns.

The death rate from drug misuse in the seaside town since December is over four times the national average for England and Wales.

Police have blamed staff cuts for hindering their ability to tackle the problem. The county council has also blamed government cuts, having recently pruned £1.3million from its drug and alcohol services.

With a population of 67,000, the number of deaths in the town has been described as “totally disproportionate” by Det Chief Insp Nick Coughlan, from Cumbria Police.

He added: “We will keep doing what we can within the resources that we’ve got but inevitably, if the pattern continues, more people will die.”