‘Syndicates forcing teenagers in affluent areas to deal in drugs’

SENIOR POLICE officers have warned that crime syndicates are increasingly preying on teenagers in affluent areas of North Yorkshire to carry out campaigns of drug dealing.

Councillors in Harrogate were told by members of the North Yorkshire force that “big players” in cross-county crime were increasingly forcing vulnerable teenagers to conduct their operations.

Acting Superintendent John Wilkinson revealed that a specialist team of investigators, part of a key operation to tackle county lines crime, had identified two main routes of drug movement into the Harrogate.

The first runs from Bradford via Leeds and into the Harrogate district, while the second route operates from Wolverhampton via Birmingham and then into North Yorkshire. And North Yorkshire’s Chief Constable Lisa Winward LISA WINWARD: Highlighted the effects that cross border crime has on North Yorkshire.

acknowledged that cross border crime “probably affects North Yorkshire much more than some of our neighbours”, with the huge borders surrounding England’s largest county making it vulnerable to “more significant organised crime coming to here”.

The vice-chairwoman of the overview and scrutiny board, Coun Margaret Atkinson, admitted the revelations that teenagers are increasingly being targeted to carry out criminal operations were “very shocking”.

“It’s a problem. We try to look after our young people, but they can get led astray when they’re vulnerable,” she added.

The stark reality of so-called county lines crime was highlighted in October, when three outof-town drug dealers were sentenced to a combined total of 49 years in jail following a night of violence in Harrogate in 2017.

Mohamed Abdi and Adirahman Shire, both from Leicester, along with Julian Soares, of Brixton, London, were found guilty at Leeds Crown Court of wounding and conspiracy to supply cocaine, after attacking three men who they believed were rival drug dealers. Two of the victims were stabbed and one had a corrosive liquid thrown in his face.