Alert as drug gangs target our children
County lines dealers ‘spread like weeds’
COUNTY LINES drug dealing is “spreading across Yorkshire like Japanese knotweed” with every area affected, according to the senior police officer in charge of tackling organised crime across the region.
Children and the vulnerable are being targeted by criminals who will stoop to desperate measures to get them embroiled in a life of crime.
From bribes on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to targeting the region’s railways and bus stops as children travel to and from school or college, parents are being warned to look out for signs their child could be exploited.
County lines is a form of organised crime in which drug dealers from usually urban areas exploit their victims forcing them to deal drugs in smaller towns and cities. It takes its name from the mobile phones used by dealers to communicate between towns, take orders and conduct their “business”.
The lines are used to advertise drugs for sale and mass text messages are sent to users letting them know where and when they can buy drugs. The lines become valuable protected “brands”. County lines is highly lucrative and exceptionally violent.
“County lines is the criminal Japanese knotweed,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Pat Twiggs, head of Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit.
“Anywhere these criminals can get to there is a market to be explored.
“There are currently lines from the Metropolitan Police area right up to Aberdeen. If the demand is there, they are going to travel anywhere.
“Affluent areas like Harrogate are just as much a target as deprived towns such as Scarborough and the more awareness people have the better.
“People have to accept it’s happening everywhere and we all have a collective responsibility to help tackle it.
“The public need to realise the situation. I can guarantee it will be happening in your community so the more we can raise awareness, the better.”
Det Ch Supt Twiggs is advising parents and staff in educational settings to keep a close eye on children to stop them becoming embroiled in county lines.
He said: “If you haven’t got an eye on your children in a positive way, someone will have a negative eye on them. Some of the children already targeted have come from good homes and people ask ‘How can little Jonny get involved in something like this?
“We want to ask how many parents know exactly what their kids are doing on social media?”
Det Ch Supt Twiggs said police forces across the country are “collectively doing everything they can” to tackle the issue and “bring perpetrators to justice”.