County lines drug gang victim aged 6

Criminals force primary school pupils to run heroin and crack cocaine deals

CHILDREN as young as six are being lured by county lines gangs to help deal drugs, a police chief has revealed.

They are among up to 10,000 children believed to have been snared by city-based criminals selling mostly heroin and crack cocaine in Britain’s towns using a network of dedicated mobile phones.

One six-year- old, thought to be the youngest to be caught up in the drugs trade, is being treated as a victim and not a suspect in the investigation into a local ring.

Detective Chief Inspector Wendy Tinkler, from Cleveland Police, said

‘They are a commodity and disposable’

youngsters are treated as a disposable commodity by county lines gangs eager to line their pockets.

‘We’ve got an investigation at the moment with a child who is six,’ she revealed. Mrs Tinkler told councillors in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham: ‘Why are these organised crime groups targeting young children? The unfortunate thing is it is so easy to find the next child.

‘More often than not, because of their ages, there is no criminal investigation or progression to court and the perpetrator moves on to the next child.

‘The shameful fact is they are a commodity and disposable.

‘They don’t think about the person, they think about the profit.’

Victims are often bribed with money and presents or threatened with violence against themselves or their loved ones. Children with several phones, unexplained inju- ries or money should set alarm bells ringing, she said.

Those aged 15 to 17 now make up the bulk of those involved in county lines drug rings, with some making £5,000 a day.

Mrs Tinkler said that white British youngsters – girls and boys – are most likely to be targeted by those looking to evade detection, as are those with learning difficulties or excluded from school.

She stressed it was important to understand that children were often victims not criminals.

‘They’re young children who have been taken advantage of. The problem we have got is some of these children involved are difficult children,’ she told the Safer Stockton Partnership meeting.

‘They persistently go missing from home and they will probably engage in anti- social behaviour and be highlighted on a regular basis to the police.

‘What we’ve got to understand is we can’t get that tunnel vision that these children have made a choice to do what they’re doing.

‘It’s important to understand when they’re being exploited. It’s very likely they are being trafficked and they are trafficking victims.’

Last month police chiefs at the National Crime Agency described how county lines crime gangs, who are estimated to rake in £500million a year, had ‘ saturated’ the country. The number of operations has rocketed from 720 to more than 2,000 in a year.

A quarter of the child drug slaves are trafficked or exploited as they are made to cut and bag drugs, sell them on the street and collect debts, a report said. Many are forced to live in drug users’ homes, with no payment or even food. Some are targeted by gangs offering cannabis at primary school gates to trap them into debt.

It is estimated at least ten per cent of the gangs are involved in serious violence, and police have identified 118 county lines networks which have links to guns.