County lines thug trafficked boy of 14

A TEENAGER has been jailed for trafficking a 14-year-old boy who he used to sell drugs in a county lines operation.

Harrison Coe, 18, rewarded the vulnerable boy with cannabis in a scheme thought to involve one of the youngest victims of county lines trafficking in Britain.

Coe was pulled over near Llanelli, in South Wales, by officers who suspected the car had links to organised crime. The teenager, from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, was hiding a small amount of cannabis in his underwear. He was later found to have been hiding in his body a package containing crack cocaine and heroin, with a street value of £1,900.

At the same time, officers began searching for a missing boy they suspected had been with Coe, Swansea Crown Court heard. The boy, who was found within 24 hours and reunited with his family.

He is thought to be the youngest in Wales in a county lines case and one of the youngest across the UK.

The victim had fallen out with his mother and was kicked out of his home, the court heard, when Coe picked him up. Coe drove the child to Llanelli and recruited him to sell cocaine and heroin.

Yesterday, Coe was sentenced to four and a half years after he pleaded guilty to trafficking, as well as six counts of supplying and possessing heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

County lines gangs use children and vulnerable adults as ‘runners’ to sell drugs, carrying them across county boundaries.