Curse of cuckooing
Gangsters targeting vulnerable to use homes for drug dealing
– a staggering £800million. The gangs also use other forms of exploitation including coercion, trafficking, child sexual exploitation, gun and knife crime.
DI Mark Catney from Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit says: “We recognise cuckooing and county lines crime as very serious threats.
“Targeting vulnerable people is unacceptable. One place you are supposed to feel safe is in your own home.”
Cuckooed houses are also used as places for gangs to carry out violence.
In one case DI Mark Catney worked on in 2018, a man who was involved in a dispute over drugs with a gang was taken to an apparently cuckooed address.
He was stripped naked, had boiling water poured over his genitals and forced to sing and dance to Whitney Houston songs purely for his vile attackers’ amusement.
The victim had previously been tortured in his own home and a knife was held to the stomach of his heavily pregnant girlfriend.
Sakhawat Hussain, 35, of Batley,
HOUSING HELP and Andre Clarke, 30, of Newsome, Huddersfield, were both convicted of affray, kidnapping, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of false imprisonment. They were jailed for 15 years each.
And in February and March this year as part of a crackdown on county lines gangs, DI Catney and his team arrested four boys from Leeds, one aged 16 and three aged 17, who were believed to be staying with a vulnerable person in a cuckooed property in Harrogate.
Officers recovered a significant quantity of crack cocaine and heroin, phones, cash and a large hunting knife. In December last year, a pair of “cuckoo” drug dealers were jailed after taking over a vulnerable woman’s Devon home and using it as their distribution base. Tom Dwyer and Brandon Murray were caught red handed when police raided the house in Paignton and found them in the middle of bagging up heroin
and crack. Murray, 20, from Ellesmere Port, and Dwyer, 25, of Wallasey, both admitted possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and possession of criminal property.
Murray was jailed for two years and seven months and Dwyer for three years and three months.
Now police, local councils and agencies are working together to help identify potentially vulnerable people and educate healthcare workers, teachers and housing officers to recognise the tell-tale signs of cuckooing and help victims break free.
DI Catney says: “The main emphasis of our work is to educate communities and professionals to know how to spot the signs of cuckooing so we can intervene at the earliest opportunity. I would urge people to look out for vulnerable relatives or neighbours to ensure they don’t fall victim. I welcome Line of Duty highlighting this terrible crime.”
To report suspected cuckooing anonymously, you can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.