Drugs slavery kids trio caged

THREE drugs dealers who used children as runners have become the first gang to be jailed under modern slavery laws.

The so-called “county lines” racket run by Glodi Wabelua, Dean Alford and Michael Karemera, all 25, recruited six children to traffic crack cocaine and heroin to Portsmouth.

Victims then brought money back to their gang masters in London.

The trio are the first to be charged under the Modern Slavery Act in relation to “county lines” crimes – linking cities with more rural or remote areas.

Inner London Crown Court was told the victims – three girls and three boys – were forced to stash drug packages in their bodies and would be housed in the homes of addicts, with needles and drug paraphernalia lying around.

They had to ask permission to buy food, and were not allowed home until all the drugs were sold.

The Metropolitan Police said that when one victim tried to quit the gang, he was stripped by associates of Karemera and had a gun put in his mouth.

Judge Usha Karu said: “The level of psychological harm they may have suffered is hard to gauge.”

Wabelua, from Tottenham, was jailed for three-and-a-half years, Alford, from Canterbury, for four years, and Karemera, from Lewisham, for five years.