Highlands targeted by gangs

COUNTY lines gangs are targeting towns in the Highlands.

Gangs based in Manchester and Liverpool, Birmingham, Bradford and Sheffield are being investigated by police after they were discovered sending drug mules to Inverness and smaller towns such as Fort William, Elgin, Fraserburgh and Perth.

The gangs are being blamed for an increase in drug-related deaths in the Highlands and Islands police division – 40 in 2018 compared with 16 in 2014.

DCI Mark Bell, of Police Scotland’s Organised Crime Partnership, said: “Criminal groups are bullying people, taking over their home, and using it as a base to conduct their illegal activities.”

This month the mother of a 13-yearold from Manchester, who was forced to supply drugs in Scotland, said: “When I approached him he said he had to do it [sell drugs] for these men.”

DCI Michael Sutherland, of the Highlands and Islands division, said: “They have identified the Highland area as a market and predominantly based themselves in the Moray

Firth basin.

“Our main concern is they are very good at identifying vulnerable people in the area and taking over their houses.”