COUNTY LINES OF CREDIT Gangs use kids’ accounts to launder drugs cash
EXPELLED PUPILS ‘ARE EASY PREY’ TRUMP’S FINGERS IN OUR PIES
GANGSTERS running County Lines drug networks are using children’s bank accounts to launder dirty money.
The criminals hide profits of their evil trade by putting up to £5,000 a time in the accounts of youngsters they have groomed and sent to rural areas to sell drugs using special mobile phone lines.
The gangs hope to grow their business away from police attention in their usual spots in cities like London, Manchester and Liverpool – and the trade is said to be worth £1.8billion a year, experts say.
Up to 50,000 kids aged as young as 11 have been recruited by the network, the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, claimed last week.
The children are even called Bics by their masters – because they are considered as disposable as a cheap pen.
Gangs are “an unregulated, extremely violent and exploitative business,” a new Home Office-backed report by the Association of Town Centre Management says.
“Young people’s bank accounts are being used for money-laundering purposes,” it reports.
“There is evidence they are being targeted for the specific purposes of laundering drug money.”
Simon Ford, head of the ATCM’S Violence and Unit, told The People: “Gangs will get children to open bank accounts or use existing accounts.
“Parents will see as much as £5,000 appear on their statements when the kid is, say, a first-year college student working as a lifeguard. It’s a way of storing and hiding the money.”
In 2015 only seven police forces reported County Lines – now all 43 UK forces say they have the problem, according to the National Crime Agency.
It believes there are 1,000 gangs and says it has 200 live operations targeting them.
But Mr Ford said: “The problem is we don’t actually know the scale of the problem. The NCA quotes 1,000 but I’d SCHOOLS expelling vulnerable kids leave them easy prey for County Lines gangs, say experts. They claim results-driven headteachers are often too quick to kick out troubled youngsters. And the number “pouring” into Pupil Referral Units makes it easier for drugs bosses to CORNISH pasties and Cheddar cheese could be churned out in America if a deal with Donald Trump is agreed.
A pro-eu campaign group is warning that 64 protected British foods could be mass-produced in the US after Brexit. Under EU suggest it’s much more. We know it’s increasing all over the UK. These gangs will travel miles to set up new bases.” The report says those most at risk of being recruited are in special schools – Pupil Referral Units – as gangs know vulnerable children clustered together are easier to groom. But “more creative” methods are used on “middle class” kids too. It said youngsters became indebted to bosses and so became “more ruthless and desperate” to pay off debts. They also used violence to send messages to rivals or to earn status withvulnerability groom the children. Home Secretary Sajid Javid this week called it “chilling” that children as young as 12 were being lured into becoming drugs mules.
Now a report by the Violence and Vulnerability Unit warns of a “recruiting arena” created at PRUS.
Its director Simon Ford said: “The performance culture that schools are under means they don’t rules, they cannot be imitated. It means Cornish pasties must come from Cornwall, Scotch whisky from Scotland and Cumberland sausages from Cumbria.
These proud British treats are worth £4.8billion in exports.
But the US president wants the rules ditched in return for an Anglo-american trade deal.
And a group backed by Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Liam Fox is accused of working in the gang. County Lines gang bosses even operate their networks from behind bars, the report claims, using a “freely available supply of mobile phones” to dish out “intimidation and exploitation.” It says that “the worrying phenomenon” added to growing violence reported by the prison service “and needs to be tackled.” Shockingly, it also warn: “Some gangs even market drugs through texts using enticements such as two-for one offers and prize raffles.” In July we revealed nearly 40 vulnerable children are held every week on suspicion of peddling Class A drugs –many ensnared by County Lines gangs. want classes disrupted. But by pouring normal kids into PRUS you are effectively feeding the County Lines system with resources.
“Some of these children don’t necessarily need to be expelled.”
The report was compiled with the help of former Scotland Yard Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Mcnally, once charged with tackling London’s gang epidemic. with the US to push it through. The Brexit think tank IFT published a paper last week saying the rules are merely “simple protectionism for EU farmers”.
But Labour MP Peter Kyle of the People’s Vote campaign said: “Nobody voted for our supermarkets to be flooded with cheap and nasty knock-off nosh from the US. American agribusinesses wash meat in chlorine and use hormone-injected beef.” People’s Vote says our Melton Mowbray pork pies, Stilton cheese, Jersey royal potatoes and Arbroath smokies would also be threatened.