Kids of 13 forced to be drug mules by county lines gangs
How 21 organised crime cartels target Scotland
CHILDREN as young as 13 are being forced to smuggle illegal drugs into Scotland – as ‘county lines’ gangs expand their operations north of the Border.
A shocking report by police has revealed there are now 21 separate criminal organisations from across the UK trafficking drugs into Scotland’s towns and villages.
County lines is the phenomenon whereby drug dealers from cities expand their operation by crossing county borders into smaller towns and rural areas.
Now Police Scotland have laid bare the evil tactics the dealers are using to ply their illegal trade.
The gangs are exploiting children as young as 13, often from care home backgrounds, and forcing them to act as drug mules, carrying packages of heroin or crack cocaine on buses and trains.
To avoid detection, the crooks frequently switch premises – and force addicts and their families to let their homes be used for drug deals, a practice known as ‘cuckooing’. A network of mobile telephones, that are not registered in dealers’ real names, rendering them untraceable, are used to make cross-border plans.
The gangs – from London, Birmingham and Liverpool – are using kidnapping and violence, backed with guns and knives, to target in particular Aberdeenshire and the north-east of Scotland.
The alarming revelations about county lines activity – which last night prompted calls for urgent action – are included in a recently published Police Scotland report.
Scottish Conservative public health spokesman Annie Wells called on the Scottish Government to improve its funding to police to ensure it has ‘enough resources to tackle this scourge’.
She added: ‘We simply cannot allow these gangs to force their way into our communities and ruin them from the inside out. These sick individuals are responsible for derailing vulnerable people’s lives and, in some cases, ending them.’
Last year, Police Scotland launched a campaign to highlight the pain and suffering that criminals from south of the Border are inflicting on vulnerable people in Scotland’s rural and coastal towns.
In a recent report, Police Scotland said: ‘Intelligence indicates that children as young as 13 and 14 years old, who are primarily from care backgrounds, are being used as drug mules. Addressing the vulnerability of juveniles involved in county lines dealing is a priority.’
Police Scotland is working with the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) as youths are coerced and trafficked from their homes in England to deal drugs north of the Border.
Over a three-month period last summer, officers identified three separate cases where youths were targeted in England and later discovered in Scotland, involved in the drugs trade. In another case, an 18-year-old was kidnapped in London and threatened with violence. He was taken away to be a drug dealer and was eventually found by police in Inverness.
A 17-year-old boy, who was a missing person from Essex, was discovered by officers when the tenant of a flat reported the teenager was drug dealing from their property but was too scared to ask him to leave. No drugs were found but the teenager was returned to social work care.
In Aberdeen, a 15-year-old schoolboy from a care background in Wolverhampton was stopped by police and found to be in possession of crack cocaine. Inquiries with West Midlands Police linked him to county lines drug dealing and he was returned to social work care in his home town.
Police Scotland’s Detective Chief Inspector Alan Henderson told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘Proactively targeting criminals who exploit young and vulnerable people and import drugs into our communities, for their own illicit and illegal gain, remains a priority for our officers.
‘Scotland is predominantly an importer of county lines, with the north-east of the country being most significantly impacted by this activity. The largest single exporting area into Scotland is Merseyside.’
A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs Council – the UK body that jointly runs the NCLCC and brings police forces together – said: ‘Drug dealers operate on a supply and demand model – they will take their supply where there is demand. Typically, rural areas
‘Dealers operate on supply and demand’’
have less drug dealing than big towns and cities.’
Last week, a report was published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, the policing watchdog in England and Wales, about the UKwide problem and how officers at local, regional and national levels are tackling the issue.
Within the report was a number of recommendations including that the Home Office should commission a review of the criminal abuse of mobile telecommunications services.
‘Exploit young and vulnerable people’