The girl who fell under the spell of the county lines GROOME
How a f lirtatious phone message led Stevie Simpson into the clutches of one of the growing number of drugs gangs f looding into Scotland
IT started with messages on her phone: a string of compliments on social media. Flattered by the attention, the young single mother was quick to respond – unaware of the terrifying chain of events she was setting in motion. As online flirtation turned into a relationship, the 27-year-old had no reason to suspect that she was being cynically groomed.
Nor could she guess at the dark secrets her new boyfriend was hiding – a history of drug-trafficking, kidnapping, violence and modern-day slavery.
But by the time she had let him into her home and witnessed his threats and intimidation, it was too late – she had been dragged into a uniquely 21st Century world of crime.
Unwittingly, she had been caught in the clutches of a ‘county lines’ gang.
In December, The Scottish Mail on Sunday published figures suggesting that there are now 21 such gangs operating in Scotland.
Based in England’s biggest cities, they are reaching out to target smaller cities, towns and villages north of the Border, using the most ruthless of tactics to avoid detection.
They exploit teenagers, using them as ‘invisible’ couriers, and set up temporary distribution hubs in the homes of the vulnerable or gullible – a technique known as cuckooing.
But although police have warned about the worrying rise in county lines activity in Scotland, very few cases have been exposed to public scrutiny.
Today, however, we can reveal in unprecedented detail one of the most appalling, brutal examples of a county lines gangster worming his way into an innocent woman’s affections and disrupting her whole life, in order to further his vile trade.
The case revolves around two very different people from very different backgrounds.
At one end of the country is Stevie Simpson, a young mother who lives on an unremarkable street in one of the rougher fringes of Aberdeen. Close to her family and devoted to her children, she lives in a small mid-terrace house in the Northfield area. She has never been a drug addict. Until recently, she had never been involved in dealing drugs.
At the other end of the country is Glodi Wabelua, a career criminal with 15 convictions, including for dealing heroin and cocaine.
Born in the Congo, he lived in London where, by his mid-20s, he had become a feared member of a gang based in Tottenham.
The interwoven fate of these two people – which was later outlined in various courts – started to unravel when police in Scotland, acting on a tip-off, raided Miss Simpson’s home.
On October 1, 2018, officers stormed into the property.
After a short-lived chase – Wabelua had bolted through the back door and started to run through neighbours’ gardens – they uncovered the evidence they were looking for: two wraps of crack cocaine and 102 packages of heroin and cocaine worth more than £15,000, plus scales covered with drug residue and more than £3,000 in cash.
Police Scotland, delighted with their efforts and happy to get another drug dealer off the streets, recorded Wabelua’s details in the national database – and it became clear he was far more than a smalltime dealer in Aberdeen.
It emerged he was a suspect in a five-year investigation by the Metropolitan Police into a horrifying slavery case.
Wabelua, it turned out, was the ringleader – along with Dean Alford and Michael Karemera – of a feared county lines gang who, during 2013 and 2014, had infiltrated at least three care homes and four special school units for troubled youngsters in order to recruit vulnerable teenagers as young as 14. Their cynical exploitation of vulnerable youths shocked even hardened detectives.
For example, a 19-year-old autistic boy from a hostel was forced to work as a drug courier on Christmas Day. When he tried to escape, he was stripped naked and had a gun shoved in his mouth.
Wabelua and his crew sent children from London to peddle drugs in Portsmouth, making profits of up to £2,000 per child each day.
The three men kept their victims in squalid conditions at the homes of local drug users in Portsmouth. Often the properties contained needles and drug paraphernalia, and the victims would receive instructions from the gang via mobile phone on where to sell or drop off the drugs.
It was not until 15 of the teenagers from three London boroughs had been arrested for possession of drugs on the South Coast that a children’s worker raised the alarm – sparking Britain’s first county lines police investigation into modern slavery.
Having been arrested in Aberdeen, Wabelua was able to be put on trial, along with his two accomplices. The three men were each jailed at Inner London Crown Court in May last year for their parts in trafficking six teenagers.
They were the first to be convicted under the Modern Slavery Act in what the Met Police described as a ‘landmark case’.
The court heard that six victims had been plucked from the social care system and bribed into taking part in the drugs trade.
In truth, officers believed far more young people were involved, claiming that at least 25 children had been enslaved. Only six cases were taken to court because the trial would have been too unmanageable to prosecute otherwise.
Wabelua was sentenced to threeand-a-half years in jail.
The focus of the authorities then switched back to Wabelua’s activities in Scotland – his Aberdeen drug-dealing.
Last June, he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh to admit being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.
Lord Armstrong told him: ‘You have a criminal history which on my calculation comprises some 15 previous convictions, six of which relate to convictions in respect of
class A drugs.’ Wabelua was sentenced to an additional five years and 219 days in jail.
Miss Simpson also found herself in court – with little choice but to admit her unwitting role in Wabelua’s drug-dealing network.
At the beginning of last month she appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.
Her lawyer made an impassioned plea on her behalf in a desperate attempt to keep her out of jail, and at home with her children.
He explained how she had never been in a court before and how she had been manipulated.
Graeme Murray said: ‘This is a clear instance of what the media are referring to as cuckooing. Young mothers are being used by those in the drug trade in a cynical manner. She was sent romantic advances on social media, and has learned a harsh lesson.’
He urged the sheriff to see that her priority was her children and that she had been targeted by Wabelua, who preyed on her emotions.
Mr Murray said: ‘She seems to have dedicated her adult life to bringing up her children and providing the best possible start they could have.
‘Vulnerable single mothers are targeted by persons involved in the drug trade. That seems to be clearly what took place here.
‘She was approached via social media and started to receive messages from a man. This gentleman moved into her home and it appears set up a business from her home.
‘It’s her position that she wasn’t aware what was going on initially. She’s never been a drug user.’
Mr Murray said when Miss Simpson questioned Wabelua, he became threatening and aggressive.
In a sign that the courts recognised Miss Simpson had been a victim, she was spared jail and sentenced to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, with two years’ supervision and an 11-month curfew.
Her case seems to confirm our revelations from last December – that county lines gangs are increasingly active in Scotland.
We highlighted a report by Police Scotland which suggested that there are now 21 separate criminal organisations from across the UK trafficking drugs into Scotland.
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 deals, a practice known as ‘cuckooing’.
Mobile telephones, which 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 Aberdeenshire and the North-East.
Over a three-month period last summer, officers identified three separate cases in which youths – targeted in England and later discovered in Scotland – were 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 found by police in Inverness.
A 17-year-old boy, 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 boy from a care background in Wolverhampton was stopped by police and found to have 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.
Last night, Police Scotland welcomed the conviction of Wabelua and urged people to be vigilant and look out for signs of exploitation.
Detective Sergeant William Murdoch, of the Organised Crime Group in Aberdeen, said: ‘Glodi Wabelua was arrested and charged in October 2018 in the city as part of an intelligence-led county lines operation. We welcome his conviction.
‘I encourage anyone who finds themselves being exploited by drug dealers to call the police.
‘We continue to relentlessly work to identify the supply chain of drugs and disrupting the activity of people intent on bringing them into the area, including those who travel from England to deal in Scotland.
‘Those involved in cuckooing and county lines exploit vulnerable people and we work closely with forces, partners and independent agencies across the UK to target them and disrupt their supplies.’
The Scottish Mail on Sunday approached Miss Simpson at her home in Aberdeen last week to speak to her about her ordeal and to highlight how innocent people are being targeted. She declined to comment other than to say: ‘I’ve been a victim in this case.’