BEHIND THE LINES The drug gangs bringing misery to Welsh communities
automatic number plate recognition systems that much more difficult.
It is not uncommon for a lowerlevel courier to just be given a postcode to put into a sat-nav system and then sent on their way without being told any more details about where they are going.
But gangs also make use of the train and the coach networks to transport their wares, which can make tracking deliveries harder for the authorities.
Usually only small amounts of drugs are carried on each journey – if the courier is arrested, the loss to the gang is minimised. If they are stopped the trafficker will usually confess to police they are carrying a bit of cannabis and hand it over in the hope officers won’t inquire further.
Often the more valuable consignment of Class A drugs is carried internally by the courier in a technique whose name perhaps means little further explanation is needed – “plugging”. If a gang member is intercepted and is suspected of having plugged drugs, his or her bowel will be closely monitored for the following days – the police’s “glass toilet” procedure.
Cuckooing
The gang will need a base to operate from in their target town. Sometimes they will use a caravan park, hotel, or rented accommodation – but increasingly they use a flat or house belonging to a local addict. The practice is known as “cuckooing” after the bird which famously lays its eggs in another bird’s nest.
A gang will use a combination of free or discounted drugs, physical intimidation and sexual violence to effectively move into an addict’s property and turn it into a “stash house”.
This property will be a base for their operations where drugs can be delivered, and from where deliveries to users made. Sometimes the drugs are stored in the flat or house, but increasingly couriers or other gang members lower down the chain are used as human storage vessels, and keep the drugs hidden internally.
The addicts
At the bottom of the chain are the addicts, the ready market for the goods the dealers are peddling. Addicts will fund their habit through burglary, shoplifting, or theft from cars. Female addicts sometimes turn to prostitution. An addiction can cost hundreds of pounds of week to feed.
Such is the influx of gangs with goods to sell, addicts often find themselves bombarded with text messages offering drugs.
Between 2000 and 2016 the number of deaths in Wales where opioids were mentioned on the death certificate almost tripled from 58 to 158.
How lucrative is it?
The unpalatable truth is – very. Some gangs are estimated to earn thousands of pounds a day from dealing in Class A drugs in Welsh towns and cities. Though large amounts of cash go through the hands of those dealing on the ground, the money is quickly passed up the chain to those at the top. Often these profits from misery are used to fund the gang’s other criminal enterprises.
The police response
Recent years have seen a number of major police investigations which have smashed county lines gangs.
In 2018 police in Swansea dismantled a gang drug trafficking network which eventually led to 46 people being sentenced to more than 180 years in prison. As part of operation Blue Thames undercover police officers immersed themselves in the city’s drugs community.
This year in Cardiff more than 100 people have been arrested, and drugs, cash and knives seized by police as part of Operation in Carter.
Meanwhile, just before Christmas members of a large-scale conspiracy targeting Powys were sentenced to 100 years as part of Dyfed-Powys Police’s Operation Regent.
With no sign of a decrease in the demand for drugs on the streets of Wales, is unlikely we have seen the last of such investigations.