By Harry Mottram: it’s become the crime of the 21st century: County Lines drug dealing. Young people – usually in London and other major cities – are used to traffic drugs to users and dealers in provincial cities, towns and even villages as the criminals behind the operations believe children are less likely to be suspected of being mules.
As a reporter in Somerset I’ve seen in the past how police link up with their colleagues in the Met and other major police groups to track potential carriers of drugs – often using the trains – to pass on to contacts in the South West. One memorable incident in Bridgwater I recall was where undercover police met a train from London to make arrests as the mules stepped off the train. And the criminals’ use of vulnerable people to ‘cuckoo’ or bully them into letting them stay in their home to be used for drugs is a particularly evil practice.
Now Police have announced that three people have been arrested as part of an operation to crack down on suspected County Lines drug dealing.
In a statement they said: “Two men, aged 18, and a 17-year-old boy were arrested in Bath on Saturday (7 December) on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs (crack cocaine). They have since been released on bail, with conditions to not enter the Avon and Somerset area. At around 8am on Saturday morning, officers attended the address of a vulnerable woman who they believed to be a victim of ‘cuckooing’. In the property, they discovered a quantity of class A drugs, suspected to be crack cocaine, and money as well as a bladed article. The woman has been provided with safeguarding support and enquiries are ongoing.”
The Children’s Society have this definition of County Lines: “County lines is a form of criminal exploitation. It is when criminals befriend children, either online of offline, and then manipulate them into drug dealing. The ‘lines’ refer to mobile phones that are used to control a young person who is delivering drugs, often to towns outside their home county. Young people aged 14-17 are most likely to be targeted by criminal groups but there are reports of seven year olds being groomed into county lines.
“Primary school children are seen as easy targets because they’re less likely to get caught. The grooming might start with them being asked to ‘keep watch’ but it soon escalates to them being forced to stash weapons, money, or become drug couriers.”
The Government through the Home Office have been working to tackle the issue for the last few years with the County Lines Programme. The Programme package includes:
- the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC)
- increased disruption on the rail networks by the British Transport Police’s County Lines Taskforce
- targeted operational activity against lines, including 4 major exporting force areas:
- Greater Manchester Police
- Metropolitan Police Service
- Merseyside Police
- West Midlands Police
- investment in new technology including Automatic Number Plate Recognition
- increased support for victims
Impact
Since the County Lines Programme launched in 2019:
- 7,148 county lines have been closed
- 21,279 people have been arrested
- 10,689 individuals have been referred by police to safeguarding
These figures are correct as of June 2024.
This includes 3,233 Type 1 line closures by the Programme taskforces since April 2022. Through these line closures, 2,313 individual line holders have been arrested and charged.
If you are aware of suspected drug dealing and use in your area, please call us on 101 or speak to your Neighbourhood Policing Team about your concerns. For more information on cuckooing and how to recognise the signs, visit: www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/news/2024/10/cuckooing-and-how-were-tackling-it
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Harry Mottram is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Telegram, TikTok and Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
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