County lines gangs: Police arrest 700 people in UK-wide crackdown
Written by News on 18/10/2019
More than 700 people have been arrested and £426,000 worth of drugs has been seized during a UK-wide crackdown on county lines gangs.
The National Crime Agency said on Friday that 169 weapons were confiscated – including 12 guns – and 49 “deal lines” were disrupted during the operation from 7-13 October.
Forty-one referrals for potential human trafficking victims were made to the National Referral Mechanism, which identifies victims.
County lines refers to mobile phone lines dedicated to taking orders from drug users. The lines are operated by criminals exploiting children as young as 12 to transport drugs between counties across the UK.
Gangs hire often vulnerable youngsters as part of a major push to expand their business from big cities into rural Britain – using them as mules unassuming enough to avoid suspicion and detection.
Vulnerable young people sometimes have their homes taken over, or “cuckooed”, to be used as drug dens.
Sky News found by the end of last year drug runners were operating on 2,000 routes across England alone, using thousands of children.
Police believe the industry is worth about £3m a day.
During the operation, 389 vulnerable adults and 292 children were identified by police for safeguarding.
Police said they were “dismantling these criminal networks piece by piece”.
The operation was coordinated by the Home Office-funded National County Lines Coordination Centre, set up to tackle gangs exploiting children through county lines drugs selling.
A total of 652 men and 91 women were arrested, and 655 cuckooed addresses visited.
Samurai swords, machetes, knives, an axe and a crossbow were among the 169 weapons seized.
Of the £426,040 worth of drugs recovered, there was £253,200 of cocaine, £100,170 of crack cocaine and £72,670 of heroin.
Duncan Ball, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for county lines, said: “We will not treat the criminals who run these lines just as drug dealers.
“We will work tirelessly to prosecute them for these offences but also, where we have the evidence, we will seek to prosecute them for child trafficking under modern slavery laws to reflect the devastating nature of their exploitation of young and vulnerable people.
:: Anyone concerned about county lines, or being involved with them, can speak to police on 101, anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, Childline on 0800 1111 or report crime anonymously at www.fearless.org.
(c) Sky News 2019: County lines gangs: Police arrest 700 people in UK-wide crackdown
