County lines gangs make £500m profit as they exploit 10,000 children to sell drugs, say police
Criminal gangs are making £500m profit a year from “county lines” networks with 10,000 children as young as 11 being exploited to sell drugs, police have revealed.
There are now 2,000 county lines through which gangs run their drug dealing networks, almost treble the 720 of just a year ago, according to analysis by the National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Each line generates more than £800,000 profit and turns over some £5,000 a day, equivalent to £3.6bn a year if scaled up.
The gangs exploit children whom they recruit to sell heroin, cocaine and crack in areas outside their normal territories, directing them via mobile phone “lines.”
Duncan Ball, NPCC lead on county lines, said 10,000 was a “reasonable” estimate of the number of children now being used, with most being boys aged 15 to 17.
He said the youngest gang member police had safeguarded was just 11 but there was evidence gangs were grooming younger children so they could join their operations when they reached 11.
Gang leaders sent their lieutenants aged 15 to 17 to recruit young victims in new areas to deal drugs, using short-term lettings including Airbnb properties as bases for their operations, he added.
Tim Champion, of the police national county lines co-ordination centre, said pupils from stable backgrounds including grammar schools were targeted as well as vulnerable children in care or excluded from school.
“They get them with a load of cannabis, get them in debt and they end up selling class A drugs,” said detective superintendent Champion.
“We have 17 year olds running multiple lines. They will be in Airbnb or ‘cuckoo’ addresses [where they take over a vulnerable person’s home]. The main thing is to get off the street where you draw attention and where police or other dealers’ will get you.”
It is the fourth analysis of county lines by the NCA and it said it was starting to uncover the true scale of what it described as a “significant national threat”.
London, which has some 200 street gangs, is the biggest “exporter” of county line networks, running 15% of the total, followed by West Midlands (9%) and Merseyside (7%), according to the NCA report.
There are, however, now 23 other force areas that are also “exporters” of county lines, with coastal areas most likely to be “importers.” No force is unaffected.
It said gangs recruit new members both face-to-face and via social media, offering payments and material possessions victims would be unable to obtain through legal means.
“This is enhanced by offenders’ use of social media, on which images and videos of cash, designer clothing, luxury cars and other high value goods are posted, creating a misconception that involvement in crime is rewarding,” the report said.
“An emerging trend in recruitment is the targeting of children within importing towns and cities, rather than in the exporting areas, in which offending groups are based.”
There was also increasing use of app-based taxi services to transport gang members and potential victims to supply areas.
The NCA said 10% of the lines were linked to serious violence, using guns and knives to control recruits and territories, although it admitted this figure was an underestimate.
Women, lured into false romantic relationships, were sexually exploited or sexually abused to stay in the gangs, said the report.
A series of joint raids in the last week saw over 400 vulnerable adults and 600 children identified as needing safeguarding, of which 40 were classed as potential victims of modern slavery or trafficking. Over 140 weapons were seized including 12 firearms as well as swords, machetes, axes and knives.
Mr Ball said police were looking to extend the use of modern slavery laws to combat the gangs. “This is a culture of drugs and violence where you have the equivalent of the modern gangmaster using children to run their drug lines and get them involved in violence,” he said.
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