County lines gangs: More than 700 arrested and £400k of drugs seized in UK-wide sting

Ellena Cruse18 October 2019

More than 700 people have been arrested and 169 weapons confiscated during a county lines gangs operation, police say.

The National Crime Agency also confiscated £400,000 worth of drugs and disrupted 49 "deal lines" during the UK-wide sting.

Forty-one referrals were made to the National Referral Mechanism, which identifies potential victims of human trafficking, during the operation between October 7 and 13.

Police said they were "dismantling these criminal networks piece by piece".

Police force entry into a property as part of a county lines sting
National Crime Agency

The operation was coordinated by the Home Office-funded National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC), set up to target gangs exploiting children to sell drugs through so-called county lines.

The term refers to the mobile phone lines dedicated to taking orders from drug users, which are operated by criminals from big cities who have expanded into smaller towns.

Young and vulnerable people are often used to act as drug runners or have their homes taken over, or "cuckooed", to be used as drug dens.

Police forces across the UK came together for a joint operation targeting county lines. More than 700 arrests were made.
National Crime Agency

The latest operation was the fourth carried out by the NCLCC following similar "intensification weeks" in October 2018 and in January and May this year.

The NCA said 652 men and 91 women were arrested, and 655 cuckooed addresses were visited.

Weapons including swords, machetes and a crossbow were also seized.

Police across the country disrupt county gang dealer lines
National Crime Agency

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."

Nikki Holland, National Crime Agency County Lines lead and Director of Investigations, said that criminal networks rely on the flow of money to further their drug trafficking and targeted operations hit criminals "where it hurt" by seizing their funds.

“We also know that criminal networks use high levels of violence, exploitation and abuse and we’re seeing young and vulnerable people being identified as victims of modern slavery, as the criminals exploit and coerce them into doing the day-to-day drug supply activity," she added.

“The only way we can effectively tackle this national problem is by adopting a whole-system approach, with partners in Public Health, Department for Education, social care and the charity sector working to prevent that exploitation happening in the first place.”

Anyone with concerns about county lines can speak to local police on 101 or call 999 in an emergency.

If you’d rather stay anonymous you can call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

If you are a young person who is worried about being involved in County Lines, or knows someone who is, you can contact www.fearless.org which allows you to pass on information about crime anonymously.

You can also contact Childline on 0800 1111 – they are a private and confidential service where you can talk to counsellors about anything that is worrying you.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in