Violent city gangs groom teenagers to act as drugs mules
BRITAIN is in the grip of a new crime menace – violent city gangs that use youngsters to sell drugs in rural areas.Known as “county lines” rackets, the groups use children as young as 12 to expand their narcotics trade.
Violent city gangs use youngsters to sell drugs in rural areas
Hundreds of teenagers have been groomed to act as mules to move heroin, crack cocaine and cash between cities and towns.
City crime lords use extreme violence to control the youngsters as they seize new markets from provincial rivals.
Victims have been attacked with machetes, knives, hammers, baseball bats, acid and boiling water, say police.
Some young women and girls have been sexually abused and raped to control them. In Humberside a man reportedly had his hand chopped off with a machete and both his legs broken in a “punishment attack”.
The National Crime Agency has identified about 720 county lines operations in Britain – but believes that many more exist.
A report by the agency published last November said: “The true scale of county lines activity is diffi cult to determine with accuracy as its nature is fl uid and the intelligence surrounding the threat is not always clear.”