Are you aware of County Lines?
As part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to tackle serious and violent crime, the Home Office has relaunched its County Lines awareness-raising campaign.
‘County Lines’ is a term used when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs.
These dealers will use dedicated mobile phone lines, known as ‘deal lines’, to take orders from drug users.
Heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine are the most common drugs being supplied and ordered.
In most instances, the users or customers will live in a different area to where the dealers and networks are based, so drug runners are needed to transport the drugs and collect payment.
A common feature in county lines drug supply is the exploitation of young and vulnerable people.
The dealers will frequently target children and adults – often with mental health or addiction problems – to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement.
A series of promotional posters to support the government’s work to deal with county lines – where urban drug dealers expand their activity into small town markets – have been produced. You can find them here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/county-lines-protecting-vulnerable-people-from-exploitation