on: Grooming Kids for County Lines
Hi Friend,
Hope your Wednesday is going well. I am going to try my very hardest to get you a newsletter twice a week, highlighting an issue related to social justice. Please get in touch with any stories, people, or injustices that you see brewing. I would love to research and break my findings down for you.
This week, I have been thinking about grooming for gang-related purposes (County Lines) and was able to interview a few people who know a thing or two about it (no actually, they know loads). Have a read. Leave a comment. Subscribe. And maybe even share. Thanks guys.
Lauren
To be perfectly honest with you, when I first heard the term “County Lines” a few years ago, I thought it had to do with people sitting on the borders of counties exchanging drugs. And I continued to naively think that until I started to dig into the issue.
The National Crime Agency has defined County Lines as when “ illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries (although not exclusively), usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into it by gangs. The ‘County Line’ is the mobile phone line used to take the orders of drugs. Importing areas (areas where the drugs are taken to) are reporting increased levels of violence and weapons-related crimes as a result of this trend.”
Nothing like what I thought. I am going to quickly break the County Line process down for you, but then mainly focus on the gang-related grooming of youth.
How Do County Lines Work (on a very basic level)?
1. Drug dealers (gangs) establish networks between their cities (in the UK - London, Birmingham, Liverpool are biggies) and connected areas, into which they can run drugs back and forth using children and vulnerable adults.
2. Dealers use ‘deal lines’, or mobile phone lines, to take drug orders (most likely heroin, cocaine, and crack cocaine).
3. The children or vulnerable adults that they have convinced to transport drugs, run the drugs to buyers, collect the money, and bring payment back to drug dealer.
I want to focus in on the grooming of children for criminal exploitation in County Lines, especially after a conversation I had with a friend of mine whose son got caught up in drug dropping. I will call her Ruth for the purposes of this piece.
I asked Ruth how she initially found out that her son was involved in some sort of drug delivery. “He had been smoking a lot of weed, making drops of drugs locally in exchange for weed, and we found a knife in his bag on a couple of occasions which he told us was for protection. He also stole money from us and said it was for our protection because if he hadn’t given the money to these people, they had threatened to come and knife his family.”
I wondered how her son, from a safe, protective home had gotten mixed up in this business in the first place. I contacted the head of a UK based organisation, called SPACE, to inquire more. SPACE said gangs are accessing youth in schools, streets, parks, take-aways, peers, and social media.
“All children are being drawn in, and the vulnerability is simply being a child.” SPACE said that her work confirms that children from “all backgrounds, colours, and classes are being exploited.”
Grooming is the process that gangs initiate with youth (usually between 15 and 17, but as young as 9) whereby they engage kids in friendship, possibly buying them nice things like trainers or phones to entice them. It’s a subtle process that ropes kids in so they don’t even question what’s happening. Gangs give then give them small tasks to test their ability and commitment - maybe as simple as stealing a sandwich from a shop. Finally, the gang starts to entrust the youth with drug deliveries and money collection. SPACE states, “This leads to unquestionable loyalty towards their gangs. Coercion, compulsion and threats also form part of the tactic but successful grooming often means there is no need for coercion tactics as the grooming process produces young people who are 'willing' participants albeit without informed consent. Those who do display any desire to exit are retained with threats of violence and humiliation, debt bondage and harm to family members.”
SPACE stated that most parents are completely unaware of their child’s involvement until he/she is already embedded in the gang. Even once parents do start to notice odd behaviour, their concerns are often not taken seriously and/or safeguarding professionals are not linking the behaviour to County Lines. And unfortunately, it is when child goes missing that County Lines are suspected, and yet even then, the link can still be missed.
Exploitation doesn’t pick favourites. It finds vulnerability and snatches it for its own purposes. Ruth is a good mum, and her son still managed to get sucked into a world he was convinced would give him status and wealth. But instead, it has left both him and his family, broken. Ruth said her mental health has taken a “nose dive” and she is struggling to retain a relationship with her son. She told me about the affect on her son. He “already suffers with anxiety and has ADHD so smoking cannabis has made this far worse. He experiences high levels of shame as he knows what he is doing isn’t right but he does it anyway. He has always struggled with anger but over the last few months has become more angry and violent. He has refused to engage in any support offered as he doesn’t want to be seen to have problems. He has been difficult to live with. He can’t stick at anything. He can’t go to certain places because he is worried he’ll bump into people he thinks are his enemies.”
Luckily, Ruth flagged her concerns early enough for intervention. But there are many families that don’t have such luck. It’s hard to tell how many youth are sucked into the world of County Lines, but the National Crime Agency estimates that there are 2,000 city based gangs currently operating and exploiting youth in the UK. Thousands of children locked into a system, fearing for their own lives and the lives of their families, if they try to escape.
Children. These are children, kids. Could be your children. Could be mine. Being exploited for their youthful naivety. Is there anything that can be done?
SPACE advised me, “Parents need to watch for signs of rapid and concerning, negative transformation including the presence of unexplained items. Parents know their children best so are best-placed to spot changes. They should trust their instincts and be proactive in seeking help. Young people should watch for the same signs in their friends and know there is no such thing as a free lunch. It's a trap, whether it shows itself in days, weeks or months. Strangers cannot have your best interests at heart over good parents.”
Grooming of youth for gang-related purposes isn’t going to disappear anytime soon. I spoke with Stephen Chapman, Anti-Slavery Coordinator in Wales, who stated that County Lines have been quieter over lockdown, but “where there is a will, there’s a way.” He is under no allusion that this problem is going away, even following a quiet lockdown. The best thing he reckons we can do is preventative work by educating kids in school through programmes such as School Beat, which offers education to youth about the threat of exploitation.
Grooming of youth for County Lines feels unbearably out of our control, as teenagers live in a connected, social world. There is little we can do to protect them, but we must not shy away from trying – giving our youth loving, stable homes, getting them involved with groups and clubs to reduce to their chances of getting roped into gang activity, and contacting relevant agencies when we see concerning behaviour.
Good article mate x
Educational and sad ... I had never heard of that term before. You should get your MA in social work -- seems like you have the heart for it!