County Lines – what it is and what you can do to help. - PowerPoint Presentation

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County Lines – what it is and what you can do to help.

November 2018Slide2

01

County Lines Awareness

Definition

County lines is a term used to describe gangs and organised criminal networks involved in exporting illegal drugs into one or more importing areas [within the UK], using dedicated mobile phone lines or other form of “deal line”. They are likely to exploit children and vulnerable adults to move [and store] the drugs and money and they will often use coercion, intimidation, violence (including sexual violence) and weapons

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HM Government Serious Violence Strategy (p.48) – April 2018Slide3

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Why is it a priority in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire Police took on the investigation, disruption and dismantling of County Lines as a police priority in November 2016. Along side the national identification of the risks and the problem being faced by all forces, Gloucestershire had investigated 2 murders which were intrinsically linked to those involved with County Lines drug dealing.

The

murder of Cameron GREEN

– a 17year old male from Birmingham had been employed by others to attend an address in Cheltenham and base himself within that address in order to carry out drug supply activities. This address belonged to a female who’s partner was a user of drugs. That partner took it upon himself to try and rob GREEN of the drugs and money and in doing so stabbed him to death.

The

murder of Paul PASS

– a 51 year old male from Gloucester had his address taken over by a gang who were supplying drugs, he became desperate and with his friend tried to take the gang on however it backfired when they assaulted him and walked him and his friend back to the flat and proceeded to torture them. During the assaults Paul was stabbed in the leg hitting a significant vein. His friend managed to escape and call the police but Paul unfortunately died from his injuries. Slide4

04

How juveniles are being exploited – example 1

In 2017

a 16

year old male from

the

Thames Valley area

was exploited

by a county line gang from

London. He found

himself in debt to the gang and

was conveyed to

Cheltenham in order to sell drugs to pay off his debt.

Police received intelligence that 3 unknown males had taken over the address of a vulnerable drug user in Cheltenham. Upon attendance no persons were present but CCTV enquiries in the area provided images of 3 males getting into a taxi. These males appeared to be school age or young teenagers. Enquiries identified the taxi dropping them off in the

Whaddon

area of Cheltenham and further enquiries were done the following morning .

At approximately 8am police stopped and arrested a 16 year old male who was in a local school uniform dealing crack and heroin at 8am in the morning.

Others teenagers and young adults were arrested on the day and have since been convicted – throughout the investigation it transpired that:

The uniform had been given to the 16 year old to wear so that he would not stand out.

He was told that he would only need to help deal cannabis for a day, however upon arriving in Cheltenham he was informed that he was now working for the gang and would be dealing crack cocaine and heroin.

He was unable to return to him home without one of the gang being with him. Slide5

05

H

ow

juveniles are being

exploited – example 2

In 2017 two Gloucester juvenile males aged 14 and 15 years old were used by others from London to assist in the hands on supply and storage of drugs within Gloucester and Cheltenham.

The boys were identified as travelling between Cheltenham and Gloucester by train to deal crack cocaine and heroin. These males were local to Gloucester and following their arrests over 500 wraps of class A drugs (street value of £5000) were located in one of the males bedrooms. Enquiries were done as to who was providing the drugs to the boy. A vehicle was linked through enquiries and when stopped coming into the county a further 500+ individually wrapped deals of drugs were located. The occupants of the car were arrested and convicted.

E

xtensive enquiries identified contact between a male in London, the individuals in the vehicle and the young boys. Officers attended London and arrested the male and a search of his home address identified over £100,000 of heroin and crack cocaine along £16,000 in cash and bundles of SIM cards that were marked up for various locations around the country.

U

sing local juveniles to deal for County

L

ines is rarely identified but is a tactic that is clearly being used. The boys involved in this were not identified as being threatened or coerced but appeared to be willing participants in this criminality.

Following their convictions they have continued to deal drugs and, following one of them being recently arrested, appear to now be recruiting others in a similar way to how they were recruited………..

This is not something that can be stopped by arrests and convictions alone.Slide6

06

PREPARE

The inevitability of county lines working within our communities is extremely high. As such by looking at the Prepare strand of the 4 P’s we need to identify areas that we can mitigate the impact that county lines has on those it affects.

So – How do we do this?

Providing awareness and training to support agencies and associations of the early signs of exploitation by these groups

Gaining the trust of the agencies and associations to share information and also gaining the trust of those exploited to ask for help at an early stage.

Make it as difficult as possible for County Lines to work within our

communities, allowing

us to target the ones that continue to come but disrupting

all lines identified

as much as possible.

Working closely with the transport agencies and BTP so that individuals travelling into the county can be identified and stopped.

Work closely with other forces to share information and potential threats at an early stage. Slide7

07

PROTECT

The effect that County Lines have on communities and locations as well as individuals is an on-going battle. The Protect strand of the 4 P’s looks at strengthening protection within the community and working towards reducing the vulnerability of the targeted individuals.

So – How do we do this?

Working in conjunction with housing associations and agencies to support civil action such as Closure Orders and injunctions.

Working with social services and support agencies to highlight the most vulnerable to exploitation by these individuals. Increasing visits and interactions.

Working with the media and communities to raise awareness, promote the remands and sentences that the courts give to show that Gloucestershire is not an easy target. “Get caught here and you will most likely be remanded and receive a lengthy sentence”. Slide8

08

PREVENT

Prevent – County Lines is a lucrative

‘business model’ and

so the work around prevent strand of the 4 P’s looks at how we can stop people from becoming involved with County Lines or exploiting others more vulnerable to work for them.

So – How do we do this?

We support individuals who are especially vulnerable to becoming exploited. Providing them with options of how to remove themselves from the situations – thus making it harder for the County Lines offenders to infiltrate.

We provide awareness and training to those who work with, or are involved with young adults, who may be targeted to work for County Lines at an early

stage, educating

them around the risks and reality to steer them away from, or stop them from, becoming involved.

We support

CGL

around

concerns for clients and their work in reducing the market place for drugs within our communities.

Make it as difficult as possible to deal drugs within Gloucestershire through on-going pursue work as well as awareness and disruption. Slide9

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PURSUE

The PURSUE element to County Lines is local, regional and now National.

Locally Force Crime Operations holds the on-going PURSUE element and will work with overt and covert techniques to combat this type of crime.

Due to the offenders involved in County Lines wanting to stay under the police radar, we are mainly reliant on information and intelligence to target our approach.

THIS

IS WHERE YOU COME IN…..

Our unit is not staffed 24/7

and so to tackle this it needs to be a Force Response.

We rely on information from the public, partners

, contacts and your communities to enhance our intelligence picture. Slide10

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What can you do to help

Is one of your pupils doing things that are different from usual?

Do they have another phone?

a lot of the time juveniles are asked to hold the drugs phone or given a cheap ‘burner’ phone that they will be contacted on.

Have they new friends that are not known?

Are they going missing or having days off?

Are they being met outside school by unknown people?

Make

a note of any descriptions, cars, names seen or

heard

Do they have more money?

Are they using different language?

If

they are not in immediate danger and you are happy to be spoken to further by police

Send information into

fib@gloucestershire.pnn.police.uk

E-mail with concerns or fill in an information sheet – if speaking to police anyway mention **County Lines** so that they link in with Force crime Operations.

call 101,

e-mail the control room from the link on our external website

send in information through the website link.

If you

(or others providing information)

wish

to remain anonymous

call

101 and refuse to provide your name and details

send in information through the website and do not fill in any contact details

call Crime Stoppers 0800 555 111