1,000 Arrests and Hundreds of Weapons Seized in County Lines Drug Ring Raids

The UK’s law enforcement coordination body revealed that police made over 1,000 arrests and seized nearly 300 weapons during operations targeting so-called county lines drug dealing networks last week.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said on Thursday that forces had conducted joint, intensive, multiple raids between the 17th and 23rd of May, including executing warrants and stopping vehicles suspected of involvement in county lines drug dealing.

County lines are criminal networks that traffick drugs from cities to suburban areas using mobile phones — the ‘lines’ — to coordinate the sales. Drugs are often distributed by children or vulnerable people.

In total, police arrested 1,100 suspects and seized 292 weapons, including 33 firearms and 219 knives. The confiscation of mobile phones helped to identify 80 drugs lines.

The NPCC also revealed that it had safeguarded 1,138 vulnerable people, with the BBC reporting that 573 of them were children.

Police estimates point to some 600 county lines across the country, down from around 2,000 two years ago.

In 2018, police departments and the National Crime Agency (NCA) — Britain’s version of the FBI — formed the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) to tackle the method of drug dealing. The NCLCC said on Thursday that it was increasing focus on locating and arresting the “line holder” who “coordinate the runners and often use violence to control them”.

The BBC reported that this month police stopped two minors, aged 16 and 17, in Northampton with one caught with 80 rocks of crack cocaine and a knife. Police said that one boy stood out because he had marks on his neck indicating he had been strangled, with later examination revealing welts on his back as if he had been beaten, with the officer suspecting gang members had tortured the boy, forcing him to deal drugs.

A report from last summer found that staff at one-third of schools in England said that they believed pupils were being groomed by drug dealers, involving children as young as eight.

The NCLCC also said it was also shifting focus away criminalising runners “who may be exploited” and was “making use of modern slavery legislation to target the line holder”. In March, the Home Office revealed last year that there were 10,631 suspected cases of modern slavery in the UK.

County lines dealers also force their runners to hide drugs at their homes, with the NPCC saying that 904 such “cuckooed” addresses were also raided.

The NCA also announced it had seized 500kg (1,100lbs) of cocaine in a shipping container at the Port of London and launched an investigation with partners in France after a Polish lorry driver was found with 17kg (37lbs) of heroin at Coquelles, near the port of Calais.