Urban gangs are using children as young as 12 to help move drugs in out-of-town locations

There has been a sharp rise in the number of arrests of teenagers for drug dealing, prompting concern about young people being groomed to work as drug mules in so-called county lines operations.

Data obtained by the Guardian through freedom of information requests shows that the number of arrests of under-18s for possession with intent to supply and supplying drugs rose by 28% between 2013 and 2017, from 1,639 to 2,097.

The figures are drawn from data supplied by 24 police forces. Five forces provided figures for under-16s, which showed that arrests in this age group almost doubled, from 157 to 312, over the same period.

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Arrests for drug dealing have fallen overall, from 24,022 to 23,022 across all age groups.

County lines drug trading, also known as “going country” or OT (out there), involves urban gangs moving class A drugs and cash between inner-city hubs and provincial areas. Young people are recruited by dealers who groom them and offer them money to sell drugs in out-of-town locations.

The figures show children as young as 12 are being arrested for possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine. Areas that saw the biggest rise in the number of arrests included Norfolk, Devon, and Dorset. In Norfolk the number rose from 29 in 2013 to 121 last year.

Paul Sanford, a Norfolk assistant chief constable, said: “Norfolk Constabulary has been focused on disrupting and preventing county lines drug dealing in our local towns and villages since December 2016 when we launched Operation Gravity. Since then a total of 578 people have been arrested.”

Simon Harding, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of West London, said the data showed the challenges posed by county lines drug trading. “Young people are recruited by dealers who … will give them a bag of £500 cash and £500 worth of drugs and a zombie knife and send them to a seaside or provincial town to set up and start dealing,” he said.

Another expert, Paul Andell, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Suffolk, said the figures could point to a crackdown by the police on county lines trading. “That is good news. It’s what we do after the arrests [that is important] – how do we work with these young people?”

Junior Smart, the founder of the SOS gangs project in London, said arresting young people was not the answer. “Any action that criminalises a child should concern everybody. Where in the hierarchy are these young people? These kids on the street corners [dealing] are not the ones bringing in drugs in the first instance. The people creating the drugs market are still where they are,” he said.

DS Ken Lamont, of Devon police, said county lines trading was a contributing factor in the rise in arrests of young people for drug dealing but improvements in collecting data also played a role.

“At the moment I wouldn’t say [county lines trading] is endemic but it’s certainly a problem and we have done significant disruptions,” he said. Forces could not tackle it alone and needed partners in health, education, and housing to work together, he added.

Lamont noted that dealers often adapted to avoid detection. “Because of our success around cuckooing [where an address is taken over for dealing] … people are booking hotel rooms [to deal from].”

In November last year the National Crime Agency (NCA) said the county lines drug trade was out of control and its officers had identified more than 700 operations.



Rhiannon Sawyer, the The Children’s Society area manager for children and young people’s services in Greater London, said her staff had noticed that more 12-year-olds were being targeted to deal drugs.

“They are more vulnerable as they are younger and the rise is significant enough to get us worried about it,” she said. “The level of violence [around county lines drug trading] is getting worse, so all over the country there have been lots of stabbings, rape, and children being held down and drugs are being forced inside their vagina or anus so they can carry it.”

In London, arrests among under-18s rose from 754 to 904 between 2013 and 2017. The Met police said: “Drugs are now, more than ever, easier for young people to access due to the increased use of mobile phone applications and social media platforms.”

Jude Jubey, a co-founder of Youth Ink, a London-based organisation that helps young people on the margins of society, said: “The number of young people arrested is going up and I believe the reason for this is there is more demand for class A drugs.

“The best approach would be to make young people aware of the outcomes of when you get involved in the drug trade as some think it is an easy way to make money and end up in debt and bad things happen.”