Thousands of vulnerable people in the UK are having their homes taken over by drug gangs who use the premises to stash weapons and sell illegal substances, the Guardian has learned.

The scale of cuckooing, as it is known, has been revealed and officers warn that the problem, which involves dealers befriending vulnerable individuals whose homes they turn into a place to keep and sell drugs – known as a traphouse – leaves victims facing violence and abuse. Diane Hill, a Metropolitan police sergeant, said: “Thousands of people across the UK are affected by this. In the last month in Greenwich West we have had three cuckooing incidents. Across the whole of Britain it’s a vast problem,.”

She added: “[The gangs] befriend people who are too vulnerable to realise what’s going on … They are using their flat for [dealing] and it is not good thing. Maybe [the dealers] will pay the electricity bill or buy a TV and then they take over the flat and people are so vulnerable they don’t realise the consequences.”

Hill said those who fall victim tend to have mental health problems or addiction issues: “It could be a bigger problem than we realise … we dealt with one person last week and the mental health worker was aware of an issue but it took them months to tell us.”

Commander Simon Bray, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on drugs, said the number of people having their houses taken over could well be in the thousands. “It’s hard to say whether it’s a growing problem. What tends to happen is that more focus is put on a problem the more people become aware of it.”

He added: “Cuckooing persists as a problem … it is a big problem. There has been investment in coordinating a national hub to bring in information form all forces to gather information.”

Cuckooing has risen with the growth of county lines drug trading, also known as “going country” or OT (out there), where urban gangs move class A drugs and cash between inner-city hubs and provincial areas.



Urban dealers target homes of vulnerable individuals in small, rural and coastal towns where they can set up and sell drugs. They befriend the person whose home it is and then move in, taking over the property to operate from.

Police forces across the UK are launching campaigns to raise awareness about the problem. Wiltshire police said that during their last regional days of action, which assessed people’s vulnerability, they came up with 70 names of those at risk of being cuckooed. “In addition, there are those who are not so obvious, such as females contacted through social media,” they said.

In North Yorkshire, 75 householders are either victims of cuckooing or are vulnerable to it. The force said it was a growing issue and they have launched an awareness campaign.

Dorset police’s county lines lead, superintendent Caroline Naughton, said in Weymouth alone there were about 25 properties containing vulnerable people they were concerned about. “One chap started taking drugs … then county lines started and his house got taken over. In the last four years he has had his teeth pulled out and been beaten up really badly. Earlier this year he got brain damage … it’s really horrendous.”

She added: “For the most part in Dorset it goes under the radar. We don’t want to scare people but we need to be clear what is going on.”

Naughton said that those susceptible tend to have drug habits. “It starts as a friendly relationship and it becomes worse and then the vulnerable person gets into debt to the dealer and there is violence.”

Surrey police said they monitored all of the “partially closed” premises under the ASB Crime and Policing Act. These are locations where vulnerable occupants have been cuckooed but have remained in their homes after police powers have been used.

This year there have been 17 closure orders across Surrey, they said, the majority of which were partial closures, which allowed the occupant to remain in their home. In these cases support is put in place, the police said. They added that the information they have gathered so far indicates that once a closure occurs dealers tend to move on.

Paul Andell, a criminologist from the University of Suffolk, said: “The impact of this kind of behaviour is disproportionate in relatively deprived neighbourhoods and local residents usually suffer from intimidation from the gangs involved in selling the drugs and from human waste deposited in stairwells from desperate customers.”

Andell noted that the business model of the distribution of crack and heroin can be ruthless in “its manipulation of vulnerable people for financial gain”. He said it seemed that parts of the drug trade had changed, moving away from the social supply between friends towards a more organised business at the lower tiers.

“There is a need to assess local activities and involve communities in the development and feedback on interventions. A mix of targeted enforcement, tenancy support for vulnerable residents and exit and prevention strategies for those caught up in supply networks are needed,” he added.