A convicted heroin and crack cocaine dealer trafficked a boy in care to work in the supply of drugs hundreds of miles away from his home.
The teenager told staff at the children's home where he was living that he was going fishing in Wales before Ryan Jones put him on a train from Liverpool Lime Street to the south west of England.
A trial at Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that the "vulnerable" 17-year-old was used to transport drugs from Merseyside to Exeter or as a "foot soldier" in street dealing in Paignton, Devon, as part of a county lines operation - the "Scott Line" - in June 2019. David Watson, prosecuting, described how he was living in a home in Birkenhead at the time but disappeared on June 13 that year after telling staff he was going on a fishing to trip to Anglesey.
