Primary school-aged children running drugs for gangs has “become the norm” while young teenagers are heading up county lines operations, the former children’s commissioner has warned.
Anne Longfield, who heads up the Commission on Young Lives, implored the Government to treat the exploitation of children as seriously as it does terrorism. It was estimated last year that 200 county lines drugs gangs were operating from Greater Manchester, with children being groomed and exploited or used as couriers in many cases. The number is thought to have grown since then.
The commission’s final report, Hidden In Plain Sight, warns of a crisis putting hundreds of thousands of children in England at risk of violence, harm, crime and diminished life chances. It said a combination of Covid, a cost-of-living crisis and a return to austerity would be a “gift” to criminals, who see children as the “commodity of choice” to exploit.
