Ruthless drug dealers are "deluding" troubled boys, many of whom have not even left high school, into "thinking they are gangsters" and carrying weapons.
Several recent court cases, all in areas some distance away from the north west, have highlighted how seasoned criminal operators in Merseyside are ensnaring vulnerable young people into selling heroin and crack cocaine.
Many of the youths affected are in care or recent care leavers, and many are still not old enough to have completed high school. Most recently, Devon and Cornwall Police dismantled a sprawling 'county lines' style organised crime group flooding Exeter, Torbay and North Devon with Class A drugs, sourced from Liverpool.
