Ruthless drug dealers are "deluding" troubled boys hundreds of miles away into "thinking they are gangsters" and carrying weapons.
Several recent court cases, all in areas some distance away, 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.
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An unusual and bleak feature of the case was nine of the 16 defendants sentenced as part of the operation were under the age of 18, with some as young as 15 given responsibility for directing other dealers. Billy Curtis, 21 by the time of his sentencing at Exeter Crown Court this week, was described as "recruiting" children to sell crack and heroin despite only being 18 himself at the start of the conspiracy.
The police operation, dubbed Operation Harbinger, found the wider gang were earning around £2,000 per day. Officers also seized and reviewed over 100 mobile phones and 27 weapons including knives, imitation firearms, and CS spray.
In total, 35 'graft' phone lines were attributed to the group with around 3,000 messages advertising drugs for sale identified. These included the ‘Ramzy’, ‘Scouse Terry’, ‘AJ’ and ‘Benny’ lines with the numbers changing regularly in an attempt to avoid detection.
In February this year two of the younger gang members, both 14 were caught dealing in an Exeter park. They were each described as enduring childhoods marked by trauma, school exclusion and care, according to reports from our sister title DevonLive. Judge Anna Richardson told the boys: "Both of you had been manipulated by those above you into thinking this was the life for you. Telling yourselves you were bosses. You were deluded and didn't see the reality of the situation."
Only one Merseyside man was caught as part of the operation, 31-year-old year old Robert Hadwin of Ellery Drive, Dingle, and jailed for six years and nine months.
In another recent case relating to the south coast, Halewood thug Carl Masher, 24, was jailed for three years over his involvement in a drugs line known as 'Scouse Les', which also resulted in a "young person being safeguarded" by Dorset Police.
Those cases bear a troubling resemblance to a police sting in North Wales, which saw a deeply harmful heroin trafficking operation taken down. At the head of the conspiracy, despite already being in prison for unrelated offences, was Wavertree career criminal Wesley Hankin.
The case against Hankin, 29, and his henchmen was built when a 14-year-old boy was arrested on the streets of Rhyl as part of a North Wales Police operation into a drugs ring known locally as the 'TJ Line'. The boy was found to have £2,500 worth of heroin and crack cocaine in his possession after selling a wrap to an undercover officer for £20.
His phone was seized and analysed, and the results painted a harrowing picture of how the teenager had been trafficked across the country to line the pockets of grown men.
The boy had been in care when he was recruited by Runcorn man Darren Courtney, 25, over Snapchat, who put him in touch with Hankin, who the boy knew only as the "main man". Caernarfon Crown Court heard in January how the teenager sent Hankin a message asking whether there was any "work". Hankin told him he would provide him "with a brand new blower [phone]".
For the next fortnight the boy was taken all over the country, staying in "trap-houses" and selling drugs in Wigan, Bedford and finally Rhyl. During that period he was sent on detours to Liverpool, where detectives believe he was stocked up with stashes of heroin and cocaine to sell.
Hankin, who had previous for firearms offences, was later jailed for 10 years and two months for drugs supply offences, and handed a Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Order lasting for 15 years.
According to Merseyside Police's definition, county lines usually refers to drug dealing where organised criminal groups use phone lines to move and supply drugs, usually from cities into smaller towns and rural areas.
In September last year the Home Office allocated up to £5m to support young people and their families escape the clutches of county lines gangs. The package included a one-to-one specialist support service for young people under 25, delivered by not-for-profit organisation Catch22, to safely make contact with young people who have been referred by safeguarding partners, such as the police and children’s services, and work with them to end their involvement in county lines activity.
The money was also intended to fund a "rescue service" to help return young people identified outside their home town. The service will also offer mental health support and counselling to the young people and their families, to help deal with the trauma of their experiences.
They will operate across the four largest exporting areas for county lines activity, described as Merseyside, London, the West Midlands, and Greater Manchester.
For further information and support on county lines activity visit here.
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