As neighbours prepared for the commute from a north Liverpool estate just over a week ago, one teenager had an earlier start than expected.
The usual alarm clock was replaced by a team of specially assembled police officers who had burst down the door to the property and were quickly inside to carry out a search warrant. It was less than an hour from the raid being discussed at Tuebrook police station, the door going and a 16-year-old male being arrested and led to the back of a police van - the same one which had been moved away from a driveway moments earlier so a parent could take their children to school.
The exercise was part of national county lines intensification week, a country wide effort which saw numerous police forces targeting drug gangs. This raid in particular aimed to take out the ‘Anywhere Line’, an alleged Class A drugs operation running from the address in north Liverpool and suspected of pumping crack cocaine and heroin into Merseyside communities and beyond.
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The manoeuvre by Merseyside Police’s Project Medusa showed the force bearing its teeth in a region that is second only to the capital for county lines activity. But it also brought home the age of those increasingly wrapped up in drugs underworld.
The 16-year-old male led away from the north Liverpool address after the raid was still wearing pyjamas, slippers and a dressing gown at the time of the arrest. The property was well-maintained on a well kept street with no tell-tale signs that an alleged county line drug operation was connected to the home. A mobile phone was recovered during the warrant and the male arrested has been released under investigation.
In total 69 arrests and 29 charges were made during the week of action in Merseyside from February 27 to March 5, with more than £250,000 being seized and six county lines being shut down. Additionally, 481 wraps of crack cocaine, 386 wraps of heroin, 65 wraps of cocaine, 2kg of cannabis and 500,000 illicit Class B and Class C prescription tablets were recovered during warrants and other activity across Merseyside.
Since 2019, Project Medusa officers have closed 842 county lines. They have also identified 1,186 children and vulnerable adults who have been referred to safeguarding services.
Sadly the 16-year-old arrested during the intensification week won’t have been the youngest age officers have come across when investigating county lines. Inspector Darren Wallace, a key part of the operation, described the county lines model as “in effect.. the same as child abuse".
Since last September the Home Office has provided funding to social organisation Catch22 to help those affected by county lines exploitation. Merseyside is one of the areas four selected for support given the number of younger people in the region who have been targeted by gangs.
Vikki McKenna, service manager for Pan Merseyside Missing and Child Exploitation Services, has worked for the organisation for 14 years and believes young people are more vulnerable to exploitation than ever before. “Young people are targeted by social media,” she says at a meeting at Merseyside Police Rose Hill headquarters, “it's easy to put something out on Snapchat - [the offer to] make extra money.”
More recently she says there’s growing worry due to the slump in living standards as the country battles a deep cost of living crisis. It’s a concern that is echoed by her colleague at Catch 22 for the last seven years, Kate Wareham, strategic director for young people, families and communities for the Home Office county lines service.
She told the ECHO: “There’s definitely an additional risk that we've seen around the cost of living crisis. [With young people we’ve seen] - their motivation is ‘I want to earn money to support my family.’
“But every single child and young person is vulnerable in their bedroom online. [There has been a] huge increase in grooming through gaming online.”
Catch22 offers tailored one-to-one support for children, young people and families, as well as its rescue service. “If a young person from Merseyside is found in a trap house [a place where illegal drugs are sold] outside of the police authority,” explains Kate, “then we will have a referral and do a rescue for that young person.”
It is from this point that the organisation attempts to build a relationship and draw the young person away from exploitation. Time will be taken over building up a rapport, says Vikki, adding: “It’s sometimes three to six months for people to speak, [but] we will be there and won't go away.”
Kate is keen to stress that all children are susceptible to county lines grooming, but notes that areas of deprivation will often contain added vulnerabilities. She adds that drug gangs will prey on the neuro divergent, people with mental health problems and suffering from substance abuse. “Really vulnerable young adults targeted and their property might have been taken over [to store drugs or run an operation],” says Kate.
Just a mile away in L4 is one of these areas of high deprivation that is currently battling to keep its young people away from exploitation - like so many other areas of Merseyside. Here the charity arm of Everton FC, Everton In The Community [EITC], has been a key player in county lines outreach and support programmes in recent years.
As an anchor point for people within the Walton area, the organisation was approached by Merseyside Police’s serious and organised crime team who referenced EITC's “amazing prevent strategy” and the level in which it was “embedded in the local community”, according to CEO Sue Gregory. From there the two have forged a strong partnership, with the charity welcoming police minister Chris Philp at the end of the intensification week to talk about some of the county lines prevention and intervention work it carries out for young people.
A successful pilot was funded a few years ago, it was eventually rolled out to other areas across the city to support young people who had left school and were susceptible to grooming.
Sue told the ECHO: “We have a strong base here, all we can do is be here to provide the opportunities. We can't go out and rescue people. What we can do is be present here and we're providing opportunities to empower young people to do it themselves.”
John Rawlinson, 31, is one of those who had played a key role in EITC’s county lines outreach. He is the premier league kicks programme coordinator which runs football sessions around the city in areas such as Speke, Walton and Bootle.
“We use football as a tool to get young people in," he says from a busy People’s Place building on Spellow Lane, metres from Goodison and next door to a brand new dedicated mental health facility run by EITC, "we get them involved with football and then through that we work around county lines awareness."
John says County lines are “a huge problem in this city”, but believes the responsibility isn’t solely on young people to be making the right choices. He believes parents and guardians also have a big part to play.
“We can give the children guidance but essentially we don't see them as much as we'd like to,” he says. “We only see them when they attend sessions and do workshops and then they go home. There has to be some form of emphasis with parents."
But spotting the signs of grooming isn’t always easy. John adds: “For a lot of the young people, being involved with [county lines] will have an affect on their mental health.
“Getting involved in that they might become more anxious and cautious and withdraw themselves, and maybe stop attending sessions. That might be a red flag sometimes that something might be going on, then we can look to provide some intervention.”
In terms of policing, the Minister overseeing the country’s forces, Chris Philp MP, said he was “pleased” to give more money to Merseyside to bolster its county lines operations, with £140m added in the way of funding. While there has been a loss of more than 10,000 PCSOs and community police since 2010 according to statistics released last year, services which are said to have been key to local intelligence and building trust with communities, Mr Philp said the Government does “want to see more police officers on the street and being recruited” - noting that Merseyside has had an extra 674 police officers as of December.
He added: “Police in Merseyside are working incredibly well with the local community. I think the police are trusted partners.
“People are willing to come and work with the police, cooperate with the police. The Merseyside force are doing a good job and are delivering results for the public as well which is what we're here to do.”
But the minister was quizzed on whether the Government and police are equipped to cut out the root of the problem. A growing cost of living crisis and cuts to local Government topping more than half a billion pounds since 2010 have made Liverpool’s standing more precarious, and is perhaps one reason why more young people are being targeted by the drugs trade.
Mr Philp pointed to a raft of policies such as minimum wage, benefits going up, energy price guarantee and fuel duty as examples of how the Government is putting a helping hand around the country. But the communities in L4 may raise their eyebrows at how much this will overturn such long periods of austerity and stagnation.
Until encompassing change can come to the areas hardest hit by the cost of living and county lines exploitation, organisations like Catch22 and Everton in the Community will form a lifeline for many, with the latter calling on people to come forward and speak out rather than sufferer the situation they’re in.
"We’re talking about life and death, talking about a lifetime of trauma," says Sue Gregory, adding: “Always reach out. Reach out to Crimestoppers, it is completely anonymous.
“There's other ways, getting more involved in education and different activities can steer you away a little bit. Most importantly, reach out for help, there is help there.”
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