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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Hannah Wallace

The London children trapped in Britain’s £500m County Lines drug trade

At 14, Casper* should have been sitting in a classroom. Instead, he was trafficked out of London to help transport and sell heroin and crack cocaine. For weeks, he was held inside a filthy “trap house” — a property transformed into a drug gang operating base. During multiple moves to new locations, gang members ordered him to hide Class

A drugs inside his body — likely his anus — to evade police detection. Beatings became routine as Casper’s captors enforced obedience through fear. They targeted his family as well, repeatedly vandalising their London home. If Casper tried to leave, they put a gun to his head.

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