County lines

County lines is a form of criminal exploitation where urban gangs persuade, coerce or force children and young people to store drugs and money and/or transport them to suburban areas, market towns and coastal towns (Home Office, 2018). It can happen in any part of the UK and is against the law and a form of child abuse.

Children and young people may be criminally exploited in multiple ways. Other forms of criminal exploitation include child sexual exploitation, trafficking, gang and knife crime.

County lines gangs are highly organised criminal networks that use sophisticated, frequently evolving techniques to groom young people and evade capture by the police.

Perpetrators use children and young people to maximise profits and distance themselves from the criminal act of physically dealing drugs (National Crime agency, 2019). Young people do the majority of the work and take the most risk.

Dedicated mobile phone lines or “deal lines” are used to help facilitate county lines drug deals. Phones are usually cheap, disposable and old fashioned, because they are changed frequently to avoid detection by the police.

Gangs use the phones to receive orders and contact young people to instruct them where to deliver drugs. This may be to a local dealer or drug user, or a dealer or drug user in another county.

Phrases that young people may use to refer to county lines include:

• ‘running a line’,

• ‘going OT/out there’

• ‘going country’

• ‘going cunch’.

These all refer to going out of town to deliver drugs or money (Thurrock Council, 2020).

The following signs may indicate that a child is being exploited by a county lines gang:

• frequently going missing from school, home or care

• travelling to locations, or being found in areas they have no obvious connections with, including seaside or market towns

• unwillingness to explain their whereabouts

• acquiring money, clothes, accessories or mobile phones which they seem unable to account for

• receiving excessive texts or phone calls at all hours of the day

• having multiple mobile phone handsets or sim cards

• withdrawing or having sudden changes in personality, behaviour or the language they use

• having relationships with controlling or older individuals and groups

• unexplained injuries

• carrying weapons

• significant decline in school results or performance

• being isolated from peers or social networks

• associating with or being interested in gang culture

• self-harming or having significant changes in mental health

Permanent exclusion from mainstream education has been identified as a critical event that can lead to young people becoming vulnerable to criminal exploitation (Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, 2020).

County lines gangs can take advantage of the lack of structure, loss of a sense of belonging and feeling of rejection that exclusion can elicit in a young person.

The average age of young people who are exploited through county lines activity is 15-16 years old, but children as young as 12 have also been reported to have been involved (Home Office, 2020a).