One of Runnymede officers’ priorities is to target County Lines in this Borough. ‘County Lines’ describes when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns. They often use violence to drive out local dealers, then exploit children and vulnerable people to sell drugs. The dealers use dedicated mobile phone lines, known as ‘deal lines’, to take orders from drug users. Heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine are usually supplied. In most instances, the drug users live in a different area to where the dealers and networks are based, so drug runners who are mainly children are used to transport the drugs and collect payment.
With your help we can make a real difference. For example, Omed Raofi, 21, sent thousands of text messages to vulnerable drug users in Surrey using the County Line name “Harlem”. Their orders were fulfilled by one of his drugs runners. Raofi would change the phone number he was using regularly, but he was tracked down by Surrey Police and arrested in London. He pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs at Guildford Crown Court on 24th July and was sentenced to 44 months.
Nearly a third of ‘County Lines’ originate in London with the criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults reaching out from London and into Runnymede and Chertsey. The majority of known victims of the County Lines are 15 to 17 years old, but gangs may also take over the homes of vulnerable adults to deal from which is known as “cuckooing”. It is important to be vigilant and to know the signs of County Lines drug dealing and child exploitation. Here are some signs to look out:
- An increase in visitors and cars to a house or flat
- New and regularly changing residents
- An increase in anti-social behaviour in the community
- Changes in the way young people you might know dress
- Unexplained, sometimes unaffordable new things (e.g. clothes, jewellery, cars etc.)
- Truancy, exclusion from school or going missing from home
- The abuse of drugs and alcohol
- Unexplained injuries
- Young people seen in different cars/ taxis driven by unknown adults
- Young people seeming unfamiliar with your community or where they are
If you see something that does not feel right, or looks suspicious, contact us on 101 or report it, 100% anonymously, to Crimestoppers via their website or by calling 0800 555 111. If life is in danger always call 999. Trust your instincts; even if someone is not involved in County Lines drug dealing, they may be being exploited in some other way, so it is always worth speaking out.