The children arrested in county lines drugs operations are the real victims
The IndependentThe best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Forty three regional police forces have been busy this week, not with enforcing Covid-19 restrictions but trying to disrupt the market in illegal drugs. County lines operations exploit young and vulnerable teenagers to act as drug couriers by drug gangs, meaning they take the greatest risks as they are the most visible part of the supply and distribution chain of illicit drugs. Instead of measuring success by the number of children arrested it should be the price, purity and availability of drugs that is the proxy measure for any attempts to disrupt the drug market. By focussing on county lines and the teenagers manning them, it not only fails to achieve the government's goal of disrupting drug supply, it fails to protect the children who are exploited.
History of this topic
Drug dealers in UK luring boys as young as 13 to work in gangs
The Independent
More county lines closed than ever before in week of police action against drugs
The Independent
Children as young as eight ‘pretending to be drug lords in school playground’
The Independent
Drug crime involving children highest proportion on record
The Independent
County lines drugs gang who trafficked three boys aged 13, 15 and 16 jailed for total of 17 years
Daily Mail
More than £3 million in drugs and cash seized in biggest Government-backed assault on county lines gangs
The Telegraph
Drugs trade causing unprecedented harm with policing often fuelling violence, landmark review finds
The Independent
Thousands of children and teenagers drawn into 'county lines' drug dealing in London
The Independent
The government is starving our children of the resources I had growing up – no wonder they’re joining drug gangs
The IndependentUK police arrest 586 in drug gang crackdown, freeing adults and children from suspected slavery
ABC
Gangs recruiting children as young as 12 as Class A drug dealers
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