Over 200 Arrested and Drugs Worth More Than £1 Million Seized in County Lines Operation

Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) observes an early morning Merseyside Police raid on a county lines gang in Liverpool, England, on Dec. 6, 2021. (Christopher Furlong/PA)

More than 200 people have been arrested and drugs worth more than £1 million have been seized during a week-long operation against county lines gangs in London.

The Metropolitan Police said 222 people were arrested of which 105 were charged with a total of 223 offences between Feb. 27 and March 5.

They said that included 131 charges related to supplying Class A and B drugs.

A total of 177 vulnerable people were safeguarded during the operation.

The term “county lines” in the UK originally referred to urban drug dealers who supplied narcotics to small towns and rural counties, usually based around a single pay-as-you-go mobile phone number, known as the “line.”

But it has gradually morphed and now refers to any narcotics gang that exploits vulnerable people—who can be young teenagers, single mothers, or people with mental health or substance abuse issues—often by dealing drugs from their properties, a practice known as cuckooing.

The Met said officers seized 8.3 kilograms of Class A drugs—heroin or cocaine—and 37.6 kilograms of Class B drugs, as well as £652,214 in cash.

They also recovered five guns and 51 other weapons, including knives, machetes, and swords.

The Met said they found several vulnerable children who were being “used as a commodity” by drug dealers.

In a statement they said: “Instead of criminalising these children, officers work with Rescue and Response to ensure they are safeguarded and supported.”

County Lines ‘Intrinsically Linked to Homicide’

Detective Superintendent Rick Sewart, the lead officer for county lines at the Met, said county lines is “intrinsically linked to homicide and serious violence.”

He said 80 percent of county lines offenders charged with drug trafficking in the last year had previously been arrested for violence.

Sewart said: “County lines networks prey upon children and young people, trafficking them and subjecting them to modern slavery involving horrendous emotional and physical abuse. Victims are coerced through violence, blackmail, and debt bondage to hold and supply drugs.”

A double murder trial at the Old Bailey in 2021 heard details of the sort of violence associated with county lines drug dealing.

William Algar, a jazz trumpeter with a serious drug addiction, and Ebrima Cham were murdered within a few days of each other in southwest London in December 2019.

The trial heard the addicts got in touch by mobile phone and the phone number never changed, even when a dealer called Monster sold it to a youth known as Drippa.

Algar’s home in Barnes was turned into a drug-dealing hub and he supplied drugs for Monster’s line customers and stored drugs on behalf of Drippa.

After he was accused of stealing drugs from a stash, Algar was murdered and dismembered by Emeka Dawodu-Wodu—who worked for Drippa—who was later jailed for life.

Dawodu-Wodu was also convicted, along with Simon Emmons and Zimele Dube, of murdering Cham, who had stolen drugs from another stash house in Hounslow.

Boys Lured Into Working for Dealers by Snapchat Ads

Earlier this month the British Transport Police (BTP) warned boys as young as 13 were being lured into working for drug dealers with promises of money, smartphones, clothes, and other gifts.

BTP officers said dealers were advertising on Snapchat with adverts saying, “Who wants to make £500 this weekend?”

In a survey of 1,500 boys aged 13 to 19 commissioned by BTP, almost one in five said they had been offered work by a drug dealer, or had a friend who had been offered work.

The survey, carried out by OnePoll, found 20 percent of the boys knew someone who sold or transported drugs and 15 percent had seen drugs being offered on social media.

Last week Parliament’s Education Committee heard county lines gangs were exploiting the cost-of-living crisis in Britain and were recruiting children by offering to pay for fast food, sweets, and other treats.

Johnny Bolderson, a senior manager in county lines support and rescue at Catch22, said at least 27,000 young people had been identified as involved in county lines, 4,000 of whom were in London.

Rebecca Griffiths, head of the national counter-trafficking service at the children’s charity Barnardo’s, said 300 children in England and Wales had been referred to them under criminal exploitation fears in the last three months.

Griffiths told MPs, “Vulnerability is changing all the time in regards to children who have been criminally exploited and we’re seeing much younger children being exploited to what we would kind of experience or know about through media or for our own awareness raising that we’re doing as charities.”

The government said it was “determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities.” In November 2019, the Home Office established the County Lines Programme and invested £145 million in it, over three years.

In 2021 the government unveiled a 10-year strategy for combating drugs.

PA Media contributed to this report.