A senior police officer has claimed almost 56 percent of county lines gangs have been shut down since 2019.
Detective Superintendent Dan Mitchell, head of the Metropolitan Police’s county lines coordination centre, said police have closed off 5,000 drugs lines in the last five years but he thinks there are still around 4,000 in operation.
He was speaking after the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) announced 1,874 people had been arrested and more than 600 weapons, including guns and knuckledusters, seized during a county lines intensification week, which ran from March 4 to 10.
Mr. Mitchell said there was a strong link between knife crime and county lines gangs and he said there had been a worrying escalation in the number of bladed weapons seized since last year’s intensification week.
They confiscated 466 bladed weapons seized by police, including Rambo knives and machetes.
Police also seized eight dogs—suspected of being XL Bullies—which were being used to guard cannabis farms or drug stashes.
After a series of dog attacks, it became a criminal offence on Feb. 1 to own an XL Bully dog in England and Wales without a certificate.
County lines gangs often operate by advertising the number of a so-called burner phone—a cheap, disposable non-contract phone, which is untraceable to any individual—to drug users and addicts who ring up or text their orders.
Each phone is known as a “line,” hence the origin of the term county lines.
County lines—a term used to describe drug gangs in large cities expanding their reach to small towns—often exploit vulnerable individuals, such as children and single mothers, for criminal activity including transporting and storing dangerous substances.
1,284 Cuckooed Addresses Targeted
The NPCC said 1,284 suspected cuckooed addresses were visited during the intensification week and 1,653 people were “safeguarded.”They also seized more than £2.5 million worth of Class A and Class B drugs, which included 6.2 kilograms of crack cocaine, 8.8 kilos of heroin, and 13,000 cannabis plants.
Police raids across the country also led to the confiscation of £1.8 million in cash.
Mr. Mitchell said, “In April 2022, we had a commitment to close 2,000 lines, which we exceeded in half the time.”
“So we’ve made a new commitment to close another 1,000 lines by August and seizing 245 last week is another key step towards that new ambition,” he said.
But he added, “We think there could still be upwards of 4,000, but what we have seen since 2019, since we’ve done all this activity over the last few years, we’ve seen a reduction in the number of county lines that emanate from the big cities of Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Birmingham, those four big exporter areas.”
XL Bully Dogs Are ‘Status Symbol’
He said XL Bully dogs had become a “status symbol for drugs gangs” and said they were used to “intimidate and create fear.”Mr. Mitchell said 46 fake guns had also been seized and he said, “An imitation firearm isn’t a real gun, but it appears as if it is and it causes fear and harm, and it can be used to intimidate.”
“That’s probably what’s happening here. The XL Bully is acting in a similar way, because of all the media around it, now it’s been labelled as a dangerous dog and has been banned,” he added.
Policing minister Chris Philp said, “County lines gangs inflict harrowing damage and misery, using violence and intimidation to exploit children and vulnerable people to do their dirty work.”
“Our police forces work incredibly hard every day to break up these criminal networks and I want to pay thanks to our officers for their continued efforts to tackle this vile activity,” he added.
