UK’s Tougher Sentencing for ‘County Lines’ Drug Dealers Will Not Help Catch the Right People: Criminologist

UK’s Tougher Sentencing for ‘County Lines’ Drug Dealers Will Not Help Catch the Right People: Criminologist
A young woman undergoes treatment for heroin addiction in this file photo. Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
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The UK’s county lines drug dealers are to face tougher sentences under new rules published on Wednesday that add extra penalties for offending involving “aggravating factors” like the exploitation of children and other vulnerable people.
County lines gangs are so-called because of their practice of taking advantage of children and others to run drugs and cash across police and local authority boundaries so that they themselves can avoid detection by law enforcement.