CYP Now - EU report highlights 'extensive abuse' of vulnerable children by county lines drugs gangs

A new EU report highlights the “extensive exploitation” of vulnerable young people, many of whom are in care, by county lines drug trafficking gangs operating across the UK.

Research has suggested there are more than 1,000 county lines networks in the UK. Picture: Adobe Stock/Syda Productions

The EU Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and Europol’s 2019 Drugs Market Report details examples of drug activity and its effect on victims throughout Europe.

Through its research into victims being coerced into drug production and trafficking, the report raises the example of the county lines model of drug networking, which it says has “become widespread in the UK”.

This is where drugs are supplied by gangs from cities into rural areas and market towns through exploiting vulnerable people, often children, and forcing them to distribute and traffick drugs.

“It makes extensive use of the exploitation of vulnerable people. These include recruiting vulnerable children, for example in the care of social services or excluded from school, and adults,” the report states.

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