British Transport Police assisted their colleagues from North Wales Police in a ’County Lines’ Day of Action in Bangor on Monday.
Police officers raided two houses in Bangor, while offices from British Transport Police Wales intercepted passengers arriving at Bangor station.
‘County Lines’ is a term used when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs.
The dealers will use dedicated mobile phone lines, known as ‘deal lines’, to take orders from drug users. Heroin, cocaine and crack cocaine are the most common drugs being supplied and ordered. In most instances, the users or customers will live in a different area to where the dealers and networks are based, so drug runners are needed to transport the drugs and collect payment.
A common feature in county lines drug supply is the exploitation of young and vulnerable people. The dealers will frequently target children and adults – often with mental health or addiction problems – to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement.
In some cases the dealers will take over a local property, normally belonging to a vulnerable person, and use it to operate their criminal activity from. This is known as cuckooing.
People exploited in this way will quite often be exposed to physical, mental and sexual abuse, and in some instances will be trafficked to areas a long way from home as part of the network’s drug dealing business.
A number of operations have been carried out in Bangor recently, involving armed police, drug dogs and drones, in which several people have been arrested.
Police are aiming to protect vulnerable people from drug dealers ‘cuckooing’ in their properties, they have also conducting stop searches and placing closure orders on properties in the city.
Photo: British Transport Police Wales officers stop passengers arriving at Bangor station
