County lines dealers could be posing as students to sell drugs

Police fear that County Lines Drug dealers could be enrolling on University courses to sell drugs from halls of residence.

North Wales Police are working closely with Bangor University to prevent drug dealers infiltrating campuses and setting up to sell the likes of cannabis and cocaine.

‘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.

Experts have warned that academic institutions are increasingly being targeted as a possible market for class A drugs across England and Wales. They fear that drugs dealers are either enrolling on courses or employing young people at universities as dealers and using their halls of residence as a base from which to sell drugs.

Inspector Jon Aspinall of North Wales Police said the force was aware of the problem in their area and they are working closely with Bangor University to safeguard students. “We have a number of county lines running in from Merseyside, one of the highest areas of county lines numbers being released,” he told the Guardian.

“We have found on occasions that if we stop individuals, they do purport to be students. There are a couple of occasions where that has happened and people have subsequently been found to be in possession of large quantities of drugs and cash.”

He said that in other areas, dealers would “infiltrate universities and sign up as a student and run a line from that institution”.

Insp Aspinall added: “We have become aware of that, as we are a close-knit community and have a good working relationship with the university, so we have an information-sharing agreement that helps us safeguard people.”

He said national sources had said it was a “tactic that can be used”. The force has a police community support officer assigned to the university, he added: “Anyone who they are concerned about they have got the reassurance that they can contact us and we can lawfully share information to help safeguard students.”