North Wales Police have made another ‘County Lines’ arrest in Bangor – a 20 year-old man from Wigan was arrested by officers today and is now being held on suspicion of possessing Class A Drugs with intent to supply.

 

Police seized £1,000 worth of Class A Drugs and £2,000 in cash.

Since March 2019 police officers in Bangor have detected 65 drug offences and made over 75 arrests, including 17 county line drug offences.

Seizing 545 wraps of heroin and cocaine worth in excess of £10,000 and recovered £10,000 in cash. Police have also operated 20 ‘anti-cuckooing’ campaigns and served 10 closure notices on domestic properties.

‘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.

These 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.

If you have any information about drug dealing or county lines please call North Wales Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Photos: North Wales Police