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Police say the new tactics have allowed them to reverse the expansion of drug trafficking at “county borders” and have vowed to eradicate it from the worst affected area of the country.
Borders between counties, through which city drug gangs expand their operations to other areas, had increased every year, with rural areas like Norfolk plagued by London drugs and serious violence. The gangs had become so comfortable that they sent “Merry Christmas” messages to their customers.
Under the tactics, which were intensified during the coronavirus lockdown, officers go after those who control the lines from London via their pay-as-you-go mobile phones rather than simply going after brokers sent to rural areas.
In Norfolk, the runners are often teenagers who carry drugs in plastic wrap inside their body. Cash is returned to London in the same way.
So far, 30 of the 75 lines in Norfolk have been closed after those who controlled them were tracked down and arrested in London, police say, and the closed lines are responsible for half of the drugs sold. Det Insp Robin Windsor-Waite, the officer leading the Norfolk police efforts, told The Guardian: “This is a massive setback.”
Norfolk is the area in Britain with the highest number of recorded crimes linked to county borders, with hotspots at Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, and police say they have rewritten the rule book on how to tackle it.
Windsor-Waite said: “As those who control the networks are often outside the county, they may have a feeling of impunity, believe they are out of our reach and be careful not to attract the attention of their national force. To successfully tackle county border crime, we must arrest controlling minds rather than mules and street dealers.
“In most cases, the arrest of the line controller ends the line and the risk associated with that line. Prior to this operation, there was a degree of resignation to the continued exponential growth of county lines within Norfolk. The perspective has been transformed and our ambition is to completely eliminate the business model from the county lines of the county.
The tactics have led to arrests being made in London since December. The Home Office provided extra money for the Met to act on intelligence.
Since November, 146 suspected London-based county line holders have been charged with selling class A drugs, such as crack and heroin, across the UK, in Scotland, Surrey, Kent, South Wales, Devon and Cornwall as well as in Norfolk.
Met Deputy Deputy Commissioner Graham McNulty, the national police leader for county lines, said: “They probably felt they were doing something low risk, high reward. And what we are beginning to do is turn it around. Suddenly, county lines become a high-risk issue for them and the payoff is relatively low. “
Of the 146 arrested, 69% had gang connections, and most had prior convictions for drugs or carrying weapons, McNulty said. More than 70 suspected associates operating out of the capital have also been arrested, while forces in Merseyside and the West Midlands have also been targeting county line traders based in their areas.
Traffickers employ a variety of tactics to evade police, Windsor-Waite said, using children in the belief that they are less likely to be arrested, while gangs operate a “just-in-time” supply chain, avoiding transportation. of large amounts of drugs at once. The usual method of transport is anal concealment, known as tamponade.
Windsor-Waite said: “Crack and heroin are generally prepared for sale in London before being exported to Norfolk. The drugs are divided into individual £ 5 or £ 10 street bargains and packaged in £ 1,000 packs, wrapped in cling film and ‘plugged’ into the rectum of the courier. Cash receipts are carried in the same way … Unfortunately, this has become “normalized” among the children and young people involved.
“This is driving exploitation. If you move small amounts of a good, it is much safer, but you need a lot more people. He needs to move the drugs every day or two. “
Norfolk police chiefs say those involved in the county lines changed tack towards the end of 2019. The bad publicity about the cuckoo (taking over the property of the vulnerable to use as a base) led the gangs to cajole and bribing rather than threatening, and there was a greater attempt to recruit and use local children.
The force adopted behavioral science tactics developed to combat terrorism in order to detect child victims arriving at Norfolk train stations from London. Ch Supt David Matthews said: “For a county force seen as an easy target, we have probably made the environment as hostile as possible.”
Norfolk Police Chief Simon Bailey cautioned that the police can’t do much: “As long as there is demand, there will always be supply. Someone will take that risk. That is why other agencies are working with the police to offer a comprehensive rehabilitation program for people addicted to class A drugs, to break the habit. “
