County Lines dealers thwarted by Covid

Over 1,000 people have been charged in connection with county lines drug dealing in just over one year as the pandemic wreaks havoc on dealers.

The police are employing new tactics to disrupt supply lines as dealers adopt new tactics to overcome lockdown scenarios making travel much more difficult. Because public transport use has been severely curtailed for nearly a year dealers have resorted to greater use of private cars on the roads. But automatic number plate recognition [ANPR] has contributed to the identification of the same vehicles travelling well-worn routes between major cities and the hinterlands.

In addition pay-as-you-go mobiles, which were once thought to be untraceable, are offering up a welter of valuable information stored on the device once seized by police during house raids. Contrary to popular myth the police are also able to track the devices to pinpoint locations and destinations.

Once caught police forces are also bringing charges using the modern slavery and trafficking laws against dealers who target minors under the age of 18 although the use of cars for transporting drugs has seen a move towards the use of older drug couriers.