Children as young as 12 groomed for work as drug mules
Children as young as 12 are being groomed to work as drug mules by dealers in almost 100 gang operations in the West Midlands.
Clothing, trainers and money are given to vulnerable youths in exchange for carrying drugs including heroin and crack cocaine.
Supplied with a mobile phone, the children are controlled by a gang in the latest child exploitation grooming scandal, known as County Lines.
West Midlands Police’s expert on slavery, Superintendent Nick Walton, said around 90 of the ‘lines’ were operating in the West Midlands.
That includes 40 outside Birmingham in areas including the Black Country and Staffordshire.
It comes after 90 children were arrested by WMP on suspicion of supplying and possessing drugs last year. They included two 12-year-old boys, detained on suspicion of supplying heroin and cannabis.
Supt Walton said: “While as we used to see under 18s dealing drugs on the street as an offence, we are now also looking at potential child exploitation and taking a different approach.”
Gangs launch County Lines in a bid to extend dealing networks and to evade police attention, Supt Walton said. Within days a children can be groomed into carrying drugs for street deals in exchange for money, gifts and protection.
They can be enforced through made-up debts and by threats to family members.
Supt Walton said: “The exploiter will look for vulnerable kids, provide them with clothes, trainers and money. Then they will ask them to carry drugs, carry cash and that child could be quite naive and suddenly find themselves in an inescapable situation.”
