County Lines Cartel has 650 arrested and £3 million seized
County Lines Cartel has 650 arrested and £3 million seized
Hundreds of weapons and firearms seized £3 million GBP seized, 140 child slaved found and 650 arrests as NCA swoops on County Lines cartel.
The Cartel which gets its name from the burner phone lines printed on business cards set up to place telephone orders for weapons and drugs had 139 drug “deal lines” shut down in the raids, according to the UK Home Office.
The operations also identified 140 children linked to the drugs trade believed to be part of a modern slavery ring within the Cartel.
The NCA raids were supported by the British Transport Police (BTP), London Metropolitan Police, Merseyside Police (Liverpool) and West Midlands Police as part of an effort to reduce organised crime in the UK.
The UK Home Office said the raids were funded by £5 million from the Government’s £25 million package dedicated solely to tackle the County Lines Cartel.
County Lines Cartel sees weapons and drugs arrive into London (the city with the world’s highest Cobain consumption) and from there trafficked out to smaller UK cities such as Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle from where the contraband is sold to the towns and villages across the British Isles.
The NCA’s (National Crime Agency) most recent assessment identified more than 3’000 unique burner phone line numbers last year, of which 800 to 1’100 were estimated to be active during a given month.
Nikki Holland, NCA director of investigations and joint national County Lines lead, said: “Protecting young and vulnerable people from county lines networks remains a priority for law enforcement, and our work continues despite the challenging situation the UK is facing with the Covid19 pandemic.”
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