Drug dealing & networking

Would you recognise if drug dealing was happening where you live or work in Cambridgeshire? Would you know if someone was being used as a drugs mule by a drug gang? It’s important to spot the signs of drug activity and please report information about crime online so that we can prevent vulnerable people falling victim to this crime.

County lines

Drug networking, also known as county lines, involves organised crime groups extending their drug dealing business from big cities into new areas.

These groups often use a phone number, known as a ‘drugs line’, to contact their customers and sell class A drugs.

Transporting drugs

Drug dealing groups often use young people to deliver their drugs, by paying them or by forcing them through violence and grooming.

These young people, known as ‘runners’, are usually male and aged between 12 and 20. The young people travel between cities and other areas to deliver drugs and collect cash on behalf of the dealers.

Forced drug transporting

In most cases, those delivering drugs across the country are being forced to do so by the dealer. Members of organised crime groups target vulnerable people to handle drugs for them, to take away the risk of getting caught with drugs themselves. The targeted vulnerable drug transporters are often;

• children in care
• children absent from school
• children missing from home
• single parents on low incomes.

The organised crime groups are known to use violence and manipulation against these vulnerable people. Human trafficking forms another part of this type of crime as dealers often force young and vulnerable people into storing and supplying drugs.

They are also usually forced to swallow drugs in order to avoid police finding them.

Suspected drug dealing from a house

Have you noticed more people living at an address of a vulnerable person? Drug dealers often take over the home, make them sell drugs and use the home as a place for others to take drugs. Unusual activity could include;

• lots of different people coming and going from an address
• people coming and going at odd times of the day and night
• strange smells coming from the property
• windows covered or curtains closed all the time
• cars pulling up to or near the house for a short period of time

Cuckooing

Another way professional criminals deal drugs in particular neighbourhoods, known as ‘cuckooing’. Cuckooing involves offenders targeting the homes of vulnerable people and using it to deal drugs.

Those who usually become vulnerable to cuckooing are lonely, isolated and drug users themselves. In fact, dealers usually offer them free drugs as a way of getting into the victims home. The property is then used to deal and manufacture drugs for a short period of time before the dealer moves onto somewhere new.

Handling mobile phones or lots of cash

You may not see drug runners with any drugs but you may see the signs of drug dealing such as large amounts of cash or lots of mobile phones – usually cheap pay-as-you-go types.

The signs of a runner or drug dealer can include;

• someone having more cash, clothing or phones than normal
• talk of gang names in the area
• someone using nicknames when speaking about others.

These signs are often a good indicator that someone is involved in county lines drug crime.

Drug packing materials

Vaseline, cling film and baby wipes are regularly used when storing drugs in body cavities. There is a big health risk to anyone storing drugs in their body.