In April 2018, the Government published its Serious Violence Strategy, with the aim of taking action to address serious violence, and in particular what was described as the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The Government identified a change in the market for drugs as one of the main drivers of the increase in violent crime.
The main change in the market for drugs was the increased use of county lines operations. The Serious Violence Strategy defined ‘county lines’ as:
“…a term used to described gangs and organised criminal networks involved in exporting illegal drugs into one or more importing areas (within the UK), using dedicated mobile phone lines or other form of ‘deal line’. They are likely to exploit children and vulnerable adults to move (and store) the drugs and money and they will often use coercion, intimidation, violence (including sexual violence) and weapons.”
The Government’s plan was to take a range of action to tackle county lines and the misuse of drugs, including by supporting a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (the NCLCC). The Government estimated that drug related cases accounted for around half the increase in homicide cases between 2014 and 2018. In 2018 itself, there were estimated to be over 2,000 individual deal lines in the UK, with the greatest number being in London (around 15%) followed by the West Midlands (around 9%) and Merseyside (around 7%).
A common feature of county lines is the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults. The Serious Violence Strategy provided the following definition of Child Criminal Exploitation:
“…where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18 into any criminal activity:
a. In exchange for something the victim needs or wants; and/or
b. For the financial or other advantage of the perpetrator or facilitator; and/or
c. Through violence or the threat of violence
The victim may have been criminally exploited even if the activity appears consensual. Child Criminal Exploitation does not always involve physical contact. It can also occur through the use of technology.”
Gangs running county lines operations tend to target vulnerable children and adults who have special educational needs, who suffer with mental health problems, who have previous criminal convictions and/or who come from homes where they have very little day-to-day parental oversight, which may be the case because the parents are not around very much.
These vulnerable children and adults are often coerced into performing a number of different functions for the county lines operation. This can include working in a place where the drugs are stored, cutting and preparing those drugs. It can also include delivering those drugs to buyers and collecting payment from them. County lines gangs often engage in ‘cuckooing’, which is where they take over an address in a local area and run their business in that area from that address. The address may belong to a vulnerable person, who has no option other than to let the gang store its drugs in their home.
The NCLCC obtains and disseminates national county lines intelligence, identifying cross border threats between counties. The NCLCC works closely with the police and Government departments to develop best practice in the identification and prevention of county lines operations. Whenever the police are called upon to investigate a county lines operation they will be alert to the need to determine whether the operation involved the exploitation of vulnerable children or adults. If it did, then it may not be appropriate to charge those vulnerable children or adults with a criminal offence arising out of their participation in the county lines operation because they may have been victims of the gangs rather than accomplices.
In deciding whether to prosecute a vulnerable children or young person for their involvement in a county lines drugs operation, the Crown Prosecution Service (the CPS) will have to consider four separate steps.
The first step is to consider whether there is a reason to believe that the vulnerable child or adult was the victim or human trafficking or slavery. If there is no reason to believe that then the CPS does not need to take any of the further steps set out, below. Although the 2018 Serious Violence Strategy provided a definition of Child Criminal Exploitation, it may not be easy to identify in practice where exploitation has occurred. Prosecutors must be alert to the common indicators of exploitation. More than that, since 2015, specific public authorities have been required to notify the Home Offence when they come across a potential victim of human trafficking or modern slavery. This is known as the National Referral Mechanism or NRM. The procedure does not require the consent of the vulnerable child or adult. If a vulnerable child or young person has been made subject to a NRM referral, the CPS will want to consider the fact of that referral, and the outcome, with care in deciding whether there is reason to believe that the vulnerable child or adult has been the victim of exploitation.
The second step is to consider whether there is clear evidence that the vulnerable child or adult was acting under duress when they became involved in the activities of the county lines operation. If such clear evidence exists, then the CPS will generally not charge the suspect with a criminal offence because they will have a credible defence to such a charge. If such clear evidence does not exist, then the CPS will need to take the third step.
The third step is to consider whether there is clear evidence that the vulnerable child or adult would have a statutory defence under section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to a criminal charge arising out of their participation in the county lines operation. Section 45 introduced a specific defence for those who have been the subject of trafficking or slavery. The defence does not apply to all offences, but it does apply to drugs offences. The way the defence works differs depending on whether the suspect is under 18, or 18 or over. For a suspect who is under 18, the defence applies where they did an act as a direct consequence of being a victim of human trafficking or slavery, and a reasonable person in their situation would have done the same. If that defence is made out on the evidence, then the CPS will generally not charge the suspect, but if the defence is not made out then the only protection available to the vulnerable child or adult is at the fourth step.
The fourth step is to consider whether it is in the public interest to prosecute the vulnerable child or adult for their involvement in the county lines operation. This is an exercise in judgment for the prosecutor. Even where there is reason to believe that the child or vulnerable adult is the victim of human trafficking or slavery, but neither the defence of duress nor the section 45 defence are likely to be available to them, it may not be in the public interest to prosecute them for a drugs offence having regard, in particular, to their culpability for what they did. If they are young, and vulnerable, and hold little responsibility for their actions, then those will be factors indicating that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute them.
The nature of county lines operations continues to evolve. In November 2024, for example, the NCLCC published its latest county lines strategic threat risk assessment covering the period April 2023 to March 2024. Amongst their key findings, the NCLCC noted that county lines were becoming more localised, the use of children was decreasing while the use of vulnerable adults was increasing, those children who are being exploited will often go missing from their homes to work for the operation, and those children will often occupy the most dangerous roles in the operation by dealing drugs directly to consumers. The NCLCC also noted that exploited children were disproportionately more likely to be black.
Earlier that year, in July, the NCLCC published its strategy for disrupting county lines operations. That strategy will run until 2027. One of its aims is to safeguard exploited children and vulnerable adults from harm. With that objective in mind, it is heartening to know that where children and young adults come to the attention of the police as part of a criminal investigation into the activities of county lines drugs gangs, that they will only be charged with a criminal offence once the CPS have taken the four steps outlined earlier in this article. In other words, that while it will not always be possible to prevent children and vulnerable adults from falling into the hands of county lines operators, it should always be possible to ensure that those children and vulnerable adults who become involved in those operations through coercion or exploitation are not prosecuted for the crimes they were forced to commit.
Paul Jarvis KC, Senior Treasury Counsel at the Central Criminal Court, practising from chambers at 6KBW College Hill, 21 College Hill, EC4
