Warning to parents over Snapchat ads luring children into becoming drug mules for County Lines gangs by offering them £500 in a weekend
- Police have been going into schools to detail how drug runners have been recruiting children via the social media platform to courier drugs and weapons
- DCI Dan Mitchell from Scotland Yard’s county lines taskforce detailed how county lines gangs can leave children extremely vulnerable to serious violence
Parents have been issued a warning by police over dangerous Snapchat ads luring children into becoming drug mules for County Lines gangs.
The social media adverts have been found to offer up to £500 for those willing to sell drugs on a weekend, as well as working in return for mobile phones, vapes and clothing.
Police have been going into schools to outline the risky business going on in the app where drug runners are using children to courier weapons, cocaine, heroin and cannabis across the UK.
The Evening Standard reports that county lines gangs have been using the social media platform as one of their main tools for recruitment.
Speaking to the publication, Detective Chief Inspector Dan Mitchell, head of Scotland Yard’s county lines taskforce, explained that it is a ‘hard’ thing to police against.
Parents have been issued a warning by police over dangerous Snapchat ads luring children into becoming drug mules for County Lines gangs. The social media adverts have been found to offer up to £500 for those willing to sell drugs on a weekend, as well as working in return for mobile phones, vapes and clothing (file photo)
‘With county lines, we see Snapchat being one of the main tools for recruitment,’ he said, ‘We are working with schools to build resilience in young people. That is the way forward, to give them the knowledge to understand this is a trap.’
He added that with county lines ‘intrinsically linked’ to serious violence and even homicide, the dangers of children becoming involved in the system leaves them extremely vulnerable.
Children as young as NINE being forced to turn their grandmothers into drug runners
DCI Mitchell continued: ‘County lines networks prey upon children and young people, trafficking them and subjecting them to modern slavery involving horrendous emotional and physical abuse.
‘Victims are coerced through violence, blackmail and debt bondage, to hold and supply drugs. Those involved use weapons and serious violence including kidnaps to intimidate and threaten victims.’
MailOnline have contacted Snapchat for comment.
The publication reports that raids carried out between 27 Februrary and 5 March found 8.3kg of class A drugs, 37.6kg of class B and over £650,000 in cash.
It comes after a report by the Commission on Young Lives found that children as young as nine were being found to be forced by county lines drug gangs to pressure their grandmothers into becoming drug mules because they look less suspicious.
The organisation which targets vulnerable children to protect them from criminalisation and violence said it was aware of cases where young children have felt forced to involve their grandparents in order to satisfy gang leaders.
Criminals are said to often threaten to harm the child’s family if they refuse a request or try and pull out of the operation.
The harrowing description is just a small part of a final report by the commission which found that it is now ‘the norm’ for criminal gangs to use primary school children to run drugs.
County lines gangs have been using the social media platform as one of their main tools for recruitment. Speaking to the publication, Detective Chief Inspector Dan Mitchell, head of Scotland Yard’s county lines taskforce, explained that it is a ‘hard’ thing to police against
The report found that the UK government is ‘failing’ in its duty to protect young people: ‘There are parts of our country where the state is completely failing in its duty to protect vulnerable children.
‘This goes beyond failing individuals. It is a failure that affects whole communities, for generation after generation.’ It added the issues are a ‘threat to [the UK’s] prosperity and security.’
Once children have been ‘groomed’ into criminal activity there is little choice to leave as they are ‘controlled’ by the gang, many of which are now run by teenagers.
It came as government figures revealed that as many as 200,000 children in England aged between 11 and 17 are thought to be vulnerable to serious violence.
There were 11,600 instances where gangs were a factor and 10,140 in which child criminal exploitation played a part.
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