County Lines

Combatting the exploitation of children and young people by criminal gangs

What is County Lines?

County Lines is the police term used for the criminal exploitation of children and young people. It is where urban gangs use children and young people to move drugs and money across the country using dedicated mobile phone ‘deal lines’. It comes with the associated harms to the young person such as sexual exploitation, violence and human trafficking.

What happens?

Gangs establish a base in a particular location, typically by taking over the homes of local vulnerable adults by force or coercion in a practice referred to as ‘cuckooing’. They then target young people to become involved in selling drugs through a process of grooming. Once the young person is involved it is difficult to escape.

We know that County Lines exploitation is widespread, with gangs from big cities including London, Manchester and Liverpool operating throughout England, Wales and Scotland. Gangs are known to target vulnerable children and adults.

Early intervention: how we do it

To counter this problem early intervention is essential. We invest in raising public awareness of this crime in the local community, encouraging people to step forward and report it.

We also help to train those on the ground to specifically spot the signs of this problem in the young people they work with. We use our interactive educational resource to train professionals working with young people between the ages of 11-16 years of age throughout the UK to address the issue of county lines.

Those working on the ground with young people can use this resource to learn about county lines and the resource can be used to challenge young people’s preconceptions and raise awareness of this exploitation.

How you can help

With your support we can raise more awareness of this type of crime amongst young people and the wider public. We can also support more youth workers and teachers in school with training to specifically spot the signs of this problem and help the young people they work with.

Please support us in our work to help reduce and eliminate crime in the community.

Want to know more? Fill in our Partnership Enquiry Form and we will respond as soon as possible.

As a trust or foundation, you can make two types of donations:

Restricted donations: used to fund particular projects nominated by you.
Unrestricted donations: used across our projects to help us best meet our goals.

14 February 2025

Case study

A 16 year old male was reported as missing from London and was considered at risk due to his age and link to gangs. He had recently failed to appear at court for his alleged involvement in a stabbing.
He was found in possession of a 6-inch kitchen knife and 30 wraps of drugs.

Whilst in custody he was found to have significant burns to his body, on his stomach area, consistent with having been burnt by boiling liquid.

He would not disclose further details; however, it was suspected this may have been caused by those responsible for placing him in Ipswich to deal in class A drugs to young people, vulnerable adults and local communi