County Lines

Abstract

Described by the National Crime Agency as a ‘significant threat’, county lines involve gangs recruiting vulnerable youth to sell drugs in provincial areas. This phenomenon has impacted local drug markets, increasing criminal activity and violence. Exploring how county lines evolve, the book reveals extensive criminal exploitation and control in the daily ‘grind’ to sell drugs. Drawing upon extensive interviews and case studies, the book gives voice to users and dealers, providing an in-depth analysis of techniques, relationships and ‘trapping’. The book examines how London-based urban street gangs establish county line drug-supply networks into the Home Counties. It draws upon two principle theoretical perspectives: social field analysis and street capital theory. It then traces the emergence of county lines, noting operational and cultural shifts in drug supply and distribution, and assesses the question of who joins a county lines. The book moves on to examine how the actual processes of county lines drug-supply networks work in reality, looking at the internal dynamics, and it evaluates the complex set of inter-personal relationships between the user community and county line operatives. It then focuses on the families of those involved in county lines, looking at how violence and intimidation often reverberates back into families. The book concludes that in the United Kingdom, the social fields of the urban street gang and of drug distribution markets, are rapidly evolving; it is important to consider how the relational boundaries of these social fields are interacting with the social field of organised crime. With county lines now a critical issue for policing and government, this is an invaluable contribution to literature on gangs, youth violence and drugs. The book begins by describing how the research study was conducted.