Drug gangs and child groomers using same tactics, police say

Drug dealers will win over young people with presents and access to cash and cars before recruiting them and using them as drug “mules”, sometimes by way of force or blackmail.

Chief Supt Chris Singleton said the technique was “identical” to that used by sex grooming gangs.

“They are manipulated and groomed into it,” he said.

“The gangs have access to cash, clothes and cars and the people they exploit don’t generally have these things.

“They are bedazzled by clothes, gifts and mobile phones and it progresses from that. 

“The gangs show them (the young people) a lifestyle and once they are into it the gangs want something in return.”

Grooming and manipulation of young people, who can be as young as their early teens, is an aspect of an area of organised crime South Yorkshire Police is so-called “county lines”.

This involves drugs being run from city areas into smaller towns or suburbs where there is a “soft underbelly” and an untapped market for the illegal substances.

The “county line” in question is the hotline by which the drugs are ordered.

Mr Singleton said this was a country-wide issue which was now affecting South Yorkshire.

“We have had organised crime gangs operating in Rotherham who emanate from Sheffield predominantly expanding their operating area,” he said.

“Similarly, we have criminals from South Yorkshire operating in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire where we liaise significantly with those forces and we are much better at managing the issue together. 

“This is not a new concept but is very much at the fore in terms of policing.”