County Lines in Scotland.
Major cities across the United Kingdom have long been established as hubs for the buying and selling of illegal drugs. An increase in demand for a range of drugs, including recreational substances such as cocaine and MDMA to the more hardcore offerings of crack and heroin, have led to an increase in the number of drug dealers in British cities.
Research shows that the availability of drugs is at an all time high and so competition is fierce. Dealers have attempted to widen their client base by travelling to more rural areas in a bid to maximise their profits with 71% of British police forces reporting the presence of established ‘County Lines’ within their jurisdiction.
What are County Lines?
County line drug dealing is a developing form of selling drugs to more rural communities away from major cities. County line drug dealing involves gangs travelling to smaller towns in rural and coastal areas to sell their drugs. Drugs are often couriered into the area by different associates to meet demand, crossing area boundaries in doing so and so a network of movement is created. The use of runners (often youngsters) and mobiles phones (phone lines) to maintain communication also facilitate the network and so the idea of ‘County Lines’ was created.
Existing literature mainly focusses on activity originating from London and other English cities so this article will attempt to investigate the current situation in Scotland. It is hypothesised, due to the complex nature of Scotland’s geography, that county line drug dealing could look very different in Scotland.
Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city and has a well-known association with gang culture and crime. It is estimated that 70% of Scotland’s organised criminal activity is centred around Glasgow and 65% of that related to the sale of illegal drugs. Unsurprisingly, it’s been found that most drugs supplied in the rural areas of Scotland have originated in Glasgow.
One study from 2019 has highlighted how Glasgow’s drug problem is no longer restricted to the inner-city areas. It has found that affluent areas such as Bishopbriggs, Giffnock and Newton Mearns are being targeted by criminal gangs. Runners are being sent to these areas to supply youths with their product to sell. Smaller towns in the borders are also being targeted. One significant reason cited for the county lines strategy in Scotland is that in the smaller towns there are less police resources and so as a result, less risk.
Exploitation of children and other vulnerable groups is a key feature of the county lines strategy. Often these groups are targeted to sell drugs for larger criminal organisations from the major cities. Again, risk reduction is a benefit of the strategy in that the vulnerable sellers do the groundwork and generate the profit for the criminal organisations but remain disconnected enough should the police become involved.
Addicts are often targeted to sell drugs on behalf of the gangs, as their addictions can be used as leverage against them. The offer of free drugs is enticing but leaves them open to being exploited further. An interview with a female, gang figure from Glasgow in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, highlights how they are treated. The figure named only as Marie, discussed how she has forced addicts with debts into prostitution. Their homes are also taken over and used to store and deal drugs from. This is known as cuckooing. Sellers in the rural areas of Scotland are also found to utilise their connections with Glasgow to evoke fear and authority by emphasising their criminal connections with violent associates from the ‘big city’.
Glasgow’s geographical proximity to Scotland’s west coast is also said to offer the city an advantage for trade in illegal drugs. The west coast offers routes between other major drug distribution hubs such as Belfast, Liverpool and Manchester. It has therefore been argued that the West and East of Scotland’s drug networks operate separately with sales in the East controlled by operations established overseas.
However, proximity may now become less of an important factor in drug dealing operations with the emergence of digital communication technology. One raid by Police Scotland in 2016 from a flat in Glasgow uncovered £1.3 million worth of drugs. The investigation that followed found evidence of, what has been labelled ‘digital dealing’, which involves the selling of drugs through anonymous accounts on social media platforms. A BBC documentary in 2017 revealed how a Glasgow gang reported two thirds of their drug sales were via online apps and generating significant sales volumes.
The issue of ‘county line’ drug dealing became a reality for the general public in Scotland when in 2013 a local gang member was murdered in a quiet suburban area of Edinburgh. The gang member was murdered after being shot several times by a machine gun. The murder was later attributed to a Somalian drug gang from London who were running a country wide, county line, drug dealing operation.
Police Scotland appear to be taking the issue seriously. Scottish media often report on County Line drug dealers and their networks being convicted for drug offences. In January 2023, Police Scotland reported that three men were found guilty of drug offences at the High Court in Glasgow after running a county line operation between London and Edinburgh. A surveillance operation also saw serious convictions for a dealing operation between Perthshire and Liverpool.
In November of 2022, the local paper from Inverness, a small town in the north of Scotland, reported a county line drug gang being convicted for a total of sixteen years. It was their intention to flood the Highlands of Scotland with heroin and cocaine from a base in Inverness. Two of the gang members were local to Inverness while the other two were based down south and operated from Nottingham. Local drug users and mobile phone data eventually snared the gang and stashes of drugs and cash were later recovered from properties across the north of Scotland.
Crimestoppers are working with Network Rail in a bid to tackle the problem of county line drug dealing in Scotland. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the issue to help reduce the exploitation of vulnerable people. Crimestoppers advise that if you have any information you’d like to report about violence or exploitation related to county lines drug dealing, then any information reported to them is 100% anonymous. Take a look at their website for more information, the link is below.
In conclusion, Glasgow appears to have a similar role to London in the distribution of drugs across the country. There are many similarities found in Scotland with wider networks in the rest of the United Kingdom. Despite evidence of Glasgow being a central hub for the rest of the Scotland, media reporting highlights that county lines drug dealing is an issue impacting the whole of Scotland. The recent example from Inverness provides evidence that drug dealers are continuing in their efforts to expand their customer base despite severe sentences being handed down by the courts.
Did you enjoy reading this article? If so, please subscribe to the blog to receive new Scottish crime cases direct to your inbox. Substack subscribers are the first to receive new cases from the Scottish True Crime blog before they are published anywhere else.
If you REALLY enjoyed the article, please consider supporting the Scottish True Crime blog y buying me a coffee. Your support is greatly appreciated!
Tackling County Lines drug dealing in Scotland | Crimestoppers (crimestoppers-uk.org)