Police with knives surrendered in Birmingham (Image: Joseph Walshe / SWNS)
Police seized practically 1,000 knives in a single yr from merciless medication gangs that recruit kids. The weapons have been taken from “county lines” organisations which entice kids from large cities to work as drug-dealers nationwide. Forces say they consider they’ve prevented 800 stabbings over one yr, based mostly on a fall in hospital admissions.
The Home Office will this week announce a brand new £34 million drive to battle the commerce, with a aim of halving knife crime inside a decade. Crime and Policing Minister Sarah Jones mentioned: “We are shutting down more criminal lines, busting more gang leaders and seizing more dangerous knives off our streets than ever before.”
New knowledge launched as we speak exhibits 961 knives have been seized in 2025, whereas 2,740 County Lines have been closed and 1,657 gang leaders charged.
Gangs function out of cities together with London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, generally known as “exporter” areas by specialist cops. So-called “importer” areas, the place kids are despatched, embrace Lancashire, Cheshire, West Yorkshire, Northumbria, Cumbria, Essex and Kent.
Gangs have historically recruited boys and younger males, however a rising variety of these focused are women.
British Transport Police are educated to identify kids being transported. Youngsters that arrive at their locations are supplied with lodging and a cellphone line to take orders from prospects.
Other ways embrace “cuckooing”, the place the house of a weak individual is taken over by a medicine gang who could initially pose as associates of the resident.
Funding will assist police operations together with intelligence gathering on gangs, focused home raids and drug seizures throughout the transport community.
The new knife crime programme will embrace assist for younger folks vulnerable to turning into concerned in crime.
Charity Catch22 is working with the Home Office to assist younger individuals who have been exploited by medication gangs. Chief govt Naomi Hulston mentioned: “Across our services we have seen a worrying trend of younger victims and an increasing impact on girls and young women, so collaborative approaches are even more vital.”
Detective Superintendent Dan Mitchell, Head of the National County Lines Coordination Centre, mentioned: “We are now closing more lines, charging more violent offenders, and protecting more children and adults at risk of exploitation and other harms than ever before.
“As County Lines gangs’ methods evolve, our policing approach – led by the NCLCC – does too. We remain committed to pursuing high-harm County Lines and those controlled by violent drug dealers, so that we can prevent harm, protect children and vulnerable adults, and disrupt criminal activity.”
The Government is bringing in new legal guidelines making it a selected offence to “groom” a baby to participate in crime, as a part of the Crime and Policing Bill.
The Bill additionally creates new offences to sort out practices utilized by County Lines gangs, together with taking on somebody’s house to deal medication and forcing folks to hide medication inside their our bodies.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2190351/police-seize-shocking-amount-weapons