Dean Carroll is a Shropshire County Councillor and Cabinet member. He contested North Tyneside in the 2019 general election.
In the dying days of last year, the Home Secretary announced the Government had hit its target of closing down 2,000 county lines a year ahead of schedule. This is excellent progress, but we should continue to press on with our efforts.
Within months, weeks or even days of one county line being shut down another replaces it. To stop the menace of county lines requires that we don’t just attack the lines; we need to go even further and attack the infrastructure and lifestyle that underpins them.
In recent years, the ominous grip of county lines drug gangs has extended the reach of organised crime far beyond inner cities, infiltrating suburban and rural areas. This crisis has brought turf wars, exploitation and gang-related violence to every corner of the country. As the tendrils of supply chain crime spread, the impacts reverberate throughout communities – murders, addiction, family breakdowns, petty crimes, and antisocial behaviour become commonplace. I’ve seen the damaging impact in even the most remote and picturesque corners of Shropshire.
The repercussions of this epidemic have transformed regional towns, introducing violent crime where it was once uncommon. The collateral damage includes the breaking down of trust between communities and rural police forces, overwhelmed by the increases in crime and antisocial behaviour. The impacts of addiction on families and friends of those affected causes familial breakdown, spiralling into loss of employment and even homelessness.
The exploitation of vulnerable children is possibly the darkest and most troubling aspect of county lines. Exploiting children and vulnerable individuals to bear the risks of drug transportation, storage, and street dealing has become a disturbing norm. This can lead to the risk of other forms of exploitation such as Child Sexual Exploitation.
The scope of the problem demands comprehensive solutions and learning from those who have already fought, and won, wars against organised crime. Drawing inspiration from the successful crackdown on the Mafia in the United States, particularly the RICO Act of 1970, a reformed approach here could, and perhaps should, seek to prosecute entire organisations. Strengthening joint enterprise and conspiracy laws were key components there and should be here too.
The punitive sentencing regime under RICO instilled fear among crime bosses, unravelling their underworld empires as they and their underlings faced decades behind bars. The long line of turncoats from the middle ranks of gangsters facing harsh prison sentences proved terminal to some of the most powerful crime bosses in America.
The key to successful implementation of these new tools in the arsenal of American law enforcement was not to jump to prosecute the first mobster for the first crime, but to use all the intelligence gathered to build up dossiers on entire gangs. Showing juries by the breadth of crimes being committed by a group of people that this was indeed a well organised gang, and seeing dozens of mobsters sentenced to 20 years or more in prison each at a single trial, including the highest ranks of the Mafia alongside street hoodlums.
Adapting these measures to combat county lines involves targeting the infrastructure that sustains these criminal networks. Rather than criminalising the exploited, the focus should be on the exploiters. Introducing a specific offence — Criminal Exploitation of the Vulnerable — with severe penalties up to life imprisonment for those exploiting others for criminal gain is crucial.
What the American experience has taught us is that if we want to cripple organised crime, we need to stop playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with county lines and instead make it unsustainable for the people at the top to run their organisations. Facing decades behind bars, rather than a few short years, is a significant part of making it impossible for county lines to function. One of the other key elements is the fear of their own lieutenants turning against them, we cannot afford to be squeamish about defectors. It has always been a subject of huge controversy, to reduce penalties against self-confessed criminals in exchange for them turning on their erstwhile brethren. Unpalatable perhaps, but a necessary evil in the fight against the upper echelons of organised crime.
Another tactic we already operate in the UK has been surge policing in areas seeing significant spikes in crime. Applying that systematically to breathe down the necks of the gangs on their home turf, denying them the freedom to operate overtly with impunity even in their own backyards.
A word on Labour now. Their token policy on organised crime of closing businesses laundering money, is just that, a token. It treats a symptom but ignores the disease, like a doctor treating a cough whilst ignoring the infection causing it. Then again, that could be said for many Labour attempts at policy-making.
Destroying the County Lines model of organised crime is not impossible, but it will be hard. What is required is the will to act and not be dissuaded from the path of action if some of the measures are unpalatable. Law enforcement must also be provided with the weapons they need to end these reigns of terror, and a major part of that is learning from our compatriots across the Atlantic who have won this fight already.
Dean Carroll is a Shropshire County Councillor and Cabinet member. He contested North Tyneside in the 2019 general election.
In the dying days of last year, the Home Secretary announced the Government had hit its target of closing down 2,000 county lines a year ahead of schedule. This is excellent progress, but we should continue to press on with our efforts.
Within months, weeks or even days of one county line being shut down another replaces it. To stop the menace of county lines requires that we don’t just attack the lines; we need to go even further and attack the infrastructure and lifestyle that underpins them.
In recent years, the ominous grip of county lines drug gangs has extended the reach of organised crime far beyond inner cities, infiltrating suburban and rural areas. This crisis has brought turf wars, exploitation and gang-related violence to every corner of the country. As the tendrils of supply chain crime spread, the impacts reverberate throughout communities – murders, addiction, family breakdowns, petty crimes, and antisocial behaviour become commonplace. I’ve seen the damaging impact in even the most remote and picturesque corners of Shropshire.
The repercussions of this epidemic have transformed regional towns, introducing violent crime where it was once uncommon. The collateral damage includes the breaking down of trust between communities and rural police forces, overwhelmed by the increases in crime and antisocial behaviour. The impacts of addiction on families and friends of those affected causes familial breakdown, spiralling into loss of employment and even homelessness.
The exploitation of vulnerable children is possibly the darkest and most troubling aspect of county lines. Exploiting children and vulnerable individuals to bear the risks of drug transportation, storage, and street dealing has become a disturbing norm. This can lead to the risk of other forms of exploitation such as Child Sexual Exploitation.
The scope of the problem demands comprehensive solutions and learning from those who have already fought, and won, wars against organised crime. Drawing inspiration from the successful crackdown on the Mafia in the United States, particularly the RICO Act of 1970, a reformed approach here could, and perhaps should, seek to prosecute entire organisations. Strengthening joint enterprise and conspiracy laws were key components there and should be here too.
The punitive sentencing regime under RICO instilled fear among crime bosses, unravelling their underworld empires as they and their underlings faced decades behind bars. The long line of turncoats from the middle ranks of gangsters facing harsh prison sentences proved terminal to some of the most powerful crime bosses in America.
The key to successful implementation of these new tools in the arsenal of American law enforcement was not to jump to prosecute the first mobster for the first crime, but to use all the intelligence gathered to build up dossiers on entire gangs. Showing juries by the breadth of crimes being committed by a group of people that this was indeed a well organised gang, and seeing dozens of mobsters sentenced to 20 years or more in prison each at a single trial, including the highest ranks of the Mafia alongside street hoodlums.
Adapting these measures to combat county lines involves targeting the infrastructure that sustains these criminal networks. Rather than criminalising the exploited, the focus should be on the exploiters. Introducing a specific offence — Criminal Exploitation of the Vulnerable — with severe penalties up to life imprisonment for those exploiting others for criminal gain is crucial.
What the American experience has taught us is that if we want to cripple organised crime, we need to stop playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with county lines and instead make it unsustainable for the people at the top to run their organisations. Facing decades behind bars, rather than a few short years, is a significant part of making it impossible for county lines to function. One of the other key elements is the fear of their own lieutenants turning against them, we cannot afford to be squeamish about defectors. It has always been a subject of huge controversy, to reduce penalties against self-confessed criminals in exchange for them turning on their erstwhile brethren. Unpalatable perhaps, but a necessary evil in the fight against the upper echelons of organised crime.
Another tactic we already operate in the UK has been surge policing in areas seeing significant spikes in crime. Applying that systematically to breathe down the necks of the gangs on their home turf, denying them the freedom to operate overtly with impunity even in their own backyards.
A word on Labour now. Their token policy on organised crime of closing businesses laundering money, is just that, a token. It treats a symptom but ignores the disease, like a doctor treating a cough whilst ignoring the infection causing it. Then again, that could be said for many Labour attempts at policy-making.
Destroying the County Lines model of organised crime is not impossible, but it will be hard. What is required is the will to act and not be dissuaded from the path of action if some of the measures are unpalatable. Law enforcement must also be provided with the weapons they need to end these reigns of terror, and a major part of that is learning from our compatriots across the Atlantic who have won this fight already.