Children as young as seven and as old as 17 are being recruited in the United Kingdom by so-called county lines gangs to move drugs around the country, London-based charity The Children's Society said in a report released on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2019) Children as young as seven and as old as 17 are being recruited in the United Kingdom by so-called county lines gangs to move drugs around the country, London-based charity The Children's Society said in a report released on Friday.The report, called "Counting Lives: Responding to Children who are Criminally Exploited," notes several forms of the criminal exploitation of children, which it refers to as "county lines," including being forced to work in cannabis factories, and coerced into shoplifting or moving drugs or money throughout the country.
"In this report, we find that 14 to 17 year olds are the most likely age group to be exploited by criminal gangs. We uncover alarming evidence of Primary school children as young as seven or eight being targeted and exploited. But children of all ages are at risk, and the number of 10 to 17 year olds arrested for intent to supply drugs has gone up by almost 50% outside London," Nick Roseveare, the head of charity organization, said in the report.
Among the key recommendations provided in the report are including the definition of child criminal exploitation in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act and consulting on a new criminal offense that bans "the practice of making a child insert and carry drugs within their bodies."
