Fears Shropshire children are being drawn to crime by inner city gangs
Gang crime in inner cities could lead to more Shropshire children becoming offenders, an expert has warned.
Keith Barham, head of service West Mercia Youth Justice Service, warned of the impact of crimes that involve exploitation of children.
In particular he noted the 'County Lines' operation, which is seeing inner city gangs and crime networks using children to deal drugs. Those operating drug dealing may be based in big cities in the West Midlands or North West but use young people to send their drugs into Shropshire on their behalf.
Mr Barham said the concern is that this could lead to a rise in the number of first-time offenders in Shropshire after the previous decade has seen numbers decrease.
Mr Barham explained the dangers to Shropshire Council members at a meeting this week.
He said: “The number of people coming in for the first time has been falling and has been for some time now, probably since 2007.
“In recent times those numbers have started to level out but nationally it continues to reduce.
“However, it would seem we are now seeing a rise in recorded crimes and seeing quite different types of crime that are actually drawing young people in.”
Concerns
He continued: “The County Lines gets young people being drawn into the supply chain for drugs and are being organised by gangs in inner cities reaching out into rural area.
“We have as a service and management board raised our concerns.”
According to the service’s 2018/19 Justice Plan the number of first time entrants – those receiving a youth justice sanction – in West Mercia in 2017 was 354 per 100,000 of 10 to 17 year olds, down from 408 in 2016.
Shropshire saw a slight increase from 2016 to 329, while the average in England was 295.
The number of custodial sentences for 2017 was 0.11 per 1,000 10 to 17 year olds in West Mercia, compared to 0.38 in England, and 0.25 in Shropshire.
Nick Bardsley, Shropshire Council’s portfolio holder for children and young people, said nationally 28 per cent of the population in prison spent their childhood in care.
And he noted that in the last month six care leavers have ended up in custody.
He said that although the issue is not specific to Shropshire, the council must do more to support young people when they leave care in same way that they would their own children or grandchildren.
He continued: “Children are in care because something pretty horrendous has happened. They don’t go into care because everything is going swimmingly at home.
“We have to take responsibility and do something about why so many of our young people do end up in the criminal justice system.”
By Emily Lloyd, local democracy reporter
Drug pair's convictions welcomed
Justin Smith and Odane Campbell were County Lines drug couriers, bringing their supplies of hard drugs into Shropshire from Birmingham, writes Rob Smith.
Smith, 23, was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for taking £2,000 worth of crack cocaine and heroin into Shrewsbury. Smith, of Cornfield Drive, Birmingham, admitted possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.
His co-accused Odane Campbell, 23, of Frinton Grove, Birmingham, was given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years after he pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.
It was just one of many recent convictions for criminals who have travelled from the West Midlands over the county border with the intent to sell drugs.
Their conviction in July was today welcomed by local policing commander for Shropshire, Superintendent Jason Wells, who explained: “So-called County Lines sees city drug dealers attempt to move their drug dealing into smaller county towns using a dedicated phone line to orchestrate their dealing.
“In order to infiltrate local communities they will adopt a practice known as cuckooing which sees organised crime groups target vulnerable people in our local communities, taking over their property to deal drugs.
“Unfortunately some of our towns in Shropshire are no different to other rural towns right across the country and it is something we have seen an increase in and are proactively targeting.
Communities
“Over the past year a dedicated team based in Shrewsbury has worked tirelessly to tackle this sort of organised crime and protect people in our communities and I would like to reassure people across the county that this work will continue.”
The team has already had some great results with more than 200 people arrested and significant drug seizures.
“Our absolute priority is protecting our communities from those who cause the most harm and ensuring those who need our help and support have it.
“We’re determined to ensure organised crime is not happening in our communities and our efforts to crack down on county lines in our rural towns will not stop. We will continue to take action against those dealing in our county and protect our communities from those causing the most harm.”
Tatenda Masawi, 25, of Bilston, was jailed earlier this year for three-and-a-half years at Shrewsbury Crown Court after bringing class A drugs into Bridgnorth to sell.
Earlier in the year, two people were arrested in Oswestry in raids to stamp out county lines dealing. Meanwhile, a house in the town that was used as part of a drugs ring has been closed down by police.
