To wonder what the hell is going on?

[iamnotarobotot]

We live in a small town in Kent, not much happens here. Drugs are everywhere in the country obviously but the area never particularly stuck out for that. It's gorgeous and very quiet. My teenagers (DS 16 DD 14) both go to the local secondary school, and it's fine. They have friends who they meet with in town etc.

DS recently told me that there's a lot of kids from inner London who some of the kids from his group have started hanging around with. The town is quite awkward for them to get to as it doesn't have a train station, so they have to get to our town from the train station in a big town, which takes quite a while. He says it really picked up during the Summer holidays. Apparently they've been coming and selling weed etc and then going home, but are trying to get friendly with certain members of the group. Apparently taking people for takeaways and stuff. DS says he has been added on Snapchat by some of them but he has blocked them as it all feels off to him. They have been sending people messages apparently advertising the fact that they'll have cocaine to sell soon. DS says his friendship group has really been taken in by this group but he doesn't want anything to do with it (we've had bad experiences with drugs in the extended family), so he doesn't know what to do. Why is this happening?

There has been quite a bit more youth violence here in recent months, Dsis works in an A&E in another part of Kent and says she is seeing a
lot more knife wounds etc (stuff that isn't even being reported in the news!) and teenagers who just won't talk. I am starting to feel very frightened for our kids. It's like they are all involved in a completely different world which we are not able to comprehend

Very powerful read:
How a drug gang devastated our helpless family www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/20/how-drug-gangs-devastated-our-helpless-family-county-lines

Obviously middle aged rather than Middle Aged - don’t know if there was coke about in the 1300’s.

Who doesn’t know about county lines! Especially in bloody Kent with teenagers.
Seriously. Slow news day now Parliment broke up early.

I think it might be time to suggest your DS removes himself from Snapchat and also restricts other social media/WhatsApp very tightly.

I used to work in a small county town A&E where we saw this happen and the sudden influx of knife wounds and severe bearings of 14-21 year olds was extraordinary.

How often does he physically hang out with his friends? Does he interact a lot via online gaming?

Just to stress again....

It will be the vulnerable kids they will target, possibly the kid who is not liked, who had behavioural problems who probably doesn’t have supportive parents. These are the kids who don’t have the self worth to smell a rat like your amazing DS did.

Can I also say what great parenting you’ve done that he felt save to talk to you about this stuff.

Classic County Lines. They use extreme violence not just to keep their recruits in line but also to keep their cover going/stay unreported.

*beatings not bearings

Another one adding to the chorus of County Lines.
It’s very serious. Young people here have died because of it. I have a young family member who got mixed up in it and has just started 7 years in prison.

ANd yes, I agree with others - what an amazing relationship you must have with your son for him to be so open with you. Well done, I really hope you can continue to help him keep safe.

This has been happening in a small town just North of me, they (drug dealers from Liverpool) have been targeting first and second years in one of the most affluent areas of the town. The kids are so scared they are easily tricked into doing whatever is asked of them and they are too scared to say no/ tell the police.

County lines. Cannabis and cocaine. It’s so dangerous. Get your son off social media so he is not as involved. Keep him home. Anonymously report to the police.

County Lines.

(cancel the cheque)

Watch out for your son.

Watch series 1 of Top Boy to see how young people are recruited into drug running gangs.

Your son sounds very switched on- good for him! I would also report it if you can- it's incredibly worrying how easy it is for many kids to be sucked into new gangs by kids who are 'cool'or different especially when they're buying them things. Perhaps a warning to the school too to see if they can bring it up with their students somehow

County lines without a doubt I've just renewed my safe guarding last week and they went into huge detail about this and the trimming process ... it's really scary stuff

Report 100%

Grooming process

County lines.

It’s scary. Went on a safeguarding course and we were shown a powerful video of how it works, possibly the one a pp posted upthread. Call the police.

Wow this is very worrying.

It’s not many kids who will tell their parents. You have a real opportunity here OP to tell all you know to the police. And the school. Keep your son home and don’t worry him about you talking to the police, he might be frightened so talk to them first and they will know how you can handle your sons fears. They can advise I presume, the local police and safeguarding teams, on how to proceed and how to let other parents know.

He might be the only boy to have spoken up.

OP we live rurally too, although not in the UK. We have some serious drug issues in our immediate neighbourhood which has led to outsiders coming in, and stealing from ourselves and other neighbours.

You need to start a conversation with your local policeman. Whether you tell your child or not, I would be ensuring information goes back to the police.

Following is about county lines from police. If you or your son want you can report anonymously.

www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking/county-lines

Echoing what the others have said - please report it. It’s common for them to travel into the affluent suburbs from the inner cities. Our town has had big increases in robberies and knife crime due to this.

Recently a 17 year old boy was murdered in my town by 11 people. It's all to do with this county lines.
Such a dark world.

Please report with as much information as possible, names, nicknames, phone numbers, social media profile names etc. Police need all of this intelligence to help them build their investigations. You won't hear back and most likely will feel like the information you're putting in is pointless but I promise it's not, it's very helpful to help police build their intelligence and subsequently create their strategy to build a case. County lines are difficult to investigate and build evidence as it's the people higher up the chain that need dealing with but that's why every bit of info you can put in may help.

As per pp you can put the information in anonymously.

Agree with an anonymous report . It's county lines. Police are putting a lot of resources into this and will be grateful for any info you have.

This is terrifying. I am a home counties girl and my kids will be going through this soon. You sound like you have brought your DS up well and he knows it's dodgy so well done to you and him for recognising the dangers.