County Lines & Child Financial Abuse

Criminal exploitation of children is a widespread form of harm that is a typical feature of county lines criminal activity: drug networks or gangs groom and exploit children and young people to carry drugs and money from urban areas to suburban and rural areas, market and seaside towns.  County Lines is a term used when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence to drive out local dealers and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs. 

Common features in county lines drug supply is the exploitation of young and vulnerable people. The dealers will frequently target children and adults - often with mental health or addiction problems - to act as drug runners or move cash so they can stay under the radar of law enforcement.

People exploited in this way will quite often be exposed to physical, mental and sexual abuse, and in some instances will be trafficked to areas a long way from home as part of the network's drug dealing business. 

We might not immediately think of children when we hear the words ‘financial fraud.’ But the reality is that more and more young people are finding themselves the victims of financial exploitation. Being groomed online to open bank accounts and launder criminal money. This is known as Child Financial Abuse. (CFB).   Criminals befriend young people through social media and online games. They offer them gifts, promise easy money, gaming credits, skins or cryptocurrency. Once they’ve gained a young person’s trust, they force them to carry out fraudulent activities, like opening a bank account for them. This is financial exploitation.