Children in almost all areas of the country are being arrested for dealing Class A drugs, including crack, heroin and cocaine, The Independent can reveal. Criminals are turning to children as young as 12 to peddle hard drugs, according to police arrest records. Freedom of Information requests to police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland revealed that in 2016, 71 percent of forces arrested children under the age of 16 on suspicion of supplying crack, heroin or cocaine.
When all types of Class A substances were considered, the proportion of forces arresting under-16s for hard-drug dealing last year rose to 86 per cent – 30 out of the 35 forces who supplied useable information. Further investigations produced suggestions that children as young as eight are being sucked into a world of drug dealing where gangs use torture as a means of asserting their authority, and knives, Tasers, boiling water and acid as weapons.
The Independent has been told of London schoolchildren being sent to deal from crackhouses as far away as Scotland, with the girls sometimes being raped and "owned" by male gang members. By the age of 14, some child drug dealers are "already seasoned. [They have] done lots of things, sold lots of drugs and been in lots of traumatising situations". In Nottingham, former teenage drug dealers spoke of facing junkies wielding "Rambo knives", and becoming so used to violence that one of them viewed punishment beatings as "just business". "My concern is that this is the next child exploitation scandal," said one adult working with gangs.
The revelations come after a report by MPs also raised fears about drugs gangs exploiting minors who go missing from home or care, and called for such children to be treated as victims of grooming rather than criminals.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Runaway and Missing Children and Adults warned: "Patterns of grooming of children for criminal exploitation are very similar to those of sexual exploitation. In the past, child sexual exploitation was often perceived amongst professionals as the victim's fault, or due to their risky behaviour. AGENCIES