26 gangs involved in county lines in region: “That’s not because the numbers have grown it’s because our understanding is much better”

North Wales Police has revised the number of gangs it says are exploiting vulnerable people in the region.

The practice known as county lines sees gangsters sending children from big cities to deal drugs in North Wales.

Speaking to members of the North Wales Police and Crime Panel in Conwy earlier this week, Chief Constable Carl Foulkes said last year they believed there to be 14 such gangs but now the figure is 26.

He said: “I talked about 14 (gangs involved in county lines) now I‘ve talked about 26.

“That’s not because the numbers have grown it’s because our understanding is much better.

“County lines generally effects every community in North Wales so this is not a Rhyl issue or a Bangor issue or a Wrexham issue.

“This is an issue that effects Dolgellau, Porthmadog or Blaenau Ffestiniog and we have seen examples of that.”

The Chief Constable said big city criminals were a danger to all parts of the region.

“What we are seeing is very organised crime groups predominantly from my old force area in Merseyside that are taking on vulnerable people, taking on drug markets, taking over communities,” he said.

“They use violence and they are getting more sophisticated and we are seeing that more and more.”

Despite the threat posed by the gangs Chief Constable Foulkes said his force was working with other services to tackle the problem.

He added: “For me this is one of our greatest challenges, absolutely key to this is working with GMP (Greater Manchester Police) and Merseyside colleagues. The threat is absolutely there and the threat is real.

“We are not sitting on the fence on this, we are being pro-active. We have a multi-agency approach where we come together and look at what we know and what can we do differently.”

By Shane Brennan – BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).