Nearly 5 years ago BBC Scotland reported ‘County lines’: Aberdeenshire, Perthshire and Highlands targeted by drugs gangs.
They haven’t mentioned them since.
Today, in the Northern Times:
Chief Superintendent Robert Shepherd reveals expansion of team targeting County Lines gangs in bid to create a ‘hostile’ environment. Highland’s top cop has revealed the force has expanded the team dedicated to tackling County Lines gangs from Birmingham, Derby, Liverpool and London to create as “hostile” an environment as possible for organised crime.
Chief Superintendent Robert Shepherd’s Police Performance report is due to be delivered at Highland Council this week and highlighted the efforts made to control so-called OCGs (organised crime groups). Following the spike in violence which was believed to be “an internal power struggle between drug dealers” that put pressure on the force, effective operations against County Lines drugs gangs were put in place.
County Lines is the practice of city gangs flooding other areas with drugs, establishing local bases often “bringing with it serious criminal behaviour such as violence, exploitation and abuse”. Ch Supt Shepherd said: “North Division has also recently expanded its team of dedicated officers with the sole purpose of targeting County Lines offenders, working in partnership with agencies and protecting vulnerable persons.”
Drug supply offences rose in the year-to-date figures by 49 going from 126 in 2022/23 to 176 in 2023/24 but the detection rate remained high at just over 80 per cent.
Is that not a really big story for ae taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster with a published duty to inform?
BBC Scotland today? Nope. See above.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I suspect that BBC Scotland is not publishing reports on County Lines because to do so would be to admit that they were reacting to your complaints about omission.
Alasdair Macdonald,
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which senior bbc “Scotland” executives are profiting from connections to Derby Liverpool Birmingham or London??
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They should be stopping them at the border and major cities where of course they will plonk themselves before making their way to rural areas of Scotland. This has to be stopped, it’s not acceptable Scotland’s police needs to take serious action about this. Worrying it is likley all be design of course, why would you want your colony to succeed in reducing drugs dependence and deaths, when you want to oust the voters’ party of preference, ie in this case the SNP.
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Tried to share on Facebook but “they” removed the post.
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