From the Press & Journal, three days ago:
Cops say Inverness flooded with ‘endless supply of drug foot soldiers’ from Birmingham, Liverpool and London – Police are battling with drug gangs “every week” – and that trying to chase them is like a game of “whack-a-mole”.
Detective Constable Duncan Birse laid out the extent of the problem.
He said: “Being born and bred in the Highlands I assume most folk associate Inverness with the Loch Ness Monster and whisky.
“Probably most folk are unaware that actually we have a massive issue here with county lines drug dealing gangs.
“We are looking at six to nine groups operating at any one time from Liverpool or London or Birmingham.
“They will take over a vulnerable person’s house and use multiple addresses within the space of one day to avoid police detection.
DC Birse added that the actions of the gangs are contributing to Scotland’s drug death rates which are the highest in Europe.
According to the NRS, drug deaths in Highland region increased from 33 in 2020 to 42 in 2022: https://www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk/news/highland-drug-deaths-rise-to-42-as-scotlands-grim-toll-show-324002/
In the same period, nationally, drug deaths had begun to plateau and fall before climbing again in 2023: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/drug-related-deaths/23/drug-related-deaths-23-report.pdf
I’ve already reported here the associated surge in violent crime sweeping through small town and rural Scotland at the same time as crime plummets in more urban areas and in national data. This graph for Inverness Central reveals the sharp increase in all forms of crime in the period 2018-2022, as County Lines gangs became established:
Although still the least common form of crime (dark blue line), non-sexual crimes of violence increased from 88 in 2018, as County Lines gangs began to appear, to 326 in 2022, almost 400%! This pattern can be seen in similar areas across Scotland but in Glasgow where, I assume, English drug gangs are wary of entering, the trend is down.
The above story is actually taken from a BBC Scotland TV series yet BBC Scotland News will not cover the story, last used the term ‘County Lines’ in 2021 and have never identified the English cities from which they come. The Scotsman too last reported on this in 2021.
The Herald, 4 days ago, reported ‘Thousands more illegal drugs phone lines running in UK – police figures‘ but only at the very end, and leaving the reader to make the connection, had:
County lines networks are typically urban-based, drug dealing gangs that use phone lines to sell drugs, mainly crack cocaine and heroin, to customers in other counties.
Police say the main areas that export lines are London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, with more than 501 lines each recorded in Liverpool and London, and Birmingham and Manchester between 210 and 500 each.
The main forces where the drugs were sold to customers were Cheshire, Scotland, Kent, Essex and Cambridgeshire, the NPCC said.
You can sense the writer’s anxiety. With any other story like this – drugs, violence, death, dangerous outsiders – any journalist would be excitedly writing a dramatic headline to scare and to attract readers – English drug gangs terrorise Scotland and keep our drug deaths high.
No one at BBC Scotland News, the Herald or the Scotsman is telling younger journalists what to write. They can just sense what is wanted in institutions deeply affiliated with the pro-Union cause.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Having watched that programe and know how often I have read about it onTuS and even north of Inverness its a problem I have never heard it reported on BBC Scotland but keen on reporting the drug deaths.
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“its a problem I have never heard it reported on BBC Scotland”
I have also “never heard” it being quoted as a huge factor by opposition politicians or indeed every year when Channel Four news covers it after the stats are released.
However I have heard it being suggested that somehow the Scottish government are to blame for what is stated as “Scotland having the highest drug deaths in Europe”.
Actually it is now very much deployed as a British Nationalist rod with which to beat the SNP with, though not as a solitary issue as they, the British Nationalists, do have others they can promote and so weaponize also.
Should we , who have voted for the SNP in various elections, now then consider ourselves to be as moronic as those who voted for Trump this week as according to most media and opposition politicians we are voting for a party who are not just bad but #SNPBAD.
English County line drug gangs overwhelming our Scottish Police forces and contributing to the drug problem , indeed making it far worse, is apparently not something the UK government and the UK Home Secretary should be trying to stop as it seems the buck will always only stop with our Scottish government.
(Just think if we had an actual widespread Scottish media then we may have “heard that being reported” far and wide throughout Scotland as a constant, as being a significant part of the “problem” and then also as a partial solution to it , so at least not laying all of the blame at the door of the Scottish government that we, in Scotland, democratically elected),
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Media and politicians see political mileage in pointy fingers north with a ” drugs capital of Europe ” accusation, but when the source of their poison is in the opposite direction, the consensus is not to mention it…
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Pretty much Bob.
And we , as the Scottish population , are then to be assumed as all being ‘the Dafties’.
(Mind you some in Scotland are Ha Ha , no mention as to whom I refer, but most definitely not all of us in Scotland , as the media and political opposition try to often treat us as a whole population).
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‘Younger journalists’ are really journalists if they are biased and telling lies.
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