In the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, yesterday, but despite the powerful news values – violence, drugs, death – BBC Scotland, even their Highlands and Islands or NE, Orkney & Shetland teams can find no space for it:

A 29-year-old Huyton man has been jailed for three years and nine months for drugs supply offences in Inverness after he was snared by a joint Police Scotland and Merseyside Police operation. Ryan Finlay pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and possession of cannabis through what is called a County Line – a way of transporting illegal narcotics from cities to other parts of the UK.

https://www.strathspey-herald.co.uk/news/merseyside-county-lines-controller-is-jailed-for-three-yea-371535/

Is this a recent thing? Is the plague of cheaper but more powerful drugs, holding back Scotland’s attempts to cut drug deaths, a new thing in the North of Scotland?

From the Press & Journal, in November 2024:

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.

Cops say Inverness flooded with ‘endless supply of drug foot soldiers’ from Birmingham, Liverpool and London

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: https://datamap-scotland.co.uk/scotland-reported-crime-data/highland-council-ward-crime-map/

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.

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/24701511.thousands-illegal-drugs-phone-lines-running-uk—police-figures/

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.