The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson
By Professor John Robertson OBA
English County Lines gang forces children to swallow or insert ‘elsewhere’ sealed bags of powerful drugs, then travel into Scotland with them and cause surging drug deaths and violence in Scotland’s towns and villages seems like a no-brainer for investigative journalists like the one at BBC Scotland Disclosure.
Five years and 50 gangs, all from England, like a plague from Dumfries to Thurso but the intrepid (not) team at Pacific Quay seem to prefer to count broken e-car charging points (true), follow the wrong lorry of too-young calves all the way to Spain (true) and follow-up reports of pan-drop shortages in care homes (not true, yet).
To be fair, they did go and meet a wee old guy and claim then to have made him admit to a murder decades ago,
The latest in the County lines series is this news from West Midlands Police, much covered in their local media but ignored in Scotland:
Members of a gang running drugs lines in the Midlands have been jailed for a total of more than 35 years – with two of them locked up for exploiting children to operate the illegal trade. The operation was run by Brian Asante who co-ordinated the business from addresses in Wolverhampton and Stafford.1
Why should BBC Scotland or any of our other media outlets be interested?
West Midlands ‘complex county lines’ gang using children to sell drugs from ‘trap houses’ into and across Scotland
From The Express & Star, in October 2020 :
Members of ‘complex’ County Lines gang who sent children to ‘trap houses’ to deal drugs are jailed. A drugs gang who recruited children to sell crack and heroin have been jailed for 30 years. After cornering the Wolverhampton and Stafford drugs market the gang opened up new drug lines in Corby, Northamptonshire and as far as Scotland.
Brian Asante, 23, from Canberra Drive, Stafford, would threaten and bribe vulnerable children to sell drugs for him in “trap houses” [cuckooing] in towns, leaving them vulnerable to attack from rival drug dealers.2
How do these children manage to get the drugs past traffic and other police into Scotland?
Coercive internal concealment is one element increasingly common in County Lines activity. It involves drugs being moved from one place to another (or stored for a longer duration) hidden in body cavities, commonly the rectum or vagina, to avoid detection. Criminal groups use threats, physical violence, and humiliation to coerce children or vulnerable adults into inserting drugs in their bodies. These processes are sometimes filmed, as a means of coercive control.2
How many county lines ‘trap houses’ based on cuckooing and run by English gangs are estimated by Police Scotland to be in parts of Scotland?
373 addresses believed to be used for the purposes of cuckooing were also visited.3
Are Scotland’s MSM keeping us informed on this plague?
BBC Scotland has only ever mentioned the term ‘County Lines’, in the headline to a story, twice, in 2019 and 2021 and never mentions that the flow of drugs is from English cities into Scotland. A BBC UK report in March 2024, mentions Scottish towns but does not use the term nor does it locate the gangs in English cities, as is the case, exclusively.
BBC Scotland is shamefully putting the interests of the Union ahead of the people of Scotland.
Sources:
- https://www.westmidlands.police.uk/news/west-midlands/news/news/2025/february/drugs-gang-locked-up-for-more-than-35-years/#:~:text=Members%20of%20a%20gang%20running%20drugs%20lines%20in,for%20exploiting%20children%20to%20operate%20the%20illegal%20trade.
- https://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2024/10/19/county-lines-gang-who-sent-children-to-trap-houses-to-deal-drugs-jailed/
- https://www.oscb.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/nhs-Coercive-Internal-Concealment-Rapid-Read.pdf
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
If only these County Lines Gangs operated from a CalMac ferry then BBCScorchedland would be all over it – blaming the Scottish Government for being asleep at the wheel and having the worst ferry-related drug deaths in Europe !
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I’m not religious in any sense but confess I watch BBC Scotland occasionally but only as a form of self flagellation to ensure that my hatred and distrust of this organisation does not diminish. Just as their intent is to destroy the SNP and Independence movement it simply reinforces my resolve to campaign more vigorously against them at every turn within my resource and I thank you for helping me to that end. Keep it up.
Robbo
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The BBC that operates in Scotland is NOT a seat of journalism but is a propaganda outfit for the Union (but not the EU Union).
On education BBC “Scotland” has never interviewed a head at any school or any Director of Education. Only the SNP Minister is responsible for any failings, in spite of funding a higher ratio of teaching staff, paid at a higher rate.
Ditto the NHS. In spite of Scotland’s NHS having more doctors, nurses and staff, any failing are laid at the door of the SNP Minister, never any Health Board administrators or hospital bosses.
BBC “Scotland” could investigate its own funding and programme making shortfall of funding per capita: its lack of journalism, sport, drama, history, and its bigoted political reportage. Compare Scotland with Norway, Denmark or Ireland for broadcasting.
gavinochiltree
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Reported on our local STV news tonight. Scottish drugs deaths fall by 10%in the last quarter. The Morning Star and the Herald both reported these stats but I couldn’t find it anywhere else.
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Those two papers published this on 28th January.
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