Police Scotland and the media are reporting a major ‘Scots’ County Lines drug gang in these terms:
SMASH & GRABBED – Eleven kids rescued from clutches of sinister Scots drug mob as 100 hoods arrested. Officers ensured the safety of the youngsters by passing them into the care of relatives or referring them to support agencies –
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/14758409/kids-rescued-from-scots-drug-mob-hoods-arrested/
The reports make no mention of the County Lines gangs, from English cities, currently known to to be feeding the trade and using extreme violence in Scottish towns from Dumfries to Thurso.
The small towns, Lesmahagow and Abingdon, catch the eye for the biggest seizures. The locals were not, of course, big consumers. The gang was clearly transporting the supply of drugs up the M74, on the way to the market across the whole of Scotland, from where, we wonder.
I’m guessing Liverpool:
If this was a big Scottish gang, independent of such gangs in England, surely they’d get their supplies directly by far safer routes, by sea into the many west coast ports, often small fishing ports with limited surveillance, from the source – South and Central America which also supplies English gangs directly.
These are interesting clues in the Sun piece:
In a motorway swoop in September 2023, officers recovered 11.75kg of cocaine worth £1million on the M74 at Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire. Cops returned to the M74 to seize 61kg of cannabis worth £340,000, at Abington, Lanarkshire, in June 2024.
Here is the 2023 Sun report:
SNIFFED OUT – Drugs courier caught smuggling £1M of cocaine into Scotland from Liverpool in secret van compartment jailed for 6 years. Kurtis James Taylor was involved in transporting the powder north of the border using a secret compartment operated by a key fob. The 30-year-old, from Liverpool, had the stash hidden in a specially-crafted hydraulic hide secreted inside his Vauxhall Vivaro van.
But cops called in the help of a drug detection dog who sniffed out the illicit packages with a potential street value of over £1m. They pounced after receiving intelligence a vehicle was travelling from England with a significant quantity of drugs on board. Taylor, from Liverpool, was stopped on the M74, near Lesmahagow, on September 5, 2023.
This ‘Scots’ gang is, at the top level, an English gang keeping Scottish drug deaths stubbornly high with cheap, powerful new drugs, now available in small towns less familiar with the trade.
Watch out for the names and the addresses, when they are, inevitably released.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Hi John O/T……again.
Scotland’s drinking water is the best in Europe and the second best in the world!!!
In February 2025 the Medical Travel Insurance specialists at AllClear released a report analyzing more than 2,000 Reddit comments identifying the most frequently mentioned destinations for the best-tasting tap water on Earth.
“After reviewing all the comments, the team found that Scotland was the most frequently mentioned destination in Europe and the second most mentioned location in the world. The report noted that travelers particularly praise the water from the Highlands and lochs, particularly Loch Katrine, for its “bottled-water taste.”
The Best Tap Water in the World, According to Reddit
The best-tasting tap water in the world – AllClear Travel
Time Out magazine, the global media and entertainment company which covers 333 cities in 59 countries, featured the study, although making sure that Scotland was seen as being part of the UK.
“Worldwide Scotland was the second-most mentioned place in the world, meaning it was only beaten to the top spot by one location, but it’s not where you’d expect. New York City ranked in first place for the tastiest tap water in the world. The Big Apple’s water comes from the Catskills mountains.”
Europe’s Best-Tasting Tap Water Is In the UK, A New Study Has Revealed
From Scottish Water Annual Consultative Meeting 2024
“our overall performance for 2023/24 held up well despite significant external challenges, and we continued to deliver excellence in water quality performance of 99.92% and we ended the financial year within target in most of our key areas.
We delivered record investment – topping the £1 billion mark for the first time –targeted on upgrading and replacing assets across Scotland – all vital to enabling our customers to go about their daily lives and to protecting and enhancing our precious natural environment.”
ACM 2024 – Scottish Water
So why didn’t ‘our’ media cover this good news for Scotland story?
JB
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I see tourists in Edinburgh buying massive multiple packs of bottled water, they obviously believe our water is dirty as it is in England, including English tourists which I find very ironic to say the least.
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Hi John, sorry, re my last message, maybe the title should be Scotland’s drinking water is the best in Europe and is ranked second in the world!!! As Scotland is NEVER second best!!!
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Great spot and post!
https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/05/11/scotlands-drinking-water-is-the-best-in-europe-and-is-ranked-second-in-the-world-but-not-reported-by-our-media/
John
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County Lines gang drug economy is only devolved to Scotland? They have to take supplies which an English gang sets the price for and collects? A bit like oil now?
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This will never be accurately reported. Police Scotland work for the English government, in these cases it seems, only doing something about this sort of criminality being imported from the country next door, when they label it as a Scottish specific crime. Expect much more of this in the coming months. It’s all orchestrated, a perfect SNP bad narrative, and it’s a disgrace the Scottish police are not tackling this much more and stopping it right now, they could do that I mean the intelligence tools at their disposal for a start! Unless they aren’t doing their job properly…Who is head of police Scott now?
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