Professor John Robertson OBA

As in the previous two series, BBC Highland Cops, outsourced production, is prepared to make clear that the surge in drug crime and associated extreme violence, across the Scottish Highlands, is due to the arrival in the last 6 or so so years of County Lines gangs entirely from English cities, 10 in Inverness alone.

Notably the recent Scottish MSM attempts to add Glasgow to the list of cities where such gangs have origins is not sustained by this.

In language you will never see on BBC Scotland or STV:

county lines group.

The first wee clue that they’re not from Glasgow.

Quickly they’re mentioned on screen as ‘from Liverpool‘. There follows disturbing accounts of the activities of the gang and its propensity to be violent, and this:

This is a man who after an previous offence has been bailed in England and barred from entering Scotland, but here he is. This is then repeated for a second Englishman. The senior investigating officer later says:

A county line is a mobile phone, and that will be based in usually:

In at least six years of such activity BBC Scotland has never used the words ‘English‘ or ‘England‘ despite now thousands of offenses by gangs based in Liverpool, London, the West Midlands and other parts of England. Such consistency suggests a clear and firm editorial edict.

Imagine all the drug gangs in England were from Scotland? How might the MSM refer to them?

After arresting the suspects and closing the line, we hear:

Finally, after a visit to an elderly man currently being exploited by a gang, another officer reflects:

This is something that, when I was growing up, didn’t exist. It would be a local drug dealer that everybody probably knew. But nowadays we’re seeing people coming into the area with different accents. They’ve got knives, machetes. They’re using violence, threats of violence, assaults, serious assaults, and unfortunately, you know, we’ve seen people getting killed because of this.

What have been the effects of six or so years of English County Lines drug gangs across rural and Highland Scotland?

According to BBC Highland, in the past year, drug supply offences have increased by 40% in the Highlands and there are believed to be ten county line gangs operating in Inverness.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002kwx1/highland-cops-series-3-1-hunting-the-salmon-snatchers

More detailed evidence on the wider surge is here:

Police officer says county lines gang members who ‘have been through the justice system in England’ target vulnerable women in Highlands but BBC Scotland reporter does not or cannot hear that last word

‘Highland police highlight rise in drug offending with violent English gangs from Birmingham, Derby, Liverpool and London ‘cuckooing’ vulnerable people to push heroin and crack cocaine’

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