Seven years after the County Lines drugs and violence plague begins and for the first time ever, BBC Scotland tells viewers that it is because of specifically ‘English’ crime groups

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On BBC Scotland‘s insert in BBC Breakfast at 6.30 and 8.30 am so far, after the Glasgow fire report, for the first time since 2019, BBC Scotland news broadcasts specifically locate a long-running plague of drug abuse across Scotland in origins entirely in large English cities.

I’ve been following this for years and was, understandably shocked, especially as we approach the May elections. The link with England is not headlined but appears quite quickly:

Police have made 43 arrests as part of a month-long crackdown on so-called county lines gangs in Scotland. Drugs worth £900,000 were seized during the operation, including crack cocaine, heroin and ketamine. Officers also ‘safeguarded’ 38 vulnerable people who they say were being exploited by England-based crime groups. The activity included Operation Silentridge in Inverness, aimed as disrupting gangs from Liverpool, London and the Midlands operating in the area. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv72v883lo

The full online report then relies heavily on the BBC Highland Cops show for examples, missing out the massive and long-running crisis in the North-east, reported first by the Sunday Post in 2019

Further, the report misses much of the wider damage to communities in the form of child abuse, extreme violence and people trafficking which comes with the County Lines model. It also, of course, misses out the effect this supply of cheap more powerful drugs is having on Scotland’s falling drug death rate.

See these earlier posts for more detail.

Around 600 County Lines in operation in Scotland, 200 children exploited and 75% violence
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
‘County Lines crackdown after cops smash English gang moving drugs to Aberdeen’
‘Gangs of sinister, feral young men’ from England fuelling Scotland’s drug deaths, targeting vulnerable women and causing small town violence surges
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2 thoughts on “Seven years after the County Lines drugs and violence plague begins and for the first time ever, BBC Scotland tells viewers that it is because of specifically ‘English’ crime groups”

  2. “Seven years after the County Lines drugs and violence plague begins and for the first time ever, BBC Scotland tells viewers that it is because of specifically ‘English’ crime groups”

    Meanwhile some of the Scottish public , as in all of those mostly disengaged voters, wonder where the Hell did this information come from to suddenly appear on the BBC, as being one that clearly is a very significant factor in preventing a decline in drug deaths within Scotland.

    Meanwhile Labour in Scotland phone up the BBC asking them why they are now being biased on behalf of the SNP, in them , the BBC, trying to thwart Labour’s narrative upon drug deaths in Scotland being 100% down to #SNPBAD.

    Anas Sarwar now knows his election campaign in Scotland is crumbling , mainly because it was all built on a foundation of lies, that as a strategy , is one that was not sustainable as an ongoing plan that would generate support for him to be the next FM in Scotland.

    Labour in Scotland need to now stop using people as political pawns to try to gain a political advantage over the SNP, such as all of those people who are victims of drug deaths and the relatives they have left behind.

    However if that is how they (and other UK parties in Scotland) want to operate then they need to look at this headline in September 2025 in relation to England & Wales to see how some factors impact what is reported as incorrect information.

    “Thousands of opioid deaths missed off official figures”

    “More than 13,000 heroin and opioid deaths have been missed off official statistics in England and Wales, raising concerns about the impact on the government’s approach to tackling addiction”

    “Research from King’s College London, shared exclusively with BBC News, found that there were 39,232 opioid-related deaths between 2011 and 2022, more than 50% higher than previously known”

    “The error has been blamed on the government’s official statistics body not having access to correct data and it is understood ministers are now working with coroners to improve the reporting of deaths”

    “A former senior civil servant said fewer people might have died if drug policies had been based on accurate statistics“.

    “The number of opioid deaths per million people in England and Wales has almost doubled since 2012, but this new study means the scale of the problem is likely to be even greater”

    One example of an incorrect recording not included in the statistics was a young victim in England called Ben, who was 27 “when he died from a heroin overdose in 2018, his death was ruled as “misadventure” and was never included on the official opioid death statistics”.

    “Ben’s family believe that different treatment and support for drug addicts could have helped him”.

    Also in this same BBC UK report on 16 September 2025 was this statement:

    “The flaw in the ONS system is not present in Scotland, where there are no coroners and where National Records Scotland (NRS) is responsible for collating official statistics”

    “Unlike the ONS, the NRS does receive more detailed pathology reports, but differences in how deaths are reported across the UK make it difficult to compare”.

    See this is something, as a report elsewhere, that Labour in Scotland and also other UK parties (and some of the media) prefer people in Scotland do not know and that is purely for party political reasons alone.

    People before party politics please…..that’s you Labour (and others too)………..as two, or more could also play at that distasteful game.

    However to engage and so then to also play that game leaves you feeling a tad unclean , especially if you have a strong sense of morality, as you are more than aware that you are simply exploiting people’s lives who have been hugely impacted by drugs and that you are also exploiting the grief of all those relatives that have been left behind…………just so that you and your party can try to gain a political advantage over a political opponent !

    That solves nothing , but it does cause great distress for those involved in the scourge left behind by drug deaths, especially for the relatives of those who have been the victims of drug addiction.

    Solutions and attempts to reduce drug deaths are what is required , more so by those impacted by drugs, as in for both the victims of drug addiction and their relatives, and not indulging in gutter politics and so then attempting a petty one-upmanship over the SNP.

    Liz S

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