in possession of two large suitcases.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0033vn4/highland-cops-series-4-2-siege-in-the-highlands
Inverness and the Highlands are a world away from BBC Scotland in Glasgow in terms of their coverage the illegal drug trade.
Highland Cops commissioned by BBC 2 and BBC Scotland and produced by Firecrest Films is in its fourth series of frankly fascinating documentary style episodes on crime in the Scottish Highlands, with ravishing background, often foreground, scenery shots and increasingly impressive and likeable police officer characters.
The production seems to have wriggled out from under the oppressive editorial control in Glasgow where the suggestion the the street-level, illegal drug trade with its plague of associated, often extreme, violence is the consequence of the vicious County Lines gang business model rooted in large cities in England.
Highland Cops, on a regular basis, has exposed the above truth in a way that BBC Reporting Scotland determinedly hides from its audience. In the previous episode (4.1) we saw a brutal murder of an Inverness man by a gang member from Liverpool. In previous episodes, Liverpool has been repeatedly mentioned by officers as the source of the trade and the swelling violence in the city.
The mention of Birmingham above will, I feel, worry everyone in Inverness. Much of the violence is triggered by territorial disputes between gangs then sucking in local criminals and vulnerable adults. The impact of County lines gangs across the Highlands but with much of it in Inverness, since 2020, once a very low crime area is stark, brutal, shocking.1
Most shocking are the sexual crimes up 12% in Scotland but up 5 times that in Highland and non-sexual crimes of violence in Scotland overall, also up 12% in the same period, from 2020 to 2025, but in Highland region, up more than 270%!
When are the first reports of County Lines gangs operating in Highland Scotland? In the autumn of 2018.
Who agrees with me that it’s entirely an English curse?
County Lines – National Police Chiefs’ Council confirms exports of deadly drugs and violence FROM England INTO Scotland: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/05/14/county-lines-national-police-chiefs-council-confirms-exports-of-deadly-drugs-and-violence-from-england-into-scotland/
Do we have reason to fear Liverpool gangs?
What can we do? Regulars here will know. The only way out is out.
Sources:
- https://datamap-scotland.co.uk/scotland-reported-crime-data/highland-council-ward-crime-map/
- https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-year-ending-june-2025/documents/
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I noticed that about Birmingham but failed to hear anything about it on BBC Scotland at the time.Inverness and many of the other parts is full of drugs.
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