In the Telegraph today, the above and:
Lucy* was just 17 when she was kidnapped by a member of a rival county lines gang.
“I was hit over the head with a crowbar,” she recalls. “I was tied up and put in the back of a rental car and driven around and then taken to the house of another drug user.”
It is an experience almost incomprehensible for someone of that age, when most teenagers’ biggest worry is passing their exams. But this is the brutal reality for thousands of girls who are under the control of criminal gangs.
and:
A threat assessment by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) last year said over 6,500 county lines groups are believed to operate across England, Scotland and Wales. The criminal networks, which move drugs across the country, are the most violent model of drug supply, according to the police.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/11/03/invisible-girls-abandoned-by-police-to-drug-gangs/
Across England, Scotland and Wales? Technically so, but in terms of who the villains are, no.
County lines gang members who ‘have been through the justice system in England’ target vulnerable women in Highlands
In September 2025, BBC Highlands and Islands had the above and:
County lines gangs are forcing vulnerable women into joining networks supplying crack cocaine and heroin to the Highlands and Islands, a senior detective has warned. Det Ch Insp Craig Still said criminal groups based in major UK cities were sending associates north to co-ordinate drug dealing.
He told BBC Scotland‘s Scotcast that the suspects were often young men known for violent offences in their home cities. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy0xdxdl40o
Funnily enough, Det Ch Insp Still seems to have said something a wee bit different, more geographically precise, to the ears of the Daily Record reporter listening to the same interview:
They tend to be individuals who have been through the justice system IN ENGLAND, may have convictions for violence. They may have gang connections and they may regularly be in possession of weapons.” https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/gangsters-sending-teen-drug-dealers-to-terrorise-highlands-as-overdose-deaths-rise/ar-AA1MZ4Mx?ocid=BingNewsSerp
The groups operating in Scotland are overwhelmingly based in, or controlled from, major English cities. Police and local reports repeatedly identify origins in London, Liverpool, Manchester/Merseyside, Birmingham and other Midlands areas. Associates (often young men with prior violence records) are sent north; local facilitators help set up bases. This matches the classic county lines model of urban organised crime groups expanding into smaller towns and rural areas for higher profits while using local vulnerable people.
In short, the “invisible girls” dynamic described in the Telegraph investigation exists in Scotland as part of broader county lines / CCE activity. Authorities and charities have acknowledged it, with rising recorded cases, specific projects in affected areas (especially the Highlands), and ongoing enforcement that treats the young people involved as victims of exploitation rather than solely as offenders. Data and intelligence gaps remain (as they do elsewhere), but the phenomenon is documented and not denied by Police Scotland or relevant partners.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1kr4p7lwxro
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