It had to happen. A Glasgow-based County Lines gangster makes the headlines in the Northants Telegraph, on the 9th of May 2024: A man found trying to hide from police in a Corby flat that had been ‘cuckooed’ has been jailed for drug-dealing. Glaswegian Rudy Kwatabyala has a long history of crime, with 81 offences on his record. He said he had been drawn to Corby after a relationship breakdown and to pay off a drug debt of £20,000. Police had been called to a flat in Chaucer Close after a report of cuckooing – where drug pushers take over … Continue reading If a Scottish County Lines drugs gangster cuckooed the vulnerable in England would the headline say where he is from?

I have a Google Alert for ‘County Lines’ and every day I receive around 5 to 10 links to reports in newspapers across the UK, other than in Scotland. Yet Police Scotland estimate around 55 County Lines drug gang groups are operating in Scotland’s towns and cities, from Dingwall to Dumfries. When I search for ‘County Lines Scotland’, I get the above as the first three hits – a report by an SNP MP in a top international policing journal but ignored in Scotland and two posts in Talking-up Scotland. There’s clearly something uncomfortable in this narrative for our MSM … Continue reading Not Better Together? Hundreds of County Lines Gang stories in a month but not one about the 55 groups operating in Scotland?

By Professor John Robertson In the Times yesterday, their report on the Easter Sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, opens with his references to evils of county lines gangs. BBC UK report the same sermon by focusing on his concerns for the Royal Family and only mention his comments on the gangs, one only and with no detail, 15 lines down. BBC Scotland? They’re fully occupied with the supposedly ‘controversial’ hate crime law and their most recent mention of these gangs remains in May 2021, nearly three years ago. For more on how County Lines drug gang groups spread violence, … Continue reading Church of England leader condemns English County Lines gangs but BBC Scotland still refuses to even acknowledge this plague

Perhaps unaware of the signal this might send to their readers, the Scottish Daily Express on 18 November had: Telephone cell site analysis and automatic number plate recognition checks will play a vital role in tracking down the murderer of a young father, police sources have confirmed. Ross MacGillivray was the victim of “a significant level of violence” and it is feared he was killed on the orders of a Merseyside-based organised crime gang. As tributes continued to flood in for the 36-year-old from Inverness, the extent of how technology can help find those responsible has been revealed. Whilst police … Continue reading Still hiding the cross-border English county lines killers in Scotland