'I wasn't a gangster, just a kid from Shropshire': how drugs gangs are exploiting lockdown

My team is seeing ever-younger children being recruited to county lines drugs trade during the pandemic

Ever since he was a little kid, 16-year-old Adam* loved gangster movies. The glamour of the lifestyle – the money, the cars, the respect – all appealed to him. When a gang from a nearby city expanded its drug-selling operation to his neighbourhood, it sucked him in by promising to make those dreams come true. But the reality was very different. 

One day Adam was robbed of drugs and money on the street. He barely slept for 13 days in a bid to earn it back because he didn’t want the person he was working for to “look down” on him. Later, he was beaten up so badly he ended up in hospital with life-changing injuries. As Adam says now, he wasn’t a gangster, just a young kid from Shropshire.

Related: Teens caught up in county lines gangs have seen things no child should see

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Sonya Jones is a service manager and safeguarding lead at We Are With You. You can support its coronavirus appeal here. If you are concerned about yourself or someone you know you can talk to a trained adviser via the charity’s online webchat  

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3dM6kFT