Rise in house closures for drug dealing fuels fears of ‘cuckooing’

There has been a spike in the number of homes across England being shut down because of drug dealing or substance use on site amid growing concern about the county lines crisis, the Guardian can reveal.

The number of “closure orders” – essentially preventing access to the house for a period of time – issued for antisocial behaviour and drug activity has quadrupled in four years, data obtained via freedom of information shows.

The 20 police forces that responded to a Guardian freedom of information request closed a total of 186 homes in 2018, up from 46 in 2014. Bedfordshire alone closed 42 homes, up from one in 2014; the majority of these were linked to drug use.

Experts said this number was likely to be a significant underestimate but expressed concern that the surge was due to county lines drug activity, a term used when drug gangs from big cities expand their operations to smaller towns, often using violence and exploiting children and vulnerable people to sell drugs.

What does the term ‘county lines’ mean?

The name ‘county lines’ refers to the phone numbers, or lines, that criminal gangs which traffic drugs from urban to rural areas use to organise the sale of their wares. Gangs in cities such as London, Birmingham and Liverpool use children to deal mostly heroin and crack cocaine over a network of dedicated mobile phones to smaller towns and rural areas.

How big is the problem?

The number of individual phone numbers identified by law enforcement officials as being used on established county lines networks is about 2,000 – nearly three times the 720 previously established.

Police estimate the phone numbers are linked to about 1,000 branded networks, with a single line capable of making £800,000 profits in a year.

Who are the victims and how are they recruited?

The majority of victims groomed into working for gangs are 15- to 17-year-old boys but children as young as 11 have been safeguarded and girls have been targeted.

Many victims are recruited over social media, with offenders luring them with images of cash, designer clothing and luxury cars, but vulnerable girls and women are being targeted by men who create the impression of a romantic relationship before subjecting them to sexual exploitation.

How big is the problem?

In 2015, about seven forces reported county lines behaviour. Now, 44 forces, including British Transport Police, have recorded county lines behaviour on their turf. 

No one really knows how many young people across the country are being forced to take part. Children without criminal records – known as ‘clean skins’ – are preferred because they are less likely to be known to detectives. The Children’s Society says 4,000 teenagers in London alone are exploited through county lines, while the children’s commissioner estimated at least 46,000 children in England were caught up in gangs.

As part of the county lines phenomenon, drug dealers often befriend vulnerable people and turn their homes into places to keep and sell drugs, a practice known as cuckooing. The scale of cuckooing is unclear, although last year Commander Simon Bray, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on drugs, said the number of people having their houses taken over could be in the thousands.

Paul Andell, a criminologist from the University of Suffolk, said the rising number of closure orders showed “the phenomenon of cuckooing in itself is increasing, therefore increasing numbers of properties of vulnerable people are being used as the county lines drug business model expands”.

He added: “Also, our responses to cuckooing are becoming more focused towards the prevailing broader business model of drug dealing, which increasingly goes beyond social supply, whereby previously local users would club together resources to buy and use in acquaintances’ homes.

“Nowadays the markets are much more organised and the kinds of behaviours associated with cuckooing are becoming more apparent … These behaviours are more visible as enforcement officers become increasingly aware and agencies now have priorities to act against these arrangements, as county lines are viewed as a national threat.”

North Yorkshire police said cuckooing was a major concern in their area. As of 30 June 2019, 90 victims of cuckooing had been identified in the year and 17 cease and desist notices in related cases had been issued. This is compared with 39 victims in total last year.

Devon and Cornwall police said that as of 22 August residents of about 200 homes were known to be at risk of cuckooing and were being safeguarded by police. They said those numbers were subject to constant change and the force was taking the issue very seriously.

Chief inspector Rachael Glendenning of Bedfordshire Police said the sharp rise in closure orders used – going from one to 42 in four years – was “a means of taking positive action against drug criminality and anti-social behaviour.” She said they now look to use these powers at every opportunity.

Kim Warner, an area commander with Suffolk constabulary, said cuckooing was adaptable. “So if an address is being cuckooed then we have tactics to disrupt that. For example, by issuing a warrant. When you do that you displace the line but it will adapt, so they move to more street-based dealing. Then we react to that and then there is a resurrection of cuckooing – so there are peaks and troughs in the activity.”

He added: “You have to work hard with the council to think about what to do long term to prevent it.” Warner said closure orders were not always the best way to deal with trap houses, as they are known. “With some cuckooed addresses they will move in, and by the time you respond they have moved. A closure order can take months to obtain so it would work better if an individual was repeatedly getting involved in that sort of activity.”

Simon Harding, a criminologist at the University of West London who is writing a book on county lines, said the number of closure orders was still low and represented a fraction of the premises that were likely to be affected. Harding said the rise in closure orders was due to more police activity but also an increase in properties being used.

“This in turn reflects the sheer number of such venues popping up all over the country. Cuckooing is a nasty business, very exploitative and cruel, involving the takeover of an address.

“Usually the victim has learning difficulties or mental health or addiction issues. Setting up in their home allows the dealers to cut their costs and have free accommodation – however, it also taps them into the local users, who all know each other, certainly for heroin users this is the case. Thus they can expedite their targeting and increase their supply much more effectively.”