YouTuber visits Coventry and finds 12-year-old 'dealing crack cocaine on street'

A YouTube star visiting Coventry discovered a 12-year-old "dealing drugs" on the street and was warned by locals not to go out at night.

Dantae, from the Having a Shocker YouTube channel, ventured into the north Coventry area of Wood End to investigate reports of drug crime. During his visit, a shop-goer angrily aired her views, saying that drug dealing intensifies during late afternoon to early evening, and there's a chilly reception for any unfamiliar faces.

"You ain't welcome in the area because they don't know you," she said. "You won't get anywhere near the shops if your face don't fit, you don't belong around here."

The woman attributed the chronic state of crime to relentless government underfunding, but dismissed comparisons with notorious US cities. She said: "This area has been deemed the Compton of Coventry, but it isn't. We are nothing like the Americans, nothing whatsoever."

Speaking candidly in an interview recorded before the General Election, she criticised the wider issue of street violence, also blaming inadequate governance: "Yes there's street violence but why? Because the government's not running properly."

But for her, the troubling surge in violence isn't isolated and is instead nationwide and deeply concerning. "It's not just this area, it's 99% of England right now. You cannot walk around, you cannot feel safe ...because the government don't give two s**ts," she continued.

In a nearby car park, Dantae stumbled upon a young drug dealer, who he estimated to be about 11 or 12 years old, riding a motocross bike and selling crack cocaine to an older man. The youngster, riding without a helmet, demanded £10 from a man before zooming off, promising to return shortly with the drugs.

"I'm not sure what's happening, but that young lad likely around 12 years old on a bloke just approached him asking for crack and the 12-year-old simply said 'wait here'," Dantae said.

The sight came weeks after a County Lines kingpin, responsible for drug deals worth at least £250,000, was arrested in Coventry, with not only with a 17-year-old girl but also a one year old infant in his vehicle. Levi Pollard-Mersom was apprehended by the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit.

Following his trial, Detective Inspector Julie Woods, informed reporters: "This was a classic County Lines operation. Pollard-Mersom was pulling the strings from afar, raking in up to £1,500 per day, and manipulating the others through violence, threats and reputation."

"He pocketed most of the cash but exposed himself to minimal risk, while the drug runners faced the very real danger of being attacked with weapons, by rival gangs or being arrested on the street. During the investigation we seized more than 1,000 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine plus nearly £10,000 in cash."

Dantae also spoke to a local dealer who revealed he first got involved in the drug trade as a courier at the tender age of 12 or 13, and by his mid-teens, he was a full-blown drug dealer. "It's the same story for everyone around here," the dealer confessed.

"It's an area where you grow up in it and everybody around you is doing it. You either get away from it or you become a part of it."

He acknowledged witnessing a significant amount of drug-related violence on the streets. "People have been stabbed, people have been shot and been to prison."

Despite this, he claimed that youngsters were still getting drawn into dealing.

Another Coventry resident described the Burges area as a particularly dangerous spot, with violence being almost a daily occurrence. He warned: "Everyone knows you just don't come here at night. We're in the city centre but this is the one part of it that you just don't really come to at night."

In another part of the city, Dantae interviewed drug user Darren, who detailed some of the devastating effects that heroin and crack are having on the community. "I left Coventry when crack hit, because I didn't want anything to do with it it's bad," he shared.

Darren relocated to North Yorkshire, but the destructive impact of Coventry's crack cocaine problem still managed to reach him there. He continued: "I got a phone call six times telling me 'You need to get to certain hospital we've got your sister in. She's [overdosed] and we're not expecting her to make it."

In fact, Darren's younger sister survived these overdoses, only to discharge herself from hospital and leave to seek more drugs. But in the end, Darren believes, his sister's drug use ended up costing her life.

He continued: "My little sister got murdered and and I'm pretty sure that was over a couple of shots ...she was staying in a place over in Birmingham, in Handsworth."

He describes a harrowing video, edited together from Ring doorbell cameras and CCTV, that shows his sister's final moments. "It showed you him chasing her around the block and she had something in her hand," Darren said.

"I know it would have been crack, that's why he was chasing her. He caught up with her and he beat her to death."

A lot of the violence is over small amounts of money, with people being badly beaten for owing as little as £20 to a dealer, but one street dealer Dantae spoke to said he could make as much as £2500 in a single day – twice what many people might earn in a month.