County lines is a drug distribution system in which criminal networks funnel hard drugs from cities to towns and rural regions across the country.

The police investigation first focused on phone lines, sifting through hundreds of thousands of pages of call data. With this information, they were able to identify the individuals involved.

Of the 16 convicted, 10 pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin. They were also charged with one count of participating in an organised crime group, which would remain on file.

Those found guilty included line holders, who managed the lines from London and directed younger members of the gang to “cuckoo” addresses in the south-east where they would conduct the sale of drugs. These properties often belonged to local drug users. This method of operation was typical of county lines, the Met said.

While there has been recent focus on children being used to transport drugs across counties, the investigation did not find any exploited young people connected to the gang. The police did, however, identify a number of vulnerable adults.

The phone lines operated by the gang each had a different name. The National Crime Agency estimates that one county lines phone can generate £800,000 a year.

Between August and November 2018, officers identified the gang were running five county lines: the Si, which ran from London into Bognor Regis in Sussex; the AJ, which operated in towns and villages on the borders of Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey; the Pepsi line, which ran between London and Medway in Kent; the Jeezy, which ran between London and Medway; and a local line that was responsible for the sale of crack cocaine and heroin in south London.

The murder of 14-year-old Jayden Moodie on Tuesday night highlights how youth violence continues to devastate the lives of young people, families and communities in London. Jayden’s death marks a new low point as he is the youngest victim to die on London’s streets so far this year.

We don’t know whether Jayden was himself involved in gangs or if his death was gang-related. All we know is that he was struck by a vehicle while riding a moped, then chased by a group of three men and stabbed to death in what police believe was a targeted attack. However, Jayden was killed in Leyton, part of the east London borough of Waltham Forest where the threat of gangs and gang violence looms large.

Last year, we published the results of a study looking at gangs in Waltham Forest, that provides some context for Jayden’s murder. As one of the many areas in London affected by rising youth violence, Waltham Forest has been at the forefront of gang interventions ever since the ground-breaking Reluctant Gangsters study was published in 2007. 

A decade ago, gangs in Waltham Forest were organised around postcode territories that young people defended from outsiders. Gang membership was a physical and emotional commitment – exhibited through gang “colours” and a real sense of local pride at being visibly present on the street.

Our research highlighted that gangs in Waltham Forest today view turf differently; less as symbolic hallowed ground, and more as a marketplace. Gangs are now more focused on profits, not postcodes. Two factors were responsible for this evolution: the ready availability of illicit drugs and the rise of social media.

Gangs had come to reject outward signs of gang membership as “bad for business” because they attracted unwanted attention from law enforcement agencies. They instead grew up and moved on to develop lucrative “county lines” operations in new areas where they were unknown to police.

County lines are predicated on an exploitation of people, not places. Leveraging young people’s boredom, poverty and lack of future prospects, gang elders cynically lure children into the drug trade with false promises of more money and status that rarely materialise, then entrap them through debt bondage and other coercive means. County lines have been linked with an increase in stabbings involving known drug dealers as victims or suspects, partly because grievances in illicit drugs markets cannot be settled through legal channels.