Up to £5m has been allocated by the Home Office to support victims of county lines exploitation over the next three years.

Hundreds of victims will be helped to escape drug gangs following the expansion of support services in London, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

These are the largest exporting areas for county lines activity, which involves drug trafficking operations in which children or vulnerable adults are groomed to run drugs from one city to other parts of the country.

The money will go towards providing a rescue service and specialist one-to-one support for victims.

Up to £5m has been allocated by the Home Office to support victims of county lines exploitation over the next three years.

Hundreds of victims will be helped to escape drug gangs following the expansion of support services in London, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

These are the largest exporting areas for county lines activity, which involves drug trafficking operations in which children or vulnerable adults are groomed to run drugs from one city to other parts of the country.

The money will go towards providing a rescue service and specialist one-to-one support for victims.

Police in Lincolnshire are turning to technology to assist in the fight against rural crime.

Twenty hi-tech cameras, complete with night vision, will be installed at secret locations in remote areas of the county and can alert police to intruders within seconds. It comes after an investment from the police and crime commissioner, Marc Jones.

“It is imperative that we make use of the latest technology in our fight to keep our communities safe,” he said.

Lincolnshire Police is already using drones in a bid to reduce rural crime, including hare coursing. Mr Jones has agreed to support the new Rural Spotter project, which will be evaluated at six and 12 months, with a £20,000 investment funded by money seized from criminals. He said the cameras would “seriously enhance” the police’s ability to “put eyes on the most isolated locations”.

“It is just the latest investment in providing the right tools for our officers to provide them the best opportunity to protect residents, homes, businesses and property,” he added.

A new rural crime task force was formed in 2021 to combat criminal activity, including hare coursing, lead theft and theft from farms and rural properties.

Lincolnshire Police has also recently invested in other new high-tech kit, including night vision googles and drones.

Ch Insp Phil Vickers, lead for rural crime, said using new technology was crucial.

“Lincolnshire is a huge area to cover and the quicker we are alerted to crime the better chance we have of catching the offenders,” he said.

Organised crime may be having an increasing impact on rural communities, according to police.

A new project will assess the effects of a rise in rural crime on farmers and their families in Devon and Cornwall.

Farmers have been asked to complete an online survey about their experiences of crime in what organisers claim is the first study of its kind.

The police are working with academics to deliver the survey and look at possible solutions.

PC Martin Beck, rural affairs officer with Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “This project aims to use our rural communities to help map the nature of the crime, and analyse the impact of crime and fear of crime, on farming.

“It will also help us examine ways to evaluate and improve farm security.”

A 2020 Rural Crime Report by NFU Mutual found there had been a 14% rise in rural crime in the South West.

The project is being led by the University of Plymouth, in collaboration with Devon and Cornwall Police and the University of Winchester.

The survey asks if farmers feel safe on their farms, and whether they feel crime is a problem in their community, but also how those feelings have changed in recent years.

The nature of crimes farmers are experiencing, and how they differ from past incidents, will also be explored in the survey.

Nearly 1,500 people have been arrested in England and Wales in a week-long operation against so-called county lines drug dealing networks.

Police say they have started focusing on senior figures controlling phone numbers used to sell drugs.

Officers are also using modern slavery and human trafficking laws to prosecute gangs exploiting vulnerable children.

Some 139 county lines were closed, and almost £2m of Class A drugs, including cocaine and heroin, seized.

County line gangs are urban drug dealers who sell to customers in more rural areas via dedicated phone lines.

They have become central to the trade in illegal substances across Britain and the way they operate is often accompanied by serious violence. 

Gangs in cities operate phone lines advertised in other towns and rural areas to supply drugs, while remaining at arm’s length to reduce the risk of arrest.

A broadband mast has been vandalised four times in four weeks, affecting thousands of people, according to an internet provider.

The latest attack on the mast near Barnstaple in north Devon happened last Saturday, said Airband.

Spokesman James Hyland said: “We share the frustration of the public and we are sorry for the disruption.”

The company, which is bringing broadband to rural areas of north Devon, said it had informed the police.

Fibre optic cable delivering “essential ultrafast broadband connectivity to the rural communities of north Devon” had been cut through, Mr Hyland said.

Local residents have been “severed” from the wider broadband network, which he said was a “real shame as many businesses and residents are more reliant on this service than ever with the current climate”.

“This is now part of an ongoing criminal investigation,” Mr Hyland said. “Be assured that we’re working with all local agencies to get this sorted once and for all.”

He said it was not clear why the mast, which has no 5G links, had been targeted.

Police said they believed the latest attack happened between 14:30 BST on 16 September and 08:40 on 18 September on Mill Road in Barnstaple.

They said a report of criminal damage had been made after an “unknown implement” was used to damage broadband cabling.

Attacks on 5G masts in the UK have been fuelled by conspiracy theories wrongly linking 5G and coronavirus.

A lack of funding for rural youth work in England is leaving young people exposed to the dangers of county lines drug-dealing gangs, it is claimed.

The amount spent per head on youth work for 11- to 19-year-olds in rural England, £47, is 25% less than in urban areas, and half the level a decade ago.

The National Youth Agency said rural employment prospects and mental-health support access were also a concern.

The government said it had given youth-work charities £100m over the pandemic.

But the National Youth Agency is calling for it to implement a long-term spending plan.

‘Increasing trend’

County-lines gangs often use vulnerable children to help them bring illegal drugs into areas across the UK – and move money out.

The National Youth Agency said it had seen an “increasing trend” for young people in county towns and rural areas to be targeted.

Youth workers were vital in protecting those at risk by providing a known and trusted adult, chief executive Leigh Middleton told BBC News.

But, he added: “As local authority budgets have shrunk, [resources have] gone to our towns and cities.”

A police force has unveiled a special drone it says will be a “gamechanger” in efforts to tackle rural crime.

Avon and Somerset Police said the drone had already helped recover £100,000 worth of stolen equipment in a single operation.

It hopes the technology will stop hare coursing and poaching and lead to more prosecutions.

One Somerset farmer said it would stop theft on his farm “if it can be deployed quickly”.

The drone uses a controller that has a live feed from its cameras, and can be quietly flown at a speed of 25 knots (28 mph).

It can be used to survey large areas of land to find missing people and criminals quickly.

Avon and Somerset’s rural and wildlife affairs unit drone pilot Pete Wills said: “It is a gamechanger.

“Hare coursing, especially, and poaching are underreported and also prosecutions are really difficult to get because there isn’t CCTV out here.”

Somerset farmer Richard Payne said the drone could help stop vandalism and the theft of his machinery worth thousands of pounds.

“My farm has become a soft target for crime,” he said.

“There are professional gangs that will go around taking valuable bits of kit out of machinery – if they don’t take the whole machine themselves.”

Farmers have shared pictures and videos of fly-tipping as part of renewed efforts to illustrate the extent of the problem in the countryside and force tougher sanctions for offenders.

A tweet from the NFU asking for evidence of waste dumped illegally has prompted replies from dozens of fed-up farmers.

A deluge of pictures showed building material blocking country lanes, black bin bags discarded in hedgerows, and even a small boat on a trailer, left on the side of the road.

The NFU said: “The quicker we tackle this continual blight on our countryside, the quicker farmers can concentrate on what they do best – caring for the environment and producing the nation’s food.”

NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts said: “Every day, I hear how farmers’ fields are being bombarded with rubbish being illegally dumped.

“It’s extremely costly and time-consuming to remove, is dangerous to human health and harmful to wildlife and livestock.

 “The NFU’s new Levelling up rural Britain report highlights how farms and rural communities have increasingly become the target of criminal gangs, with those areas continuing to receive lower levels of police funding, per head of population, than urban areas.”

A farmer who saw a sharp rise in crime on her land has told how she has blocked 50 gateways, dug ditches around fields and hired a private security firm to protect her business.

Freya Morgan, 57, said the 10 crimes on her north Bedfordshire farm in 2020 included hare coursing and fly-tipping.

The security upgrades have cost her at least £12,000, she estimates.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has called on police forces to increase resources for tackling rural crime.

It said a survey of its members had revealed that rural crime had cost the average victim £5,100, with one in 10 respondents putting the bill at £10,000 or more.

Mrs Morgan said: “Our main issue is hare coursing – when organised criminals chase hares for large bets of money.”

As well as spending about £8,000 putting up about 50 lockable gates to fields and tracks on the farm, she has dug ditches “as a physical barrier” and erected a £4,000 electric entrance gate.

Fly-tipping is another blight, including “the odd caravan dump”.

The county’s rural policing team is based a 90-minute drive away at Dunstable.

Mrs Morgan said: “We need more rural police officers and we need them distributed about the county better.”

Since last year, she has paid £50 a month to a private security firm which conducts night patrols.

“It’s a good return, as you go to bed at night knowing that someone is keeping an eye on your property when you cannot do it.

“No other workplace has this level of damage or risk sitting over their business.”

New figures reveal that farm animals worth an estimated £2.3m were stolen from UK farms in 2020, making it one of the most costliest crimes for farmers.

Although the pandemic saw the cost of rustling decrease by a quarter, in the South West region the cost of animals stolen rose by over a third to an estimated £320,000.

Overall, livestock rustling remains one of the most costly crimes for British farmers after vehicle and machinery theft.

The Midlands saw a sharp fall of 44% in 2020 following the prosecution of thieves, who, in 2019, slaughtered large numbers sheep in Northamptonshire.

Rebecca Davidson, rural affairs specialist at NFU Mutual said tougher police enforcement seemed to have taken effect last year.

“Last year’s overall fall is encouraging news to an industry which has worked hard through the pandemic to keep the nation fed.

“The coronavirus restrictions may have also deterred criminals who would have been easier to detect during lockdown.”

However, she said the latest figures from NFU Mutual’s claims were ‘not a reason for complacency’, and farmers remained ‘deeply concerned’ that the crime continued, even at a time of crisis.

“Modern rustling is a large-scale, organised crime causing suffering to animals, adding financial pressures to farmers and putting public health at risk,” Ms Davidson added.

“We are worried that when movement restrictions ease there could be a resurgence as thieves target the countryside again.

“We are urging farmers to remain vigilant and check stock regularly.”

Rustling has always been an aspect of farming, but ten years ago NFU Mutual would rarely see claims of more than a dozen sheep taken at a time.

The insurer now regularly receives reports of thirty to a hundred sheep being taken in a single raid.