7m
10 Nov 2020

Parents caught up in UK drug gangs – to protect their children

Social Affairs Editor and Presenter

They’re ordinary mums and dads who should be worrying about how their child is doing at school. Instead, they’re driving around in the dead of night, handing over cash stuffed in envelopes to the drug gangs who are exploiting their children.

“Debt” is a brutal weapon being used by criminal gangs to trap children and young people in ‘county lines’ drug dealing and online scams. And we’ve discovered that desperate parents are paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds to prevent their teenagers being hurt – or worse.

We’ve disguised the identities of the people we’ve spoken to, to protect their identity, and followed the appropriate Covid restrictions at the time it was filmed.