Tonight - county lines drug dealers on the streets of Britain.
Yeah, there you go.
Under lockdown, it's become bolder than ever.
That is how blatant it is.
It's a ruthless business that exploits vulnerable children.
My phone rings, CJ's been shot.
And I just remember being at the hospital,
he had bandages on his head and it was blood everywhere.
Three minutes.
Panorama spent a year
following one of the country's busiest police forces...
DOOR CRASHES IN Police! Police!
..arresting street dealers...
We found the holy trilogy - drugs, cash, phones.
PHONE RINGS
..and targeting the suppliers bringing misery across the country.
This is not a glamorous lifestyle. This is horrendous and violent.
And if you get into it, it's very hard to get out of it.
DISTANT SIRENS
Good morning, everyone.
CHATTER
It's 4am.
150 officers from Kent and two other police forces
are taking part in an operation codenamed Zeal.
Part of a huge operation, this one.
Hopefully, we'll protect some vulnerable people,
bring in some drug dealers.
So we're going to an address in Dartford today
as part of a big operation.
Over 40 warrants being executed over the next day or so,
targeting county line drug dealers in Kent.
A county line is a drug-dealing network,
often with a city-based dealer
distributing illegal drugs to smaller towns.
Fighting it needs a joined-up approach.
Most of the county lines we're dealing with come out of London,
so we're leading a three-force operation here today.
It's us, the Met and British Transport Police.
County lines gangs sell their drugs through phone dealing lines.
Crack and heroin are the most popular drugs.
Profits from a single line can be £800,000 per year,
and each gang will violently defend its turf.
We'll check out at 5:20, all call signs in position,
run through it with the Met and Bronze Commander on the ground
and then we'll get the strike from there. Yes, sir.
Three minutes.
County line drug dealers are a sophisticated, organised,
incredibly violent group of individuals.
We're trying to get to the snake's head.
We're trying to find out who is bringing these drugs in.
They're the people we're really after.
Silver to Bronze, ground and all units -
strike, strike, strike.
GLASS SHATTERS
SHOUTING Police! Police!
In all, 18 people are arrested,
including six who police believe are big players.
SHOUTING
When we first started looking
at the phenomenon of county lines,
which was back probably about seven years ago now,
only seven forces in the country were actually affected.
As of today, every police force in the country is affected.
DISTANT SIRENS
Last week, Boris Johnson re-affirmed his commitment
to tackling drug dealers.
In the last 18 months, law enforcement agencies
have been promised an extra £65 million to target county lines,
money that's allowed Kent Police to double the size
of its county lines and gangs teams.
My name's Rob Hemsley. I'm a detective.
I'm one of the six investigators on the team,
and I've been working here for about three and a half years now.
The drug users, you used to see them every morning,
getting on the train, going up to London,
buying their drugs, coming back. Mm.
The whole system's changed now.
The drugs are being brought into the town.
My name's Mike Williams.
I'm a disruption officer for the county line gangs team.
It's our job to go out there,
take the runners that are selling the drugs,
getting any evidence that we can provide
to start the investigation process.
That usually starts by gathering information from the street dealers,
known as runners.
Mike Williams has worked this beat for more than a decade
and knows many of them by sight.
We'll go to Chatham.
The drug users know it as "Browntown".
Brown is a word for heroin.
Anywhere there's shops or a shopping centre,
it seems to attract people that are using drugs.
They will go into town centres, shoplift, sell their items,
then they will go and buy their drugs.
Mike and his team are based in Medway,
but they also have to keep an eye on dealers crossing over from London.
Outside of London, the south-east of England
has the highest rate of drug seizures in the UK.
Yeah, in Kent... Yeah, it's getting bad,
especially in the north of the county, up near Dartford.
People come across, do the street robberies,
jump back on the train.
They're all part of gangs. It's initiations.
So they're new to the gang - go out and do a robbery,
get some phones, and that leads onto other things.
There's a road called Piggy Alley. It's probably called Piggy Alley
cos there's always police up and down it.
But we get a lot of dealing going down.
It's like a service road, lots of little alleyways off it,
and there's always people skulking in and out.
That's thingy, innit? Michael Brockett. Right, yeah.
Keep on going past.
Mike Williams has just spotted someone he's arrested before -
a runner called Michael Brockett.
Potentially, an exchange has just taken place.
Right, fella, you all right? Just have a quick chat? It's all right.
Keep your hands out of your pockets for two minutes.
Keep your hand out of your pocket.
You've been detained for the purpose of a drug search.
Have you got anything on you you shouldn't have? Yeah.
Whereabouts? In the bag.
What's that in your bag for, then?
I got a meat cleaver over the head.
So it's for your protection, is it? Yeah. OK.
We've got some crack cocaine there, haven't we?
We found a quantity of heroin and crack cocaine.
You've got the white here which is your crack,
then you've got the brown, which is the heroin.
The runners are the most junior and the most exposed members
of the county lines networks.
As Michael Brockett is arrested, his phone is also seized.
PHONE RINGS
The phone line has a nickname - it helps those in the chain above
build their brand but hide their identity.
He's got his phone ringing off the hook.
Got this number here, Ace.
We know that this is a drug-dealing network
that's operating within the Medway towns.
We have to get it downloaded to see what content we've got on it.
Police hope that data from the Ace phone
will help identify the distributor
who's supplying the runners with drugs -
they're know as line holders.
We want to take out the people that are holding the line
because they're the bigger threat,
and they are harder to replace.
They could be in control of several lines and several runners.
So it will take out more people in the long run.
Information gathered from the Ace line phone
will be fed into Kent Police's monthly review,
where it's decided which county lines are going to be prioritised.
Good afternoon, everybody. My name's Mike Worrall.
I'm a Detective Superintendent
in charge of the gang and county line teams here in Kent...
According to the latest figures from the National Crime Agency,
there are around 1,000 county lines in operation across the UK.
Here in Kent, the number of lines is at near record levels.
At the minute, we've got 65 county lines in total.
I think the highest number we've had is 67, from memory.
So it's obviously very busy.
We'll be working around the intelligence,
and that picture changes on a daily, weekly basis. Yeah.
The street disruption officers go out gathering the intelligence.
That intelligence is looked at through a matrix
which then identifies which scores are given to which county line.
This is a provisional score of 56.
This matrix takes the complex web of intelligence
that officers have gathered and turns it into a number -
the higher the number, the more dangerous the county line.
My name is Olivia Lee. I'm a civilian intelligence analyst.
My main job is to control the matrix
and the scoring for the county lines.
A firearm was located at one of the safe houses
that we did warrants at.
We're looking for vulnerability.
That drug dealer has a young child.
If they're using juveniles, using vulnerable adults
and they're linked to weapons, we will then score based on that.
The Ace line - a provisional score of 36.
The higher the score drives the top five,
which is what drives the direction of the force.
Scoring just 36 means that the Ace line
isn't going to be prioritised this month.
Police have another target - the Jem Line.
This is a drugs network with several line holders
and teams of teenage drug runners.
The line is linked to knife as well as gun crime.
How big is the Jem Line? Big.
Into the hundreds of thousands, easily.
Jem is our number one. Jemel Fourneillier.
He's what we'd say is a higher level of drug dealer.
He scored 81. 81 is the highest we've had.
Jemel Fourneillier sits higher up
and contacts the line holder, who then contacts the runners.
So he's the head of some of the networks
that we've been looking at.
Jem's a supplier, supplying drugs in and around
the Medway areas and London to other lines.
THEY WHISPER
The county lines and gangs team targeted Fourneillier at home....
..and caught him red-handed.
DOOR CRASHES Police! Stay there!
Stay where you are! SHOUTING AND STRUGGLING
Show me your hands. Move the dog, move the dog!
You're nicked for possession with intent to supply class-A drugs.
That's come out of your hand.
VOICEOVER: He was found trying to flush
some bundles of crack cocaine down the toilet.
At one of the other addresses linked to him,
we recovered about half a kilo of crack cocaine and heroin
and a firearm which was loaded.
Fourneillier is under arrest,
but the county lines network he supplied is still operating.
Under him is an 18-year-old line holder who lives in Rochester.
OK. Thank you, guys.
Today, we're here to execute a drugs warrant in Rochester,
a male by the name of George Dempsey.
It's believed that he's controlling the county line known as Avon.
Several unmarked police vehicles are converging on Dempsey's home.
RADIO CHIRPS
Yeah, Luke, if you think it's him, mate, we'll try and put a stop in.
Officers in one of the other cars spot Dempsey on the street.
We think... We think he's...
OVER RADIO: We're just moving in closer to him in case he takes off.
We think he's come out of the address...
He's there.
He's making off.
Oh, he's making off, making off.
Stop! TYRES SCREECH
Stay there!
You're under arrest for being concerned
in the supply of class-A drugs.
You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence
if you do not mention when questioned
something you later rely on in court. Do you understand?
DOOR CRASHES Police! Police!
What we've got here is going to be a quantity of heroin which is uncut.
Got a quantity of crack cocaine here.
He's got two mobile phones on him,
and one of the phones is what we call the job line.
We've got bulk messages basically saying
that he's got heroin and crack cocaine for sale.
Here you've got loads and loads of numbers -
all the same number, ending in 529.
We believe this to be the Avon drug line,
so he's going to be taking this out to potential new customers.
Also, we found a large quantity of cash,
approximately over £1,000.
Bearing in mind the guy doesn't work,
he's got a lot of questions to answer.
What we've found is what we call the holy trilogy -
drugs, cash and obviously phones on him.
We've got the full shebang. So, yeah, it's a great result for us.
George Dempsey has a learning disability,
and vulnerable young people are often coerced into selling
or distributing drugs by those higher up the county lines network.
The younger they are, the easier it is for the gangs to groom them.
Hi, my name's Kory, and this is my dance.
DANCE MUSIC PLAYS
He was an excellent dancer.
He was going to dance school from he was five.
Do you remember the group, Diversity?
He was with them for about three years.
He just loved to dance, he loved to entertain,
so we was going down that line.
But things started to go badly wrong for Kory,
known to his family as CJ.
At ten, he was diagnosed with a learning disorder.
His school couldn't cope with his behaviour and he was excluded.
Then, at 13, CJ was groomed by an East London drugs gang.
It began with them buying him chicken and chips after school.
It wasn't long before they demanded something in return.
I'm calling him and he goes,
"Mum, these boys have asked me to sell drugs."
And my next question was, straight away, "Where are you?"
As soon as I saw the drugs, I said,
"I want to take them."
And he was like, "No, no, no, Mum, you don't know these boys."
I said, "Listen, if there's ever a moment in life
"that you should trust me, it's this moment right now.
"I've got you. Don't worry, I'm taking this."
CJ's mum says she disposed of around £600 worth of drugs.
£600 that he would now have to pay back.
As much as I can say, "OK, it's dealt with on my side,"
in his mind, it's not dealt with,
cos he now feels like he owes money for these boys.
He wanted to get rid of that debt.
He went missing.
He went to county lines, as they say.
When he returned, he had dark eyes, he looked like he hadn't bathed,
he didn't look like the son that I was raising.
Just turned 14, CJ and three other young people
were targeted on a street corner by a gunman in a stolen Range Rover.
My phone rings. CJ's been shot.
Do you have to touch my face like that? Mwah!
Then I just remember being at the hospital.
I told him I was there.
I told him I loved him and I'm going to be here for when he wakes up.
CJ died from his injuries the next day.
No-one has been arrested for his murder,
but police say the case remains open.
A few weeks into filming, and lockdown hits the UK.
With the streets deserted,
the county lines gangs no longer have the cover they once relied on.
They had to change the way that they operated.
There was some anecdotal evidence of them
using supermarket car parks to try
and get some cover of other people,
some suggestion that perhaps they were using key worker status
to be able to move themselves around.
Prices went up. If prices go up, violence goes up.
So criminals will adapt.
After an initial shortage of drugs and a corresponding spike in prices,
it's not long before it's business as usual.
I don't think there's been any difference
in relation to the busyness of the market.
Just because there's a global pandemic on,
people have still got an addiction
and they've got to feed that addiction.
This guy in front of us is a user.
Somebody in that alleyway has popped out, looking up and down.
Probably going to score.
Let's bounce back.
I've been nicking people in this alleyway for years.
There you go. It's Joe Cass with him.
I think he's chatting. They're both drug users.
Has he given him money there? He has, hasn't he? Yep. Done it.
Completely oblivious to us.
Look at that, just complete... There you go, there's the cash.
That is how blatant it is.
No.
We're on an operation today for a bigger player.
We'll go back and get him another day.
Something that blew my mind is, we stopped a guy.
He didn't know that there was an actual global pandemic.
He didn't know.
He just thought it was just quiet.
Just shows you how far detached these people get.
As the year has gone on, we've gone back to normal.
Initially, it was harder to gain intelligence.
Now the intelligence is just as rapid as what it has been.
The county lines team has now discovered more
about one of the networks it disrupted
before the first lockdown last year.
So after the arrest of George Dempsey,
we have, through phone work, worked out that George Dempsey
was in contact with a well-known male by the name of BLEEP,
which would suggest that BLEEP was supplying George Dempsey.
He has been in prison on multiple occasions for drug offences.
He's been known to us from about 2008.
He's gone from being a low-level street dealer
and worked his way up the ranks, according to the intelligence.
He's been in prison for it.
On two occasions that I've dealt with him,
the first one he got six years, I believe,
and the second one he got ten years.
It just shows, he's probably served half that sentence
and then he's come straight back out into it.
Police believe their new suspect has stepped in
to replace Jem Fourneillier, who'd been arrested in February 2020.
Unlike Fourneillier,
the suspect is believed to be delivering drugs himself,
bringing them from London by car.
So the investigation has identified that he's using this vehicle.
What we can do on the ANPR system
is search on that numberplate alone
and it will show us all the activations that it's made.
He's going to be switched on,
so we're going to have to think about this one.
How many cars have we got?
One, two... Probably about four or five vehicles, hopefully.
It's monitoring the movements of our subject vehicle.
It shows us at 13.01 right by King's College Hospital.
Ideally, what you want to do is get them
in one of the narrow Medway streets
that you can come in one end and one at another,
and use parked cars and just...
Block him in. Block him in.
Within the last sort of ten or 15 minutes, he's down here,
heading towards Dulwich Village area.
In theory, that would lead onto the South Circular,
which would bring him down towards us.
With their shift ending at 7pm and still no sign of their suspect,
police stand down the operation.
There's been a lot of manpower today and pretty much all we've done
is sit in the office, waiting on our man to rock up.
However, a few days later, police are back on the trail.
The intention today is to execute a search warrant in Maidstone.
You are searching for controlled drugs,
documentation relating to controlled drugs,
including those contained within electronic devices,
and any sim cards.
Don't slam doors, don't slam doors.
Go on, one more.
Police! Police!
Stay where you are!
Executing a search warrant, OK? Do you want to step up for us?
The time is 5.20.
At this time, you're being arrested
on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, OK?
I'm out of breath now, running up those stairs!
Although the intelligence points
to the suspect being a major player, the search of the property
doesn't uncover the evidence police were hoping for.
The next day he's released, but he remains a person of interest.
This is not a glamorous lifestyle.
This is horrendous and violent.
And if you get into it, very hard to get out of it.
Aged just 14, this girl, who we're calling Ashley,
found out just how hard it can be.
I started hanging around with people who was running their own lines.
And I was watching them make an extraordinary amount of money.
We're disguising her identity
because she fears the gang she joined as a teenager.
I had no money, I didn't have nothing.
I couldn't just live off of my mum.
So I went up to my friend and I said to him,
"How much will I get paid a week?"
And he says, "You'll earn £600 a week," and I'm thinking, "What?!"
"£600 a week? Yes, please!"
Ashley began working as a courier, often taking drugs
long distances for the gang.
But when she wanted to leave, the gang had other ideas
and began to torture her.
After I'd been beaten with various objects, he pulled out the gun.
I thought I was going to die that night.
I laid on the floor and I looked... I was just looking into the sky,
and I was like, "Oh, my God! I'm dying."
Unlike many victims,
Ashley decided to give evidence against her attackers.
Found guilty on charges including kidnap and assault,
they all received long jail sentences.
At their Medway headquarters, officers have been alerted
to a violent new county lines gang that's arrived from London.
Calling itself the CJ line,
it's gone right to the top of the priority list.
We've been made aware overnight of a video circulating on Snapchat
- which has been uploaded by an account, CJ Underscore Two.
It basically shows a male being tortured.
LAUGHTER ON RECORDING
The Snapchat video was being circulated in the area of Gravesend.
VIDEO: Star jumps now. BLEEP star jumps!
You get down on your...
He's with us now. Police found him this morning.
He has injuries consistent with the assault
that we've seen in the video.
As well as children, county lines gangs prey on vulnerable adults.
In this case, they've subjected a 33-year-old man
to a five-hour ordeal.
He was cut, burned and scalded with boiling water.
It's very serious, making somebody do that.
I mean, that's one step away from killing them.
Officers have used intelligence from social media
to track down the suspects who uploaded the video.
One of the names being batted around is a Charlie Saunter.
It's that address. That's where the videos were sent from.
MOBILE RINGS
Hello, mate. We don't know what we're going to be walking into. OK.
We'll just go straight up and just do it.
We'll see you up there, mate. All right.
All right, go. See if there's cover.
Police! Police! Do not move, do not move! Do not move, do not move.
Get out of there! Hands up, hands up, hands up, hands up!
Hands up, hands up. On the floor, on the floor.
Get hold of your dog, get hold of your dog.
Charlie, you're under arrest for GBH, false imprisonment.
Why have you got a stab vest?
Got a great big Rambo knife there.
We've got multiple weapons, drugs, all sorts.
Been successful. We've got our man in custody - Mr Saunter.
He was in there with two other males.
This was pulled out as we got into the living room.
He was lucky he wasn't tasered.
I think he soon realised we were police
and dropped it straight away.
What's this for, ITV? BBC, mate. BLEEP BBC, yeah!
Unfortunately, my colleague got bit because there was a bull mastiff.
Bit my colleague on the leg.
Got various weapons located, secreted around the house.
That was lifted up and that was just placed there
so you wouldn't necessarily see it.
The videos the gang put up on social media
showed them attacking the victim with a purple knife.
This is a great bit of evidence
because we think this is the knife that was used in the assault.
This guy had this with him as well,
so it just shows that they're prepared to wear stab vests.
County lines gangs sometimes take over people's properties like this
and use them as drug dealing dens.
It's called cuckooing.
This particular address belongs to a female that we know very well.
She's a young female, has a severe drug addiction.
So this, to me, is a classic victim of cuckooing.
People would just come round, give her some drugs to stay.
They're just using the drugs to feed her habit, and they've got a place
to stay for the night and run and deal drugs from.
Charlie Saunter, which we believe to be connected to the CJ Line,
we've recovered his bag.
When we looked in it, we found a large quantity of class A drugs
as well as about £2,000 in cash,
all these documents with his name on it.
It was quite funny because he was wearing a West Ham football top,
and on the back he had initials of CJ.
Which is crazy - it's like promoting his own drug trade
on the back of his West Ham shirt.
Since the first lockdown in March last year,
the court system has struggled.
Now the courts are finally beginning to catch up
with the backlog of cases.
Last month, Charles Saunter and two others pleaded guilty
to a string of charges, including assault and drug dealing.
Jemel Fourneillier also pleaded guilty to drugs
and firearm offences.
George Dempsey is serving a two-year sentence
for supplying crack and heroin.
Over the last year, Kent's drug squad has made over 300 arrests
and say they've reduced the number of county lines by a third to 46.
There are now plans to expand the drugs squad to 70 officers.
They'll have no shortage of targets.
It's not a war, because a war ends. It's just a constant battle.
You take him out. He'll step in.
And then we'll take him out, and then someone else will step in.
That's the game.