Snapchat, 'slavery' and how gang bosses are lining their pockets off the misery of children

Ruthless drug dealers are "deluding" troubled boys, many of whom have not even left high school, into "thinking they are gangsters" and carrying weapons.

Several recent court cases, all in areas some distance away from the north west, have highlighted how seasoned criminal operators in Merseyside are ensnaring vulnerable young people into selling heroin and crack cocaine.

Many of the youths affected are in care or recent care leavers, and many are still not old enough to have completed high school. Most recently, Devon and Cornwall Police dismantled a sprawling 'county lines' style organised crime group flooding Exeter, Torbay and North Devon with Class A drugs, sourced from Liverpool.

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An unusual and bleak feature of the case was nine of the 16 defendants sentenced as part of the operation were under the age of 18, with some as young as 15 given responsibility for directing other dealers. Billy Curtis, 21 by the time of his sentencing at Exeter Crown Court this week, was described as "recruiting" children to sell crack and heroin despite only being 18 himself at the start of the conspiracy.

The police operation, dubbed Operation Harbinger, found the wider gang were earning around £2,000 per day. Officers also seized and reviewed over 100 mobile phones and 27 weapons including knives, imitation firearms, and CS spray, reports the ECHO.

In total, 35 'graft' phone lines were attributed to the group with around 3,000 messages advertising drugs for sale identified. These included the ‘Ramzy’, ‘Scouse Terry’, ‘AJ’ and ‘Benny’ lines with the numbers changing regularly in an attempt to avoid detection.

In February this year two of the younger gang members,