CALLOUS drug dealers are getting vulnerable single mums in Barrow hooked on heroin and then using them as dealers.

They worm their way into their homes to set up shop and use them for sexual services and to sell their wares.


DI Nick Coughlan Detective Inspector Nick Coughlan was speaking out after the Home Office revealed figures that showed drug seizures in the county were down by 11 per cent on last year.

He said the tactic was known as “cuckooing” and had been picked up in Barrow and Carlisle. It is so called after the bird that invades nests, and victims are often left with little choice but to co-operate.

The intelligence unit boss – whose team covers the whole of Cumbria, tackling organised crime – said the figures had dropped because they no longer targeted low-level users but went for the “Mr Bigs” of the drug world. He said they didn’t want to criminalise these victims but help them.

UK police last year confiscated more than a million doses of ecstasy, 3.4 tonnes of cocaine and 1.1 tonnes of heroin but say overall quantities have fallen. The top drug seized in Cumbria is cocaine, followed by cannabis and then heroin, the report revealed.

DI Coughlan added: “These figures are not a million miles away from our own statistics.

“The thing is, with this type of crime a lot of work is going on behind the scenes. It’s not like a burglary where the victim rings up and tells us what’s happened.

“A drug dealer doesn’t ring us and tip us off about their movements.

“We have to do a lot of stuff behind the scenes on organised crime and that will be one of the things that will be hit if these police budget cuts go ahead. We won’t have the manpower. If we don’t have the cops, then it will be a downward trend.

“Cumbria has seen a reduction in the amount of drugs seized but I think that’s because we are going for higher-level organised crime groups. We are not targeting street-level users.

“People come from outside the county and take over the drugs market. They come in with heroin and get vulnerable people hooked. If people are victims of this, all they think about is their next fix of opiates.

“They also target vulnerable women with kids who are on their own who aren’t on drugs or maybe do have a habit. They come into an area and find vulnerable people and exploit them.

“They supply them with drugs, use them for sexual services and get them to knock out drugs. It happens in Barrow and Carlisle.

“In these cases, we want to deal with the offender and the supplier. We bring in other services like Unity and children’s services to help. There is a lot of partnership work.

“In reality though, if there are less police officers behind the scenes targeting criminal like this, there will be less drug seizures by the cops. It’s like drink-driving. The majority are caught by police rather than someone informing us, and that’s the same with drug dealing.”

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