Every week, children roam the UK on buses and trains, transporting drugs as part of criminal gang operations.
The BBC spent months with an organization that seeks to help children who are in danger of falling into drug networks, listening to the young people’s stories of abuse, the anguish of their families and learning what they need to break free.
Three people agreed to tell their story within those criminal networks.
Nicole: “Nobody asked why I wasn’t at school”
“I’ve seen a lot of things,” said Nicole, who was recruited by a drug gang when she was just 11 years old.
“I’ve seen people stabbed for the slightest disagreement, for things like 20 pounds (22 dollars),” he recounted.
Before joining the gang, he slept on a mattress on the floor and showered at school whenever he had the chance. “They find you (…) “You don’t find them,” said Nicole, who is now 18 years old.
The gang promised her a bed, new clothes, and help her mother pay her bills.
She admitted that she saw her new friends in “nice shoes, nice clothes and makeup” and became very jealous. “She was at the point where she would do anything to get that,” she added.
Nicole transported drugs from the northern English city of Newcastle across the country. “I had an address, a date, a time and a train ticket,” she commented.
But the gang’s promises never came true. “I never had a bed or new clothes.” Instead, she was initiated into a world of violence and child abuse. “I was so naive,” she said.
On a trip to the south of the country, beyond London, the young woman recalled that she cried in the bathrooms at each station she stopped at.
“When I got to the place, what was planned didn’t happen,” he said. “I had to do a lot of things that I didn’t want to do to get out of that situation alive. If I hadn’t done what they asked me to do, which was sexual, physical, mental, I don’t think I would be here today,” he added.
The violence she witnessed kept her in the gang, where she was warned that “if I didn’t do what they told me, I would pay.”
To this day the girl cannot understand why no adult intervened as she traveled the country on trains and buses, alone, 11 years old and skipping school.
“They didn’t see me, they didn’t find me, they didn’t ask me why I wasn’t at school. They didn’t ask me why I wasn’t with my mom or dad. That’s what affects me the most to this day,” he said. “Why didn’t someone intervene?”
After 2 years of violence, abuse, fear, and broken promises, Nicole seized an opportunity to escape.
A teacher who had been offering her showers at school and paying for her meals after school reached out to her.
One day, at the age of 13, Nicole appeared to the educator after suffering a miscarriage.
“She found out and took me to the hospital. She had had enough. She had reached that breaking point,” he said. “I already have someone to confide in. She needs to know that I’m not okay.”
Now, 5 years after her escape, Nicole is studying at the university to improve her life. She hopes to have a home and a family, and she wants to be the type of person who doesn’t look the other way when someone needs help.
He also wants to provide hope to others who may still be trapped, scared, and exploited by these criminal networks.
“I couldn’t stress enough that no matter how scared you are, you count. Your feelings count and you’re never totally trapped,” he said.
“If you’re still living and breathing, you’re not stuck forever. You can always end up on the better end.”
Sarah: “I can’t protect my children”
Sarah – not her real name – hopes that her teenage son will be another of the children who manage to free themselves from drug trafficking networks. This year alone she has disappeared over 50 times and now she herself has no idea where she is.
“He’s constantly out of control, running away for weeks,” he said.
“It’s all time to know if he’s alive or dead, or anything like that. Who is he with? Is he okay? Does he eat? All of that. I just don’t know,” he added.
When her other children ask her where her brother has gone, she doesn’t know what to tell them.
“He’s my little son and I can’t protect him and he’s out there,” she said.
“That is one thing that I always promised when I had children, to protect them and love them as much as I could. And I can’t do it,” she lamented.
Sarah related that about a year ago her son, who is now 16 years old, became involved in the gangs that operate in the area.
He claimed that he sensed some obvious signs that something was not right. The boy began hanging out with masked gangs, all dressed in black, and he also changed the music he listened to.
But if the above were not enough, the mother perceived a change in the young man’s behavior. “He started to distance himself and argue. He withdrew. And then obviously he doesn’t connect with you at all,” she explained.
However, Sarah believes that her son is still vulnerable.
“He’s a scared kid,” he said. “I know him, he has changed a lot, but sometimes he comes over and hugs us for no reason. I know he’s scared. But he has to do what he does for older (gang members),” he said.
With the help of workers from Edge North East, a British group specializing in counseling children caught up in situations of serious violence, she hopes to find a way out for her son.
However, for now the boy is still missing. And Sarah waiting.
Andy: “No child is given up”
“I’m stuck in this trap. I don’t know how to get home, could you take me home?” That’s the kind of calls Andy and the Edge North East team get.
One night, he and a partner set out on a 10-hour drive across the UK after receiving a similar call. “Without thinking, we got in the car, drove and went after them,” he recounted.
Andy is not someone who is suited to the conventional 9 to 5 job. Tall, broad and tattooed, he drives his Harley-Davidson around Newcastle, trying to win over youngsters who “have no one to trust”.
“Every young person who is doing this is going to be a victim of violence, at some point,” he said, adding: “They’re going to get beaten up, stabbed, whatever. It’s absolutely horrible to think about, to be honest. “.
Edge North East works with young people who are at risk of being tricked into becoming drug mules in the UK.
“Years ago, it would not occur to them (drug traffickers) to use a child to traffic drugs. But now they don’t give a shit, as long as they can line their pockets with money, they don’t care who they use,” lamented the activist.
He lamented that too often people negatively label the behavior of the children they work with, without looking at the reasons for their actions. “I wish some people would open their eyes and see them as children. So things could be different,” she said.
“They are lost young people. There is always something in the life of this young man that has led him to do what he is doing. That is what people have to look at and wonder what they have been through,” he reflected.
Andy criticized the glamorization of gangs on social media, but felt that the connections Edge North East is making with young people are making a difference.
“Lives are being changed,” he said. “No boy should be written off.”
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss out on our best content.
BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-63836165, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-12-05 05:10:05
CLAIRE KENDALL AND JEREMY COOKE
BBC NEWS
#dealing #drugs #didnt #save