People in Swindon, Wiltshire, say they are too scared to speak because of the gang wars being fought outside their home as county lines gangs take advantage of local kids
Residents are “too scared to speak” in a leafy town where drug and knife wars are being raged outside their homes, making it the new gang capital of the UK.
Teenagers in Swindon are making near-daily trips to and from London, sparking drug, knife and gun crime in the town. County lines gangs are said to rule the dealing in the town which means many residents are terrified to leave their home.
One local said: “Almost every drug deal done in this town now is off the back of county lines.
“They find young people living here – the more vulnerable or desperate, the better – and groom them, bribe them with money and free drugs, make them promises, threaten them, whatever they have to do to allow the drug runners to live in their homes and use them as a base. Then, these so-called cuckoos completely take over their lives.”
They told the Sun: “They get free boarding and lodging and in many cases they force these young local people to go out onto the streets delivering or selling their drugs for them so they don’t get caught dealing themselves.”
Among those previously caught up in the drug and knife culture in the county was Rhys. Now 27, he was caught in the drug and knife culture and exploited by county lines drugs gangs from the age of eight.
He told Wiltshire Police : “I’ve seen the worst of how knife crime can end up. I’ve carried a knife and nothing happened, my friend carried one for a while and nothing happened and then he was fatally stabbed.
“It is an incredibly fine line between innocently carrying one because you want to seem cool to your friends, and then the opportunity of using it and spending the rest of your life in prison. By carrying a knife, you are putting yourself at risk where you could be harmed, or you could harm someone else.”
Rhys has now turned his life around and in March 2021 became a youth mentor for Escapeline – a charity in the southwest devoted to preventing child exploitation. He now travels around schools in Wiltshire and other counties mentoring young people, holding group sessions and assemblies as well as one-to-one sessions, educating them on the dangers of knife crime and helping them to turn their lives around.
He added: “I always say to my lads there’s no point coming into this room to have this conversation if they’re not going to learn. You have to listen, engage and contribute.
“If they’re doing that then you know at some point, maybe not today, maybe not next month, but at some point they’re going to use that education. When I started the job, I was still that cocky, egotistical male. I still thought the world owed me everything.
“But seeing it wasn’t just me that County Lines and knife crime affected, it also affected everyone else. It showed me the world doesn’t owe me something, I owe the world something.”