HIGH PRIORITY: Urban Gangs and County Lines Risk: Project Virginia Project Virginia is a pilot between Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) and Metropolitan Police Service or Met. (MPS) to produce a collaborated product around ‘County Lines’ impacting on our region and identifying opportunities for operational work to be tasked to highest risk line/group. High risk County Lines were identified by local forces and the MPS and collated by ERSOU. An update was recently been produced showing Lines currently active What is County Lines exploitation? County lines is the police term for urban gangs supplying drugs to suburban areas and market and coastal towns using dedicated mobile phone lines or “deal lines”.   It involves Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) as gangs use children and vulnerable people to move drugs and money. Gangs establish a base in the market location, typically by taking over the homes of local vulnerable adults by force or coercion in a practice referred to as ‘cuckooing’. County lines is a major, cross-cutting issue involving drugs, violence, gangs, safeguarding, criminal and sexual exploitation, modern slavery, and missing persons; and the response to tackle it involves the police, the National Crime Agency, a wide range of government departments, local government agencies and VCS (voluntary and community sector) organisations. This type of criminal activity and the associated violence, drug dealing and exploitation has a devastating impact on young people, vulnerable adults and local communities. OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Intelligence Development This table shows the 143 County Lines by either the local forces, Met. or ERSOU and the force that they are primarily impacting on. Some of these lines impact on more than one force in reality. The table to the right is in alphabetical order and not ranking. For operational reasons the numbers outside of Hertfordshire cannot be disclosed. To give some context is Hertfordshire are mid table within the region.   Proactive Activity Intelligence Development Met Supported Total Beds 3 Cambs 20 1 23 Essex 13 4 14 Herts 5 9 Kent 12 29 41 Norfolk 7 24 31 Suffolk 6 21 27 45 98 8 143 County Lines are assessed by an agreed criteria to determine which is the ‘Lead Organisation’ taking action on that Line. There are 4 tiers, 1 being the highest. This system identifies who owns the line or leads on. Met. ERSOU Force/Met Borough (Proactive Activity) e.g. Hertfordshire Intelligence Development OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

HIGH PRIORITY: Urban Gangs and County Lines Risk: Regional GRITS Matrix Overview A total of 856 (previously 908) nominals feature on the regional Gang Related Incident Tracking System - GRITS Matrix; 155 (previously 175) of these nominals also feature on the Met Operation Trident Matrix. The breakdown of the number of gang nominals impacting on each force within the region is highlighted below. The majority or GRITS nominals are impacting on Essex. 218 compared with Herts 52 OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Difference compared with last month TOP 3 GANGS POPULATED ON THE HERTFORDSHIRE DATABASE Herts - top Gangs (based on previous month's scores) Gang Scores Difference compared with last month GET MONEY GANG 156 -6 GP GRAHAME PARK 111 -4 DA DEM AFRICANS 80 -2 DOLLIS VALLEY 56 OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

HIGH PRIORITY: Urban Gangs and County Lines TRIDENT – MPS Operation TRIDENT was originally set up by the MPS in 1998 to deal with gun crimes and related homicides in the Afro-Caribbean communities. In 2012 the Operation TRIDENT’s remit changed from dealing with non-fatal shooting and wider gang crime. This continues to day. It is the MPS central unit dealing with High Risk Offenders supported by local borough Guns and Gangs Units. Broxbourne and Enfield have regular fortnightly meetings. In 2013 fatal gun crime was taken over by the Homicide and Serious Crime Command. OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

20 10 8 3 HIGH PRIORITY: Urban Gangs and County Lines Criminal Use of Firearms: 41 incidents where firearms have been sighted between 9th December 2017 and 5th January 2018. Beds (11), Essex (9), Suffolk (7), Herts (5), Cambs (5), Kent (2) and Norfolk (2) of these sightings there has been 10 incidents where firearms/ammunition have been recovered and 8 incidents of a firearm discharge. There have been 3 firearms related theft from burglary dwelling over the last 4 weeks, in Norfolk (2) and Beds. Significant Seizure in Essex: On 04/01/2018 police executed a criminal warrant and recovered two AK47s, a handgun, sawn-off shotgun, ammunition and a stash of explosives. Number of Firearms incidents in the Eastern region between 09/12/17 - 05/01/2018 by type of incident Sighted Seized 20 10 Discharged Firearms Theft 8 3 OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

URBAN GANGS & COUNTY LINES IN HERTFORDSHIRE 729 Individuals listed and scored on the Hertfordshire Database Consisting of … Op Burlap Nominals (Hertfordshire based class A drug networks) Op Trident Nominals (Met Matrix – Linked to Herts addresses/IMS/Custody) Op Boson Nominals (Bedfordshire Gang Nominals – Linked to Hertfordshire) County Line (County Lines Emanating outside of Hertfordshire) Other (Nominals that are believed to be involved in Gang/Drug activity but the exact link to a county Line / Gang is unknown) 22 Lines are currently documented on this database and are now all scored. 148 individuals on the database linked to a Line. 8% of gang linked nominals on the Hertfordshire database have known links to these county lines OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

213 Individual Gang Members 62 living in Hertfordshire, predominately in Broxbourne and Welwyn/Hatfield. There are 13 people aged 15/16 linked to gangs and 8 people aged 15/16 linked to county lines on the database (only two are linked to both) OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Disruption / Incidents of Note Offensive Weapon, Herts 21/11/2017 K2/17/5217 Queens Court, Holdbrook South. During a search of Queens Court for youths smoking cannabis, 2 large combat knives and a Samurai sword were found in the stairwell behind a rubbish chute. Forensics pending OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Urban Gangs and County Lines Risk: Violent Incidents. An example K2/17/5825 30th Dec 2017 KFC Waltham Cross 3 males have an altercation in KFC. The kitchen knife can clearly be seen in suspect 1’s hand whilst the 2nd suspect uses the chair to be as weapon. The male with knife escaped from the 2 other males through the drive-thru order hatch OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Urban Gangs and County Lines Risk: Gang related murders last 12 months in Hertfordshire Op Constitute: Murder:   5th June 2017 A 15 years old male Koy BENTLEY was murdered at 55 Rainbow Court in Watford. The address was being used for drug dealing. 2 suspects charged and remanded – 15 yrs. old & 21 yrs. old Op Antonine Murder:   7TH December 2017 A 15 years old male Jacob ABRAHAM murdered 10 days before his 16th birthday. Hurst Drive, Waltham Cross, not far from his home address. 5 Juvenile suspects charged and remanded – 3 x 14 yrs. old & 2 x 15 yrs. old OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s approach to tackling gangs. Operation Mantis has recently been set up as a working group that has been set up by Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Serious and Organise Crime Command to encourage a linked up approach to tackling gang activity and County Lines.   The aim of the group is to bring together different units within the Constabulary, along with external partners such as other police forces and local authorities, to share information that will allow us to build an accurate intelligence picture and disrupt gang activity at the earliest opportunity. Operation Mantis is being led by Detective Superintendent Dave Wheatley and DCI Doug Black is the tactical lead. Detective Superintendent Wheatley said: “We are using the Serious and Organised Crime Four P’s strategy to tacking gangs - to Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare and it is essential that we have a linked up approach to do this effectively. “Although the county does not have a major problem with gangs, it is a growing issue that we need to target at its roots through early disruption and, wherever possible, before serious offences occur. To be effective it is vital that we have a joint up approach and that is why Operation Mantis has been formed”. OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s approach to tackling gangs cont’d: “Intelligence regarding gangs needs to be shared between Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Local Crime Units, Safeguarding Command – particularly those dealing with regular missing persons and vulnerable children and adults, ERSOU, Serious and Organised Crime and, of course, our partners in the community such as relevant departments within councils and housing associations.   Hertfordshire continue to work closely with the MPS and other forces regarding nominals who cross county borders to carry out their criminal activity. All of this shared information and fed into a single database Op Virginia to give a better picture of their criminal activity. The Constabulary’s approach is this, “today’s offender may have been yesterday’s victim forced into Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE)”. OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s approach to tackling gangs. The restructure of Serious and Organised Crime to create a Gangs Unit. This covers the other cross –cutting themes of : Urban Gangs and County Lines – Operation MANTIS Modern Slavery and Human trafficking – Operation TROPIC Organised Crime Groups – Operation RELENTLESS Serious and Organised Crime Group working with other Police departments such as: Joint Child Protection Team (JCPIT) Children and Young Persons/ Target Youth Services HALO - Sexual Exploitation of Children and Young People Children Online Safety Team Missing Persons Unit Safer Neighbourhood Teams New Gangs Protocol being finalised for by Nick SMITH – Head of Service Youth Justice Hertfordshire involving Police, Education, Health, Social Services, CSPs and other supporting partners. Improved cross border relationships with MPS for borderless policing. Op Sceptre – 12th Feb National knife initiative led by the MPS OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE