INVESTIGATION: On the line - a family business

调查:一线之间——家族企业

The Story

2026-03-21

31 分钟
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Part one of a five-part special investigation into county lines drug dealing, running in audio, video, print and digital from The Times and The Sunday Times. Today we reveal how police took down the family controlling the drug trade in one British city, creating a power vacuum that was filled by a new breed of violent, criminal operation - county lines. The Sunday Times' northern editor David Collins is given unprecedented access to North Yorkshire Police as they fight back against the drug gangs.  This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: http://thetimes.com/thestory Read more: Exposed: how drug gangs deal without fear as the law can’t keep up | I was a county lines drug runner. I tried to quit, then I was stabbed Host: David Collins Producers: Kate Lamble, Taryn Siegel Executive producers: Tim Walklate, Dan Box We want to hear from you - email: thestory@thetimes.com This podcast was brought to you thanks to subscribers of The Times and The Sunday Times. To enjoy unlimited digital access to all our journalism subscribe here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Katie Prescott here from The Times Tech Podcast.

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  • From The Times and The Sunday Times, this is the story.

  • It's just gone 6 am,

  • and a group of police officers have pulled up to an estate west of Bradford's city centre.

  • They're in stab vests and wearing evidence collection gloves, moving quietly through the darkness —

  • or as quiet as 20 police officers can.

  • Radios turn down, hoping the person they're heading to arrest won't be alerted.

  • The officers gather in the front garden, and then the quiet turns to noise.

  • A ripsaw tears through the centre of the plastic front door.

  • People inside are understandably terrified.

  • But an arrest is made.

  • The man handcuffed and led to a waiting van had, for the past year,

  • controlled a significant chunk of the crack cocaine and heroin market in York, a city more than 40 miles away.

  • Coordinating the sale of Class A drugs through what's known as a "county line."

  • There are more than 6,000 across the UK, a business police believe has caused an explosion of violence.

  • I think for me personally, I've just come back to York,