I dealt heroin & crack at 14 for a county lines gang

SOME girls dream of being influencers, others of being vets, or lawyers. At the age of 14, Nequela Whittaker wanted to be the biggest drug dealer in South London. The ambition led to being targeted and recruited by a drug gang which then used her as a mule to traffic narcotics across the UK. “I thought that if I was going to be bad, I might as well be good at being bad,” Nequela, 35, tells Fabulous.

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Eventually, she was caught and jailed. Today she has turned her life around and now helps other young people who are groomed and trafficked by gangs in what are known as ‘county lines’ dealing operations. Eloquent, open and smart, she is a perfect example of how people can turn their lives around if they’re given the right opportunities. Nequela had a tough start in life. She grew up on an estate in Brixton and although as youngster she enjoyed football, dance, performing arts, athletics and even played the violin, she fell in with a bad crowd when she was a teenager, started her own gang and was lured by the easy money of drug dealing.

Image Credit: The Sun [Editorial use only Mandatory Credit: Photo by S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock (12964520br) Nequela Whittaker 'Good Morning Britain' TV show, London, UK - 31 May 2022]

“We started a criminal enterprise,” she admits. “I wanted nicer things and more expensive stuff, so I started to sell crack and heroin to users I befriended on the estate where I lived. "It expanded to where I was recruited by a drug gang at the age of 16 and started transporting drugs up and down the country in a typical county lines operation.”. The phrase ‘county lines’ describes the business model organised crime gangs (OCGs) use to transport and sell drugs outside their territory.

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The ‘county line’ is the name given to the mobile phone line used to take orders for drugs. In county lines operations, children as young as 12 are coerced and manipulated to work in these distribution networks. Teenagers are commonly enticed with expensive phones or trainers or given drugs until they are indebted to the gang, which then often uses violence and fear to control them. Teenage girls and young women are increasingly targeted for recruitment into county lines operations because they attract less attention from police.

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The gangs use devious and manipulative methods to befriend victims. Some offer girls beauty treatments such as Botox, false lashes, nails and lip filler as a way to groom them and gain their trust. St Giles Trust is a charity which helps vulnerable young people. Last year, its SOS project supported 382 young people to leave or reduce their involvement in county lines and other exploitative activities.

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Project founder Junior Smart OBE warns that girls and young women often fall off the radar of official bodies because resources are mainly focused on boys. He explains: “Young women are often targeted because they are perceived as a lower risk, being seen as less likely to attract attention from the police or other authorities. "Criminals exploit vulnerabilities such as poverty, trauma, or isolation, knowing these individuals may be more susceptible to manipulation.

Image Credit: The Sun [Illustration of UK gang crime statistics: 70,000 children and young people in gangs, 27,000 county line gang members (4,000 in London), 1,500 county lines operating nationally (up to 30 young people per line), and 283 county lines originating in London.]

"Girls and young women are increasingly at risk of criminal exploitation.”. Indeed, girls and young women accounted for nearly a third of the new child criminal exploitation cases seen by St Giles last year. Some signs to look out for include:. And although it’s often assumed that girls are groomed by men, Nequela’s introduction to county lines came through a female friend’s sister. “I was homeless at the time, moving from place to place and having a tough time and she was someone I looked up to,” she explains.

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Once recruited the gang sent her all over the UK with consignments of cannabis, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy. She travelled to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham and made between £43,000 and £63,000 during her teenage years. She became a trusted member of the gang and was never scared of being targeted by rival gangs. “I had a very big ego. I didn't walk with fear,” she says. But eventually in 2007 when she was 17, she was caught.

“I was on my way to Aberdeen to do a job and I got caught at the train station. I was arrested and put in the cells for five days. "Then I got bail and came back to London where I went on the run. I knew I was facing a jail sentence but at that age I couldn’t face prison mentally,” she says. “I went under the radar and got my mind right before it was time for me to go.”. Nequela managed to evade arrest for a year before she was finally caught and arrested in London and then taken back to Scotland to stand trial.

In October 2008 she pled guilty to intent to supply crack, heroin and class B drugs and was given a four-year sentence, of which she served just under a year. She admits that prison did nothing to rehabilitate her. “I came out in 2009 and I tried to get work, but I was struggling to find a good job. It felt like going one step forward and ten steps back. "I needed money so I went back to dealing, but that life was leading me to risky situations,” she explains.