The heroin-scarred seaside ‘brown town’ where kids run...

SHUFFLING along a scruffy pavement lined by dilapidated buildings, a lone dealer emerges from a drug den where addicts shoot up after cooking heroin flogged by kids in £10 bags. Meanwhile, less than 100 yards away, workers are building Britain's next generation 167ft Royal Navy nuclear Trident submarines at BAE Systems' £31bn shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness.

Image Credit: The Sun [Person walking a dog down a residential street.]

Three nuclear-armed ballistic missile HMS Dreadnought submarines are being constructed there - but while locals take pride in its shipbuilding prowess, the Cumbrian town close to the Lake District is increasingly plagued by its reputation for poverty and drugs.

Image Credit: The Sun [Portrait of a man talking about Barrow's heroin problem.]

It was dubbed "Britain's most infamous brown town" after an influx of heroin caused a high number of overdose deaths, with 12 in one three-month period alone. County lines drugs gangs smuggle in heroin and crack cocaine from Manchester and Liverpool, often using children to deliver the goods.

Image Credit: The Sun [Mugshots of eight people jailed for a county lines drug operation.]

A recent police crackdown has seen a large number of drug dens closed down as cops and local residents fight back against the trade, but Class A substances continue to blight the area. When The Sun visited as part of its Hooked series, which reveals the drug epidemics in towns up and down the nation, former heroin addict Chris Gibson, 46, told us: "The crackdown has helped but heroin is still a big problem here.

Image Credit: The Sun [Boarded-up window and exterior stairs of a brick building.]

"It has got a bit better, but ketamine is now just as much of a problem. You see youngsters coming with all sort of bladder and health problems now. It's very sad.". Wandering near the homes built for shipyard workers on Barrow Island, one heroin user told how he injects heroin up to five times a day to feed his habit.

Image Credit: The Sun [Submarine shipyard in Barrow, Cumbria, across a river.]

The shuffling man in his 30s, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I take whatever I can get. I smoked it first and now I shoot up. I started when I was 18.". Dad-of-one Chris, 46, kicked his habit with the help of drug rehab and is now a drug recovery worker.

Image Credit: The Sun [Boarded-up shops on a brick street.]

Recalling the height of his addiction, he said: "It was a living nightmare. I started taking drugs in the 90s during the rave scene. "When other people went home, I wanted more so I got into other things. "I started smoking heroin and it spiralled after that. Eventually I went on to inject it. It became my world and my life fell apart – with my family and everything.

Image Credit: The Sun [Three pigeons perched on a dilapidated windowsill of a brick building.]

"It was a living nightmare in the end. It was hellish.". There is a lot of poverty and deprivation here so people can be easy targets. Speaking near the centre of town, he added: "Barrow still has a big problem with heroin. "There is a lot of poverty and deprivation here so people can be easy targets. But addiction is in the mind.

Image Credit: The Sun [Brick apartment buildings in Barrow, Cumbria.]

"You have to try and break the cycle. Things are getting better but there's a long way to go.". Another resident, unemployed Mike Brownhill, 28, said: "Someone I went to school with died of a heroin overdose. It can get hold of people and they lose everything.

"I did it for a few years but then got help when my partner fell pregnant. It was tough but I made it through. "It's very easy to get drugs here. I was one of the lucky ones to make it away from drugs. Many aren't so lucky.". While a number of drug dens near the town centre have now been shut down, many are thought to have moved to different locations.

Image Credit: The Sun [Shop owner standing outside his Island Express takeaway.]

Drug problems have deep roots in the isolated town. It's very easy to get drugs here. I was one of the lucky ones to make it away from drugs. Many aren't so lucky. In 2018 Barrow, which has a population of 67,000, had the ninth-highest rate of deaths from opiates in England and Wales – more than double the national average.

Image Credit: The Sun [A man standing on a street, talking about the heroin problem in Barrow, Cumbria.]

Two years later, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said 17 people died of drugs-related deaths in the town. The ONS said it was 12 the next year, while there were 15 deaths reported in 2022. A few years ago the shipbuilding hub was labelled the "drugs capital of the north", where people were more likely to die from drugs than those in nearby Manchester, Liverpool or Lancaster.

Image Credit: The Sun [Welcome to Barrow-in-Furness Fairtrade Town sign on a roadside.]

However Cumbria Police has launched several initiatives against the heroin trade. Eight people were jailed at Preston Crown Court in July for their role in a county lines plot which involved children delivering Class A drugs. They were caged for a total of 50 years for the drugs operation that ran heroin and cocaine from Manchester to Barrow.

Image Credit: The Sun [Aerial view of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, showing the town and coastline.]

Cops said the 'Shakka' line, run from a cell in South Yorkshire, flooded Barrow with drugs through a county lines network with a 'home delivery service'. It was estimated the county line supplied drugs with a street value estimated at more than £110,000 in Barrow over a four-month period between September 2022 and January 2023.

A spokesperson from Cumbria Police said: "Our officers work all-year-round to protect Cumbria against serious and organised crime. "Drug dealing is a blight on the county and significantly contributes to immense suffering to some of the most vulnerable people in society. However, Cumbria Constabulary is committed to rooting it out.