QR codes being used to sell drugs to young people across Greater Manchester
GMP are one of only five forces to have a dedicated county lines task force to help tackle the issue
Greater Manchester Police say more criminals are using QR codes and social media to sell drugs to young people.
Police are aware of the new trends and methods organised criminals choose to advertise the sale of drugs and officers are working to stay at least one step ahead of them.
Tackling the issue requires a team of professionals with specific expertise in a variety of areas.
Detective Superintendent Joe Harrop is head of GMP's Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), he said: “The number of drugs being sold online and via QR codes is a fairly small percentage. That being said, we have modernised, and doubled the size of our Cyber Crime Unit.
“We are also one of only five forces to have a dedicated county lines task force, which is really successful.
“As part of that task force, we’ve got social media investigators whose role is to specifically look at the online drugs market and find ways for us to tackle it. So, I think we’re well placed from a police perspective to deal with it.”
Detective Constable Rhiann O’Malley, a social media investigator, said: “The majority of social media apps allow you to share your profile via a QR code. There’s QR codes that lead to a social media profile selling drugs, and then you have QR codes leading to traditional websites selling drugs.
“A popular trend of a lot of drugs sold online is the use of the postal system, which and many young people seemingly prefer because it removes the risk of you having to interact with anybody.
“That is the benefit of social media - you never have to meet somebody on a dark corner of you get it delivered to your home address.
“Scams are also quite common, and people do run the risk of opening up their devices to malware and spam when scanning these.
“People could find themselves subject to fraud rather than successfully buying drugs.”
Detective Superintendent Harrop added: “We’ve upped the full infrastructure of the police to deal with this modernisation in terms of how crime has evolved. So, if there is an online component, we have officers to deal with it.
“We have a dedicated account freezing order team that can freeze assets of those who sit behind these websites. We also have the Cyber and Economic Crime Awareness Service (CECAS), which go to schools and engage with young people about online threats, which includes the dangers of buying drugs online. It’s about dealing with all of it.”
Detective Superintendent Harrop said it can be easier to find offenders using this method: "Nothing is untraceable.
"If people are buying drugs online, there has to be that electronic transfer of cash, it's not physical cash being handed over... That gives us an opportunity.
"So yes criminals and potential customers of criminals might feel safer because they're doing it online but we can still find you."