Holiday homes and Airbnbs are being used as pop-up brothels and drugs dens by inner city gangs who force children to smuggle heroin inside their bodies.
Criminal networks have been setting up prostitutes in tourist resorts across the country, with temporary brothels found in Torquay, the Lake District and the Peak District.
While middle class children from the home counties, as young as 12, are smuggling crack and other class A drugs, while muling for crews from London and Liverpool.
Criminal networks have been setting up prostitutes in tourist resorts across the country, with temporary brothels found in Torquay, the Lake District (pictured) and the Peak District
The worrying new pop-up brothel trend is often used by gangs from eastern Europe, with Rt Rev Dr Alastair Redfern the Bishop of Derby, warning holiday cottages in the Peak District were being targeted.
He claimed the lets in the picturesque national park were being rented out cheaply and the rural location meant gangs moved on before anyone noticed.
Dr Redfern, who regularly meets victims as part of his work campaigning against human trafficking, said: ‘Derby is a place where Eastern European women have come over in search for a better life but they have been forced into working in a brothel and they have their life taken from them.
‘In the Peak District, there are lots of holiday homes used as pop-up brothels. The organised criminals bring the vulnerable women in and then use a cottage for business. They stay for four weeks and make a lot of money.
‘All they are paying is the rent. But they are in secluded areas and, before anyone realises what is going on or becomes suspicious about anything, then they are off to a new place and they take the women with them.
‘What a clever business model. It’s a very cheap place to rent, especially in comparison to what they would be making.’
Airbnbs are being used as pop-up brothels and drugs dens by inner city gangs
Dr Redfern’s comments come after police warned organised gangs were using other holiday hot spots to run transient pop up brothels in cottages and holiday homes.
Devon and Cornwall Police found criminal gangs were using properties in Newquay.
Owners had no idea their second homes had been turned into brothels.
There were similar warnings in the Lake District, after it was revealed human traffickers used hotels and guesthouses as pop-up brothels after block-booking hotel rooms in Barrow and across the south lakes.
A study last year by the Police Foundation found that women in pop-up brothels were more likely to have been trafficked than those in standard brothels.
Earlier this year, police said up to 30 ‘pop-up’ brothels were being opened each week in Swindon. In any seven-day period, up to 40 sex workers market their services in properties in the town for a few days before moving on.
Joints and trash left at an Airbnb property in London after it was trashed by drug users
Wiltshire Police have said that most of the prostitutes were eastern European, working in brothels understood to be linked to crime gangs which traffic women from Poland and Romania.
While pop-up brothels have also been found in Preston, Manchester, Norwich, Bristol, Aberdeen and Cheltenham.
Earlier this year Gloucestershire Police ran a series of raids across rented properties and arrested four people on human trafficking charges.
Sergeant Matt Puttock, the tactical lead for sexual exploitation at the force, said: ‘Some of these places visited have been Airbnbs that have been rented out for a week or two.
‘These are by their nature often quite hidden places. It’s very transient as they often hire Airbnb places or other serviced apartments.
‘Many times neighbours do not know what is going on. Landlords have often used us as mediators to try and remove these people once they know what they are up to.
‘We collected various bits of information and visited these places not to criminalise the sex workers, but to check on their safety.
Devon and Cornwall Police found criminal gangs were using rented holiday homes in Newquay for pop-up brothels
‘We interview all the women and check why they are there and whether they want to be there.
‘Generally we have no power to make them leave the situation they are in but we can use various methods to remove women if needs be.
‘But it is difficult. Some are brainwashed to not to talk to the police or any other authority.’
But while police are fighting to keep up with pop-up brothels, drugs gangs from major cities are flooding into rural and coastal communities to set up their empires.
Exploiting the young and vulnerable, they use guns, knives and acid attacks to the keep their mules and teenage dealers in check.
Youngsters are attracted by the idea of status and lured by the opportunity to earn sums of cash quickly – but the reality of the situation is far from lucrative.
Often they are forced to work long hours, travelling to and from cities with drugs or quantities of money.
London drug dealers have also set up shop in Thanet in Kent, often targeting children or vulnerable people to mule their narcotics (Margate, in Kent)
Sometimes they will be forced to swallow their stash or ‘plug’ it, a process of hiding it in their bodies, a concerning report has found.
While vulnerable youngsters from broken homes may seem an obvious target for the dealers, a report found that actually children from all backgrounds are at risk.
An inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults (APPG) found ‘any child can be groomed for criminal exploitation’ from any part of the country.
The report, from May last year, found: ‘It affects boys and girls, children from families that experience a range of issues as well those from stable and economically better off families.’
Evidence of ‘county lines’ networks, gangs heading from cities into rural or coastal communities, or ‘going country’ as it is known by the criminals, have been reported by 38 of Britain’s 43 police forces, with 720 lines currently operating across England and Wales.
London is where the majority of the country’s networks originate from, with 283 lines streaming out of the capital, according to a National Crime Agency report.
The gangs see counties such as Kent and Surrey as ideal locations to sell their narcotics, away from competition of rivals and the scrutiny of the police.
In order to create a base in the new location they take over the home of a vulnerable adult by force, in a process called ‘cuckooing’.
Teenage drug dealer Fahad Abdi, 18, who left three people with blisters, burns and temporary loss of sight during an acid attack in Canterbury
The report said: ‘Of the 33 forces which reported incidents of cuckooing, seven reported possible instances of imprisonment/modern slavery, where vulnerable people were detained against their will and/or denied access to areas within their home.’
Often dealers will attend rehab classes where they will target former users and tempt them with drugs until they become indebted to them.
Dealers have also been known to set up shop in holiday homes, budget hotels or caravan parks along the coast, in areas such as Thanet in Kent.
Earlier this year a teenage drug dealer from east London left three people with blisters, burns and temporary loss of sight during an acid attack in Canterbury.
Fahad Abdi, 18, from Forest Gate, lay in wait for his three victims after suspecting they had stolen his stash of cocaine.
He threw the noxious substance on the faces of Justin Vincent, Janet Durrant and Emily Thompson, causing series injuries.
‘Vicious’ thug Abdi was later sentenced to nine years in a young offenders’ institute for the horrific assault, at Canterbury Crown Court.
Abdi had been staying in the home of one of the victims for a few weeks when he fell out with the group, the court heard.
Last week two London drug dealers were jailed after running an operation in the seaside resort of Margate, also in Kent.
Anis Omar, 18, Fesal Mahamud, 19, had travelled from the capital to sell heroin and crack cocaine with accomplice Mohammed Gedi, 21.
Anis Omar, 18, Fesal Mahamud, 19, (both pictured) had travelled from London to Kent to sell heroin and crack cocaine with accomplice Mohammed Gedi, 21
Their scheme was uncovered when police checked on the welfare of a vulnerable man at his home and discovered the crew inside, surrounded by drugs paraphernalia and wads of cash.
Gedi was found hiding behind the fridge with paperwork concerning the supply of crack cocaine.
Omar and Mahamud had hundreds of pounds in their pockets along with phones that rang incessantly.
Officers seized a set of electronic scales, a tub of Vaseline, cling film, baby lotion and discarded cling film wrapping.
Once in custody Omar was also found to be concealing nine wraps of crack cocaine and seven wraps of heroin secreted inside his body.
All three of them admitted to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin but only Omar and Gedi were sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court on December 14.
Gedi received six years and three months in prison whilst Omar will serve two years in a Young Offenders Institute.
Mahamud is due to be sentenced in January 2018.