Inner city children being forced to sell drugs in the countryside has fueled a tripling in the number of modern slavery victims in Britain, the National Crime Agency has said.

For the first time UK nationals have made up the majority of the cases reported to the scheme set up to identify children and adults who are at the mercy of slave drivers and traffickers.

This was partly down to fears of children being exploited in a drug distribution model known as "county lines", where city gangs branch out into county or coastal towns to sell heroin and crack cocaine.
In 2017 there were 5,145 potential victims referred, up 35 per cent from 2016 and the number has almost tripled since 2013, when there were 1,745 cases.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...odern-slavery/