Episode 2: Cycles

This highly personal series investigates how criminal networks systematically exploit vulnerable young people, transforming them from ordinary schoolchildren into drug dealers through manipulation, violence, and trauma. An estimated 50,000 children in Britain have been groomed into county lines drug trafficking, yet their stories remain largely hidden.

In this powerful second episode, we investigate what keeps young people returning to county lines, even after interventions.

Through intimate stories told from prison cells and family homes, survivors challenge our assumptions about victims and perpetrators, revealing how trauma and shame create cycles that prove devastating to break.

As both journalist and sister to someone caught in these cycles, Phoebe McIndoe weaves her own story of silence and stigma with those of young people trapped between prison and exploitation.

Presented by Phoebe McIndoe
Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe
With original music by Phoebe McIndoe
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4