The crime
16 year-old male arrested at Stratford Station on suspicion of supplying class A drugs. With no priors and no further intelligence from an interview, a download of the child’s phone was conducted.
Operation Monza
Operation Monza was the investigation into an organised crime county line gang using children to traffic drugs on the rail network.
Overview
Operation Monza was the investigation into an organised crime county line gang using children to traffic drugs on the rail network. Investigators from British Transport Police used Chorus to overlay and analyse data to identify a drugs line and the individuals that were running it. Human trafficking and drug supply charges were secured against two suspects.
Products Utilised
The fast time processing of data is key to the presentation of evidence to CPS whilst offenders are in custody. In this case it ensured the offenders were remanded in custody and no longer able to exploit children.
Detective Chief Inspector - BTP
Case Timeline
The objective
The download revealed the address of a drugs user being used to sell drugs and a phone number that was controlling the operation. The objective was to identify who was using the number and arrest them.
The 404 drugs line
- Owner of the drugs line would take the child to Kent and place them at an address of a class A user.
- Owner began to send bulk SMS messages offering class A drugs to customer base.
- Users would call the owner who would direct them to meet the child in Kent.
Overlaying data holds the key
- Heavy use of mobile phone produces 15,000 rows of data in a 2-month period
- The 404 phone is mapped in Chorus and a pattern of movement between London and Kent is uncovered.
- ANPR identifies a vehicle being used that matches that pattern of movement.
- Vehicle is registered to suspect ‘M’ in London and the car is stopped by MPS in February 2020 with two occupants, A and M.
Connecting the data
- Inactivity report in Chorus identifies where 404 handset ‘sleeps’ and it correlates with A’s home address.
- Call data from personal phones of A and M is mapped and it reveals co-location with 404 drugs line.
- Travel movements of all 3 phones match that of M’s car.
- Warrants executed at addresses in London reveals evidence of drug manufacture and a large amount of cash at A’s home address.
- Further work in Chorus identifies two further children being used to supply drugs on behalf of A and M.
The Results
With the help of Chorus, the British Transport Police were able to demonstrate using the telecoms data and analysis, that the communication and movement of the child were clearly for the purpose of selling class A drugs, the criminal exploitation of the child.
- A was charged with human trafficking and the supply of class A drugs.
- M was charged with human trafficking, the supply of class A drugs, and driving whilst unfit.
- The operation became a repeatable model with a further 13 individuals charged in similar circumstances between July 2020 and January 2021.
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