Unemployment is on the rise during COVID–19, but that isn’t stopping drug dealers. Currently, some dealers are posing as joggers and NHS staff to continue their hustles during the lockdown.
News of this comes to us through The Guardian. They report that gangs have been adapting to the pandemic through social media, drive-by sales, and letterbox drops. Talk about improvise, adapt, and overcome. These methods could become untraceable by the police while adhering to social distancing rules to avoid getting sick.
It’s definitely been an interesting, emotional, and difficult time for all of us. Everyone has some kind of job and the director of the National Center for Gang Research at the University of West London had this to say.
“On one hand, they really are heeding government advice on social distancing, but at the same time it is business as usual and as people were panic-buying food, dealers were running bulk deals and selling lockdown party packs.” – Professor Simon Harding
Furthermore, they’re throwing products through car windows and arranging deals through social media. They chuck money in the back seat to keep things clean. As the lockdown makes it harder for gangs to push drugs through the country, a new problem presents itself.
Managing a drug business online means entrapping young people in dangerous gang activity. After all, who really monitors their children’s phone activity? It’s simple to send a message and schedule a drop-off. These days, people get more clever with their secrecy. Families won’t know what their children are up to, which could endanger not just them but those closest to them also.
Be advised that key workers operating in supermarket parking lots could also be dealers dressed in disguise. In the UK, someone recently got incarcerated for smuggling cocaine hidden in PPE equipment.