THE LEEDS HEROIN RUNNERS...AGED EIGHT

DRUG dealers as young as eight are selling crack and heroin on Leeds
streets.

Community leaders from Chapeltown have warned that older criminals
routinely recruit children to work for them as street dealers or as
runners, who move cash and drugs between different dealers.

Some operate on foot, others use BMX or mountain bikes to get around.
Lutel James, a volunteer coach at the Chapeltown Football Youth
Development Centre, said adult criminals liked to use children under
the age of 10, the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales.

Mr James said: "The dealers will have teenagers of all ages working
for them.

"But they think the younger they are the less likely they are to go to
jail. They know what the law is and they like to get them under the
age of 10, then they can't be prosecuted.

"There are eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds out there doing it."

Mr James said the football centre, off Scott Hall Road, uses the game
as a way to encourage local youngsters to take part in a wide-range of
life-skills courses.

Its main aim is to steer young people away from street culture and
build a strong future community for Chapeltown.

Mr James added: "We are desperate to get to them before they get to
ten, because once they are working for the dealers the battle is so
much harder. They pay them a lot of money.

"We had one kid come in here, he was about eleven. The teacher was
trying to talk to him, but he just said 'what can you tell me when I
can go out there and earn this.' Then he produced a load of notes,
about ?400, from his pocket."

Fabian Hamilton, MP for Leeds North East, said he witnessed the child
drug dealers in action when he spent time on patrol in Chapeltown with
local police officers.

Mr Hamilton said: "They were eight, nine-years-old. The police told me
they are paid ?100 a week for doing it. What incentive does that give
these kids to work hard at school?"

He told how he watched the children shuttling between houses and
various meeting points, some in Potternewton Park, where the deals
were done.

He added: "As soon as they saw the police, they scattered. It shows
that we must reach these children as early as possible.

"By doing so, we can save a lot of pain – and public money – later in
life."

Bryan Dent, West Yorkshire Police's force drugs co-ordinator, promised
tough action against anyone caught grooming children to sell drugs or
commit any other crime.

He added: "This is a worrying and sinister aspect of drug crime that
we are alive to. We will take an extremely robust stance should we
find any young person being groomed or recruited to deal drugs."