Teen 'ran organised and busy drugs line'

HE EXPLOITED YOUNGSTERS TO DELIVER CLASS A DRUGS

- By FELICITY COLLINSON

Curtis Cremin

A TEENAGER ran an "organised" Middlesbrough drugs line that recruited and exploited young boys.

Curtis Cremin was running the phone line that was used to advertise the sale of crack cocaine, cannabis and cocaine to vulnerable drug users.

The 19-year-old, of Hubbard Walk in Middlesbrough, was grooming and exploiting young teenage boys by recruiting them to hand over the drugs to customers.

Their criminality would be conducted in broad daylight, mostly in play parks that are used by children as well as outside schools, while using electric and off-road bikes with their faces covered with balaclavas in a bid to conceal their identity.

However, it was all being monitored by officers from Cleveland Police's Dedicated Drugs Unit (DDU) with assistance from Middlesbrough's community action team - codenamed under Operation Curve.

It was also part of Project Orme - the ongoing work with partner agencies under the clear hold build national initiative put forward by the Home Office.