A pattern has emerged that nobody in authority wanted to talk about. Grooming gangs across London have been getting children hooked on drugs—deliberately—as a way to keep them trapped. Despite Mayor Sadiq Khan saying there was no evidence of such networks in the capital, the Met Police are now reviewing 9,000 cases spanning fifteen years.

The Sun’s recent exposé showed how these gangs use crack cocaine and heroin as weapons. Kids as young as nine end up addicted, their dependency manufactured by abusers who know exactly what they’re doing. Once hooked, the children become easier to exploit and harder to escape.

The Addiction Trap

Jon Wedger spent years as a Met detective working vice and child protection. He saw the same playbook used again and again: target vulnerable kids, get them addicted to hard drugs, then pass them around whilst their dependency gets worse.

Take Amy’s case. At 14, she was targeted by men in Bethnal Green who got her hooked on crack and heroin. They then trafficked her across London and into Hertfordshire for sex work. When Wedger found her unconscious in a phone box from an overdose, it wasn’t an accident—it was the inevitable result of a system designed to keep her trapped.

Studies have long shown that childhood abuse leads to higher rates of addiction later in life. When gangs weaponise drugs during the abuse itself, they’re creating a double trauma that makes recovery nearly impossible.

How Big Is This?

The Met are reviewing 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases. That’s fifteen years of abuse that was either missed or ignored. Baroness Casey’s national audit found that grooming gangs were far more organised than authorities admitted, and that the ethnicity of perpetrators had been deliberately avoided in discussions.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley confirmed the force has multiple live investigations into multi-offender exploitation, plus a backlog of historic cases. Properly investigating all of this will cost millions.

Wedger described finding victims in crack houses where children were passed between punters, and stopping gang members who were dropping kids back at care homes after a night’s work. In just three days in Haringey, he identified 52 potential victims—all from the care system.

Where Were The Adults?

The link between grooming gangs and addiction shows how badly the system failed. Wedger reported case after case where support was pulled at exactly the wrong moment, sending vulnerable kids straight back to their abusers.

Amy’s story is particularly grim. She was doing well in a detox programme in Cambridge, talking about becoming a social worker. But when funding got cut, she was sent back to the streets. That same day, she overdosed.

Inspectorate reports going back to 2016 contained clear examples of grooming gang patterns. Khan reviewed these reports. The Met saw them too. Yet they kept insisting there was no problem in London—until October 2025.

What Needs To Change

Understanding how grooming gangs deliberately create drug dependencies is crucial for stopping this. Prevention means spotting warning signs before substances get introduced. Treatment needs to address both the trauma of exploitation and the physical reality of addiction.

The government says they’ll launch a full inquiry, but it’s already facing delays. Four survivors have stepped down from involvement. Maggie Oliver, the former Greater Manchester cop who exposed Rochdale’s grooming gang cover-up, has accused authorities of trying to water down the investigation by expanding it to cover all types of group-based abuse rather than focusing on grooming gangs specifically.

Breaking this cycle requires secure accommodation, proper detox programmes, and sustained psychological support. That costs money and requires political courage that’s been absent for decades.

What Now?

The Met spokesperson said group-based offending is particularly devastating for affected children. Since 2022, they’ve trained 11,000 frontline officers and expanded child exploitation teams. They’ve solved three times more cases and charged 134 additional suspects.

But thousands of young people already suffered years of exploitation and forced addiction whilst authorities looked away. Wedger, who left the force in 2017 after blowing the whistle, thinks the Met’s acknowledgement has come far too late.

Grooming gangs use drugs to maintain control over vulnerable children. Breaking this cycle means admitting past failures, funding prevention and treatment properly, and prosecuting perpetrators regardless of who they are or what connections they have. Anything less is just more victims waiting to happen.

Source: dbrecoveryresources