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Police said they have launched a separate and full investigation into each missing child Getty Images

KEY POINTS

  • Several teenagers have disappeared from north London borough in past few weeks.
  • Police looking into possibility some of them "could be missing together".
  • Two men recently jailed for running 'county lines' drug trafficking with children from north London.

Concerns are growing about a spate of children and young people who have gone missing in the Enfield area.

In the past month alone, at least nine children aged between 13 and 17 have disappeared from the north London borough, with one 21-year-old also not being seen since the middle of November.

Met Police have confirmed they are conducting a separate investigation for each disappearance but are looking the possibility that at least some of them "could be missing together".

Police added that there has not been a "disproportionate" rise in the number of reported disappearances in the area despite the concerns.

A spokesperson said: "We understand how upsetting it is that these young children are missing and our Missing Persons Unit is conducting a separate and full investigation into each child whilst also addressing the possibility that they could be missing together.

"We are using social media as an asset to try to get their faces known and to get information on their whereabouts to help with our investigations. If anyone has info please call our MPU and help us to locate them and reunite them with family and friends."

The disappearances arrive after gang members from Edmonton and Enfield were jailed for using a 19-year-old woman from north London who had been previously been reported missing to traffic drugs into south Wales.

Mahad Yusuf, 20, of Edmonton and Fesal Mahamud 19, Enfield, pleaded guilty to modern slavery offences after running a so-called "county line" – a term for when gangs use children to traffic drugs from cities to out of town locations.

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The pair were found to have lured the vulnerable teen into a car before driving hundreds of miles to south Wales. The woman was then held captive for five days, had her phone destroyed and forced to store Class A drugs against her will.

It is now feared more children are being targeted in north London areas by gangs and forced into trafficking drugs.

Following the conviction of the pair, detective superintendent Tim Champion, Lead Responsible Officer for the Met's County Lines Investigations, said: "Drug supply is not new, however the exploitation of vulnerable young people by criminal networks, to move and supply drugs across the country, takes this offending to a new level.

"We will prioritise those criminal networks that exploit young persons and utilise all legislation available to disrupt their offending and safeguard those caught up in 'county lines'. These offenders are trafficking young people to maximise their profits in the drug market and use of the Modern Slavery Act is a proportionate and necessary response."