The leader of a massive cocaine dealing operation has been slapped with a new criminal order after he was found to have used children to deal drugs for him.
Ron Whyte, 32, was handed a Slavery Trafficking and Risk Order (STRO) last month after he was previously jailed for six years for drug supply offences. The order follows an investigation into the “Richi” network, which spanned at least nine separate drug lines sending out bulk advertising messages to crack cocaine and heroin users in Southend.
The network used juveniles and young people to hold and manage the drug line phones, employing them as runners. Whyte, of no fixed address, was linked to the “Richi” line as long ago as 2019. Essex Police’s investigation showed he had frequent contact with many of the runners linked to the operation.
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He admitted conspiring to supply crack cocaine and heroin and was jailed in September last year. So far, more than 21 years in prison sentences have been passed down upon those involved in the ‘Richi’ group. The order will cover the next eight years and implements strict terms including on Whyte’s use of mobile phones, his contacts, his carrying of cash and his access to social media.
In 2024, Essex Police’s Operation Raptor team presented their work on STROs to the Home Office after becoming one of the first forces nationally to use the tactic. County Lines gangs make money by trafficking people and drugs and invading the houses of vulnerable people to use as bases for drug dealing – known as cuckooing.
The STROs place strict conditions on who perpetrators can associate with or contact, where they can go and what they can post on social media. Anyone breaching their conditions faces arrest.
Detective Constable Anna Lightfoot, Op Raptor safeguarding officer, said: “These orders not only limit the ability of gang members under investigation to commit crime, they also offer an increased level of protection to those people the gang is exploiting.
“The Modern Slavery Act was brought in in 2015, but STROs have been under-utilised. They are civil orders that help us impose restrictions on these suspects. This is still largely a new way of thinking, but our teams are always looking at ways to protect those exploited by these gangs.
“If an individual is being prosecuted for a County Lines-style offence where there’s been any form of exploitation, and we believe there is a risk the suspect may look to exploit others, we can use the civil order to limit what the suspect can do.”