The horrifying actuality of Britain’s cocaine obsession: How middle-class drug customers ‘within the Cotswolds’ are fuelling brutal county traces violence

On grainy CCTV footage a man looks frantically over his shoulder as he cycles along a north London street on a Lime bike.

At first, the quick glance could be mistaken for a nod goodbye to a friend. But the truth is far from it, the truth is horrifying.

The man is Anthony Marks and he is fleeing for his life from an armed teenage drugs gang.

Within seconds, members of the baying mob are seen entering the frame and pursuing their victim, and tragically for Mr Marks, they caught up with him.

He was murdered on the street – just a short walk from the buzzing tourist hub of Kings Cross.

The chilling footage was released to the Daily Mail by the Metropolitan Police after his killers were jailed for a combined 23 years. 

County lines drug runners Jaidee Bingham – known as ‘Ghost’ – Eymaiyah Lee Bradshaw-McKoy and Mia Campos-Jorge, catch up to homeless Mr Marks and batter him to death with a gin bottle.

Police later found sick selfies and videos showing the teens – aged just 16 and 17 at the time – smiling, laughing and singing before and after the vicious attack.

As they made off from the scene in a car with false number plates, the youths filmed themselves celebrating, with Bingham saying ‘we messed up a man today’.

The brutal case is just one example of the troubled life of crime and violence that county lines gangs are grooming schoolchildren into every day.

And teachers and drugs experts have now hit out at middle-class drug users taking cocaine at fancy dinner parties for fueling the dangerous drugs gangs who are exploiting young teenagers.

They warn that wealthy mums taking cocaine on a Friday night in plush areas like the Cotswolds are not just indulging in ‘innocent fun’, but are ‘funding and facilitating child abuse’.

In a desperate plea, a teacher and charity worker Nicola Garrard told the Daily Mail: ‘Middle class, recreational drug users need to know that the drugs they’re taking have very likely been through the digestive tract of a child who is being abused.

‘The link between the two is too often missed but that is the brutal reality. Their cocaine that they’re having for “fun” is paying and facilitating child abuse.

‘Because it is child abuse. That is what is happening to the kids I teach. They are blackmailed, in some cases sexually abused, by these gangs, and the kids are actually terrified. 

‘Yes, they do become violent, but they’re becoming violent because they’re being systematically brutalised and abused.

‘And middle-class drug users feel that they’re somehow not connected to it all.

‘The criminally exploited child could be the same age as their own children, and yet they are seen as being somehow less worthy.

‘The message needs to go out there that you are participating in child abuse if you choose to use cocaine. 

‘Wherever the drug is coming from, there is a chain of abuse and that is not fun. And it shouldn’t be labelled as “innocent fun”, because it’s not.

‘There is a real world harm for children in choosing to take the drug.’  

In the latest case which lays bare the brutality of county lines gangs, the three teens, including two schoolgirls, were jailed for a combined 23 years.

The three, who can now be named after turning 18, had just begun working for a county lines gang when one of the girls was robbed.

Bingham was tasked with recovering the drugs, and the group believed homeless man Mr Marks, 51, was linked to it.

Mr Marks had a long-time addiction to class A drugs and would buy drugs from a gang in King’s Cross, which Bingham worked for.

Bingham and the teenage girls confronted Mr Marks at around 5am, which led to a small altercation which quickly blew up into an exchange of blows and an assault with a car bumper.

They then chased him down a street near Kings Cross as he attempted to get away, and then carried out a brutal attack that would eventually lead to his death. 

Mr Marks was found by staff after he had stumbled into King’s Cross station covered in blood.

He was found in a critical condition and died of a bleed on the brain five weeks later.

Bingham, then 16, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 16 years, while Bradshaw-McKoy, then aged 16 and Campos-Jorge, then aged 17, were found guilty of manslaughter.

While it is understood county lines gangs are predominantly involved in moving crack cocaine and heroin, some are also involved with the supplying of powdered cocaine.

Cocaine usage is heavily associated with the middle-classes, in comparison with other Class-A drugs such as heroin and crack-cocaine which are more commonly found within deprived communities.

Data from the Office of National Statistics also suggests that the middle class are driving the demand for the drug, with four per cent of people with household incomes of more than £52,000 taking a Class-A drug in the past year.

On The Edge author Ms Garrard, who works with London-based charity Minority Matters, told of how there has been a rise in drugs being delivered to areas such as Cornwall and the Cotswolds, where there are high numbers of second homes.

She said: ‘I know one criminally-exploited young man. He was terrified of his gang, his own gang stabbed him in the leg and he had a night in hospital.

‘Then he said to his mum “sorry, I’ve got to go back to work”. He literally got on the train to St Austell in Cornwall that same day. 

‘A lot of it is going to places like the Cotswolds and Cornwall. It’s places where there are lots of second homes bringing in weekend traffic.

‘Cocaine is expensive and people have to be wealthy to use it.

‘These are university-educated, professional, affluent, upper-middle class people we are talking about. 

‘A lot of them will be parents as well, middle-aged people.

‘It’s something that isn’t taken seriously because it’s other people’s children.

‘It’s almost like they are seen as lesser human and not given child status.

‘A lot of that is to do with class and race as well. Class and race come into these things very powerfully.  

‘But these gangs are actively recruiting all backgrounds, not just children from difficult backgrounds, chaotic families, it is not just that.

‘It is actually wider than that, and they are increasingly targeting girls because they are less visible.’

Speaking of the attitudes of middle-class drug users, she added: ‘They’ll be eating organic food, recycling, and thinking about ethics on a lot of levels.

‘Yet there is a blindness to where their cocaine comes from.

‘I think the blindness comes down to class and race and looking at these kids like second-class citizens.

‘They must be aware of it. They meet the person that is dealing.

‘The boy coming to their door with the drugs will be from a background that they don’t value or respect. And they will give them the money and say right “that’s that”.

‘And they will look at the kid like they are a bad person, like they are a criminal, but they don’t see themselves as criminals.

‘And then they go back to their professional life and families and children and they’re not joining the dots. Probably because it’s easier not to, because they want what they want without thinking about the consequences.’

She also told of how the issue of county lines gangs is not just affecting children and schools in inner-city areas, but are now a prevalent issue in rural areas among white working-class children.

‘The county lines gangs are affecting rural schools and inner city schools’, Ms Garrard said.

‘We know who the children are who are being exploited, they will disappear for two or three days. And they will become more aggressive to protect themselves.

‘Schools are saying “your child has been away” and parents are lying because they don’t want to be fined.

‘Meanwhile, you have wealthy, affluent parents telling schools they’re going to take a week off to go skiing and will pay the fine.’

Across England, more than 46,000 children are thought to be involved in criminal groups, many of them county lines, according to The Children’s Society.

More than 80 per cent of parents are worried about their children being recruited into county lines gangs, and 4,000 kids are being criminally exploited in London alone.

Social media such as Snapchat and Instagram have become increasingly utilised by these gangs to groom children into selling drugs.

In many scenarios, children are sexually abused by the gangs, blackmailed, and even have drugs stolen off them by the same gang to ensure they are indebted to them.

Gary Carroll, an expert in organised crime and drugs, also told the Mail of how cocaine consumption has become widely accepted among the higher classes in society.

He said: ‘The [cocaine] market is most strongly associated with the pub and club scene, reflecting cocaine’s close relationship with alcohol consumption in licensed premises. 

‘While the domestic or household market has historically been secondary, it is increasingly prominent, indicating a growing level of social acceptance and more overt use within private settings such as house parties or informal social gatherings at home.

‘Unlike many other controlled substances, cocaine use within this context is not typically accompanied by significant judgment or social consequence among peers. 

‘As a result, consumption by otherwise functional, employed, and socially respectable individuals is not strongly deterred.

‘At street level cocaine is supplied from a number of working strategies, ranging from single supplier operatives (one-man-bands)… or regional gangs operating wherever the client base exists, crossing regional borders and can even be seen 100s of miles from where they lived or originated.

‘In Organised Crime Groups there are those engaging in many roles that are perfectly willing participants and fully aware of the consequences, as well as the benefits, and there are those who are coerced, mislead and even forced into working in the drugs distribution.

‘The latter has become more prevalent and is often the result of youths from a variety of backgrounds, who can originally engage willingly, and undertake small remedial tasks from the suppliers, though gradually become coerced into becoming more invested from debt-bondage, threats and manipulation.’

While it is unknown how they were recruited into county lines, the case of Bingham, Bradshaw-McKoy and Campos-Jorge illustrates the twisted and dangerous world that teenagers are lured into.

Images and videos released by the Metropolitan Police show how the three teenage drug runners posed for smiling selfies before and after the deadly assault, which later helped detectives place them at the scene.

Mr Marks was found by police with serious injuries to his head and arms at King’s Cross Station at around 5.25am on August 10 2024.

After being rushed to hospital, a CT scan showed a bleed on the brain caused by the attack, on top of a pre-existing condition.

The court heard how Mr Marks was transferred to prison after being discharged from hospital, and in custody had complained of headaches and slurred speech.

On August 29, he suffered a seizure and underwent emergency surgery at King’s College Hospital on September 14, 2024.

Prosecutor Hugh Davies KC said that while there were “some missed opportunities” for medical intervention, Mr Marks would not have died if he had not been assaulted by the gang. 

Bingham, of Dagenham, was unanimously found guilty of murder. He was jailed for 16 years.

Bradshaw-McKoy, 18, and Campos-Jorge, 19, were found guilty of manslaughter by a majority verdict at the Old Bailey on October 30 2025.

Bradshow-McKoy was jailed for three years and 11 months, while Campos-Jorge has been sentenced to three years and six months behind bars. 

The court heard how Mr Marks was first struck with a car bumper before being chased down, stamped on and beaten with a gin bottle in a brutal and sustained attack.

During the attack, Mr Marks was repeatedly kicked and struck over the head with a glass bottle. The trio only fled when a member of the public intervened, chasing them away with a cricket bat.

Mr Marks later stumbled into King’s Cross Station seeking help, where he was found by police covered in blood.

Met detectives pieced together the case by tracking the trio across CCTV footage, identifying them across London and using forensic analysis of their mobile phones to reconstruct the events of the night. 

Judge Mark Dennis, KC, said: ‘The deceased was involved in what started as a minor altercation which then developed into an exchange of blows and unlawful assault and a chase as he endeavoured to run away.

‘Having fallen to the ground he was subjected to kicks and then struck at least twice to the head with a glass bottle.

‘He had a longstanding addiction to Class A drugs and would regularly purchase his drugs from an established drugs line which operated in the King’s Cross area.

‘The victim was a vulnerable individual who was outnumbered in the assault and repeatedly struck both when on the floor and when trying to run away.’

Mr Marks told police he was ‘messing around with his crack pipe’ near some bins when ‘Ghost’ told him that ‘one of the smokers had taken some drugs from one of the girls and run away with it.’

He said ‘Ghost’ started making threatening gestures and hit him fives times with the car bonnet and knocked out his tooth.

Mr Marks added: ‘He and the two girls then chased me down the road towards the pub.

‘A white guy who I’ve seen, who is a smoker like us. He grabs me I fall to the floor. They proceed to stamp on me and hit me with a green gin bottle. I pass out.’

Detective Inspector Jim Barry, of the Met’s Specialist Crime North, who led the investigation, said: ‘This is a particularly callous murder that gives an insight into the ruthless brutality of county lines gangs.

‘The ages of Bingham, Bradshaw-McKoy and Campos-Jorge are particularly shocking. But the fact that they were teenagers does not excuse their violent actions as part of a drug line that has brought fear and intimidation to London’s streets.

‘They believed they had escaped justice, even posing for selfies together and laughing about what they had done. There is a sense of justice that officers were able to use these to place them at the scene of the crime.

‘This verdict shows how the Met is taking the fight to criminal gangs and committed to getting justice for their victims.’

Following an altercation, Mr Marks was chased from Argyle Street to Whidbourne Street by Bingham and Bradshaw-McKoy. CCTV footage showed Bradshaw-McKoy wielding a long object believed to be a car bumper.

Officers were able to speak to him before his death and used CCTV to build a detailed timeline of the assault.

In the days that followed, police arrested the teenagers at addresses across south, north and east London, seizing their mobile phones.

Images and videos recovered from the devices showed them together at an apartment near the scene, with messages appearing to reference the attack. 

Further CCTV footage tracked them back from the crime scene to the apartment, forming a key part of the prosecution case.

Bingham was arrested on Friday, October 4, 2024 and charged with murder on Sunday, October 6. 

Bradshaw-McKoy was arrested on Thursday, November 28, 2024 and charged on Monday, November 29. 

Campos-Jorge was arrested and charged with murder on Monday, December 9, 2024.