GARGLING as his lungs filled with blood that spilled from his mouth, a chilling rattling came from 16-year-old Leighton Barrow as his best friend begged him not to panic in a vain attempt to save his life.
Minutes later, the teen drug dealer was dead. Yet for pal Carl Scott, it would take being stabbed three times, a violent kidnapping where he was abandoned naked and nearly dying from hepatitis before he severed his criminal ties for good.
Reformed County Lines gang boss Carl Scott has been honoured with an MBE Credit: SWNS
He started robbing people from the age of 12 before progressing to more serious crime Credit: Supplied
“The streets aren’t loyal”, says the reformed County Lines boss, now 44, who once made £5,000 a day through his drug-running minions, in a stark warning to young people.
“They don’t care about you at all. Money, money, money, is everything. One day you will get stabbed or shot and not survive. You will be replaced. Keeping the line alive is everything.”
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Prior to turning his life around in 2017, Carl recalls being a “little k***head, who caused absolute chaos” from the age of 12 while part of a local gang in Nottingham.
They nicked car stereos, roughed-up rivals on their turf and stole strangers’ newly-bought clothes and trainers, seconds after they stepped out of the shops.
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Hellraiser Carl soon progressed to dealing heroin and crack cocaine for Caribbean crime group, the Yardies, before becoming hooked on drugs himself – spending up to £250 a day.
Violence was the language of those troubled decades and resulted in multiple arrests, prison stints and being stabbed three times – in the thigh, stomach and scrotum.
He survived but friend Leighton, who Carl named his son after, didn’t. He recalls how one minute they were drinking 20 per cent Mad Dog 20/20 outside, the next he was dead.
Carl tells us: “There was this new lad who joined our gang. I didn’t trust him because he didn’t grow up on the estate and he was a dodgy f***er.
“He robbed someone’s house, a Yardie’s little weed patch and a bit of cash. As a result of being seen with him we were all guilty through association.
“A car came speeding up and a guy jumped out with a huge knife. We scattered but Leighton froze. He was stabbed in the chest and fell against the wall.
“I ran over and he was not in a good way. I told him to stay with me, that everything would be alright and not to panic.
“He couldn’t talk and struggled to breathe. When blood came out the side of his mouth, I knew it was bad. His chest cavity was filling up with blood.
“He was gurgling and I could hear this rattling sound. It was horrible. I’ll never forget it. He didn’t last long after that and died in my arms.
“From that moment, I hated everyone. I wanted to hurt everybody. I got into heroin not long after that and I was just evil. I hated the world. My mind was violent and nasty.”
Those days are a distant memory now for Carl, who was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to the protection of young people and will receive it in the next few months.
He has spoken to 20,000 children in schools about gang, drug and knife crime, and has successfully campaigned to get bleed control kids, which stem stab wounds, in cities.
The lifesaving kits could have saved the life of his friend Leighton back in 1997, who remains a poignant inspiration for his mission to dissuade others from following down his dark path.
By that time, Carl, then 15, was known for “being a bit nuts in the head” and had committed a litany of crimes. It was years after his first arrest, aged 13, for robbery and affray.
Alongside a gang of baseball cap-clad thugs, he was stealing from people “every day”, breaking into cars to nick the stereos and joyriding them.
“We were the little arseholes, who ran around town swiping bags off people or waiting for them to come out of shops to steal what they had bought,” Carl says.
Carl appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about blood control kits, which save lives Credit: instagram/project_youth_official
At the height of his heroin addiction, he was spending £250 a day Credit: Supplied
Months after Leighton’s death, Carl was stabbed in retaliation for beating up a rival. His victim and a group of his pals ambushed him while he was walking alone.
“I got punched and kicked and didn’t realise I’d been stabbed until I saw the knife stuck in my leg.
“If I’d have pulled it out I would have died as it was a millimetre from artillery vain.
“The second time I was stabbed with a screwdriver because I refused to steal a car.
“The last was another fight. I got stabbed with a Swiss Army Knife, just underneath my ball bag. Thankfully I was wearing thick jeans so it wasn’t serious.”
Not long after Leighton’s killing, Carl smoked heroin for the first time in a roll-up. He was “hooked from day one”, soon he was spending £100 to £250-a-day on the Class A.
Carl, who initially used from his own drug-dealing supply, managed to hide his addiction but then his crook pals discovered he owed £200 drug debt to someone else and kidnapped the 17-year-old.
“My own ‘friends’ set me up,” he said. “They asked me to meet them in the Red Light District of Nottingham. The car pulled up, I was talking to them and whack, I was punched.
Carl stopped using heroin, was treated for hepatitis and quit crime for good Credit: Supplied
The former drug dealer at the height of his addiction Credit: Facebook
“They threw me onto the middle seat, kept whacking me and smashed the side of my eye. I thought I was going to die. I p***ed my pants. I was s*** scared.
“They put a gun in my mouth, battered me, stripped me naked and left me on a country road. I had blood all over my face but was lucky not to have been killed.
“I’d known these boys for years and we’d gone through a lot together. It shows the streets aren’t loyal. Money and reputation is always ahead of friendship.”
His rap sheet includes convictions for robbery, affray, theft, ABH, dangerous driving and a number of other vehicle-related offences.
By 2010, Carl was heading up a County Line in Hastings, East Sussex, with two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, below him selling drugs that he moved from Hackney, in London.
He claims the line earned him £3,500 to £5,000 a day shifting a huge amount of drugs every week.
Carl strongly warns against that lifestyle now, revealing sinister tactics used including debt bondage, which prevents youngsters being able to leave.
“Young people are groomed,” he says. “Dealers flash the cash, allow them to get a bit of money so they are comfortable and then take it all away by setting them up.
“They may tell them to pick up a parcel but make sure they are beaten up and robbed. Now they have lost the pack, they are in debt and their wages stop.”
Appealing to youngsters, Carl says: “Drug dealers don’t care about you at all. They will gladly send you to trap houses with addicts, who could kill you, and dirty needles everywhere.
In 2011, Carl was arrested for intent to supply and sentenced to 18 months in prison. After his release, he slowly began to change his ways.
The biggest motivator was discovering he had hepatitis – caused by either drug use or prison tattoos – which left him throwing up 20 times a day and losing five stone.
Carl, who is now clean, has since worked tirelessly to warn young people against a life of crime when going into schools.
Worryingly, he heard an eight-year-old who carried a knife “for protection” and spoke to kids as young as 12 who regularly have a weapon on them.
“They believe it’s for protection but I say, ‘You’re crazy’ because I know if they came up to someone like me in those days, I would have beat them up and stabbed them,” Carl says.
Reformed County Lines gang boss Carl now warns teens in schools about the dangers of gangs Credit: Facebook
Carl has successfully managed to get bleed control kits in multiple areas across England Credit: SWNS
“Social media is a huge issue too, it glamourises crime. Kids look up to violent drill rappers and people in prison making it look like an easy and good place to be. It’s really not.”
Carl has managed to get 25 bleed control kits installed across Cornwall, Hastings, Sussex and London. So far two lives have been saved from them.
There are lasting side effects from Carl’s criminal past, including a fear of crowds stemming from his drug dealing days.
He doesn’t want others following down the same path and uses his raw, bare-to-the-bone anecdotes to show young people there is no life in a life of crime.
Carl adds: “Every day you come out of your house you are consumed by paranoia, it’s mentally draining to live like that.”
