Drug gangs ‘cuckooing’ hundreds of homes a week, police warn

Hundreds, even thousands, of people’s homes in the UK are taken over by criminals every week, often for the purpose of storing and selling drugs, police chiefs told the BBC.

Perpetrators of cuckooing often target vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, by forcing them into homes to commit illegal acts.

In some cases, drug users are exploited by gangs who move in and refuse to leave.

Cuckooing is not yet a specific criminal offense, so there is limited data on how common it is.

But figures shared exclusively with the BBC show 1,539 cuckoo incidents were reported to police in London between May 2025 and April 2026. Of these, 1,275 of the victims were men.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said “terrible things” often happened to victims trapped in their own homes.

“There have been cases where they’ve been forced to eat dog faeces or engaged in sexual acts and these will be recorded and then used as a form of blackmail for the perpetrator to say, ‘If you don’t do what I say, we’ll eventually share this with our friends and put it on social media,'” Kirsten Dent of the NPCC told the BBC.

“It’s hidden and not always easy to detect in people’s homes.”

Cuckooing, named after cuckoos that often take over other birds’ nests to lay their own eggs, is expected to become a special offense by the end of the year, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.

This forms part of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, but the government has yet to issue legal guidance to police forces ahead of the law coming into force.

Before the change was implemented, the BBC accompanied London’s Metropolitan Police as officers visited properties suspected of cuckooing and witnessed shocking signs of squalor.

We also spoke with victims who said they felt like prisoners in their homes and were afraid to go to the police in case of violent retaliation.

Jamie, 34, suffered brain damage after being hit on the head with a glass bottle, leaving him struggling to move and speak clearly.

Two years ago a criminal gang took advantage of his situation by befriending him, before moving into his home without his consent and using his flat as a place to sell drugs.

“People went from being really nice and solid to me to taking whatever they could,” he said.

“They stole my clothes,” he added. “They started doing something like stealing everything in my house that was worth taking without your knowledge. And when I realized it was them, they denied it.”

He said one of the most humiliating things was being slapped by a teenager much younger than him. Jamie said he felt it was impossible to be assertive against the gang because of his situation.

“I [have] He has brain damage and a single punch can cause a lot of damage. “I can’t fight, I can’t argue,” he said.

Earlier this year, he said, he managed to escape his home and move to a different part of the country, escaping the gang.

‘I am a prisoner in my own home’

The NPCC visited 683 suspected cuckoo addresses in early March this year as part of a week focusing on county lines, the act of moving drugs from major cities to smaller, rural areas.

According to officers, district border operations and cuckooing are inherently linked. Dealers who transport drugs often look for properties to operate from.

“We suspect hundreds, if not thousands, of properties are being cuckolded every week across the country (England),” Dent said.

One of them was Jackie, who told the BBC that she used to be addicted to heroin and cocaine.

His dealer allowed him to rack up a huge drug debt. When he couldn’t pay it back, he added an extra £2,000 to the bill and said he had to have a salesman stay with him until he paid the money.

He said he was cuckolded for months and was “a prisoner in my own house.”

“I asked him to leave so many times, and he said: ‘Man, he said I should stay here.'”

“It just meant I had to stay in one room. I tried to get access to the front room and the kitchen and he said ‘no, you’re not coming’. I had to stay in my bedroom. Occasionally he would say ‘I’ll get you chicken and chips or something’ but that was very rare,” she said. He said he used drugs to get through this difficult process.

After occupying the property for several months, the seller finally left. Jackie said the suspicion that the police were watching her made her leave.

After going to rehab, he is now drug free and works with various support groups to raise awareness about cuckooing and that it can happen to anyone.

“This isn’t just about drugs. It can be about anything. It can be a partner, too. [not leaving]. It could be family members. “It can be anyone who refuses to leave your property and your property can be used for any money, stolen goods or anything they think can exploit you,” he said.

When the BBC visited properties in London with Met police, officers said squalid conditions were normal when it came to cuckoo buildings.

Food wrappers were strewn across the floor, doors were hanging off their hinges, and the acrid odor of feces filled the air.

We were taken to a kitchen with raw chicken thrown into the sink. There were blood stains on the duvet and a filthy folding table was used as a bed. The toilet in one of the bathrooms is clogged. There was a rotten smell in all the properties.

Repeat victims

Officers from the Met, Britain’s top force, said they saw a pattern of being taken advantage of.

“The data shows us that if you are a white male between the ages of 40 and 49 and you are potentially a drug addict, then you have a very high chance of falling victim to the cuckoo.

“We are also seeing repeat victims where people who were once cuckolded or stay in the same place unfortunately become victims again,” Insp Andrew Cameron said.

Freedom of information figures obtained by the BBC show there were 380 investigations flagging cuckooing as a potential problem in the capital in 2023/24. This figure rises to 1,078 in 2025/26.

The Met said this increase was primarily due to increased police awareness of what cuckooing was, but also to drug dealers using the tactic as a business model.

The force said data collection methodology also changed during this time, which may explain some of the increase.

Until cuckooing became a designated crime, police officers tried to arrest suspects for other crimes, such as drug possession or slavery crimes, he said.

Sources at various police forces in England said lockdown orders were being used more widely to stop cuckooing.

They allow police officers and local authorities to temporarily shut down a property. A partial closure order may mean that the tenant can stay but said visitors and other people are prohibited.

However, some victims criticize the way this problem is handled.

“I have no faith in the police. They are useless,” said one victim we spoke to on condition of anonymity.

They believe vulnerable people need support and more needs to be done to prevent their exploitation.

The NPCC said it was working to build trust with victims and believed a change in law to make cuckooing a specific offense would help.

Dr., one of the University of Leeds researchers whose studies focus on cuckoo and district border exploitation. Amy Loughery said police did not always recognize that vulnerable people were being exploited.

“Cuckoo victims were not necessarily seen as victims because they often had previous experience or contact with the police,” he said.

While awareness of the issue has increased in recent years, “there is a significant way to go,” he said, calling for more guidance and policies to help identify abuse and improve responses to cuckooing.

A Home Office spokesman told BBC News the statements were “appalling”.

They added: “We will do everything we can to protect communities from vile cuckoo crime, including investing more than £34 million this year in the County Lines Program targeting drug dealing gangs and organized crime groups.”

If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, you can find information and support at: BBC’s Action Line.