Child exploitation within drug markets has become one of the most significant safeguarding and criminal justice challenges facing police forces in England and Wales. Over the past decade, policymakers and operational policing have focused heavily on the county lines model, emphasising the movement of drugs across geographical boundaries and the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults into supply chains. The rapid growth of the county lines drug market model has significantly transformed contemporary drug supply across the UK. Emerging evidence suggests that organised drug markets are altering, often becoming more rooted in local communities and increasingly shaped by digital technologies. County lines drug market exploitation continues to occur through long-distance supply arrangements, but also through neighbourhood-based networks and the cross-border recruitment of locally resident children. They increasingly draw upon online drug distribution systems that continue to be underpinned by coercive social relationships, blurring distinctions between victimisation and offending. These developments raise important questions about how exploitation is identified, recorded and addressed within policing systems.