Two people have been charged with modern slavery and class A drug offences following a dawn raid at a flat in south east London.

The raid was linked to the arrest of a 13-year-old boy in Rochester station who was found with £1,500 in cash, multiple mobile phones and markings of exploitation by County Lines gangs.

He has since been taken into police protection and is the youngest person British Transport County Lines officers have been forced to arrest this year.

Officers entered a home in Surrey Quays at around 6am on September 25 and arrested a man and a woman, and seized an amount of money and weapons.

Both were charged the same day with counts of modern slavery and supplying class A drugs.

Measures were taken to protect a third person who owned the flat, who is expected to be a victim of exploitation by the gangs.

Detective Superintendent Gareth Williams, of the British Transport Police County Lines Taskforce, said: "Sadly, it's not uncommon for County Lines gangs to use children, especially when they're using them to transport drugs on the railway."

"In our work, we routinely come across children who are 15, 16 and 17-years-old.

"These gangs often use extreme intimidation and exploitative tactics, such as money and new clothes, to encourage these children to travel far distances to areas they don't know with class A drugs, where they'll be alone and at a high risk of harm.

"When we arrest a child involved in County Lines our first intention is never to criminalise, but to give them protection and try to pull them away from the clutches of criminals, we'll then target the gangs exploiting them.

"We're carrying out operations on the railway daily to make sure this happens, and continually work with local police forces to ensure there is a nationwide response to County Lines."

To date, 725 people linked with County Lines have been arrested, 369 amounts of drugs ranging in class and quantity have been seized, £245,000 in cash has been seized, and 122 weapons have been taken off the railway.

The single largest seizure to date was £53,000 worth of cocaine seized at Cambridge station in June.

The man carrying the drugs admitted doing so to pay off an £8,000 debt to a gang.

To get the latest updates in ongoing cases, police appeals and criminals put behind bars, click here

Read more: All the latest news from Medway