Inside Weston’s Social Media Drug Trade: Dealers Exploit Facebook, Instagram and TikTok
- Dan Heley
- 24 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Snowflakes, snowfall, and snowmen symbolise cocaine. Love hearts, lightning bolts, and pill capsules mean MDMA, or molly. Brown hearts and dragons represent heroin. Grapes and baby bottles are the calling cards for codeine-containing cough syrup, or lean. The humble maple leaf, meanwhile, is the universal symbol for all drugs.
For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and buyers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms.
*We have removed any information that would enable contact with a social media account advertising the sale of drugs, not to hide their identity but as to not make public the accounts they use.
An investigation by Weston Independent News has discovered the offering for sale of illegal drugs across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to residents of the town and holiday makers, often with the use of emojis to advertise their poison.
On Instagram, drug dealers were found to be openly advertising the couriering of cocaine directly to a buyers location with coversations also taking place on the heavily encrypted messaging app Telegram.
The drug was being advertised through the use of hashtags linked with Weston-super-Mare to enable someone to identify that they are able to purchase it locally.
Conversations are then requested to take place on Telegram which are "end-to-end encrypted", which means messages are scrambled on the senders device and decrypted only on the recipient's. This means that neither Telegram nor outside observers such as the Police can intercept or read the contents of these chats.
It is not just Instagram where we discovered the open advertising of drugs. On Facebook we discovered multiple pages advertising the sale and delivery of Cannabis to people, again via the Telegram app. On one such page the dealer posted regularly advertising the "quality" of the drugs they were selling.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instragam were approached for comment but we did not receive a response
On Snapchat, dealers have chosen an alternative method to peddle their wares, with the sale of drugs being more closely linked with the the use of "emoji's" than other platforms.
An unlikely accident when the app's core demographic is teens and young adults.
This coincided with usernames that inferred the activity they were carrying out, but in such a way that they are able to circumnavigate the platforms proactive algorithms and automated detection.
There are whole range of "emoji's", a small digital icon used in messages and social media to express emotions, concepts, or objects; that are used to advertise the different substances that are for sale – the maple leaf being the universal symbol for drugs, diamond or snowflake for cocaine, the capsule for MDMA and needle for heroin.
Snapchat was approached for comment but we did not receive a response
A statement from Avon & Somerset Police said;
“Illegal drugs being offered for sale through social media is not a new phenomenon.
We're keen for parents and carers to understand this issue, to have conversations about staying safe online with children, and to monitor children's social media use - including messaging apps.
Avon and Somerset Police remain committed to tackling the harm caused to families and communities from the supply of illegal substances.
The North Somerset neighbourhood team continues to target those who supply drugs, no matter how they sell them.
In March this year, officers intercepted and seized cocaine and heroin being brought into Weston-super-Mare from the West Midlands.
A man aged 23 from Dudley admitted possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply, while a 47-year-old man from Edgbaston admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine. Both are remanded into custody ahead of a sentencing hearing at Bristol Crown Court on 16 July.
In the same month, officers arrested a man aged 43, of no fixed abode, who has since admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, and has been jailed for 18 months.
We welcome information about drug crime, which can form part of the evidence we need to take action.”
In January 2026, the government announced a consultation on how to improve children’s relationships with mobile phones and social media.
The consultation opened on 2 March 2026 and closed on 26 May 2026. One of the issues on which the consultation sought views was whether there should be a ban on social media for under 16's because of the high levels of harmful content they are being exposed to online.
However, a rushed under-16s social media ban in the UK could unravel and families would be left to count the cost, a leading child safety charity has warned.
The Molly Rose Foundation (MRF) said an age limit on the use of tech platforms could unravel, after it was reported that the prime minister, Keir Starmer, would announce a ban on under-16s accessing “harmful” social media apps.
It is not known which apps would fit into that category, but a blanket ban in Australia covers Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok and Snapchat, among others.
MRF, founded by the family of Molly Russell, a British teenager who took her own life after viewing harmful online content on Instagram and Pinterest, said a ban would fail to make children safer because they would circumvent age checks and could move to less regulated areas such as gaming.
Andy Burrows, the MRF chief executive, said a “rushed” ban would “quickly unravel” and was not supported by the evidence.
“Parents have been clear they want decisive action that will actually work,” he said. “If Keir Starmer prioritises short-term announcements over what the evidence and experts say is needed, children and parents will be left to count the cost and child protection will take a step back”
You can pass information on through the Avon & Somerset Police website, or by speaking with neighbourhood officers, or by calling 101.
Alternatively you call the independent charity Crimestoppers which is 100% anonymous on 0800 555 111 or by using their online form
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