A hard-hitting film aimed at protecting vulnerable children from becoming involved in the drugs trade is to be made by an award-winning TV director with £10,000 of cash confiscated from criminals in north Wales.

The video intended for use in schools and across the community in Gwynedd will be made by the charity Centre for Sign Sight Sound in three languages – English, Welsh and Sign – and will use young actors from north Wales.

It is being directed by John Evans, a former soldier and police officer, who left the police to study film at Bangor University and has worked in television since.

John has since won Royal Television Society and other awards and his work has featured on BBC Three and on S4C where his first documentary Cysgod Rhyfel (The Shadow of War) highlighted the issues faced by four former soldiers who suffer with PTSD.

The new video aims to show how vulnerable children aged from nine to 13 can be drawn into a life of crime through County Lines, the criminal network of drugs gangs operating across north Wales from big cities and recruiting young people as couriers.

The grant comes from a special fund distributed by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones from a pot which this year totals a record £61,901 with two major donations dedicated to fighting the County Lines menace.

The Your Community, Your Choice initiative is also supported by the North Wales Police and Community Trust which is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year.

The money for the awards came partly from money seized by the courts through the Proceeds of Crime Act with the rest from the Police Commissioner’s Fund.

See this week’s north papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition on Thursday