[Music] the uk border agency is at war with smugglers in the ports and airports you don't have to see anything get that martin uses charades to interrogate a suspect so when he's a recreational user or not we can't establish anything at the moment can't speak english a duty-free fraudster gets caught in the act he was going out and just asking to borrow people's boarding cards he said lend me a bowling card i'll get you a pie and the dogs sniff out a suspiciously large amount of cash i was thinking i'm buying a car down there as a customs officer okay i can't always believe what people tell me [Music] [Music] in gatwick's departure lounge a passenger has been spotted buying tobacco with other people's boarding cards and uk border officer mike has been called in to investigate we've had a call from the duty free shop they've told us that someone has bought a large quantity of cigarettes and tobacco so what people do is they get a couple of balding cards or get someone else to buy the goods for them apparently they're sitting in the pub anyone flying within the eu has a duty-free allowance of 200 cigarettes but criminals steal boarding cards to non-eu countries like turkey and illegally purchase thousands of cigarettes it's known as carousel fraud okay and i'll say all your passports please they now need to work out who's to blame well no it's just my brother we got a place out there this is [Music] but mike suspects the culprit may have to be arrested just need to make sure he leaving no he should be nick for that why should he be because you're not allowed to buy them going within the eu even if you're fred because he's taking a meet you will see them report here because they fraudulently use these hello can i just run this past you please you know we've just been called up to duty-free land some geezer has got his mates who are flying to bodrum to buy him 4 000 flags and he's flying onto malta and he's admitted he knows he's done wrong but they're so expensive out there he's got to come down really you know all threat all three of them or season report but it's an absolute offense in it because it's a fraudulent i think he'll need to come down okay if you collect your bag the two passengers flying to turkey will be allowed to leave but the carousel fraudster isn't going anywhere what you've done so far is an absolute offense which means at the moment time is 13 25 i'm placing you under arrest on the suspicion of being involved in the fraudulent invasion of excise goods you do not have to say anything but it may harm the defense if you do not mention one question something you may later rely on anything you do so maybe giving it evidence do you understand that okay we're just going to go down to our custom suite now not looking likely what we're going to do though we're just going to take you downstairs okay and we may seize the goods from you we may need to ask you some more questions at the moment i can't say whether you will make your flight or not yet all right okay it may seem harsh for a few cigarettes but the man has attempted to evade hundreds of pounds in tax and if he's done it before he may be going to jail in manchester a flight from paris has just arrived border officers have intercepted some suspicious baggage which started its journey in south america [Music] these are the name of lopez border officers are always on the lookout for anything suspicious and it's the names on these bags that rang alarm bells it's just the fact that they're two similar cases with two different names which smugglers have been known to use a method which we call the switch bag they'll have two bags one with drugs in and one just clean bag depending on whether they get stocked or not depends which one they pick up the bags go back on the carousel yes and while martin keeps watch to see who picks them up [Music] the officers now need to try and communicate with the passengers to find the source of the coquit these packs there may be a language barrier but there's some words the sun seems to understand cocaine the officers decide to swab the sun's belongings first the suspicions about cocaine were correct but often coke hits can be caused by personal use and working out the cause here will be easier said than done quite high inside the gentleman's bag um unfortunately because they're non-english speakers we can't really question to establish anything about misuse or anything so so whether there's a recreational user or not we can't establish anything at the moment because you can't speak english [Music] in gatwick the flight to malta is about to depart but one passenger looks increasingly unlikely to be there in time what judy three said is that he was going out he was going out apparently just asking him to borrow people's boarding cards so that he could buy he said then your bowling card and they said yeah i'll get you a pint and that's what it is and that's how it works on the boats guys it does of course it does the cigarettes will definitely be seized but the officers are waiting to hear back from the investigation team to find out if the man is going to be his charged due at 15 30 departure time gate close at 15 10. obviously depending on how official we need to be about it is whether or not he misses his flight obviously he's committed an offence so if he misses his flight that's his own problem as the [ __ ] get bagged the news comes in that the man won't want to hear unfortunately i spoke to the investigation team they do want us to take you down and they'll question you down there okay so we'll be moving in a couple of minutes with the illegal cigarette trade robbing over a billion pounds a year from the treasury the man's crime is being taken seriously hello boss would you mind doing us a favor would you be able to contact british airways and just say that he won't be making his flight but it's just so they don't hold the gate open and keep calling his name if he's not going to make it poet all right lovely stuff the man is in serious trouble with the law and his travel plans are in ruins would you like somebody informed that you have been arrested and that you are here um i think she's in malta that's it they're going to be waiting for me that ends doesn't matter where i mean it's just i don't want to scare her i mean can i speak to her or not is she asleep um all right um oh it's just a flight there's a problem with the flying it's renovated yeah i'll find her later the flight's been delayed tell natalie not to leave to the airport until i find it there's an engine problem or something i don't know but leave mommy a sleep don't wake her up all right then bye bye the man is locked up until the investigation officers arrive they later charged him with evasion of excise duty and he's now awaiting sentence back in manchester there's more family problems officers are trying to communicate with the family from chile whose bags gave large hits for cocaine martin decides to play an unusual game of charades to work out if the sun has used any drugs whilst abroad under pressure one day the sun admits using cocaine two three weeks two days ago okay okay so it's okay out of earshot of his parents the sun clears up the source of the cokehead and martin promises to keep the confession under wraps and knowing the sun is used speeds up the search [Music] it also makes it easier to rule the family out as smugglers because the gentlemen have been cooperative with those families was no need to involve his mother and father guys and adults i also find people more truthful to take them to one side out of the presence of their parents if i hadn't managed to if i'd been able to ask that question directly in front of his parents i don't think he would have been as honest i asked him the question have you used cocaine he said he had once asked him how long ago he said two to three weeks and that is borne out by the presence of the traces in the areas we found thank you adios coming up the dogs sniff out a suspiciously large amount of cash i was thinking i'm buying a car down there a car as a customs officer okay i can't always believe what people tell me coming up the cash dog sniffs out a suspect as a customs officer okay i can't always believe what people tell me [Music] at manchester airport a flight has just arrived from pakistan officers are on the lookout for drug smugglers and have pulled over two men for a back search just bring your bag down here for me pakistan is a known source country for heroin and officers conduct initial swap tests for any traces there's been a recent surge of heroin seizures coming in from pakistan surprisingly officer gary gets a small hit for cocaine from his passenger's suitcase having got an initial trace gary swabs the man's clothes for any further hits he said he hasn't used for three months but he's a regular user of cocaine which will be here which uses the cocaine because it's not very accessible in in pakistan but this time he gets an even bigger hit for heroin let's give them header and hits i need an explanation basically from where they're coming from it could take a while to get to the bottom of this one [Music] in gatwick's south terminal uk border officers are targeting a flight to jamaica looking for money connected to crime using sniffer dog toby just lower your bag for me just a quick customs check toby's job is to find large amounts of cash anything more than a thousand and handler mark will want to investigate further [Music] hiya are you carrying any money with you today how much you roughly have with you [Music] 10 it's a lot of cash leaving the country and paul will now want some answers the dog has detected some currency and you've said you're carrying about ten thousand pounds is that is that all your money paul wants to know what the money is for i was thinking i'm buying a car down there the car that you're gonna buy yeah do you know what you're gonna buy under a honda and how much you're gonna spend on it the man's explanation becomes confusing what are you going to do with the rest most of the money that's 2005. 2500. how much are you going to spend on the car yeah for honda and how old would that be how old would the car be [Music] the cars in jamaica are very expensive to buy second hand aren't they yeah so you're going to prepare to spend like ten thousand new ten thousand pounds on a 2002 car paul thinks the story sounds suspicious as a customs officer i'm interested in as i said large amounts of currency that are leaving or entering the uk you have a substantial amount of cash with you today okay that's the reason i'm taking so long with it do you have any details of the car that you might want to buy with you now you don't have any could you provide those sort of details can you provide details to the bank loan to me i can provide details yeah no no not now can i just see the money now i've searched the bags again can i just see the money again please how much have you got it together how much have we got all together yeah very ten thousand all together okay what i need to do is to hold on to your money if you wait there i've gotta do a couple of checks okay if paul thinks the cash has criminal connections it will be seized and the man's holiday could be over before it's begun i've got seven they got seven checks in bags unfortunately between them all there's three of them traveling the 10 000 belongs to the one person it's from a consolidated loan there's no documentation regarding the money apart from the envelope it's in from a bank um so it's going to cost me about 500 pound a month to pay it back to buy a car in jamaica or carl yeah so they've got family over there he's jamaican no he lives here he works because he's over there a lot with no evidence where the 10 000 pounds came from toby may have helped find cash intended for drugs have you done a pnc at all paul wants to find out if the man has a criminal record but with the flight now nearly ready to depart time is running out how long before the gate closes tonight okay got a few minutes i don't know yeah okay back in manchester officer gary has found a high trace of heroin from a passenger's clothes who's travelled back from pakistan okay now that you see me swabbing the inside of his shoe when he's seeing the shop and the shoelaces right obviously you've had them on your feet how long have you had them anybody else wear them okay well i've just swapped the inside of them when you're wearing these you're going to sweat through your feet and you're going to sweat through your paws and your hands right now i'm getting heroin hits and cocaine hits quite a strong heroin hit from the soles of them shoes you used to smoke headaches okay so while you've been in possession of them shoes you've smoked had a win before and cocaine okay when was the last time you used i don't know for cocaine two or three months ago i can clean up you know you clean up so now you're registered when i've sold or you have been yeah okay the man's honesty about personal use explains the hits but officers have a duty to investigate his belongings further to ensure he's not smuggling drugs into the country i'm happy with us i think but officers are convinced that he's not drug smuggling and he's free to go i'm not worried about anything i would obviously i wouldn't be worried i'd be certainly not mean so i've got nothing to hide somewhere like in gatwick the flight to jamaica is nearly fully boarded but the passenger is still waiting to hear if he'll be allowed to leave with his ten thousand pounds yes so with your agreement uh can i go ahead and seize it okay 12 55 for the seizure of the money it's not good news for the passenger i'm not satisfied what you've told me regarding the cash okay you're telling me it's come from a bank but i don't know that because yeah i know what you're saying but listen to me as a customs officer okay i can't always believe what people tell me otherwise i wouldn't be able to customers obviously would i i yeah do it here this morning i will be holding on to the money today we seizing this cash is ten thousand pounds you're not under arrest and you walk you're entitled to leave the uk and go on your holiday to jamaica today but you won't be taking the cash with you okay doesn't mean that you won't be getting the cash back at some further stage at the moment i'll need to seize it for the purpose of the further investigation okay will you be traveling on the flight today okay that's fine he's going to travel so he doesn't need to offload the banks with just seconds to spare the officers are now rushing to get the man on board 12 55 but with 10 grand at stake he wants to make sure all the paperwork is correct do you want to get your flights you've got a few minutes before the gate closes okay this is the receipt for the seas cash that means i am taking 10 000 pounds from you today because i need further evidence from you to tell me where the cash is originated from and what the intended purpose is for that's the reason i'm seizing the cash okay this is purely this is a receipt the flight is going in a couple of minutes [Music] sir listen if you want to make your flight you have to go on now yeah i don't usually care because the insurance companies have a capability the passenger's not happy but he's made the flight and it gives the cash team time to ensure the money doesn't have any links to crime with cash he came across as putting up front about he was carrying the money but i'm not satisfied what the end use of the cut the cash is for and with particularly with um bringing not saying this gentleman would be the case but with drugs drugs are so much cheaper to buy quantity wise in jamaica and you could buy a lot of drugs for 10 000 pounds i'm not sure that this this is totally involved in that but people do and obviously um if we can take the cash out so the beginning and do further checks more the better [Music] the man who is carrying 10 000 pounds in cash returned to the uk two weeks later but his money remains with the border officers and the investigation continues [Music] you