Customs officers are at war with smugglers in the ports, airports, and at sea. Coming up, a bag gives a massive hit for cocaine in Bristol. >> Pretty high. >> Surveillance officers eaves drop on a cannabis gang. >> And he was actually arrested in Belgium um with 63 kilos of cannabis um in a light aircraft. and suspect in Gatwick who definitely aren't dog lovers. >> And one was suspectedly involved in a previous drugs importation surgically inserting drugs into dogs in a Labrador. [Music] [Music] In Dova, officers have pulled a truck full of resin granules, perfect for concealing large quantities of drugs or cigarettes deep in the center of the load, where even the powerful customs X-ray machine can't see clearly. Well, it been scanned and we weren't sure whether there was anything there or not. We've been in and had a look and it is because it's uh the granules are so tightly packed, it's very dense, it's difficult for any sort of X-ray equipment to break it down. The officer spots that the bags in the center of the load have different packaging. And there's only one way to find out what's inside. >> Basically, it looks like the two rear pallets uh clean. They've just got the granules in because you can see around the edges, they've got the green writing on. Whereas when you get those out of the way, the inner stack, the bottom three sacks are plain brown. There's no writing around the outside. So, I'm 99.99% certain they've got cigarettes in them. So, all we're going to do is just cut open those. The only thing is the granules they've packed around it are just going to go everywhere. So, we have to tidy those up later. [Music] Hey, presto. Cigarettes. >> It's a sophisticated attempt to smuggle hundreds of thousands of [ __ ] into the UK. But thanks to this team's experience, it's failed. >> Makes it worthwhile, >> especially when you've got to go to a bit of effort to find it. >> And it looks like it's going to be exactly the same all the way down to the single pallets at the front. Possibly >> it goes as far as there. >> These ones dirty. >> Those ones are dirty. Those ones are clean. 17 by six by 30,000. The front two. It looks like I've only got three bags, three dirty bags in each. So, it's the equivalent of 17 dirty pallets. >> So, it's 304,000. >> Yeah. >> 306,000. >> 306,000. >> Which means the smugglers have laboriously stashed over 15,000 individual packs. >> It's not actually that unusual. A lot of the Eastern Europeans, for some reason, quite often they'll be broken down into the packs of 20, but then seller taped into carton sizes by breaking them down into smaller smaller packages. Obviously, they make it harder to find. It's always easier to find larger amounts than it is to find smaller amounts. [Music] In Gatwick, officers are on the lookout for two passengers who've mysteriously split up at passport control. >> But he came from his own, not with the other guys. >> Okay. >> One with previous charges of hardcore drug smuggling. And one was suspected involved in a previous drugs importation, actually putting drugs stitch or surgically inserting drugs into dogs in a Labrador and importing the Labrador from Columbia. Um although he wasn't found guilty with that offense. So clearly not a dog lover. Um, what's interesting is the two have don't appear to have come through together. >> The two men tried to disappear in the crowd, but the officers have them in their sight. >> Hello, sir. Where have you come from today? >> Antigga. >> Antigga. Like to come over very quickly. [Music] >> Both men are questioned to see if their stories match up. >> And what was the reason for your trip? >> Yeah. >> Want to visit my mom? >> Okay. And how long were you out there for? >> 2 weeks. >> Where are we? >> You traveling on your own today? Pardon? >> You traveling on your own today? >> Yeah. Well, a couple of us, but rest of them is in the line. >> All right. So, >> do you travel on your own today, sir? >> Sorry. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yes, you did. >> With their known connections with drug smuggling, their contradictory answers warrant further investigation. >> Around the edge here, some sort of thickness there, but it seemed quite heavy. So, what I want to do is just pierce it very quickly and see if anything comes out. >> No, it's okay. >> The drug swab gives a small hit for cocaine and the two officers compare their findings. >> He told me he's traveling with him. >> My chap said he was on his own. >> Right. Guy I've got said there were 10 of them over in Antigga. They didn't all go out together. They went in various groups. met in Antigga 10 of them and today three of them have traveled back him and he pointed to the guy you're searching to say that they are traveling together. No. >> All right then. Right. That's interesting. When I first stopped you at the start, you know, as I was just explaining who I was and where you come from, I asked if you'd traveled on your own. Now, my colleague just happened to be chatting out to another chap over there. And when we just happened to be out there at the same time, he said that actually this chap said he traveled with you. >> Yeah. We all together moving on. But yeah. So, so when you said you'd traveled on your own, >> I think if I'm traveling with probably a woman or kids or something like that, >> right? Okay. So, but you but you did okay. But was it was it just the two of you? >> No, there's another one as well. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> That's fair enough. >> I'm actually apart from I'm I'm nicking a bottle of honey, but apart from that, I'm I'm completely happy. >> Nothing at all. guy I've got. He's He's not quite relaxed, actually. >> Yeah. So, are you happy? >> Yeah. >> Excellent. >> Yeah. >> Finding nothing to justify a body search. >> Thank you for your patience. >> The two passengers are free to go. >> They pass. Have a safe journey home. Cheers. >> He seemed an all right guy. I mean, not nervous at all. Um, more than willing for me to do the search because of his cooperation. He's got it done a bit quicker actually. you you want to catch people with drugs, but at the end of the day, um you don't want to catch innocent people. So, see how it goes. >> The war against drug gangs is also fought using undercover surveillance officers. In 2005, officers listening in on one smuggling plot picked up clues that another bigger importation was being hatched by three men. It was carried out over a period of about 6 months. Some fairly intensive surveillance on a number of people included Simon Fisher, Thomas Little, Paul Fipps. >> Undercover customs officers put the suspects under continuous surveillance. The officers began hearing hints of what sounded like a major drug smuggling plot. >> Certain phrases were picked up by the officers while they were out on surveillance. Um, and one of those was brave to do it. Um, and the other was run. Run is a common term in smuggling parliament, one that we would expect to hear. Um, brave to do it really speaks for itself. >> The officers were waiting for any hint of the next stage of the plot. The suspect's intentions became clearer when they were followed to a meeting with a pilot. >> You saw the chap who turned out to be a pilot, Leath, um, make a a gesture with his hand. It seemed very much like a plane flying in coming down low and then taken up again. And this started to give us an idea of um what was being discussed. Part of surveillance took place in Hill um a little while later and on the seat of William Lee's car there was a map of the surrounding area and Simon Fisher, Paul Fips and Willing Leaf went out looking over the fields. Um what we believe now was a sighting to try and find a suitable venue to drop the drugs off from the plane. >> But so far all customs had was talk. They needed more concrete proof of what the gang were planning. the already intensive surveillance was about to step up a gear. >> Surveillance was carried out um by airplane um from Bournemouth airport. Um and in fact what we had was an officer in a plane shadowing the light aircraft that these uh the smuggling gang had hired. >> The plane drops down to what we think is about 100t off the ground, then pulls up sharply and heads away again. And that was what we believe is a dummy run um for the intended drugs drop. >> When you're conducting these operations, there's always the right time to actually knock something, to actually take it further. Um and and the team here made a decision that they actually had enough material. >> But the officers in the UK were beaten to it when the pilot Leath was caught red-handed with the drugs before he'd even left the ground. [Applause] >> And he was actually arrested in Belgium. um with 63 kilos of cannabis um in a light aircraft, which really confirmed our suspicions that they were um intending to bring in drugs in a private aircraft. [Applause] >> The smuggler's plan had collapsed and worse still, they were about to be arrested. Fipps and Little were taken out together, caught carrying a hold and a box containing £400,000 in cash. Fischer tried to hide but was tracked using his mobile phone and arrested in a pub. They were all found guilty at trial. Little was given community service, but as the organizers, Fischer received 7 years and FIPS 5 years. It all came as a big surprise to the gang who were oblivious to the surveillance operation that snared them. I was surprised that they were surprised. Um certainly when we saw the defendants in court and they were watching um the evidence that we'd collected, yeah, I would definitely say that they were surprised. Um I think testament to the quality of the surveillance officers that we have >> in Bristol. A plane from Banjul has just touched down. Officers are on the ground hoping to catch any drug smugglers notorious on this flight. Banjo is a flight for us really which is produced it's produced for cocaine as well as a couple of um cannabis seizures have been taken from it. Anything which looks doesn't look familiar or looks out the ordinary. It could be anything. Just pull it off and pull over the passengers and see what's in the bags. >> The X-ray can identify drugs, tobacco and food stuffs. But to find out exactly which passengers need to be searched um shows the brown shows it's organic. It's uh yeah, another one there. That's um we got three bags so far. The X-ray has identified three suspicious bags, but while the team wait to apprehend the passengers, a man with a small bag and a new suit tries to make a quick exit. >> SP just stopped the stop the gentleman. He's cleaned. He's been out there trying to do some business for a couple of weeks. Looks like he's got false bottom on his seat piece. That was it. >> The passenger's bag has been glued. Inside is an unusual object that Russ suspects may have been put there deliberately. >> I mean, it might just be some sort of strengthener, but I don't It's possible it's a strengthener. It's that that there got about three or four compartments. This suitcase between the linings. It just looked like it was bit tacky and a bit of glue along one one little rim. It's quite well done. Looked intact for most of it, but it's just a little layer of glue. I've sort of pulled it back and open it up in the middle. And there's a there's a there's a there's a package within that. I'm suspecting there's probably other packages within the other bits as well, but I can't see what's in it at the moment. It's just a plastic package, but there's clearly something suspicious. So, uh, we need to just arrest him and take it further from there. if you scanned it. >> The passenger is arrested while Russ tries to determine what's in the suspicious bag. >> Test it first. See what I can get around there. >> What around do you need to glued as well >> there? What What do you think it is? Right. >> Could be anything on there. Right. Okay. [Music] Oh, it's pretty high. The package within the bag is come up with quite a high positive trace for cocaine. It's possible there might be some other packages within that bag. I'm going to need to put in a call to our um investigation team to see what they want to want to do with it from this point. >> Targeting the flight from Banjul has paid off, which is more than can be said for this man's attempt to smuggle cocaine and his ordeal is far from over. In Cornwall, custom ship searcher is on patrol. Skipper Colin gets a call about a Polish ship heading into Falmouth with a container of explosives being returned from North Africa. >> How much are we talking about here? >> A 20ft container, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We'll definitely be there a bit. No problem. >> It's a race to beat the vessel into ports just in case there are any smugglers amongst the crew. Yeah, we want to we want to be there when it arrives cuz that sort of the they're either going to offload stuff very quickly and get it off as soon as they arrive probably to shore crews or shore parties or they the other way of doing it is to take stuff off just before they leave. So they keep it in a deep stowage deep hidden uh concealment and then just bring it out at the last minute and get it ashore then. But the quick snatch and throw it over the side as soon as they arrive is quite a favorite one still. So if there is anything on there, we want to be there waiting for it. >> The Polish ship arrives in Felmouth to be greeted by customs officers who want to know why the explosives originally destined for Libya are now being discharged in the UK. >> There it is. It's our uh >> the suspiciously poor paperwork shows no name, but it turns out to be a legitimate cargo which was rejected in Egypt and is being returned to Holland over land. Can you help? What my team are going to do, they're going to have a quick look around the boat, get a quick search. >> The mystery of the container has been solved, but the officers also want to rummage the entire ship for illegal cigarettes. >> The age of it, there's probably going to be few few hidey-holes here as well. By the looks of it, they've been used before. So, there's a fair chance that they might have stockpiled a few cigarettes for usage in their time in UK waters. So, hopefully we'll find those. Back in Bristol, the examination of the man with a bag of cocaine continues. The bag is x-rayed and it looks like there's more than they thought. >> It's good when all this stuff we we have works. >> Good job, Russ. But I did say I wanted that one. >> It's a serious hall of a class A drug. And >> before Russ can transport the arrested man into custody, he'll have to be strip searched. >> Uh the only behavioral indicator that I spotted was him fiddling around in his pockets a lot. >> He is nervous. >> Yeah. >> You go from top to bottom. >> From top to do the bottom first. >> Well, conscious. We have been authorized to conduct a strip search of you because of what you're carrying in your briefcase. >> Not all smugglers act the same, but this man appears unconcerned by the seriousness of the crime. >> Okay, if you can move your jacket and your your belt to start with, please. I was just saying actually, he's amazing how cool he is. He's to to get what he could be possibly um getting at the end of it. It's just amazing how he's so cool. I mean, he's he hasn't even raised his voice or anything. He's just he looks really cool. It's amazing to be honest. You don't know really. You don't know what they're feeling inside. If you was to put your hand by his chest, it may be a different story. But from the outside, he looks as cool as a cucumber. >> The officers also search the rest of his bags and find two passports in other names. >> Oh my god, that's another one. >> Got another passport. The gentleman's in a significant amount of trouble at the moment. Yeah. And he'll be handcuffed, put in a car, and taken to Western Super Smare Police Station. He's just sitting there very compliantly at the moment. Hopefully, it'll stay that way when we take him to the police station. >> It's a great result for the officers. With over three kilos of cocaine off the streets and one more smuggler heading for some serious time behind bars, customs officers are still searching the Polish vessel for any cigarettes being smuggled into the UK to be sold on the black market. >> You declared 60 cigarettes. >> Yeah, 60 cigarettes. Where are those 60 cigarettes to begin with? >> Put them there. That's your declaration. Okay, not not a problem. >> Yeah. >> Do you have any more cigarettes? Uh, I'm not sure. >> I have 40 more. 40 secrets more. >> That's all. >> Yeah, that's it. >> Woody's finding signs that the crew aren't all as honest as they should be. >> You just There's 100. >> Have you got any more cigarettes hidden you put on the on the phone? 200. That's 300. Got any more? >> No. [ __ ] I'm capping smoke in smoke. >> Good. Have you eaten any more cigarettes in the galley? >> Yes. Where have you broke them? >> It's only a small amount, but it's often a sign of bigger things to come. >> A lot of the time, the captain doesn't know what the crew are up to. That's why the best areas to search are usually away from where the captain might go on a day-to-day basis. >> The captain wants to sail on, but searching the ship could take hours. Although there's no evidence of serious smuggling so far, >> we got the initial details. I mean, potentially it was a great big terrorist problem. We had hints that it was going to Libya. We've managed to clamp it down to being a legitimate company doing legitimate trade, which is basically what our work's all about. Really, sorting out the bad guys from the good guys. Just hang on a sec. He's shouting something. You found 10,000. >> Just as they're about to give up, they find a stash of cigarettes deep in the ship's hole. The cigarettes were found up on top of that ledge um behind some pallets. So this this place here was locked. You need to go right around the back there and over the top and there's three pallets there behind the pallets. >> Who put them here then? >> So two cigarettes are >> I don't know your first man on you cabin. >> I've done his cabin. It's fair >> money. No, I didn't see it. >> Oh, okay then. Bos, >> Santa Claus put them there. >> Santa Claus. >> The Bosen, we think, is the only man with the access to the to this area, but he's saying that everyone's got access to it. So, we need to find out now who actually owns his cigarettes and who's put them up. The situation is that we think there are more cigarettes on here. Now, there's two options. We can we can stay here and find them. And we are getting dirty. We're getting tired. We're getting upset. >> Yeah. >> Or you can tell the crew to bring any more cigarettes to us. >> But they didn't have any. >> We We have just found 10,000, Captain. And it's causing you a lot of problems if you don't get the owner for us and help us out by trying to find out if there are more cigarettes on here. Maybe you could have a word with the crew and tell them to to find cigarettes for us. Or there will be problems with the company and there will also be problems with a fine on the vessel. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It could mean a hefty fine if he doesn't cooperate. So, the captain summons the crew to the mess deck and reads them the riot act in the hope of identifying the smuggler. No one owned up and as the cigarettes were so well hidden, the officers decide not to find the captain or the company. We came aboard the ship for the explosives, but also to search it in case there's any more explosives, firearms. So, we didn't actually expect to find any cigarettes. There you go. It's just one of these things, you know. You don't expect to find things, but it's a a lot like this job. If you don't look, you don't find. >> This smuggler's plan has failed, and the 10,000 cigarettes will now be destroyed. The cocaine smuggler in Bristol pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 9 years in prison. It turns out he's also wanted in Italy for a string of other drugrelated offenses. [Music]