[Music] in our ports and in our airports the uk border agency is fighting a constant battle against smugglers coming up in bristol polish cigarette smugglers caught being careless end up carlos in birmingham a chinese man carrying three thousand pounds seems to be lying about his wages every week that's only 100 and in gatwick one couple's jamaican holiday ends on a high it's very very hot we need to look at this a bit more i think [Music] at bristol airport holiday makers have just returned home from aracife and lanzarote the canary islands are outside of the eu for tax purposes and there are tight restrictions on duty-free goods coming into the country officers are using x-ray machines to find any bags that have exceeded these limits three suitcases appear to be full of cigarettes so officers wait in the baggage hall to see if the owners will declare the goods looking at the rcp flight which is non-eu so there's an allowance 200 cigarettes 250 grams of tobacco per adult and we'll see if anything transpires officers believe that the cigarettes they found are likely to be sold illegally they suspect the people carrying them may not be the only ones involved so instead of pulling them over they'll be followed two women appear with the suspect cases and as anticipated they walk straight through the nothing to declare channel officers follow close behind and once outside the women are joined by a male accomplice as the passengers load their bags into a waiting car officers run to intercept them a quick look in the first case shows it's full of cigarettes sorry keys thank you and as the other two cases are opened they too are stuffed to the brim with cigarettes at the moment these cigarettes are all seized all right you understand that confiscate it yes okay at the moment yeah this vehicle has also seized we keep the vehicle do you understand that why because the cigarettes were in the vehicle i need my car okay you have to sort out later but at the moment it stays right i'm only driving these people rental i need my car what we are saying is you've used this vehicle to transport the goods we saw them in the vehicle yeah it may sound harsh but the car will remain seized until they've got to the bottom of the suspected smuggling ring at gatwick airport flights arrive on a daily basis from the caribbean [Music] officers use sniffer dogs to find traces of drugs being imported illegally from countries with strong links to the drugs trade if the dog makes a positive indication passengers are pulled aside in the customs channels so they can be searched further one such passenger is a young male who's returning from a holiday with his girlfriend the man produces a small cannabis pipe and officers suspect he's a drug user the passengers open up about the drugs they've encountered as their suitcase is swabbed for any traces [Applause] despite proclaiming their innocence the results from the drug swab test are alarmingly high it's very very hard you need to be we need to look at this a bit more i think he's starting to get a little long that's the one that the dog showed interest in as well he's starting to get a little angsty about it asking if he's been using everything yeah just do another one in the in another area in the same sort of bag in the same bag yeah yeah they're showing a very high reading for drugs at the moment have you no okay i'm not saying you have okay but have you been smoking anything or well it's probably best to declare at this moment when i'm back at home but i don't yeah you don't person no no i'm telling you i'm telling you the bag is swabbed again in a different place to see if the readings are consistently high [Music] this time there's a small trace reading for cocaine and heroin have you been through the baby i've basically haven't gone through every single light and as in really spiritualised it officers decide to take their surge to the next level to see if he's got any drugs on his body back at bristol officers are busy emptying three suitcases filled entirely with cigarettes smuggled into the uk from lanzarote the passengers have been informed that the cigarettes and the vehicle being used to carry the cigarettes are being seized the driver who claims he's just collecting his friends and knows nothing of the suspected cigarette smuggling ring is taken into a private room for questioning so who are these for this is smile for you you smoke all of it your friends smack yes yes yes but officers don't believe that this many cigarettes are for personal consumption only the passengers are questioned separately to try and establish more information about the suspected smuggling ring yeah but did you buy it you bought it okay did you go did you did you go just to buy cigarettes no no no no no two days one night yeah the one gentleman in with the red jacket he seems to be the money man in this organization [Music] all of the passengers stories seem to contradict each other he knew there was facts in those cases because when we went out he must to him he separated it outside of the european union passengers are allowed to bring back a strict allowance of just 200 cigarettes cigarettes are gone okay seized you thank you yeah if you are over your allowance you're not allowed any of them no this tells you how you can appeal but it's up to you whether you the man's reluctance to read the appeal procedure reinforces officers suspicions that the cigarettes were intended to be sold both men leave their supposed friends behind they'll have to find an alternative way home since their car remains seized from this particular time the action is just limited to seizure um but if they're caught repeatedly it might be a bit more serious next time the female passengers also leave the airport empty-handed and the massive hall of 37 000 cigarettes will be sent for incineration back at gatwick officers investigating a male passenger whose suitcase has given a high reading for cocaine are about to take him for a rub-down search okay basically as you can see yeah okay if you just just yeah i just need someone to explain yeah so you can see everything's being done above all basically i said he's changed the signs of drugs but doesn't mean you say you've got it it's a very very sensitive swap okay the dog has also shown an indication in you right okay so what we want to do now is to bring you in for a search okay which we have to do okay the man is led to a private room where he admits he's been stopped before what stops in the way um as well just he just blows he stopped me for 10 minutes spoke to me despite a thorough search he's not found to be carrying any drugs so officers try another check on his shoes meanwhile the man's partner continues talking to officers and confesses that her boyfriend has been known to use drugs in the past but no further traces of drugs are found from the shoes and officers are happy he's not a smuggler right that's okay yeah okay okay do you like to say it's all done like that have you just for uh for my benefit what you do is on him with customs interest i think that would indicate any further drugs on his body or anything like that he said he recently had a medical which he said he doesn't use drugs at all so from our point of view we're quite happy for him to proceed the tracers in the man's bag are put down to contamination and the couple are free to leave coming up one couple's behavior leaves unanswered questions actually very very nervous there was a change in the booking of the ticket he was unemployed and had he fought a holiday like that [Music] coming up one man in birmingham with lots of cash is suspected of lying about his income every week you get 200 200. that's only 100. [Music] at gatwick airport uk border agency officers are observing passengers who've just arrived from kingston in jamaica it's nice and slowly pass the dog please back stand off the shoulders as drug detection dogs assess the travelers officers have been drawn to a couple who've been behaving suspiciously thank you at the immigration desk the woman in white is asked to remove her sunglasses for passport verification her partner in the red shirt at the desk next to her is allowed to proceed eventually she too is allowed through but officer chris has reasons to doubt their legitimate travelers in fact they changed their date of return to come back by a week so they look quite nervous down at immigration active very sort of stranger that they sort of try going the wrong exit the couple separate as they exit the baggage reclaim area typical behaviour of passengers with something to hide two of you together passports on tickets how long have you been out there for seven days now today um a holiday in the caribbean is an expensive outlay for a couple who aren't working suspicion grows that they could be hiding the real reason for that trip all right you've had your own bags yeah yeah okay nobody's giving you anything to bring back at all okay but it seems the man doesn't want his case to be searched all right how have you got the key yeah if the keys aren't found by the time the other suitcase has been searched the padlock will be forcibly removed a small trace of cocaine is detected from the first suitcase so officer pete decides to remove the padlock from the other one surprisingly it's almost empty i just got the x-ray this bag okay it just looks nice this is so light they're actually so nervous the bag is checked for any hidden concealments was a bit unusual um fact where they've come from as well which just gives us grounds to go to the next level of the search with no concrete evidence found on the couple so far for now their story remains a mystery [Music] at birmingham airport a number of flights are about to depart for destinations around the world officers are monitoring passengers in departure lounges and checking for large quantities of cash passengers leaving the country must declare any quantity of cash over 10 000 euros and officers are interested in questioning passengers carrying anything over 1 000 euros large quantities of cash leaving the country is often linked to organized crime so sniffer dogs are deployed to make initial detections on passengers how long are you going to china for about a week one passenger traveling to china has been pulled over for questioning after confessing to carrying a few thousand pounds so it's just a pleasure trick it's not a business trip it's not a business trip it's just pleasure why are you taking a three thousand pounds how much money have you put in the suitcases on the airplane uh i think it's real a few hundred okay with more cash in his checked in suitcase the officer asks to have this removed from the flight so it can also be checked i need the bags off for this guy so how much do you month yeah you must know 2 exactly two thousand exactly about two thousand five also i run the business for somebody so you're in a business for some day so you have an additional income that way yeah i've got a two limit yeah i would ask you know specifically about your rental income rental income yeah you said you had rental income as well i can't say a second because i got that candy so if you're providing the accountant figures you would know how much you were earning everyone every month every in my life i got two hundred do you talk two hundred i thought you said two thousand five percent every week every week you get two hundred two hundred right that's only 800 a month the man seems to be confused about his finances just steal your money just know sir i'm going to make some calls and check something back to you okay just watch your money the officer suspects that deliberately or otherwise he may not be paying his taxes back at gatwick officers are continuing to investigate a couple who've been acting nervously since arriving back in the uk from jamaica how did you finance the trip this remains doubtful given neither of the couple currently work right okay the questioning starts to make the man defensive yeah it's an expensive trip um for somebody who's not working okay uh unfortunately i understand that but it's not just here the couple have aroused suspicion okay i'm afraid i would have totally picked after rub down searches on both of you anyway okay now we're going to go to the searcher person and we don't have anything in there we find some additional factors from the search we're thinking about what we're going to do both passengers are taken to separate rooms and searched individually to see if they're carrying any drugs on their bodies [Music] i'm just trying to see if there's any traces in the shoes to establish if passengers are carrying drugs internally tracers are often excreted through the sweat glands in feet the woman's shoes come back clear with no hard evidence found on her she's released to await the outcome of her partner i'm just going to pat you down basically okay let's see his shoulder feet here as well i think we're just about done surprisingly nothing is found on the male passenger either despite their erratic behavior and very unusual story the couple are free to go they're actually very very nervous so uh marching up and down the front and center there was a change in the booking of the tickets he was unemployed and had he fought a holiday like that with no job although their conduct still remains suspicious officer pete has no option but to accept their version of events i don't know what it was about but as he said it was a holiday to celebrate being unemployed and that was it in birmingham officers are investigating a suspected tax evader who's trying to take more than three thousand pounds in cash out to china i'll just tell you what's happening just now so because you've got one thousand pound in cash customers investigate the source of the cash as long as your money comes from a legitimate source someone will be returned to you because just just let me finally state the officer is going back to do some checks just now with the tax office to see how much you've declared over the last three years so in your suitcase downstairs we're bringing up just now how much do you think you've got in there be honest with me 100 500 is that all you've got in there okay the man's checked-in suitcase has been retrieved officers will exhaust every avenue to check his story did you pack this by yourself sir did you play yeah have they been in the bag does it belong to you yes are you carrying anything for anybody else to do i know more checks are conducted to confirm how much income tax the man has paid from his restaurant business everybody when you check what is that with just minutes before the man's flight is due to depart officers will have to make a very quick decision about whether to let the man leave the country with his cash you told me you're a director of a limited company yeah yeah and you see young 2500 roughly a month paid he literally six pounds once again the officer works out the passengers outgoings but they don't seem to tally with what he's declared to the tax office we've got you you've declared your total income of 16 334. yeah now if you're saying you only earn 16 000 pound a year you told me you paid at least 800 pounds a month from the other restaurant okay so that's going to take you like up to 22 grand right away it seems there's a big discrepancy with the man's finances if he's to catch his flight there's no time to argue yeah what's going on [Music] stand by the man gets a lucky escape what i'm going to do just now sir i'm going to let you travel today because this place and i don't have time to do the additional checks i need to do so i'm going to let you fly today but i'm going to put a referral into the tax office because i believe you're not declaring the income put your stuff back in the case and fly today so right okay and and that's our finish today okay thank you [Music] the man is fortunate to be allowed to leave the country with his cash but he's likely to be in trouble with the tax office when he returns [Music] the group of suspected cigarette smugglers in bristol were required to pay the unpaid duty on their 37 000 cigarettes to get their car back as yet it remains unclaimed [Music] you