in our ports and in our airports the uk border agency is fighting a constant battle against smugglers arresting you coming up a man stopped in dover gets nervous as his car searched people try and look and try and act normally but in fact it just just doesn't look normal does it it's like [Music] ringing just went off the scale [Music] every year the port of dover millions of passengers make the crossing to the uk from france border agency officers work tirelessly to check vehicles entering the country for illegal items today a british passenger has just arrived home after driving back from a holiday in the south of spain are you traveling anywhere else at all dog cheska is brought in to assess the man's car for any cash or traces of drugs large sums of cash brought into the country is checked to see whether it has links to criminal activity the man fetches an envelope of cash from the front of the car suspiciously he also brings out some sugar in a plastic bag with the man's story starting to change cheska is brought in to do a thorough check inside the car come here come here good girl and it doesn't take long for her to make an indication on something hidden deep within the boot as the evidence starts to rack up officers move in to examine what chesca has found concealed in the side of the boot is an envelope containing a further 400 pounds in cash it could be various reasons it could be if he's got something else in the car there might be money for bringing drugs in he's put it in the car to try and hide it so it doesn't get picked up obviously now a little bit look further to see if we can find anything else in the car as officers continue with a thorough surge there are growing concerns about the man's erratic behavior he's um laughing you can hear this tapping the background that's him throwing this bag of sugar people try and look and try and axe normally but in fact it just just doesn't look normal does it so his story the way he's acting the dog indication the concealment in the car at all points in a very very strong direction of this something concealed in the car it's early afternoon at bristol airport a flight has just arrived from malaga in spain and officers are x-raying bags to check for any illegal goods one bag appears to be full of cigarettes so a description is radioed through to the officers inside the terminal okay i'll pick it up thank you the bag is placed back on the luggage carousel and officer erica waits for the owner to pass through the customer's channels hey guys you travelling together yeah can you just step this way a second where have you just arrived from malaga and how long have you been away for four days four days was it holiday yeah yeah okay now take it this is all your luggage yes you packed it all yourselves yeah fully aware of all the contents yeah okay did you purchase anything over there that you brought back with you any gifts for anyone cigarettes tobacco alcohol right okay so no cigarettes on tobacco okay and who are they for [Music] both of you you both smoke do you okay and how much have you you don't at the moment oh right okay okay go back to spain uh right okay so how much have we got how about how much how many cigarettes tobacco how much of a yacht quantities of cigarettes purchased in spain are only allowed back into the uk if they're for personal use the couple will need to convince erica that all their tobacco products are for themselves as the bags are checked the packages just keep coming raising the suspicion that the goods may not be for personal use how much did all of this cost you so you are the only one that smokes at the moment yeah basically i swapped all these yeah [Music] i'm not going back abroad right okay how long do you expect this to last you yeah do you normally bring stuff back when you go abroad have you got any rolling papers on you at all yeah no papers no okay you've got an open packet there though have you okay if i asked you to roll a cigarette would you be able to do that for me yeah okay i'll just get some papers in if the passenger is unable to roll a convincing cigarette it will support erica's hunch that the goods aren't for personal use and they'll all be seized back in dover officers are still investigating a young man who's been found with 1400 pounds in cash hidden in the boot of a car swap tests are conducted on the steering wheel and on a bag of sugar the man has been clutching officers want to find out whether he's come into contact with any drugs so this will read different types of drugs basically everything that this prohibits is coming in nothing on the steering wheel so this one's come off the bag of sugar and there's no trace on either of it so maybe it's just sugar a little bit worrying if he's lobbing half a kilo of coke around in the car despite no trace of drugs officers are still concerned the man isn't telling the whole truth the search of the car is taken to the next level i've also just put up on the ramp now to look underneath because when it's down the floor you can sort of look underneath but you can't get a full full picture just to see if anything's been placed in the natural space underneath the car obviously you get like these summit cards obviously sometimes the more expensive cars that have covers underneath to make sure that it's not being utilised to smuggle drugs further suspicious information comes to light the car actually belongs to the man's godfather can i bring you down here because it's because this is car that you're in yeah because something from this van is being found which we'll talk about what can the man claims to know nothing about the cash found in the boot of his godfather's car despite a number of suspicious signs with no concrete evidence officers are forced to release the man with all of its cash the outcome's very frustrating because there's something not right there the officers had a good look at the vehicle and what more can they do really and that's the frustration [Music] back at bristol a couple importing thousands of cigarettes trying to convince officers for personal use and not illegal resale [Music] the male passenger has been asked to roll a cigarette to establish whether he himself is a smoker do you normally roll them yourselves no basically there's a guideline amount we've got to satisfy ourselves but it's not for any other purpose in your own personal view after two attempts the man has produced a pretty unconvincing roley all right i'll be back in a second that's his second attempt at cigarette um if that's what if that's what yeah the last of about two years erica remains unhappy with the couple's story right and based on the amount you brought in you're not over the guidelines but i'm not entirely satisfied obviously you're bringing in cigarettes even though you're not gonna be smoking them for a certain amount of months okay and what i want to do is just interview both okay and ask you some more questions you're not under arrest or anything like that so you are free to leave but obviously if you do go the good stay here oh right okay so would that be preferable that'd be better yeah no you have to leave everything here what we do is we detain it i'll write out a detention notice for you just do the paperwork okay and then you can just sign it and we'll go from there okay yeah the passengers decide that their time is more precious than their 1800 euro cargo and choose to leave the airport empty-handed it's hard to tell that's why we carry out the interviews go into a bit more detail he didn't really do a successful attempt rolling a cigarette to be honest as the couple leaves the airport they're given 30 days in which to arrange the follow-up meeting but now their goods remain seized [Music] coming up one man's shoes sets alarm bells ringing [Music] coming up questions about large sums of money leave one passenger seeing red i [Music] at gatwick airport holidaymakers have just returned to the uk from ibiza young travelers visiting the party island are often stopped and checked for the presence of drugs on their return the baggage of one such passenger was tested positive for the presence of cocaine and amphetamines okay it's very high just went off the scale you know when when i sort of asked him if there's likely to be anything there he got very touchy yeah he's been quite yeah due to the unusually high reading officer andy decides to take the passenger for a strip search all right so i'd like to have a work with you in a private office please okay if you'd like to come with me with your banks can i just ask you know how long this is going to be difficult to say at this time okay i'll explain everything while we're getting there andy's colleague kathy has gained some important information about the passengers health so he's come back because he started having many seizures right so just be careful yeah okay can you um let the senior officer know yeah okay right my colleagues just said to me that you suffer from epilepsy is that right yeah um and are you actually okay at the moment or will i come back to get home and sort things out i've been up to two days i'm getting medication right now do you need medication urgently not right now okay but for a few minutes you're okay no despite his health issues the passenger is happy to proceed with the surge you've got the right to jet okay thanks as well as a strip search the man's shoes are taken away to be swab tested a drug hit from this test may suggest he's carrying packages inside his body and with another extremely high trace the man has more explaining to do [Music] why would your trainers be no no it's not a case of that it's like you might have stuff inside you inside of it yeah do an x-ray on me an x-ray will be the quickest way to know if the man is telling the truth okay right um because of that okay i've got to arrest you you arrest me okay i'm arresting you on suspicion of the illegal importation of a controlled drug you i must caution you don't have to say anything but it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court anything you do say may be given in evidence do you understand yes the man's fate now hangs on the results of the x-ray [Music] birmingham airport flies to over 100 destinations across the world in departures officer dean and his sniffer dog max are on the search for passengers with large sums of cash officers are permitted to question passengers carrying over a thousand euros to ensure the cash has no criminal connections anything over 10 000 euros must be declared you have cash in your pocket there you got cash on you max has indicated on a group of passengers traveling to pakistan so they're taken aside for questioning what are you guys traveling to today where you're traveling to all of you okay how long you went to zambard for one and a half months okay ask customs we wanted to move to cash through this airport the dogs indicate that you're potentially carrying cash how much cash are you guys carrying two thousand two thousand yeah you've got okay what do you do for a living what's your occupations mcdonald's and you say me i live in holland i work in holland you work in holland okay how long you been in the uk from holland just come around there guys just come around here [Music] okay what's your occupation i work in the laundry laundry can you show me the money guys [Music] everyone please thank you the passengers are frustrated by the questioning and reluctantly hand over the cash in bundles of 50 euro notes all the money you're carrying is your own monies yeah because it's uh also i have to help people out okay starting off two of them are from this country expect to be carrying sterling or possibly pakistani rupees but they're all carrying euros so my suspicion is in the local 50s it could it possibly be for the monies belongs to one person and he's asking his friends to carry a bit of money each so it looks less conspicuous does any of you three been in trouble with the police or customs in this country yeah me somebody yeah somebody on my passport so somebody impersonated you yeah on your passport [Music] okay guys just take a seat for one second and do some checks no matter you'll find you take a seat as well one of them does have history unfortunately he says somebody impersonated him using his passport so he has a criminal offense so we need to see if there's any other records linked to him or anything else as the officers run the necessary checks the passengers will have to wait patiently to find out if their money will be seized in gatwick background checks have been done on a passenger whose bags and shoes have given very high readings for cocaine [Music] the man's history with drugs makes his story highly suspicious the x-ray will confirm if he has packages inside him so if you want to bring your baggage just here so what i'd like you to do is um breathe in hold your breath and it will carry you along to the end and we'll stop okay a beer as still as you can breathe in press still [Music] it's great yeah come out thank you [Music] [Music] you haven't got anything i appreciate your cooperation that's right thank you um so you're no longer under arrest i don't know about nervous but you seem quite um quite edgy and trying to hurry me up you know that i mean some passengers like that anyway but um that's how he seemed so to all in all i thought there was some reasonable grounds you know to search him but anyway i appreciate your cooperation with nothing found on the passenger he's free to go all right thank you appreciate that bye then bye back in birmingham officers are running checks on four passengers who've been stopped carrying large sums of cash on their way to pakistan [Music] the information officers receive proves at least one of the men has been lying assisting a legal entry into the uk they said that somebody else introduced his passport so he's locked up for nine months for that anything else with a long list of convictions there's even more suspicion about where the money has come from she's getting back obviously well you said you've never been arrested as well you've been walking already unfair community order driving offences you said to me somebody was impersonating you that was the only thing you mentioned to me he said have you ever been convicted with police did i say yes or no yeah yes okay that's it yeah i just asked you would they be ever been arrested why don't you both work together simple as that question i am listening and you're talking different questions if i was going through an airport my money was legitimate i would say this is where i got it from this is how much it is it's from this bank if you want to check like most people do with us but when we come up against you know kind of brick wall with people not wanting to discuss things with us we think there's something that's going on you know why we have money because i'm going to marry him that's why we spend so much money okay you can also look in the suit [Music] [Music] the story just keeps changing they mention that they go in there for the tsunami one of the passion now mentions that he's going to pakistan for a wedding he's on wedding so we have a few discrepancies into the intended use of the cache with a departure time looming a decision needs to be made soon if they're to make their flight i don't know that there's no direct link it's dodgy but it's not enough cheers bye it was a very tricky one and we don't unfortunately time is against us on this one you guys are doing all the checks we're satisfied thank you for your patience that's it okay there just wasn't enough evidence to substantiate that cash or any criminal link to it we weren't entirely satisfied that the cash belong to each individual we still believe the cash belong to one person but because of the time constraints and the fact that they're based in another european country we just couldn't do any further checks so we let them proceed with that journey the couple of bristol airports who had 30 days to arrange a follow-up meeting about their cigarettes and tobacco never got in touch all of their goods were later destroyed [Music] you