Massive Haul Of Cannabis Caught At Dover | Customs | Real Responders

customs officers are at war with smugglers in the ports airports and at sea coming up investigators take down a drug dealer called red-handed in dover his response to the drugs being found were that he had no idea they were in his trailer in fact it wasn't his trainer after all the cutter crews searched for cigarettes in cornwall this is an opportunity for you to ask the crew to bring the cigarettes to us now before we find them was the cigarettes that were there earlier on they've moved down here now and they're moving things around to try and confuse us and joe's uniform causes confusion a customs officer in bristol customs officer joe has intercepted two passengers returning from spain with 8 000 cigarettes spain is within the eu so joe just needs to work out their consumption rates and make sure they're not intending to sell the goods illegally easier said than done right these are these are your cigarettes yeah yes okay and how many do you smoke very fast i feel not too much smokes a lot more than me how much do you smoke sorry 500 a week i smoked quite a few but between that day though before no we haven't no yeah oh joe now needs to work out if he believes their story she's got open packets on him i can't really get a lot of sense out of him but she reckons she smokes 50 60 and she possibly could she's already had one um she's going again on sunday though but i'm tempted to wither where everything's going just to um write down what he got and see what she brings in on sunday yeah it's very nice yeah joe decides to let them go you want to put them in your bag for me yeah yeah sensing is his lucky day the passenger decides to try it on yeah the lady will be searched again when she returns on sunday if she brings anything through next time she travels then she won't be she should be losing that basically but i really doubt she she will um at the end of it i think they're quite happy he was quite happy quite a character he even offered for me to go around his house for a cup of tea one day which is quite nice in dover customs officers face a massive challenge sniffing out drug dealers from the thousands of trucks streaming across the channel 24 hours a day at the end of the day we are here first and foremost to stop drugs coming into the country that's our primary role if we get a smell of anything we'll track it down until we either find it or we're happy that there's nothing there usually the intelligence hub picks out target vehicles based on a variety of profiles but today mark is literally following his nose just pause it again as well he's picked up a suspicious sense and a dutch truck must now be thoroughly searched on the other side when i was doing the outside i caught a whiff of what i thought was perhaps the herbal substance and they want to say to the drivers right behind you um it's some kind of a possibly controlled drug yep i think it's strong enough to have a look in the vehicle three of us have i've caught a whiff of it offload bay around there and we want to take part of your load off and have a look in the lorry okay yeah over there yeah mark then spots something else that adds to his suspicions i just noticed that uh the tyres and some parts of it underneath are splattered with mud begs the question has he been off-road somewhere has been diverted for a purpose the pallet he's getting off now is the one that was nearest to the smell if you like the front left-hand corner i can't spell anything now funnily enough but uh we'll have a look the driver can claim compensation for any damage but mark thinks this truck needs this final test perhaps the smell of cannabis was coming from another vehicle and mark decides it's time to let this drive ago okay and as one job finishes another ferry full of potential smugglers hits the dots another target vehicle coming in on the 1300s arrival from dunkirk it's all go sometimes i just say thursday was a busy day officers in gatwick are also investigating a possible class a drug smuggler acting suspiciously at immigration control as soon as she would start to be questioned she said she wants to go to the loo so she might have something concealed inside her or on her body he wants to get rid of morning so coming from nigeria in nigeria you live here whereabouts do you live here one from abbey okay what do you do here okay so how long have you been in nigeria for this trip two weeks is that a holiday business okay seeing family friends okay this is all your baggage yes when you packed it all yourself yes okay you come into the green channel nothing to declare do you understand what you're allowed to bring into your room you realize there are other restrictions coming into the country things like drugs and firearms has anyone asked you to bring anything here has anyone forced you to bring anything here okay let's have a quick look shall we andy searches the bags the passenger's still acting nervous so he also swabs the bags for drugs the bag tests positive for heroin so this search will have to go further [Music] the body language is quite good i've had a hit for heroin on the on the iron scan i just want a quick rub down make sure she's not got anything okay just before you go i'd just like for a lady officer to make sure you have nothing on you okay you have any problem with that sounds good hundreds of passengers a year are caught smuggling drugs through gatwick the body search will find out if this passenger is one of them back in dover the next target has been pulled by the specialist rummage team it's an awkward load exactly the sort of cover used by smugglers to conceal drugs and tobacco it's just such a loose description isn't it i mean it is it's a children's playground in it basically yeah well at the moment it's been quite easy yeah the bags are balls yeah it might take a while it's all going to be handballed off basically i mean i don't know if they get a fault lift in there and get some of the stuff but i mean you'd see things like this now and again but but it's not the norm i mean i'm just guessing it's some sort of children's playground that's been out in spain for the season and is being brought back it's a good cover load isn't it i mean it's very difficult to get over the top of and to see in amongst after hours of offloading the team find some suspiciously heavy wooden boxes [Music] no they've made it look like they've made it look like the spongy steps haven't they it's extremely suspicious so the team decided to drill the boxes and i mean you saw the load how difficult it was to get in they've managed to to get themselves in there identified these uh packages they've drilled a hole and inside there's some green plastic i think it's in that one that's in that one that's in that one stewart thinks the plastic packaging could indicate drugs i would think that there'll be a large quantity of cannabis in there there may be up to a ton the driver is arrested while they work out what they found but it's a slow methodical process now the guy's arrested there's no rush after another two hours of careful unpacking the moment of truth has arrived you should take the lid off it's a massive hall of what looks like cannabis can't smell anything i'm guessing it's a cannabis resin in there i can't i can't see you still can't get anything all the boxes are full of bales of cannabis which have apparently come from a special garden the makers manufacturer mark it's it's just there it's come from that particular cannabis farm in morocco wherever it is it's come from and that they put their own stamp on it and that's how it gets shipped out the officers now want to know just how much they've seized from the smugglers [Music] it's the biggest haul of cannabis at dover for years 928 kilos and the specialist rummage team are delighted 928 kilos is nearly a ton so that's excellent we've had we've had a bit of a lean period actually our team we've gone three months maybe without anything we've had a few little cigarette seizures might have been on the way but but this is what we call a proper job really still to come officers get to the bottom of the suspected smuggler in gatwick somebody's got a package shoved up the back side then if you bend them over you can either see the package or it'll come out [Music] coming up officers get to the bottom of the suspected smuggler in gatwick and if i can get you to hold on to the side of the bench okay and if you can put your butter cheeks a little bit with your hands in gatwig the female officers have arrived to search the woman whose bags tested positive for heroin you do rub down search for us just make sure you've got nothing on them customs sees over 400 kilos of heroin each year and officers in gatwick regularly catch smugglers willing to go to great lengths to hide their packages if you're going to do it you might as well be thorough and um the the whole bending over squatting thing if somebody's got a package shoved up the back side then if you bend them over and squat then unfortunately you can either see the package or it'll come out generally okay and what you need to do is squat down for me so i can check that you haven't got anything inserted in any of your offices okay so you'll need to squat down for me turn around and bend over and put your budget cheeks for me as well but as i said you won't be touched at any time so there's no need to worry about that and if i can get you to hold on to the side of the bench okay and if you can put your butter cheeks a little bit with your hands part your butter cheeks that's fine okay and if you can just turn around for me and squat down for me as well so i can right okay that's fine the search finds nothing but the passenger is surprisingly understanding of her treatment it's good because it makes you to be scared to do such things i came to this country just to make a living for me and my children and my family that's it i do my work i can work 7 24 7. i don't want just a quick money or anything i believe in my angel work what i can do with my hands to get money i know that today is the start of a two-week tour of duty for the customs officers aboard customs cutter searcher which makes a problem the intelligence hub has identified a ship heading to the cornish port of foye from turkey the gateway to europe for heroin from the opium poppy countries of asia she's turkish with 15 turkish crew on board obviously with a turkish ship we've got the possibility of heroin being on board the ship there's also a good chance there'll be some cigarette smoking from romania because lnm's are extremely cheap the race is now on to beat the ship into foy so the officers tracked the vessel into port as you may not be expecting us i don't very much would be expecting this catching smugglers off guard is vital to prevent any drugs or tobacco being thrown overboard before it can be seized it's okay okay okay if we come in captain have you a crew declaration yes uh stores declaration and also a ship's declaration the captain appears to run a tight ship but sometimes the opportunity for the crew to make extra money on the side can't be resisted my crew will be checking the vessel now and if there's any problems at all i'll i'll come and have a word with you i'm not expecting any so that's okay you've had no problems with drugs or anything with the crew no no no i shouldn't yeah you're sure that's okay yeah okay that's fine right thank you captain i mean it's from turkey so i mean our suspicions are around for heroin really more than anything else um also as we mentioned before it's uh cigarettes are cheap in turkey and it's also come by romania and spain which are also quite cheap for buying cigarettes so there is a chance that the crew might be tempted to smuggle large quantities of cigarettes but what we're really have to hear is heroin investigation officers in dover also work around the clock to stop organized criminal gangs bringing drugs into britain back in july of 2004 a vehicle was stopped at the eastern docks of dover driven by a gentleman by the name of david williams when his lorry was stopped and searched a couple of brown taped packages were found in the cab of his lorry the packages were full of drugs as a result of that david williams was arrested and that was how it all began williams was questioned about the drugs while his truck belonging to peter jones haulage was impounded and searched much to the annoyance of its owner well mr jones would have been quite enthusiastic to get his trailer back anyway because he had a business to run apparently there had been one or two calls uh where he would make enquiries as to when he could have his trainer back and uh well he was overly enthusiastic in my opinion alerted by his urgency to recover the truck investigators began to dig into peter jones's background peter jones had been convicted twice before in 1997 as part of a conspiracy to import drugs within um adapted exhausts in units articulated units at that point i sort of decided that perhaps we ought to look a bit deeper into the either the unit or the trailer now knowing peter jones's pedigree the search wouldn't miss the clues a second time in the side locker of the trailer there was a box of of grey bungs and they were sort of consistent with the bungs that were holding the mud guards over the wheels on the trainer they found a strange tool which unlocked a secret compartment full of class a drugs once they'd finished the search they removed a large number of a further large number of packages and a significant quantity of cocaine and heroin amongst those packages the elaborately engineered concealment fitted perfectly with jones's previous attempts and it was obvious why he'd been so keen to get his truck back a team of specialist officers went to liverpool to arrest jones and gather financial evidence which would prove his lavish lifestyle could only be funded by drug dealing so it's put to mr jones during the interview that he seemed to have a far better standard of living than the officer who interviewed him who coincidentally was on the same money that was declared by gents and jones quite simply said well he didn't drink and he didn't smoke and by making these savings he could afford the extra three or four cars a year the big house the luxury holidays when interviewed jones denied any knowledge of the attempted importation his response to the drugs being found were that he had no idea they were in his trailer his response to the fact that the trailer had been adapted suggested to him that in fact it wasn't his trailer after all it must have been david williams that switched the trailers and in fact his trade had gone somewhere disappeared so i set out to to prove that the trailer did belong to him but investigators found serial numbers on the recently replaced tyres which they traced to a supplier they confirmed it was jones who'd paid for the tyres in cash the game was surely up for jones but he wasn't ready to give in yet he'd pleaded not guilty uh um for some time and it was quite surprising that he had bearing in mind the evidence that was gradually building up jones pleaded guilty on the day of the trial and was sentenced to 13 years in prison for attempting to import drugs worth over a million pounds he was a very greedy man and he he became complacent and he was caught meanwhile back in cornwall no heroine has been found but a search for cigarettes is underway the turkish crew are only allowed 200 cigarettes each whilst in uk waters all other tobacco must be kept in a sealed store called the pond that's all right right there as far as the crew themselves go nobody has declared more than 200 cigarettes and only four people have any spirits at all but what the crew declare isn't always the whole truth and so the officers must search the entire ship for illegal goods which might be destined for the local black market not surprisingly the cabin searches reveal a few stray cigarettes it's okay so far i mean some of the crew got a little bit extra but there's no point upsetting people just for tiny quantities of cigarettes but woody also finds a stash in the ship's office and in the wheelhouse the ship may not be as clean as first thought was the cigarettes that were there earlier on these okay we've checked in here already we've checked the chief officer's cabin and the cigarettes that were up there have moved down here now and they're moving things around to try and confuse us right on this occasion can you tell the chief i'll just take the cigarettes from him otherwise we have these going ashore for business yeah and we don't we want no business like that but because he's been obstructive in trying to move the cigarettes around that's the reason i'm taking it from it we're just a bit concerned that there seems to be a lot of stray cigarettes around the vessel yes um we found like you said 300 in the chat table 300 in the office yeah are there any more cigarettes before we search the vessel any further now i think no you say just no no that's definitely no more cigarettes no no if if there are any more cigarettes now this is an opportunity for you to ask the crew to bring the cigarettes to us now before we find them if we find cigarettes now when we search we will be you know we will have to work for them and we will be cross and we will probably find find the vessel okay so this is a chance for you to come to us now with any cigarettes here okay no we don't have any more no more cigarettes okay good thank you woody then finds another 2 000 cigarettes in the captain's cabin which will have to be seized yes in one drawer or four we stood in front of the next drawer i searched everywhere wait different to move and open drawers the embarrassed captain asks senior officer colin for clemency could they take back the little bits because not enough our cigarettes for the turkey from here for that reason could i take a little bit more cigarettes you buy the circuit 11 days 11 days sure from here plus two days here yeah 13 days i'm sorry if i say if you said opinion i know it might be but if you put in the list you said the cigarettes that you had we could have had to be born locker but because you yeah of course that but you didn't tell us he had the cigarettes okay and it's in this country i know some places should go there's representation customers come they take cigarettes all that happens here it doesn't happen the cigarettes will all be destroyed and the vessel will receive a hefty fine if called breaking the rules again there was insufficient evidence to charge the driver of the playground truck but 980 kilos of cannabis worth 2.8 million pounds is safely off the streets [Music] you

Channel: Real Responders

Views: 70,657

Keywords: real responders, customs uk, gatwick airport, bristol airport, sniffer dog, cocaine, class a drugs, smuggling, crime, police, police uk, bag search, airports, border patrol forces, border patrol uk, uk border, crime documentary, border patrol, custom officers, sniffer dogs, class c drugs, tobacco, patrol, dover, truck, smugglers

Id: bo82blXvFOA

Length: 23min 14sec (1394 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 24 2021