[Music] the uk border agency is a war with smugglers in the ports and airports coming up officers in manchester get massively high hits of drugs i mean that's about as high as it goes yeah so you're telling me you've never ever been in contact with cocaine where are you from a cigarette smuggler gets aggressive when his stash is seized you carry on like that and you find yourself in the south and officers face a string of lies in dover no i promise it's got a driver's laptop case more cigarettes [Music] [Music] in manchester a flight has just landed from jamaica sniffer dog roddy is in operation on the hunt for any traces of cocaine roddy gives a clear indication on this passenger and officers liz and kev step in to investigate [Music] you've got a possible one second do you have a passport and ticket yeah you're traveling together yeah yeah you want to come back with you though with over a thousand cocaine seizures a year border officers know that cocaine smugglers come in all shapes and sizes how long you been away for a week have you been before no what do you think of it it's nice is this the same bag you took out with you okay the officers take the passports and swap for signs of drug use [Music] just got chased quite hard chasing the cocaine not the gentleman's passport so i'll ask him if he's had any contact with drugs he's used us all and took it from there just a little quick solve your passport see if there's any traces of drugs on it and there is traces of drugs have you ever used anything no ever smoked weed or have you used anything stronger than that no never any sort of contact with drugs ever no no right the man clearly states he's had no contact with drugs but officers know from experience not to believe everything they're told yeah i just found a very small trace of cocaine i've been um swabbing around his jeans pockets and things like that so it's only a small one but it's still a trace liz's job now is to work out if he's a user or a smuggler you sure you've never ever used open in contact with with cocaine nope okay i mean if you have tell me now because it's a lot easier no okay i found a very small tray so you see i've been swabbing your clothes and everything yeah yeah it's come from your clothes so with a bit more pressure kev's suspect begins to contradict himself have you ever used drugs any time even if it was a long time ago yeah what what have you used and how long ago well i don't want to discuss that because it's personally not there well it's relevant to it liz then swabs her passenger suitcase and the hit for cocaine is almost off the scale the officers are now convinced the two suspects are carrying drugs that is that the bottom of your suitcase i mean that's that's about as high as it goes yeah yeah so you're telling me you've never ever been in contact with cocaine well i've seen it i've never had the liver like that in my life no no i've done inside your back i've got we'll show you cocaine high it's a really really high reading for cocaine from inside your bag now if you use every now and then i'm not bothered i just need to know i didn't use it that's what i'm trying to say but the officers need answers or the search will need to go deeper at the end of the day i need to know where the choices are coming from if it's definitely not from you using yeah i've got to think you might have something concealed on you or in yeah as much as you want and whatever you can search just do whatever you want to do okay i said i'd make that with him and walk straight off fair enough for that comment yeah all right but some background checks reveal that kev's passenger has a criminal record for dealing heroin supply heroin in l3 there is staff kindred drugs going back to six years the officers now have proof that at least one of them is lying at gatwick airport a courier shipment has just arrived at the freight terminal it's up to the border officers to ensure that any hidden drugs don't make it onto the streets drugs dog megan has been brought in to speed up the search we're just about to search some cargo from south america some dhl mail from places like colombia venezuela things like that so we're just waiting to get all this stuff off the pallet and uh then we'll let it go the sniffer dog's nose is 10 times as powerful as a human but today it's officer andres who spots a suspicious smell when i opened the box there appeared to be a slight chemical odour coming from the box appears to be very heavy this bag there's all these uh unusual large buttons on them highly suspicious andres calls in the expert steve do you want to just let the dog have a sniffer we're not trying to sniff it wouldn't be a very good health and safety wise sniffing out smugglers is a job best left to the dogs and megan's indication on the buttons couldn't be any clearer is that a good indication yeah but there's only one way to find out for certain just make an incision see if there is anything in these buttons we have seen it in buttons here we tend to put them put drugs in large buttons like these yeah there appears to be a white powder inside there i will do a test on that just to make sure it is appears to have gone blue indicating the presence of cocaine it's another hit for the freight team with three bags all covered in huge buttons full of cocaine it's a seizure worth tens of thousands of pounds this particular package is going to a private individual in spain so we'll inform the spanish authorities and then they'll make a decision as to whether they want to do a controlled delivery on the premises or get a warrant to search the premises take it from there really nice job cheers mate [Music] in manchester officers are still trying to find out why two passengers have triggered massively high readings for cocaine it's not something we're going to use we're not going to go and tell the place this person's absolutely doing this i just need to know why these traits that's the only reason i keep asking you i know you're probably getting fed up with me i'll get asking the same questions but i just need to know why this choice is there that's cool that's my job i've gotta if i let you walk out of it with all these traces of coke and no explanation my boss is gonna say to me well you know why have you done that so as soon as i keep asking you kev's suspect has admitted previous convictions for heroin dealing but both suspects are adamant they've had no recent contact with cocaine getting really high traces off the case higher than i've had off anything else you know what i mean i don't know why um you know like off the bottom that's that's like from underneath the lining but i've x-rayed it there's nothing in the past the problem is usually i've been out there organizing something liz re-x-rays her passenger suitcase for any hidden concealments how long be had it mate she's yeah really really massive hits that's why i've had the biggest hits for cocaine and uh there's nothing there it doesn't weigh anything so i've just swapped these debit cards and it's completely off scale absolutely right to the top to go the officers are getting frustrated with the evasive answers when was the last time you used the multiple card number right okay kev's passenger has admitted using cocaine but it's liz's suspect who still says he's never touched drugs despite all the evidence against him yeah because the dog uh indicated on you that i mean that's the reason we stopped you um want to be sure you've got nothing on you we found traces of cocaine all over your baggage and you've denied useful contact with cocaine you travel frequently and the trip was bought by somebody else it's just one of our indicators so the lads are just going to take into private room now and search it all right running out of possible causes liz examines his footwear if he's a swallower tracers of drugs would seep into the shoe but hits off the laces would suggest he's recently handled drugs while using and that's off his laces he's seen that off oasis so you've got a problem because i've really really massive traces off your laces there's nothing it's like a little trace sort of like inside your shoes but off your laces it's just like it's almost all the bars again it's like there's been loads of cocaine i mean well i mean it inside but like i say off your laces i've never seen anything so high off laces and obviously the concern is your amount of something internally um are you you'd be all right with that would you think though jamaica stupidest thing to bring somewhere people do yeah i don't know so what time what about your intestine with a urine test what will that show us what my intestines are you're in test you know like it's a t-test oh my test yeah a baffled liz has investigated the massive cocaine hits as far as she can with no hard evidence the men are free to go what can you do all right go home and burn all your stuff yeah we've just been totally searched and they're saying got chris traces of cocaine in my laces in my shoes but i don't have a clue where that could have come from she is it's happened about five times before so it's nothing new but to find traces of cocaine in our shoelaces that's a new one but i don't know where the helicopter comes from coming up a cigarette smuggler gets aggressive in manchester you need to come over you understand you carry on like that and you find yourself in the south [Music] coming up officers face a string of lies in dover i'm roman what we [Music] manchester airport a flight has just arrived from pakistan border officer richard is x-raying bags on the lookout for excessive quantities of cigarettes looking at the screens if you can see any cigarettes on these monitors here there's quite a few in the bag that'll look fairly obvious on a flight like this we're expecting to pull off anywhere from none to 20 bags full of cigarettes or partly full of cigarettes passengers have a maximum of 200 cigarettes and border officers like ours know to take nothing at face value there isn't any particular bag that will be specific to a type of smuggling it's any any type of bag it's suspicious we look at all types of bags whether they it could be more firm than others then again they could be also quite soft so it really doesn't matter on the type of bag okay we've got one here which is more or less full of cigarettes and for people hoping to smuggle tobacco the x-ray means there's nowhere to hide one two three four there's at least 800 in that block there one two three four another 800 there there's more lined up that way there's more there this is similar not as obvious but there's looks like cigarettes there as well the bags go back on the belt as ass heads upstairs to see who will claim the suitcases [Music] either so are you traveling alone oh yeah let's quick extra over your bags please where are you from three bags this way please as starts with some simple questions these all your bags all right have you ever been stopped by customers before have you ever been stopped by customs before all right the way to do is by answering the questions all right okay well you're gonna have to answer them go around bring your bags over to the bench please officers often face angry passengers and the man seems annoyed at being stopped the man's already angry but things are only gonna get worse when he finds out az will be seizing all his cigarettes in dover officers have stopped two bulgarian lorries each driver is allowed only 200 cigarettes but a quick search found over a thousand in one of the cabs suspecting they're hiding more both lorries will now be searched this one over here is the one that she's got cigarettes he's got his girlfriend with him we're traveling together um same company we're going to do this one as well because this drive here he declared no cigarettes either to some cigars how good is your english this man lied about not having any cigarettes the other lorry driver is adamant he doesn't have any chef how many is in here in here cigarettes how many no no cigarettes sure no cigarettes i'm promised but when you know where to look the driver's lie is easily exposed what we got here then big jake 14. same place oh no that's a result stuffed into the cab lining are over 3 000 cigarettes with massive profits to be made drivers use every available space to hide cigarettes he's already lied once he said he had no cigarettes at all um you see we found um 15 cartons of uh each carton's got 200 so that's 3 000 in total you know he's lied once so we'll continue our search of the cab cab unit see if there's any more cigarettes in there but some of this man's efforts to hide his cigarettes are laughable have you got any more in here the officers suspect he's used the hidey hole before oh dear basically all the food across the top just that green plastic on top take that off between plastic and cigarettes underneath very simple not very complicated he's just realized that he doesn't get stopped and tesla's got fur with both lorry drivers having lied about not carrying any cigarettes officers will be imposing a strict punishment but because he's used the unit to smuggle the cigarettes in and as a extra as a punishment um he'll lose the cab unit the only way you can get the cab unit back is it'll incur a fine how we come to the figure of the fight is we work out how many cigarettes he's got add them all up and then we work out the duty on these cigarettes what the duty would be equivalent in in the uk for the drivers it's an expensive lesson and it doesn't go down well back in manchester officer az is also dealing with strong language from his feisty passenger do you have any photo id travel documents can i see them please can i see them [Music] how long will you wait for all right what was the purpose of your visit okay i'm gonna look inside your bags did you pack everything yourself do you know what's inside the bags clothes on it all right your uncles packed it yeah all right do you understand you can't bring any controlled drugs a decent obstacle to fire around the country yeah do you know what your allowance for cigarettes are do you know what your allowance for cigarettes are do you know what your allowance are you got any cigarettes in here how many have you gone what's the 20 all right your allowance is only 200 okay so you've got 20 sleeves it's too many okay oh yeah suddenly the man's mood changes do you work catherine excuse me yeah talk to me i'm gonna do these bags okay right well there's no need to be like that all right [Music] and you find yourself in the south so you keep your mouth shut and there you go it's okay it was quite obstructive he's not uh i wouldn't say he's an easy passenger he was quite destructive 200 or 400 200 but because you haven't declared them 200 you won't be yeah that's right but the man won't be leaving with his allowance once you exceed your alarms you lose the right to the lounge so therefore today you'll be going home with no cigarettes you understand that no that won't be going well what i just explored the man has exceeded his allowance by 5 000 cigarettes he's not best pleased he'll be leaving with none 26 26 26 leaves yeah yeah all right now what i'm going to do okay [Music] tries to educate the passenger so he doesn't make the same mistake again this is a receipt cfc's 5200 cigarettes yeah i'm also giving you a warning letter remember about uh bringing in large amounts of cigarettes there's a copy for your records this is hang on i'm finished yet your copy yet prematurely this is information about what you bring in and there's a right to appeals as well if you wait two minutes you can get that as well the man is eager to leave thanks for your time but if he doesn't want cigarettes seized from him again he'll need to watch his step we get all kinds of people with all kinds of moods some people are quite happy and quite welcoming to our customs officers unfortunately this one wasn't one of them passengers you know in dover the drivers who swore they had no cigarettes have been well and truly found out together and chef chef in here no cigarettes no cigarette i'm promised i'm promised [Music] in all officers find more than 10 000 cigarettes in this devious driver's cabin this is a trouble sometimes it could be quite a long convoluted process because you have got to literally check everywhere you can't rely on the drivers necessarily to uh to tell you the truth at any point which is a shame but uh obviously if we did start believing people [Music] smuggling cigarettes is a serious crime and both drivers must now pay the uk duty on the entire amount if not their lorries will be seized and they'll be walking home the first driver is forced to pay nearly a thousand pounds on the spot one of the vehicles has been successfully restored for 985 pounds uh the other driver uh carnival to play he says he's going to play tomorrow uh so therefore it's seized stays in our care until his bait simple as when it comes to cigarette smuggling officers don't mess around the man will leave with no cigarettes and no lorry [Music] the cash strapped driver asked for a lift whilst making a desperate call to the bank after a cosy night together he's vowed to return in the morning to pay off his 1 800 pound fine the bulgarian lorry driver did return the following day to pay off his fine he was given his lorry back and a stern warning [Music] you