UK Customs officers are at war with smugglers in the ports, airports, and at sea. Coming up, hands tobacco seizure sets sparks flying. There is a guideline of 3,000 guideline Yeah, but it's still 90. I'm giving you my I'm not going to argue about it. I'm giving you my reasons. Suspicions are raised on board searcher when a sailor tries to stop officers coming on board. Come on board, we're We're coming on board now, sir. And Rossi sniffs out class A drugs in Gatwick. It's a drugs dog. Smell into you from your baggage and I've got a very high hit for traces of cocaine. Customs officers are always on high alert for bootleggers using cheap flights to bring in tobacco to sell illegally on the UK's booming black market. In Bristol, officers have received intelligence that a known bootlegger is returning from Malaga in a group of four. The main target had over 26 kilos of tobacco seized only 2 weeks ago. Will he be mad enough to try again? Tobacco. A lot of it. The x-ray has found four bags full of tobacco. Now, it's up to Anne and the team to stop and question the passengers and prove that the tobacco is not for their own personal use. Bootleggers come in all shapes and sizes. This time it's a retired couple who pick up three of the four suspect bags and then split from the group. They almost make it through the channels, but Anne closes in. Is it only the two of you? Yeah. The three holdalls are stacked with tobacco. The main target has slipped through empty-handed, but the final passenger in the group isn't so lucky. Her bag contains 30 kilos of tobacco, 10 times the guidelines. The couple have another 57 kilos. Altogether, an amount like this is a criminal matter. No wonder they're pretending not to know each other. Okay, I'm just going to do a couple of checks on your passport a minute. He's they're saying they're traveling just together, aren't they? Yes. Get them through. Get them to say that again. She's saying she's traveling alone. They're in a group they're together. Yes. They got 57 kilos between them. Isn't that arrestable? It's fine. Could be. Only if we can tie them in together. Tying the passengers to each other proves a little easier than Anne and Joe expected. Do you Are you together or do you know each other? Well, we've come together. Are you traveling together? You're traveling together, okay. They've both just admitted that they're traveling together cuz they were talking to each other. Did they say that initially when you stopped No, he lied. Yeah. So, obviously I I don't believe that this sort of amount can be for your own personal use. The sheer amount that you've brought in I've never been in trouble with the police, never been in trouble with customs. We smoke tobacco, and that is for our use. They have enough tobacco to last 14 years, but it was split between three passengers, so it won't be treated as criminal. But, they will now be interviewed to decide the fate of the tobacco. I do not believe for 1 minute that that is for their own personal use, even if they were smoking, you know, 100 cigarettes a day. He seems pretty adamant that he's done nothing wrong and That's right. That's the most I've seen come through the airport in the last couple of years, I must say. At this point, most bootleggers simply admit defeat and abandon their goods, but this passenger decides he won't go down without a fight. In Gatwick, sniffer dog Rossi and his handler Claire are targeting another Spanish flight, this time for class A drugs. Each dog has only one handler, and their close bond means that Claire knows when Rossi picks up even a hint of drugs. The passenger is intercepted and seems very nervous. But Andy's bag search finds nothing. What's that? Just a charm. Yeah. Not convinced, Andy swabs the bag for drugs and picks up a massive hit for cocaine. Quick chat with him. He's he's very, very nervous. Mhm. And uh taking an iron track off there, got off a hit of four, so I'm going to get a an SOP in him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's got something on him. Okay. All right. All right. Okay. It seems Rossi and Claire were right. Yeah. So Andy confronts the passenger with the evidence. It's a drugs dog. Uh I've spoken to you you you seem very nervous, okay? Uh I've taken a a a swab as I explained to you from your baggage, and I've got a very high hit for traces of cocaine. So what I want to do is search you to make sure you have nothing on you. No problem, sir. Okay? You understand that? Yes, yes, no problem. Okay. Do you have any objections to that? No sir. any objection? Any problem with that? No, no, no. You can check me, you have any everything that you want, okay? Come this way. The passenger is playing innocent, but the search of person will prove if he's telling the truth. Back in Bristol, Anne's preparing for a fight with the passengers caught with 87 kilos of tobacco. They have enough tobacco to last a heavily addicted smoker 14 years. But neither have yet asked for a cigarette. You left us outside waiting for you. Yeah, you actually said that I took an hour to write in my notebook. That was your I said the specific words were, "You left us sitting out there for an hour in the freezing cold." I did not say that. Don't Let's get it straight. Okay, well you said a lot. If you're going to write it down then You are intimidating me, little girl. You write it properly. You do your job properly or don't do it at all. Bring somebody else in. Well, if you want to take this attitude, I'm not going to interview you. I'll invite you back at a different day and we'll No, don't You come to my house and interview me if you want to. That doesn't happen. Well, you find somebody else then. Until you're prepared to speak to me in a proper manner, I won't deal with you. What planet are you on, for goodness sake? You people get to the docks. Stop the people coming in. Do your job. Okay. You don't do the little You're like policemen who pick people up for parking. Catch the criminals. You're going to criminals. Well, actually it's a very large quantity of cigarettes No, it's tobacco. You will get that very well. It is not a large quantity. It's smoked all the time. Two people. Really? You smoke, do you? It's a large quantity. Do you smoke, do you? It's a large It's a large it is. Could you tell me it's a large quantity? I'm saying do you smoke? No, I'm not qualified to judge. Are you? I am because I'm a customs Bring somebody in that's qualified to judge. You don't smoke. You don't know how much tobacco goes in the world, do you? Yes. You've got a clue. Well, look. Right. Anyway, go away. Bring the little girl back with what I've just said. No, you don't don't speak to us like that. Why not? This is disgraceful and it will not end here, I can tell you. We are not criminals and you are treating us It's criminals. Picking out the criminals amongst the innocent passengers is a skill that comes only from experience. And customs officers in Gatwick have seen it all when it comes to the risks smugglers will take to make money from drugs. One smuggler that stands out from all the rest is Paul Brady. Well, when I was I was in stopped Mr. Brady in in the green channel. Um I examined his baggage and found really nothing of customs interested at all. Um but there was something about him that I wasn't satisfied with. And if generally if somebody hasn't got anything in their baggage of customs of customs interest, then they may have have smuggled it elsewhere. So, Mr. Brady was then taken to a private room and he was searched. The body search found nothing, so suspicions now centered on what Brady might have hidden inside his body. A sample of urine was taken from him and tested on our machine at Gatwick. And the result indicated the presence of cocaine inside of his body. And I I then arrested him on suspicion of importing a controlled drug into the UK concealed internally. Officers wanted to x-ray Brady to prove he'd swallowed packages of cocaine, but he refused. Instead, he was detained in a Gatwick custody cell while officers waited for the evidence to emerge. Brady had begun a waiting game that would go down in customs history. He was um refusing to eat any food and he refused um to drink any any drinks that we provided to him unless it was a can of Coke which we could open himself and that's all he would do. And of course this went on and on. Without food, it soon became a week without him going to the toilet. But officers had Brady under 24-hour surveillance to ensure none of the vital evidence was missed. We had to have grounds to keep him in in our custody and we had to go in front the magistrate every 7 days. One of the things we did was to iron scan his suit. And this indicated whether we still may have the cocaine level was actually going up, which it was. After 3 weeks with drugs seeping into his system, they began to fear for Brady's life, but he refused to give in. It would only take a very small amount to actually kill the person outright. So, it's a it's a dangerous thing to to do anyway. After a staggering 48 days of defiance, it was the smell of the custody officer's lunch which finally forced Brady to crack. After 48 days, I was actually off shift and I was at home and I had a call from my main manager at Gatwick who telephoned me to said, "Yes, he's produced." So, it was quite an emotional time, and I still feel quite emotional talking about it now. So, uh It was sort of relief. Consuming his first meal for 7 weeks, the officers wouldn't have to wait long to get their hands on the evidence. And he just gave in completely. So, he must have been absolutely starving. But, obviously, the body couldn't take it. And we I had to sit with him along with my colleagues to recover the remaining packages from his body. The stubbornness of Brady was beaten only by the determination of the officers at Gatwick. I mean, given his jewelry, he gave it a good try, didn't he? And he pleaded the only thing he could do best, which was to plead guilty at Croydon Crown Court where the judge gave him the sentence of 5 years. And that's something I'm proud of, you know. So, it was good. Still to come, suspicions are raised on board searcher when a sailor tries to stop officers coming on board. Come on board when I get back to you. We're coming on board now, sir. Coming up, Andy's argument continues with tobacco bootleggers in Bristol. Behave correctly. Um, I don't think I need you to teach me how to behave correctly. I think somebody needs to teach you. In Gatwick, Andy's search of person has identified the cause of the positive cocaine hit. The man has confessed to using cocaine whilst in Spain. So, you say the reason for the the high reading that we got here was because you had a couple of lines of coke yesterday. Oh, okay. Yeah? Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah. And it's quite high. You use it quite regularly? No, not very much, actually. Not very much. Having confessed to using cocaine abroad, the man's now trying to avoid trouble. Came up with a very high reading for cocaine. When I put that to him just inside the room there why that would be, he said, "Well, he had a couple of lines of coke yesterday with his girlfriend." Which would do the trick. So, stripped him off. Nothing there at all. And, uh, gradually calmed down once he realized that that was what we were going to do. So. Not guilty, yeah? Thank you. All right. The high reading was from personal use, so a disappointed Andy has to let him go. So, nothing today. Maybe next time. Customs ship searcher has tracked a yacht sailing towards the southwest coast of England. Within the 12-mile limit, any vessel is a potential smuggler, and customs officers have the power to board and search. This is the 6-mile. You can see that the the target vessel that we're interested in is just off the 6-mile limit, so he's well within the 12. What she was on the plane? The cutter launches the high-speed rib team from the stern, giving the yacht no time to hide any goods on board or jettison any drugs into the sea. The boarding team don't need the skipper's permission, but he seems unaware of their powers. Customs service, just going to pop on board for a second. Come on board when I get back to port. When we get back to port, we've actually got to come on board now, sir. Pardon? We're coming on board now, sir. And how long have you been over here in the Scillies? Uh 2 days. 2 days. I can hear the rib crew saying that they're going to take some uh swabs on board the vessel, some mine track swabs, and then they're going to bring them back to the cutter, and we can test to see if there's any uh traces of narcotics or explosives on the yacht. To avoid upsetting innocent sailors as much as possible, the drug swabs quickly identify any wrongdoing. The man's initial attitude may be a good sign of a smuggler, but the swabs will be the ultimate test. If he's got anything on his hands, that will have moved onto the tiller. Nothing there. Swabs are negative, and there's uh no trace of any drugs on that particular boat. All negative. Nice uh clean yacht. It is. Back to the boys back in then. Quickly exonerating the innocent is as important as arresting the guilty, and this sailor is free to continue his journey. And after the 12-hour shift, the cutter Searcher returns to port. Meanwhile, in Gatwick, police have arrested a man as he stepped off a flight from the Caribbean. His problems get worse when the officers bring him through customs. He's dressed very smartly. Why's he wearing a suit? I don't know that I can tell you. Was he sitting in economy or was he was he flying Virgin upper class? Otherwise, why would he Why would he wear a suit? No one else in the flight is wearing a suit. But, yeah, we'll find out. We'll ask him a few questions. Uh what's happened is that the police had warrants outstanding warrants for this man. And as soon as he came off the plane, they arrested him at that stage. And uh they've brought him up here. And as the flight is one which is uh uh brought previous jobs to us, shall we say? Uh they asked us if we wanted to have a look through his luggage. And the obvious thing is that given the risk of drugs coming in from there, we said yes. So, we've gone through the luggage, and what we want to do now is just make sure he's got no drugs on his person. Many smugglers try hard to look innocent, and Chris asks permission to do a body search. He's arrived on a flight from Montego Bay. Yeah. And as you can see, he's probably the most smartly dressed guy on the flight. Dressed in a suit, which is this is meant to be a holiday destination. It seems as though he's got various layers on as well. Yeah. So, I just want to rub him down, make sure there's nothing under all those layers. That's fine, Chris. Yeah, 8:15. Okay. Cheers. Okay, if you come this way. well. Stay with him. Right, if you can follow us. Okay. Catching drug smugglers is a daily occurrence at Gatwick, and officers find packages in a variety of places. The strip search is as uninvasive as possible, but it's an uncomfortable experience, especially when Jeff discovers the initial reason for the man's arrest. Uh he's actually wanted for a driving offense. But, you know, we have to make sure 100% certain. All right. So, we So we did a quick search, and nothing was found, so uh we've handed it back to the police. He's been uh re-arrested and uh taken back down to the uh station. This man isn't a smuggler and leaves cooperatively with the police. Meanwhile, in Bristol, three passengers have been caught with 87 kilos of tobacco, but they're not going quietly. You have treated us really badly, really, really badly. Like we've done something wrong. Until you're prepared to speak to me in a proper I won't deal with you. It's the biggest haul the team have seen in years, but the man is adamant it's not being brought in to sell on the black market. Ann's decided to interview the man to see if he's telling the truth. If not, the 11,000 pounds worth of tobacco will all be seized and destroyed. How much do you smoke a week on average? Two or three packs a day, so Two or three 50 g packs? Yeah, generally two. Okay. How many cigarettes do you tend to make from one 50 g pouch of tobacco? What could you get out of it? know. 30. Okay. A 150 g pouch, on a good day you get 20 out of it. Okay, so I um he would expect those goods to last him 9 to 10 months. All right, given the benefit of the doubt, 30 30 kilos of it for him. Yeah. That's 600 pouches. And he reckons 10 months. Yeah, definitely not longer than a year. Cuz he bought the same amount last year. He bought That means he's going to be smoking eight and a half pouches a week. Totally and utterly ridiculous. says he smokes two pouches a day, two to three pouches a day. A day? The only thing I haven't asked is by rolling. Mhm. Cuz I'll be allowed to ask that. Mhm? How would mean? Going to roll with what? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to ask you to roll one of these for me. Really? I'm not playing any silly games. Well, you've you've said that you can roll No, I've been very good. I've played the game. Yeah, but I'm not questions you've asked. If you really think at 65 years old and I smoked all my life, I'm now going to play a silly game and I'm asking you to roll one cigarette. I'm not being silly. No way. That's insulting. The two other passengers have had their goods seized. And now the moment of truth. Ann has to decide if the angry passenger gets to keep his tobacco. And he's not going to be happy. I've looked over what has been said today and you failed to satisfy me that the tobacco is for your own use for the following reasons. I'll give you the reasons. One, the excessive quantity is actually nine times over the guideline of what you are supposed to bring in from an Not but what not what I'm supposed to smoke. Yeah, fine. When you say guideline Yeah, there is a guideline of 3,000 Yeah, I'm giving you my I'm not going to argue about it. I'm giving you my reasons. Consumption, three packets a day is grossly excessive. Yeah, okay, go on. Right, you're going to tell me what to You've got you've got no smoking paraphernalia at all. You refuse to roll a cigarette for no reason. I didn't say for no reason. It's not credible. I'm not going to demonstrate You refuse to You refuse I didn't ask you to roll a cigarette. Can you just listen, please? Just sign it, please, and we can get to the court. Right. It's not credible to import this quantity when traveling again in 3 weeks. Inconsistencies in your account You actually said Inconsistencies in my account? Just let me finish, right? You actually said that on the same flight your son and a female friend of his traveled whereas your wife told Mr. Hanlon that nobody else that you knew traveled. That is the point. That is the point. We're not going to When you were being questioned did they ask you if you were traveling on your own? Yeah, well we are. Well, you're not because you know Well, no I So are you suggesting that Mrs. didn't know that her own son was also on the flight? to you is we are traveling on our own. That's what my wife said. Anyway, get to It's also not credible to get only 20, 30, or even 40 cigarettes from a 50 g patch of tobacco. Generally, you would get at least 80 to 100 cigarettes out of Not if you roll them in a bag. What? So are you suggesting that you roll them I'm not suggesting anything. Let's go to court Okay, if if you could sign You need to sign the date as well. No, I'm not going to argue with you about put sign. I'm just trying to get you to behave correctly. Uh my date can't I need you to teach me how to do that. Somebody needs to teach you. I could say the same about you. And so their is finally over. He was trying to intimidate me. I think perhaps because he thought I was a girl like he was calling me little girl and stuff and waving his finger in my face, but that doesn't intimidate me. He was just nitpicking at things really because he knew that he hadn't got legs to stand on. The passengers walk away empty-handed having lost 87 kilos which will now all be destroyed. The angry man in Bristol made an official complaint about his treatment and is still planning to fight the seizure in court. Mhm.