SAS Catching the Criminals S01E03 (2024)
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Covert surveillance, reconnaissance, deception, stealth, and disruption.
00:07These are the skills I learned on the military front line.
00:11And they can be used to combat a different enemy.
00:15Britain's criminals.
00:20That's the team thrown into position now.
00:22My name is Billy Billingham, and I spent over 20 years in the SAS.
00:29Now I'm going to show you how SAS tactics are helping to crack down on anti-social crime across Britain.
00:37All teams now in position.
00:39Strike, strike, strike.
00:40Some enforcement agencies are already using SAS tactics to hunt criminals.
00:45Check this out. This is exactly what they were looking for.
00:49Hey presto.
00:51And I want to find out how much the police are doing too.
00:54Go, go, go.
00:57She's going to pick up a target right now.
00:59You're lying, aren't you? And you know very well it's illegal.
01:02Let's go. You need to move quick. Stand by.
01:04Banged up. Job done.
01:07Disruption
01:24Disruption is a key military tactic that we can use to dismantle an enemy.
01:30And in the UK there are unsung heroes doing exactly that.
01:34Protecting the public from crime and harm.
01:44OK, so today we're with Trading Standards and Kent Police.
01:47It's a combined operation going against illegal tobacco and vapes.
01:52They're hiding the tobacco in hides, but we will find it.
01:55We've got the dogs, we'll be out there. Stand by.
01:59Trading Standards have intel to suggest several local shops
02:03are selling counterfeit tobacco, which they're hiding on their premises.
02:07Some of the Trading Standards team work covertly.
02:10Some must hide their identities.
02:12Today is all about disruption.
02:14We're there to disrupt the illegal sale of these goods.
02:18We want to go in there, we want to try and do everything we can whilst we're in there.
02:22They have a list of shops to visit and specific intel on some.
02:26Intel has come in very, very recently on that one,
02:29that tobacco's being sold under the counter.
02:31Apparently the locals go in and ask for DFS.
02:33So if you go in there and ask for DFS, you get illicit tobacco.
02:37This seems quite a big problem.
02:39Are these all interlinked or are these all acting individuals?
02:42How's this working? Is this a gang?
02:44The illicit tobacco is very much an enabling crime,
02:47so it leads on to other things.
02:49What sort of money are they making from this?
02:51A couple of years ago the estimate was £25,000 a week.
02:54Wow.
02:56There are two main kinds of illicit tobacco we are after.
03:00Smuggled tobacco that hasn't had the duty paid on it
03:03and counterfeit or fake tobacco that looks like a well-known brand, but it isn't.
03:09But today some cunning specialists are being deployed to hunt the hidden tobacco.
03:14Stuart, the dog handler, can tell me more.
03:17Hey, Stu. Nice to meet you. I'm Billy.
03:20What's the deal here? What do we have and how do these guys work?
03:23So basically these dogs for our operation today, we're trading standards.
03:28We've got a tobacco dog, Cooper.
03:30OK.
03:31A cash dog, Maggie.
03:33So she's trained to find bank notes.
03:35And we'll also be using Griff today, who's a tobacco,
03:38and he also sniffs out vapes as well.
03:40So primarily they're used to find concealments in shops,
03:45which human search teams can't find.
03:47So we call it back in the SAS caches,
03:50purposed hides, perfect hides.
03:52Exactly, yeah.
03:53And these guys are pretty good at that?
03:54Yeah, we've had phenomenal success.
03:56And what sort of results are you getting with your dogs?
03:58We are finding, you know, on a weekly basis,
04:02maybe £150,000, £200,000, £250,000 worth a week.
04:06Pounds worth? Yeah.
04:08Wow.
04:09Counterfeit cigarettes have been found to have higher levels of metal
04:13than well-known brands and even substances like weed killer and excrement.
04:18I'm heading to the first target store with Kent police officer, Vicky.
04:22The numbers say that 5.5 billion illicit cigarettes
04:26were sold in the UK in one year,
04:28and nearly £2.5 billion of tax was evaded by illegal tobacco as a whole.
04:37So, that...is linked here.
04:40Ready? Yeah.
04:44Hello. Hello.
04:46Hello.
04:47Hello. How are you doing?
04:49Yes, all right, thank you. Are you working in the shop?
04:51I am.
04:52Welcome to Kenny's Standards.
04:54We're doing some visits in the area at the moment.
04:56We're doing some checks on your baits to make sure they're compliant,
04:59make sure they're not illegal baits.
05:01And we're also going to be searching the shop for illicit tobacco.
05:05I've also got a sniffer dog with me,
05:07so they're going to be coming around.
05:09You OK with dogs? Yeah.
05:11Fabulous.
05:13Tobacco dog Griff is the first in to use his nose.
05:17And whilst Griff goes to work,
05:19the team look through an assortment of products,
05:22including chewing tobacco and vapes.
05:25There's an update. Griff the dog has had a hit.
05:28They have found... Already? Yes.
05:37It's horrible out here.
05:39All I can smell is rubbish.
05:42So, disguised amongst all the trash, as you can see,
05:46we're actually inside.
05:48That's what you find.
05:50So that's that wheelie bin and a second one over here.
05:54Illicit cigarettes and vapes hidden away from prying eyes.
05:58Oh, what's in there?
06:00But they didn't fool the dog's nose.
06:04Yeah, more vapes.
06:06So this is a pre-empted sort of hide,
06:08hidden in the wheelie bin, just disguised as rubbish.
06:11Obviously, the dogs can't come out here because of the smell
06:14and won't pick it up, and it's just hidden away.
06:17These look like illegal vapes, and the cigarettes look smuggled,
06:21meaning no tax gets paid over to the exchequer as a result.
06:25And illicit sellers like this can undercut legitimate traders.
06:29And dog handler Stuart has found a phone with trade messages on it.
06:33Look.
06:34All right, mate, can I grab 2,800 Richmond, 14 sleeves?
06:39Wow.
06:40He's got a smoking problem.
06:42Can pick up from you this Friday at four.
06:46Look at this.
06:48Mobile phone.
06:50All right, mate, can I grab 2,800 Richmond, 14 sleeves?
06:54Oh, wow.
06:57The trading standards team have found multiple illicit items.
07:01Good work by Griff the dog, but a bad morning for the shopkeeper.
07:06These products are now all being bagged up.
07:09So that's the first task almost coming to an end.
07:12Went straight in, straight out the back,
07:14found a load of illegal vapes and cigarettes
07:16hidden in the wheelie bins amongst all the rubbish,
07:19and now we're bagging everything up for evidence
07:21which will be used as evidence against these people,
07:24and that's taken off the street.
07:26First task, first job, great strike.
07:29We're off to a second target now, and I'm curious to challenge myself.
07:33Can I find hidden cigarettes as well as a sniffer dog?
07:42Sometimes a stakeout can lead to catching a big fish.
07:47I've worked throughout the world training soldiers to spot and stop poaching.
07:53It's also a problem here in the UK,
07:55and it needs a very active military-style operation.
08:03He's proudly displaying his catch of a wild salmon
08:06which he caught in the River Teefee.
08:09He and his friends are adept fishermen, as his photograph collection shows.
08:14But these fish weren't caught legally.
08:16This man is a notorious poacher,
08:19and that's what brought these pictures to the attention of Jeremy Goddard
08:23and the team at Natural Resources Wales.
08:26They police unlicensed fishing on the country's rivers.
08:31Illegal fishing activity is very difficult to police
08:34because you're talking about activity which generally happens at night time
08:38and also in very rural areas as well,
08:41so it's easy for people to go below the radar.
08:45In the army, I've carried out more covert patrols than I can possibly remember.
08:50The teams from Natural Resources Wales are doing the same on the nation's rivers.
08:54Salmon and trout on the River Teefee in Wales have declined in recent years,
08:59so there is a catch-and-release policy.
09:02But that doesn't suit the poachers.
09:08On one night patrol, eagle-eyed water bailiffs noticed rope and nets by the riverbank
09:14and immediately suspected a poacher was at work.
09:18They did what I would do and set up surveillance on the area.
09:22After many hours of waiting, that notorious poacher arrived
09:26and started pulling fish from the net illegally.
09:31It was at that point then that one of our officers approached Rhys,
09:35telling him that the water bailiffs are going to stand still.
09:38Obviously startled, he kind of reacted and then jumped straight into the River Teefee.
09:44Emlyn Rhys literally swam away, but officers knew who it was and arrested him at his house.
09:51Then the enforcement officers from NRW entered the property and did a search of the property.
09:56What they found there was a huge collection of illegal fishing equipment in terms of nets,
10:02which were consistent with the type of structure of the nets that had been found on site.
10:07A lot of fishermen like to photograph their catch and this poacher was no exception,
10:12but these pictures proved to be his undoing.
10:15The main piece of evidence they found was ledgers which Mr Rhys had been keeping.
10:20He had detailed photographs of previous catches, weights of fish, numbers of fish, etc.
10:26Within this there were 373 entries of illegal fishing with no licence netting.
10:32There were 989 sea trout, 302 salmon entries.
10:37It was an absolute goldmine to us really.
10:39Without that we wouldn't have known the actual scale of this illegal operation.
10:46The poacher wasn't expecting a proactive patrol along the river,
10:50but the team worked out what effect he'd had on the ecosystem.
10:55That's a loss of 690,000 salmon eggs from the river ecosystem and 2.2 million sea trout eggs.
11:04So obviously from those figures you can see how impactful this was on two iconic species which are in significant decline.
11:11His ledgers showed he was selling fish at £3 a pound.
11:16For his crimes he received a confiscation order for over £60,000.
11:23That's how much he'll have to pay back to the government for the fish he took.
11:27But if it weren't for bailiffs doing an old school foot patrol like I used to do,
11:32the poacher would still be scuppering fish stocks.
11:35Later I'll be showing you another ingenious way the poachers themselves are being caught.
11:47I'm back out with trading standards and the police in Kent, hunting for illegal tobacco.
11:52We've found cigarettes hidden in a rubbish bin already
11:55and Officer Vicky says gathering intel from locals is vital to finding the fake cigarettes.
12:01When we're actually in the community people want to tell us stuff,
12:04they want to tell us information, they want the criminality to stop in their area.
12:11This is another shop where local intel suggests counterfeits are for sale
12:15and dog handler Stew is straight in with tobacco dog Cooper.
12:19Trading standards? Yeah.
12:20There just ain't any inspection here today.
12:23Hello? Hello.
12:25Anyone round the back?
12:27We're here for tobacco but trading standards immediately spot illegal vapes.
12:32Already these are all totally illegal.
12:34You've got 9,000 puffs, ones that imitate food and drink products,
12:384,000 puffs, 9,000, 15,000.
12:42There should only be two mils, about 600 puffs.
12:45And a man who appears to be working here is telling Vicky he's in fact not working here.
12:51Listen to me, your shop is open and you are taking money for product.
12:57So if I was to walk in here now, are you going to give me free vape?
13:00No, I can't do that.
13:02I think he's lying.
13:03But we're here to find illegal tobacco
13:06and off camera Cooper the dog has made a find in the back room.
13:10I want to test myself.
13:12Can I figure out where the tobacco's hidden?
13:14So again what we're looking for is what we call a cache in the SS, an hiding place.
13:18So you're looking for anything that looks out of the ordinary.
13:21A different colour tone, a different sound or anything that just grabs your attention.
13:27And then once you see that it's a further investigation and hopefully that will locate it.
13:32I'm looking for anything. Here we go.
13:35I think this part of the floor is suspect.
13:37But is this where Cooper thinks there might be tobacco?
13:41So what we do now, like we would in the regiment, we call in the dogs, the experts.
13:45The dog would come in and hopefully that would give us confirmation.
13:49Cooper, what have I got?
13:52Oops, not where I thought.
13:55Up here.
13:57Cooper's indicating something at the back of here.
14:02It's just a wall, isn't it?
14:08There you go.
14:09That's why dogs are used by everyone, from the army to trading standards.
14:13Well done Cooper, that's your job done. Good boy.
14:16And that is a reward for good work.
14:21But the hides aren't just to fool trading standards.
14:24Rival tobacco gangs might target the shops too, for easy plunder.
14:29Stuart the dog handler is used to hides like this.
14:32Legal tobacco, hand-rolled tobacco, cigarettes.
14:36There's going to be counterfeit stuff in there and smuggled stuff.
14:42Yeah, so this is counterfeit, fake.
14:47It'll be a mixture, but nice little find.
14:52I would imagine that's probably a day's worth in there.
14:56Just a day.
15:00But the government will receive no duty from them
15:03and the more dangerous counterfeit ones will be bought in cheaply
15:07and sold for a massive profit.
15:09And what about this man who says he's just volunteering here?
15:13You're working?
15:15OK. Can you prove that to me then?
15:19Don't know?
15:22So how many hours a day do you volunteer?
15:28Have you got any idea?
15:32I can't find you on the system.
15:37Vicky is suspicious, but keeps the man talking
15:40whilst cash dog Molly searches for money.
15:44At the minute, you're running rings round us because you keep lying.
15:48I don't think that you're volunteering here
15:50and I think I'm known maybe to the police at some point.
15:53That's what you're thinking about or you're judging me?
15:56I'm not judging you. Yeah, because I'm volunteering.
15:58And I've asked you to prove that to me and you've said how.
16:02Despite what he says, police suspect this man is running the shop.
16:06Intel reveals he had an asylum claim turned down,
16:09which affects his working status.
16:11He's the only person here.
16:13If he was volunteering,
16:14then you would imagine that there would be somebody here.
16:17It's all the factors that come with it.
16:19He's got a key to the premises.
16:20He says that his boss has given him a place to stay,
16:23that he's been fed off the back of it.
16:25So there's a lot of things that would add up to me
16:28to suggest that it's probably not as it seems.
16:31Police don't believe the man's story,
16:33but the priority for them is the tobacco.
16:37Another great job done.
16:39Dogs came up with trumps alongside the trading standards.
16:42There's the result. All that is now off the street. Fantastic.
16:49But the team have received further intel on another shop
16:53that may be selling even larger quantities of dangerous products.
16:58New forms of technology are often used by the military first
17:02and then adopted by other agencies.
17:05Conservation are now using some types of military hardware
17:09to protect important species here in the UK.
17:15On the border between Norfolk and Suffolk lies the River Ouse.
17:20It's home to many species of fish,
17:23including some that are now endangered.
17:26I'm here with Kai Jerome from the Environment Agency.
17:31Kai and his team are using a piece of kit I deployed in the SAS.
17:36But Kai is using it to protect these critically endangered eels.
17:41European eel numbers have dwindled by 95% since the 80s,
17:46so it's really important to protect them against poaching.
17:50So these are amazing.
17:52Oh, yeah. So there it is.
17:56Hence they're slippery as a heel.
18:02Poachers are using dangerous nets and trapping devices to catch eels,
18:07ignoring the rules of when and where fish can be caught.
18:11But the Environment Agency are deploying a new device
18:14to stop poachers on all waterways.
18:16Using a piece of military-grade kit attached to this special boat.
18:24This footage is filmed with a submersible camera attached to the boat.
18:28It reveals a shoal of fish you'd never see with the naked eye,
18:32and everything else down to the riverbed.
18:36We use submersible cameras like this in the SAS.
18:39I personally checked the whole boat,
18:42The particular system over here has got a clear view onto the bottom.
18:46You can see everything from discarded tyres to shoals of fish.
18:52When I use cameras to spot explosive devices,
18:55the Environment Agency will use them to spot
18:58unpermitted eel nets dropped by poachers
19:01on the banks of the River Thames.
19:04I've got a clear view onto the bottom.
19:06You can see everything from discarded tyres to shoals of fish.
19:11Dropped by poachers to steal these endangered fish.
19:17We're actually in the area of responsibility now,
19:19where, believe it or not, this is where the poachers will have the cheek,
19:23the audacity to come down here.
19:25Obviously under the cover of darkness,
19:27and this is where they put the nets across,
19:29all the way across this span of water here.
19:33I'm impressed to see technology we use in the military
19:36being deployed creatively here.
19:39The team might also do bankside surveillance
19:42and take enforcement action where possible.
19:45So if we actually find a net, the procedure will be,
19:48we'll pinpoint it on the radar to the right there,
19:52and then on the left, confirm exactly what it is.
19:55If it is a net, then we'll get into the water
19:57and drag it out to the side.
20:01No nets found to date, but back on land,
20:04Kai has some examples of unpermitted nets
20:07they have found on the river.
20:09This is a standard fight net.
20:11This has been seized because it's got no otter guard,
20:14so there should be a minimum or maximum entrance hole there
20:19of 95mm.
20:21This is what they should attach. This is an otter guard.
20:23That's designed to stop otters going in,
20:25so there's no risk to the otter.
20:28That wasn't on there, so essentially,
20:30wherever this is fishing, this poses a risk to any other wildlife.
20:35So otters, anything that is getting in there
20:37is not coming back out again.
20:39Got you.
20:42But I hear that there is serious demand for these fish,
20:45making them expensive.
20:50In Manchester, there is a small chain of restaurants named Unagi.
20:54That's Japanese for eel.
20:56And David Vanderhoek is the driving force behind them.
20:59I was a private chef.
21:01I travelled the world cooking for all different types of individuals,
21:05kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and what have you.
21:09After leaving the SAS, I worked as a bodyguard
21:12for the sort of people David used to cook for.
21:15And eels are a big part of the food he serves.
21:18But even he struggles to source any from the UK.
21:21So import sustainable Japanese eels.
21:24I asked our fishmonger how long it would take me to get live eels
21:28from Manchester, and he said to me, probably about two weeks,
21:31if we can even get them, and they will be very expensive.
21:35If I were to buy fresh live eels in,
21:38we probably couldn't make ends meet.
21:40We'd have to charge so much that it just wouldn't be worthwhile
21:45doing it from our point of view.
21:47And that scarcity makes the eels very attractive to poachers.
21:51From what I can see, there's a lot of poaching going on.
21:54I can understand why eel are being poached,
21:56because there's a demand for it.
21:58When there's always a demand, there's always going to be a supply.
22:02With European eel stocks so low, I hope the Environment Agency
22:06deploy all the cameras they can to find those nets.
22:18Back out in Kent, the team are heading to another shop
22:21that's suspected of selling illegal tobacco.
22:24So this is the suspected location now.
22:26The team have just gone in and we're going to go in and see what's going down.
22:32What we're doing today is we're going to do a little search of your shop.
22:36We're going to specifically look for baits to make sure they're compliant
22:40and also for any tobacco that you're selling,
22:42so cigarettes, hand-rolled tobacco, things like that.
22:45Griff, the tobacco dog, is immediately in and searching.
22:49His nose is guiding him downstairs.
22:52So that's the team now going through like a dose of sorts.
22:55Basically, they've already identified all the vapes at the top there,
22:58all illegal.
22:59They're all over 4,000, 15,000 puffs, which is totally illegal.
23:04The illegal 2mm-sized vape tank couldn't hold anything near that many puffs.
23:10These are all 4,000, 15,000, which is illegal.
23:14The whole display, not even hidden.
23:17Whilst we seize the vapes, Griff, the dog, is on to something.
23:22There's a shower room at the back of the shop.
23:26Griff is given an indication.
23:30That's what he's been trained to do if his nose tells him there's tobacco nearby.
23:35But I can't see anywhere it could be.
23:39But Stuart has seen how devious some hides are.
23:42He thinks there's a hidden opening.
23:44A quick search reveals this car fob.
23:47One push and...
23:52Amazing.
23:54We've managed to get the door open. As you can see, Griff has found the gold.
23:58No messing, straight in there.
24:00What have you got, Griff? What have we got?
24:02What have we got in here? What is it? What have we got?
24:04What's all this?
24:05What have we got?
24:07Yeah, and as you can see, a total stash of cigarettes.
24:10What have we got?
24:12Yeah, and as you can see, a total stash hidden behind the shower cubicle.
24:19There's no hiding from Griff, is there?
24:22I've seen a lot of clever hiding places through my work in the SAS.
24:26But this is new for me.
24:28A hydraulic arm powering a secret door in a shower.
24:32Whoever set this up has gone to great lengths to hide the contraband.
24:37Come, Griff.
24:39Back upstairs, the team have found just how successful this illicit business is.
24:45We had about £4,000 worth of cash.
24:49And there are issues with a man working here.
24:52This chap, he's got no right to work in the UK,
24:55so was reported to Immigration for those offences
24:58and is on immigration bail, of which he has breached again today, so...
25:02So what money has this guy been turning over? What's he making weekly?
25:05When asked how much, he said £4,000, and that would be his turnover in a week.
25:10£4,000?
25:12Just from here.
25:13Wow.
25:16Everything is bagged up to be taken away, but the shopkeeper isn't happy about it.
25:21How come you're taking them away?
25:26No, no, no, no. This is a completely different story with this lad, seriously.
25:30You cannot take them away. No, please.
25:33Those, but the rest are gone.
25:34This is illegal in the market. You cannot take this. No, seriously, you cannot.
25:40Ironic from a man with a hide in his shell.
25:43He's getting all aggressive now about what they can take and what they can't take.
25:47Basically, they can take it all because it's illegal.
25:49And he's trying to put up a little argument or fight against them taking anything.
25:56He has the audacity, the audacity to try and stop them doing their job.
26:02But nothing will stop the team from confiscating the enormous haul of illicit goods here.
26:08And Stuart's got another task to complete before we leave.
26:12Now Stuart's going to deny them the opportunity of ever using that again.
26:15So that's going to get dismantled and, as you can see, he's just preparing his equipment ready to do that.
26:23In the SAS, we have a saying, find, fix, strike.
26:28This is part of the strike, making the secret hiding place unusable.
26:33There's no point leaving it because they'll use it again.
26:35So I've taken out the electrics and taken out the shelving, electromagnets, decommissioned all those.
26:44And then this is part of the hydraulic ram that was opening and closing the door.
26:53All that's left is for the contraband to be taken away.
26:57So that is all the illegal tobacco now taken out of the store, bagged up, tagged into storage.
27:04It'll go into a secure lock-up where it will be documented, counted and then finally destroyed.
27:11The man beyond the counter has been removed from the shop.
27:13He had no right to work and the shop is shut down for now.
27:18Disrupting the network, that's what it's all about.
27:21So a great day on the streets of Kent today with the Kent Police and Trading Standards.
27:26Free jobs, free tasks, free successes, job done.
27:39The pursuit of illegal profits often leads to criminals hiding their spoils.
27:44As an elite soldier, I was taught to search for visual clues.
27:49But over the years, I've learned first hand, it's sometimes better to follow your nose.
28:14For more information, visit Kent.ca