SAS Catching the Criminals S01E08 (2024)
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00:00Covert surveillance, reconnaissance, deception, stealth and disruption.
00:07These are the skills I learnt on the military front line
00:11and they can be used to combat a different enemy.
00:15Britain's criminals.
00:20That's the teams running to position now.
00:22My name is Billy Billingham and I've spent over 20 years in the SAS.
00:29Now I'm going to show you how SAS tactics are helping to crack down
00:34on 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.
01:07BANG
01:22I've spent long periods of time in hostile environments
01:26and over that period of time you build a third party awareness, a sixth sense.
01:32The abnormal stands out in what is now a normal environment.
01:37Remember, the enemy can often be found hiding in plain sight.
01:43MUSIC
01:58I'm in London to meet a specialist investigator from Trading Standards.
02:03He's got an operation planned and wants to meet me a few miles away
02:07from the target area here in north London.
02:10Trading Standards suspect that some shops may be selling dangerous banned products
02:15and they want to gather intel to build a case.
02:18Dave Hunt is a local Trading Standards officer
02:21who uses covert tactics just like the SAS to find out what's really being sold.
02:27Nice to meet you, Paul. How are you doing?
02:29So what have you got for us, mate?
02:31Right, so what we'll be looking at is illegal vapes.
02:34These products are all oversized.
02:37They all have more than 2ml of e-liquid in them.
02:40To be legal in the UK, vapes cannot have a capacity of more than 2ml of liquid
02:46and a nicotine strength of no more than 20mg per ml.
02:50Tell you what I noticed straight away is that looks to me like it's a kiddies product.
02:55Almost like targeting kids, is that right?
02:57That is squid games, so that's very much targeting at young people, children.
03:01I'm guessing with these, mate, just like cigarettes, these do a lot of damage to you.
03:05What sort of things are they actually doing?
03:07Yeah, so nicotine is highly addictive.
03:09It's the addictive part of cigarettes.
03:12We've got young kids who literally are trying to get out of class to vape
03:17or even vaping in class.
03:19And the other thing is there's reports coming out now
03:22that nicotine will actually affect kids' ability to learn.
03:25So where are they coming from? Where are they getting this stuff from?
03:28It's being imported illegally from South Asia, China, Thailand, Malaysia.
03:38I've been deployed all over the world to hundreds of countries
03:41dealing with conflict and problems.
03:44If there's one thing I've learned as a soldier,
03:47it's to trace the problem back to the source.
03:50This will help you overcome the enemy.
03:52Like the majority of contraband making its way onto our streets from overseas,
03:57illegal vapes are smuggled via shipping routes
04:00before landing at one of the UK's many ports.
04:03The operation starts here,
04:05where trading standards in Kent have wider intel
04:08that a whole shipment of dangerous products is destined to hit the UK streets.
04:15Today the team are down here because we've received a consignment of goods
04:19that have come in through one of the cross-channel routes that we've got in Kent
04:24and we're inspecting vapes.
04:26So I think at the moment the team are looking at nine pallets that we've got.
04:30They've been identified to us by UK Border Force
04:33and there's a legal gateway that when there's illegal goods that meet a safety issue,
04:37they then get passed through to trading standards.
04:39Normally you'd see a pallet and it's completely square and uniform.
04:43The pallets that we're looking at today aren't
04:46and we also know that from some of the paperwork that we've got
04:49that actually the destination that it's going to isn't genuine.
04:53I mean, that's pretty normal when you're smuggling goods.
04:55You don't tell people where they're going to end up.
04:57This is one pallet load out of the three that have come in for this particular consignment.
05:01So we're just starting to open up some of the boxes and have a look,
05:04see what we've got in them.
05:09Some of the illegal products we deal with,
05:11they very much present themselves as an otherwise legitimate product
05:14in the sense that they'll have all the labelling correct.
05:17They may look like legal vapes,
05:19but are these vapes actually harbouring dangerous volumes of liquid and nicotine?
05:24I've had an initial look at the packaging.
05:26You can see it's calling itself a 4000 puff product
05:30and on the side it's saying 10ml.
05:32So UK limit for vapes is 2ml,
05:35so we're already five times over the legal limit.
05:38So automatically we know we've got an illegal product that we're dealing with here.
05:42So, stopped at source.
05:44Classic SAS disruption.
05:46Use the intel and disrupt the supply chain.
05:49If the law's been set at 2ml
05:51and you've got something 10ml, 15ml, 20ml,
05:55that's obviously going to do you a lot more harm
05:57and be a much, much greater risk for the end consumer
06:00than one that's set by the legal standard.
06:02Through work with the ports team,
06:04we've stopped just over 800,000 illegal vapes coming into the country.
06:08So, this is a massive problem.
06:10In the last 12 months, more than 4.5 million vapes were seized at UK borders.
06:16And inevitably, these dangerous products are slipping through the net
06:19and onto Britain's high streets.
06:21And it's only through boots on the ground, covert operations,
06:25that we can find out who's selling them and this is where I can help.
06:28Are they sold on every high street?
06:30There's a problem across the country with these products being sold.
06:34It's a big issue now for trading standards.
06:36And what about all these illegal chemicals and stuff like that?
06:39When there was testing done on that one,
06:41they were finding heavy metals coming out in the vape.
06:44So that's gone into people's lungs?
06:46That's gone into people's lungs and been absorbed into their bloodstream.
06:49I mean, obviously it's illegal selling this,
06:51but I would say the biggest problem with that is you don't know what's in it.
06:54No, that's correct.
06:55You're going to end up killing somebody with this stuff.
06:57So that literally is a lethal weapon.
06:59It's a mini hand grenade.
07:01It's only now dawning on me just how serious these illegal products are.
07:06I'm keen to find out what tactics they use to find who's selling this contraband.
07:11Where do you get intelligence on this?
07:13So we've got intelligence from previous test purchases and previous finds.
07:17Right.
07:18If we can have a test purchase before a seizure, it gives us more ground.
07:23A test buy is when trading standards send in a decoy buyer
07:27asking for illegal products to see if the shop will take the bait.
07:32We call this a dummy in the SES
07:34and it's widely used to infiltrate enemy forces.
07:37And Dave's got a job for me.
07:40That final bit of the jigsaw, the final nail in the coffin is a test buy.
07:43Yes.
07:44So if I go do a test buy, we prove it, then that's...
07:47If you get a test buy from the shop here... Yeah.
07:49..then we will go to that shop to do a visit.
07:51Right.
07:52I have my marching orders.
07:54Find a shop selling illegal vapes and buy some.
07:57How hard can it be?
07:59People going to the shops, they're looking for a vape, say, that size, 7,000 puffs.
08:04Yeah. That's ten times the volume of a legal product.
08:07Wow. OK, I'll go check out a couple of these stalls around here.
08:10OK. Happy with that? Yeah, happy. Let's do it.
08:16Time for some SES-style reconnaissance.
08:19I'm calm and casual.
08:21Don't want to attract any attention,
08:23as I look for any sign that a shopkeeper might have something to hide.
08:27Whilst I wreck at the streets
08:29to work out where I'm going to execute my test buy,
08:32a different kind of test is being carried out in Kent.
08:36The vapes seized at the port by trading standards
08:39have made their way to a research lab
08:41where a team of scientists will determine just how dangerous these products are.
08:46So this is a vape sample that came from trading standards
08:49and they want us to test for nicotine.
08:51So we are going to analyse the sample and see what level we are finding.
08:58So I've got the nicotine sample over here.
09:00I'm going to dismantle the body of the vape.
09:07This is where the nicotine should be.
09:11And this is the liquid we are going to test.
09:14With military precision, the science doesn't lie
09:17and it's important these vapes are properly tested
09:20to back up the case with solid evidence.
09:23The UK limit for disposable nicotine samples is two mils
09:28and I can see clearly this is more than two mils.
09:32Nicotine is a poison, so the 2% limit is designed to limit the danger
09:37that the nicotine vape as a liquid can present to people.
09:41Anything more than that and the access to that kind of liquid
09:46stands more and more risk of causing nicotine poisoning
09:49which is highly toxic and can be fatal.
09:52It may be visible to the human eye
09:54but it's also got to be checked by high-performance liquid chromatography.
09:58A cutting-edge technique for quantifying components of liquid samples.
10:02So we're waiting for the nicotine peak and I can see here
10:06the nicotine is present.
10:08So based on the volume we found
10:10and the fact that the nicotine is present in the sample,
10:13this is a legal vape.
10:17Back on the street, my mission is to try and find these vapes
10:21and on advice from Dave at Trading Standards,
10:23I'm looking for the type of shot
10:25that might be selling this contraband.
10:31OK, so I've got a potential target down there.
10:33So what I'm going to do now is go in and see if we can do a test buy.
10:37So I'll just go on as a normal punter.
10:39Let's see what we come out with.
10:44Normal punter, stand by.
10:47Normal punter, stand by.
10:58Got any decent vapes, mate?
11:00Any decent vapes?
11:02I've been involved in countless covert operations with the SAS,
11:06but impersonating someone looking to buy illegal vapes is a first for me.
11:11Is that the strongest one you've got?
11:13They're all the same, but different flavours.
11:16The pressure's on to see if I can bring Dave from Trading Standards
11:20the evidence he needs.
11:25Simple and direct comms are key components in every soldier's toolkit.
11:31And when a rural community come together to use comms to combat crime,
11:36the results can be surprising.
11:39A far cry from the urban jungle of London,
11:42East Anglia is home to acres of farmland.
11:46And it's also the place where really simple strategy for reporting evidence
11:51has had a massive impact on rural crime victims.
11:57My name's Freya and I'm a farmer in East Anglia.
12:00Come on, Davey.
12:02I've been farming all my life. I grew up on farms.
12:06And I've got another generation coming up behind me.
12:09The thing I love about farming is working in the elements outside.
12:14The variety of work, no two days are the same.
12:17And I just love the challenge.
12:20Like many in the area, Freya's farm is a family business
12:24and a farmer's life is all she's ever known.
12:27This is our family farm.
12:29We have been here in this village since the late 60s.
12:34My father started off with two pigs
12:37and then became a tenant on the farm here.
12:40Growing up on a farm, I followed my father around from the age of two.
12:44But the farming went high-tech.
12:46The cost of gear went through the barn roof
12:48and suddenly criminals had eyes on farms like Freya's.
12:53We've been sort of facing petty crime for quite a number of years.
12:58But over the last 10 years, rural crime has increased significantly
13:03and the type of crime has changed.
13:06Machinery gets stolen.
13:08There's ATVs and quad bikes, easy targets to steal.
13:12Trailer thefts.
13:13This is often organised crime, stolen and taken out of the country.
13:17And it's stress.
13:19Everything's locked away at night.
13:21You have keys on all gates, padlocks.
13:23It's our home, it's our place of work and you don't feel secure.
13:26The farming industry is really struggling at the moment
13:29and this is just another pressure that goes on to farmers
13:32and people living and working in the rural communities.
13:36And it's not the only problem she's facing.
13:39Another crime that we actually get quite a lot of around here is hair coursing.
13:46Hair coursing sets two running dogs onto her hair.
13:49The dogs compete and are judged by how closely they can follow
13:53the twists and turns of the hair as it tries to escape.
13:56And they try to catch and kill it.
13:58The dogs are competing and gambling is often involved.
14:01It's illegal and cruel and strikes fear into animals and farmers.
14:09Hair coursing over the years has become a bigger and bigger issue
14:13to us as farmers.
14:15I'd be walking across a field, checking the crop coming through.
14:18I'd go over the brow of a hill and then I'd be confronted
14:22by a group of hair coursers walking on foot with their dogs coursing.
14:26Pull them out of that bush!
14:30And that's actually quite scaring,
14:32a, being a female and being on your own.
14:36Freya decided she could do something.
14:38In the SES, we think about how to put enemies on the back foot
14:42and Freya realised that she and her fellow farmers could do the same
14:46by gathering intel and acting on it.
14:49I have fought back against the criminals,
14:51so we now have a WhatsApp group and we communicate with each other
14:55if a crime's going on or if there's any photographic evidence.
14:59It all gets put on there and everybody encourages everybody to report it.
15:04These are just some of the photos taken by members of Freya's WhatsApp group.
15:09They show damage to property and illegal hair coursing
15:13and their vital evidence.
15:15Also, our WhatsApp group is linked to the police,
15:18so if the police are on duty, they will see the activity.
15:22And when there's so much land to cover, the police have upped their game too.
15:28This size field, it's a very large field.
15:31It's got crossings across the ditches
15:34and it's an ideal area for people to come coursing and chasing hares.
15:40Here they've got good visibility and they'll get a good long chase.
15:44But guess what? It's also good for drones.
15:52Just like the cutting-edge technology we use in the SAS,
15:56rural police crime units are now using drones and thermal imaging
16:00to track criminals and catch them in the act.
16:03We have the ability to put the drone up and cover vast areas of land
16:07with limited numbers of officers.
16:09Local farmers now have the ability to make use of their own drones
16:13to pass information over to Warwickshire Police that they've obtained.
16:16Ultimately, drones allow us to cover more ground
16:18and do a better job in looking after the rural communities.
16:27Our local police force are taking rural crime very seriously
16:31and we work quite closely with them.
16:33There is intelligence work going on as to finding this equipment.
16:37The police forces actually all now work together.
16:40When you're working in a rural area, you all know each other
16:43and everybody works together.
16:45If something happens, you all go and help each other out.
16:48It's all about communication.
16:52Improved powers and tougher sentencing have helped crack down
16:55on illegal coursing.
16:57In the first six months of 2023, 573 incidents were reported
17:03and 32 arrests were made, which was an increase of 400% on previous years.
17:09It's good to see farmers and police working together
17:12in this way to tackle rural crime.
17:16Back in the city, I'm making a test buy
17:19and the outcome wasn't what I was expecting.
17:26OK, mate, so I went in there, it was very edgy straight away.
17:29As soon as I walked in, he was, like, almost following me around the shop.
17:32Right, OK. I grabbed a few things and I asked him about the vapes.
17:35I said, you got anything cheap? He goes, well, that's the cheapest I've got.
17:38I go, you got anything better? He goes, they're the best I've got.
17:41It's all right, so I bought the one I've got here.
17:43You could just see there was suspicion all round him.
17:45He was, like, very on edge. As soon as I walked in there,
17:48as soon as I looked around, he was speaking to somebody in the shop.
17:51They both sort of clocked me and then he followed me around,
17:54so I think he's expecting something.
17:56On edge, a bit suspicious. So I'm going to go and do a visit.
17:59All right, let's do it.
18:01Dave, from Trading Standards, thinks we should go in
18:03and confront the shopkeeper.
18:05That's the guy there, that's the guy there.
18:07He's legging it into the shop. You need to move quick.
18:10Right now, my instincts are saying the bloke I spoke to
18:13has something to hide.
18:15Call it SAS training or intuition.
18:17Even though he didn't sell me a stronger vape,
18:20something didn't sit right.
18:22Dave Hunt from Hackney Trading Standards.
18:24Right, is there anything you want to tell me now that you shouldn't have here?
18:28No. No?
18:32So basically what's going to happen now is the guys will go in
18:35and do a search of anything that has not already been put on display,
18:38just to make sure that everything is above board and legal.
18:44And something under the counter has already caught Dave's eye.
18:49So these are illegal.
18:53So these have got more than two mil nicotine liquid in them.
18:57They're oversized.
19:01Why are they under the counter in the shop?
19:03Why are they on business premises?
19:06So basically I asked exactly what the guy had,
19:08if he'd got anything stronger, anything different,
19:10and all I got shown was exactly what was on the shelf.
19:13And these are actually underneath the shelf, which, to me, stinks.
19:18I'll come in, as you do.
19:20As a normal punter, I could have been anybody.
19:22I did ask. I think there was a level of suspicion immediately.
19:25I didn't feel comfortable in there. I thought there was something not right.
19:28The amount of time I spent in conflict and in bad places, in war zones,
19:31I've got a sixth sense, and that sixth sense told me
19:33something was not right in this shop.
19:35That sixth sense paid off. There you go.
19:37Underneath the counter, not even on display.
19:40And I did ask.
19:44How's it going over there, Dave?
19:46Right, so the products in here at the moment are legal,
19:49but we'll carry on looking around the shop.
19:52We've obviously found some illegal products here,
19:56and we need to check to make sure there's nothing else illegal in the premises.
19:59It's great to know that people like Dave
20:02are rooting out these types of illegal products off the streets,
20:05especially as they're being sold to young people.
20:11As a young kid, I got in lots of trouble. I went rogue.
20:15At the age of 11, I was in court.
20:17By 15, I was almost stabbed to death.
20:20Then came a turning point for me.
20:22I met an inspirational person
20:24who saw something in me that no-one else did.
20:27This led to me later on joining the military.
20:32Stoke in Staffordshire.
20:35Near where I was born,
20:37the county recorded over 2,000 knife crimes in a three-year period,
20:42and nearly half of them happened in Stoke.
20:45It's a city with some tough kids in search of a mentor,
20:49and one gym owner might be a local hero who fits the bill.
20:54So, my name's Stefan Anks.
20:56I'm 44.
20:58I'm from Stoke-on-Trent, Stockton Brook.
21:03I've been running the gym to help younger people and also adults,
21:08to learn about a box and a controlled environment.
21:13Stef grew up in the area
21:15and got tired of seeing youngsters having little direction or guidance.
21:19So, you've got a lot of kids who get involved in different crime gangs.
21:23So, we open the gym up to help all these kids,
21:26keep them off the streets and try and talk and help them.
21:29As soon as you've done that, back in position.
21:32Don't hold it out. Ready? Straight back.
21:35It gives people a lot of discipline, respect for each other.
21:40Dig deep, dig deep. Come on. Come on.
21:43Come on, don't stop.
21:45You may not have thought of a boxing ring as a safe space,
21:49but for kids here, it is.
21:51Coming to the gym was, like, just a way out.
21:54Quite a lot of us have come from rough backgrounds
21:57and have issues ourselves.
21:59Keep it going! Stop!
22:01Stefan just brought us all together
22:03and made sure that everyone was OK
22:05and he's always checking in on us
22:07and making sure that everyone's OK.
22:09It's just a way out.
22:11I was once one of these kids.
22:13I too met an inspirational person who introduced me to boxing.
22:17In turn, this would lay the foundation
22:20for the resilience and habitual routine required by the military.
22:25For Stef, his motivation comes from a deeply personal place.
22:30It's a place where he's got a lot of friends and family
22:33and he's got a lot of friends and family
22:35and he's got a lot of friends and family
22:37and he's got a lot of friends and family
22:39and it's a deeply personal place.
22:42My nephew, Ryan, he had first experience of basically knife crime.
22:47He got involved with the wrong people,
22:49so one of them's hit Ryan and Ryan's hit him back
22:53and then another one's tried fighting him
22:55and then basically the first one who'd gone down,
22:58he's got up and without Ryan knowing,
23:01Ryan had been stabbed several times in his heart and his stomach.
23:06The incident happened on the streets of Stoke.
23:09An ambulance was called, but his wounds were catastrophic.
23:13Stef's sister travelled in the ambulance with Ryan.
23:16She believed that he'd died whilst paramedics worked away on him.
23:21He was at the very edge of life,
23:23just another statistic in the brutal history of UK knife crime.
23:32But somehow, Ryan survived.
23:37He's still here to tell the tale of what happened
23:40and he's turned his back on his old life
23:43and the tough crowd he hung out with.
23:45I managed to get stabbed.
23:47That's the wound, that's what happens when you have open-heart surgery.
23:52It just flipped me, staring him open.
23:54That's where that one went in, it only went in about three or four inches.
24:00It shattered Ryan's life.
24:02It had a massive knock-on effect that you'll never understand.
24:05What people go through, the lives you're ruining,
24:08you're shattering people's lives by doing one simple little move with a knife.
24:15Ryan's body took years to recover,
24:17but remarkably, coming here is what's healing his mind
24:21and the minds of many of our local kids.
24:24This is one of the main places that helps young kids,
24:27not even young kids, even seniors, to get out of that sort of life.
24:31You get into a good mental health state, being in the gym,
24:34Best as you can, make sure you're not too close to the bag.
24:37When you come to the gym, you might think it's a bit of a daunting thing,
24:41but that first time you come here, you're just a family, that's just how it works.
24:45This is a community gym, so everyone can come here,
24:49any age, any weight, any gender, that's just how a gym works.
24:54Back to your chin, back to your chin.
24:56So it does good to get you off the streets and come to the gym
24:59and put your mind to something correct.
25:01For Steph, knowing he's keeping the kids away from crime
25:05and turning to the bad side is all the reward he needs.
25:09He's helped me through not just getting fitter, stronger,
25:13more confidence in myself.
25:15I too was lucky enough to meet someone like Steph,
25:18who got me off the streets and turned my life around.
25:21It's great to see these kids being given the same opportunity.
25:26Back in London, with the seized and dangerous faves,
25:29I'm keen to know what the man selling them thinks he's doing.
25:33Up until now, he's remained silent.
25:36But it's time for a deeper interrogation.
25:39Why didn't you tell me you had these?
25:41You don't sell them.
25:43But why have you got them? You know they're illegal.
25:46My brother, he smokes.
25:48You don't smoke?
25:50No.
25:53My brother, he smokes.
25:55What, you're trying to kill your brother, are you?
25:57I mean, they're deadly.
25:59And you know that.
26:01I asked you what you had, and you denied it.
26:04I asked you if you had anything else, and you said you didn't.
26:07I didn't ask you if you were selling them,
26:09I asked you if you had anything stronger.
26:11And obviously you did. And you probably do sell them.
26:14That's the truth, innit?
26:16Innit?
26:18Isn't it?
26:20It is, innit?
26:22You're proud of that?
26:24Kids walking around the streets with these,
26:26and you know very well it's illegal.
26:29Right? Correct?
26:31Correct. Yeah, I am correct.
26:37Right, you shouldn't have these on your business premises.
26:41I've been getting intelligence that you've been selling to young people,
26:45so we will be doing checks, OK?
26:50Right.
26:56Never a good result, but it was written all over his face.
26:59From the moment it went in there, he was acting all suspicious.
27:02He was banged to rights, absolutely banged to rights,
27:04and he admitted it as well.
27:06He knew exactly what he was doing.
27:08This is a classic example of how solid intel,
27:12face-to-face reconnaissance,
27:14plus using your instincts, led to a successful strike.
27:18If nothing else, we're getting some of that c*** off the streets.
27:26To the naked eye, the shopkeeper and all his products looked above board.
27:31But his demeanour and actions and my sixth sense
27:34told me something was not right.
27:37Now he has to face the consequences.