Episode 6 The Wanted

Yeah, we're going straight on to Platt Street.

Don't draw attention, Nobby.

Let me out. Let me out here.

Go!

Down! Down! WOMAN SCREAMS

In, in, in! Into the back! Into the back!

Every day in the UK, the police are on the hunt

for known and suspected criminals.

Get back from the door!

They're armed with warrants and big red keys.

The Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire forces

have granted exclusive access to their raids.

SHOUTING

Their officers are wearing special equipment

to give you a cop's-eye view, and bring you closer to the action

than ever before.

What's your name?

Britain's streets are a battleground.

Stay back!

On one side are the men and women fighting to keep us safe.

And on the other...are the wanted.

Greater Manchester,

home to the third largest police force in England.

Nearly 7,000 officers and 2.5 million people.

It's the job of the Serious Organised Crime Group

to track down the region's most wanted.

We're just getting some intelligence regarding a lad called Lee Shaw,

also known as Boggle Eye, who resides in the Leigh area,

that his premises at No.40, Platt Street in Leigh

is being used to store and prepare Class A drugs.

The team are receiving a briefing about an imminent drugs raid.

'The Serious Organised Crime Group, where I work, our job is to'

investigate people involved in serious

and organised crime. That could be anything,

it could be from drug dealing to handling firearms,

or it could be to human trafficking.

Hello, just ringing about that job.

Did you get the forensics in?

'It's very exciting, very dynamic.

'You could be sitting at your desk'

thinking, "I finish in a quarter of an hour, I'll get to go home,"

then suddenly something'll happen and everyone has to turn out. You could be there for five, ten hours,

but you might at the end get a large amount of drugs

or get a firearm back, and that's always a great feeling.

We don't know who's going to be at the property.

Lee Shaw's got previous for drug supply, not much for violence,

but we don't know who else might be at the address

so we're going to get our kit together, mate, and head up straightaway now.

Operation Boma focuses on drug dealing

on the streets of Manchester and its surrounding boroughs.

Today's targets are Lee Shaw, a low-level dealer and user,

and Philip Turner, a known armed robber and suspected drugs supplier.

The officers suspect that Turner and Shaw

are part of an organised drugs gang.

We've just put Nobby in a shop nearby with eyes on the address,

so if he sees any of this lot come into it then we'll be rolling out.

On this day, we had some intelligence in relation to

Shaw and Turner potentially handling some drugs.

We didn't have anything too specific, but we had enough that we could get into the area

and see if we could identify exactly when this drop would happen,

which would give us an opportunity to arrest those involved.

Suspicions about Class A drug dealing allow the police to obtain a warrant

and get ready to strike.

We had somebody who was going to watch the location covertly

so then they could pass us information, exactly what was happening.

The rest of the team, they were nearby, out of the way,

so that when we had the information, that we believe, that

potentially, the drugs were there, we could then move forward

and arrest the individuals concerned and search for the drugs.

The plans for the raid are now all in place.

Crime knows no boundaries.

Every week, 27 foreign criminals are extradited from the UK.

These are Europe's most wanted,

sought by police in their own countries

for everything from murder and rape to a breach of bail.

The European Arrest Warrant allows police in the UK to arrest them

and put them on planes back home, where justice awaits.

If somebody's committed ten burglaries,

then moved to the UK to avoid prosecution

or avoid serving their custodial sentence,

it's down to us to track them down, locate them, arrest them,

put them before the court so the legal process can start

to extradite them back to their country

to either serve that sentence or appear in court.

PC Dave Lockwood and his team are tackling the most wanted

European criminals who are now living in West Yorkshire.

The chap we're looking for that's up here on the screen

is Michal Kawczynski.

He's a Polish male,

and he's wanted on three separate European Arrest Warrants

in respect of robbery, theft and drugs trafficking.

He knows he's wanted. He's been avoiding the authorities

and he's using a fake name and may have fake ID.

The name he is using is Tomasz Linka.

The warning markers from Poland from the National Crime Agency are,

"He has a very large build and he is violent."

That's obviously why there's five of us going

and we're asking for Taser authority.

Michal Kawczynski has been on the run for more than five years,

wanted for 22 different offences.

According to intelligence, he's living in the Bramley area of Leeds.

Dave is on the trail.

So there's five of us, which is all that's on our team tonight,

so that allows us to contain the property,

cos you don't want one or two of you going in the front and someone shooting out the back.

The Polish criminal has been using a false name in the UK

and the police have been unable to track him down...until now.

DOG BARKS

Contact to the front.

Hiya, it's the police! Hello. WOMAN: Hi.

OK, do you speak good English? Yes. Are we OK to come in, please?

Thank you.

Who's here at the moment?

Hiya. What's your name, pal?

Tomasz. Have you got any ID for us, please?

Just take a seat for us, mate.

I'm just going to put these handcuffs on you for a minute, pal.

You're not under arrest. I'm just detaining you at this time, OK?

WOMAN: What's happened, though?

I know it's alarming. We'll explain to you in a second.

I'm just going to do some checks, Tomasz, OK?

I believe you're somebody else and this is a fake name.

I believe your correct name is Michal Kawczynski,

35th... 23.05.82.

Right? Is that correct? Is that who you are?

That's your real name? OK.

You're under arrest for three European Arrest Warrants

issued by Poland for your arrest.

The offences that relates to is eight offences

of possession with intent to supply controlled drugs,

seven offences of burglary, two robberies, a theft, and assault.

So you do not have to say anything, OK?

But anything you do say may be given in evidence.

This is your fake name.

Have you got any more ID with your correct ID?

We will be searching your house for it, OK?

Is there anything else in this property that shouldn't be here?

MAN AND WOMAN SPEAK POLISH

Drugs? Anything like that?

OK. You can sort your missus out or let her know what she needs to know

but you're going to be coming to the police station with us, OK?

SHE SOBS

HE SPEAKS POLISH

Despite Kawczynski's denial that there are any drugs in the house,

officers soon find them.

About 20 small cannabis plants, which are ready to be grown

and cultivated, obviously used later on.

Downstairs in the kitchen,

they also find the crucial identification evidence they need.

There we go. Excellent. "Michal Kawczynski."

"Date of birth 23.05.82."

Passports... Which are good. Happy days. That's the one. Yeah.

That's him.

Any element of doubt within the court system of who he is

might void the warrant, might cancel the warrant

until further information is found,

so if I can negate that problem at the scene and document that

and put that information to court, then the judge and the solicitors

can make an informed decision, having that information.

It's my job...

With the circumstances of what I'm being told,

it's the judge's decision whether you get bail or not -

I honestly don't think you'll get bail, but that's not my decision.

HE SPEAKS POLISH

If you've got some paper, I'll write down the court he's going to,

the telephone number and if he gets remanded,

which prison he'll be in which you can visit him at, OK?

THEY SPEAK POLISH OK.

One thing... He's involved in all that criminality in Poland...

Is he going to come to the UK and live a normal law-abiding life?

If he is, great, but if he's not then we need to know about it

and we need to look at that.

Following this arrest, Kawczynski appeared before the court in London.

He appealed his extradition but was unsuccessful.

He was sent back to Poland.

In Manchester, the Serious Organised Crime Group

are about to attempt to arrest two suspected drug dealers.

Lee Shaw and Philip Turner have both been under surveillance,

along with an address in the Leigh area.

INTO RADIO: Start making your way.

Yeah, that's received, Matt. We're making our way now.

As they near the location, the team need to know if Turner,

their main suspect,

has entered the house to deliver the drugs to Shaw.

RADIO: Female, small female child, male and subject are out...

With Turner on the street, speed is essential.

Go, Nobby.

RADIO: Subject remains on the road.

Yeah, we're going straight on to Platt Street.

Don't draw attention, Nobby.

And with Turner now approaching the address...

Where is he from our position, Matt?

..the team need to strike immediately or the operation could fail.

Go.

Police! Stay where you are! Get down!

Quickly! In, in, in!

Into the back, into the back!

WOMAN SHOUTS HYSTERICALLY

Get your hands out!

Get the little girl, get the little girl!

Philip, at this moment in time you're under arrest on suspicion

of possession of controlled drugs with intent to supply, OK?

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?

These are people that choose to be involved in crime.

They choose to be involved in serious crime.

They don't choose to go out and get an education or go and work,

they choose to, for example, move drugs around.

At the level, in relation to this incident, high-level drug dealing,

they're not worried about who that drug goes to

or where that drug might end up.

It is about, "I can make tens of thousands of pounds on this."

One wanted suspect detained.

Now the hunt is on for his accomplice.

Over in West Yorkshire, PCs Andy Million and Dave Lockwood

are back on duty with another European Arrest Warrant

for a wanted criminal.

The address, Andy, just so you know, it's back-to-back,

just one door in.

Today's target - Piotr Betlejweski,

wanted for burglary in Poland.

The offence, involving theft

from commercial premises,

took place back in 2009.

It's a relatively simple one on paper.

We only have one address for him.

He contacted the police four weeks ago to report his phone stolen,

so to me that says that he doesn't know he's wanted.

It's going to be probably quite a shock and quite sensitive,

should we locate him so...

Are we on the street now, Andy?

So we're here now, so we'll just see what we find.

Betlejweski contacted the police after his mobile phone was stolen.

How do, fella? You all right to come and open the door please?

Yeah, one second. But once his name appeared on the system,

it came up as, "Wanted in his homeland."

Good afternoon. You all right, mate?

PC Andy Miller from West Yorkshire Police. Are you Piotr? Yes.

Right, I need to speak to you, Piotr, about an enquiry we've got.

Are we OK to come in for a couple of minutes and speak to you? Yeah, that's fine. OK.

He thinks he's about to speak to officers

as a victim of crime in the UK,

not as a perpetrator of crime in Poland.

The reason why we're here, Piotr...

In a nutshell, there's a warrant outstanding for you from Poland.

Is your English good enough to speak to me?

You're OK with that. Are you aware of that? Yeah.

You are aware of the warrant?

What we're going to have to do is get your ID, your passport, etc,

and take it with us cos I'm going to have to seize that, OK?

Do you want me to give you a couple of minutes just to get a breath?

Yeah. Can I just reassure you, before you start worrying, OK?

Our job now is to take you to the police station. You're going

to be coming with us cos my colleague's just arrested you, OK?

Our job is to put you before the court tomorrow.

It does not mean you are going back to Poland immediately,

so tomorrow you might be coming back home and living here on bail.

Do you know what bail is? Tag? Tag on your ankle?

Yeah. So you may be here, living a normal life,

working for maybe a month, six weeks...

You'll have to go, keep going back to court, reappearing.

Yeah. Well, you can appeal that,

but the Polish authorities want you to go back to Poland

to sort this problem out, which you're aware of, aren't you?

I need to be able to trust you if you're going to get bail,

that you're not going to run.

Well, I can guarantee you won't be in work tonight or tomorrow.

He didn't think he was wanted, but he said to us

he knew about the warrant, he knew about the situation,

so maybe he thought when he were living here

we couldn't act upon it. And as we expected, he's a little upset.

Did you not think about handing yourself in or going to the police,

or did you just think...?

Unfortunately, it's...

At the end of the day, like my colleague says,

you may be back here tomorrow, yeah?

Just get a cigarette inside you.

We try and deal with them nice and fair,

and hopefully he don't mistake kindness with weakness,

and he understands we're doing a job.

He says he's going to cooperate with us.

We've had that before, though, where some people are in shock,

and then when they've had time to think about it later...

So we'll still be thorough with him,

but we'll be sensitive and kind with him.

I know it seems like it's the end of your world right now...

but our job is to put you before the court,

so I don't want you to start panicking or do anything silly.

I deal with many of these and that's what many people ask -

they don't want to go back to Polish prisons, but...it just don't happen.

No.

There's no escape for Betlejweski.

The officers take him into custody, where he'll be processed.

Thank you. Ta.

Back in Greater Manchester,

the Serious Organised Crime Group

have detained their main suspect, Philip Turner,

wanted for drug dealing.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention when questioned something you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?

But it soon becomes apparent that they have a problem.

They've taken Turner down, but at a different address to the one

where he was due to deliver the drugs.

Another address. 40.

40!

Yeah, we're at 48.

Police! Open the door!

HE KICKS DOOR

Kick it, Mark, kick it.

It seems Turner managed to leave the target house

before the team could strike.

DOG BARKS

Any others? Eh? Any others?

Once they enter the correct house, they find their second suspect,

Lee Shaw, at home.

But the delay is costly.

There's no sign of the Class A drugs exchange

that they believe has taken place.

And without that evidence,

the whole of the team's operation could unravel.

It's Lee, isn't it? Is it Lee? Yep.

Anything in this house that shouldn't be in here, Lee?

How many, mate?

One plant?

Right, let's have a look at it.

Up in the bedroom, officers find the said cannabis plant.

It's enough for them to bring a charge

but not exactly the result they were hoping for.

Philip? You're also under arrest on suspicion

of the cultivation of cannabis.

OK, I remind you that you're under caution. All right, pal?

Rory? Yeah? Do us the honours, mate. Cultivation of cannabis for him, please.

Listen to me now, you're under arrest on suspicion of cultivating cannabis.

So I'll note that down, you said the plant is yours upstairs, yeah?

Yeah.

'It's always a disappointment, especially when we've put in'

a lot of work and think, "We've got everything now.

"All we need is that golden nugget, just to make sure

"we can prosecute all these individuals."

So, it's really disappointing sometimes

when you go into the address and it's not all quite there.

The covert officer leading the operation now has to deliver

the bad news to his superiors.

Right, that was a debacle.

Yeah, I think we missed it, mate.

I don't know if they were round the back in time.

Well, we can't confirm whether we prevented anybody from coming

out the back cos the team didn't have time to get round the back.

So we're just going to detain Turner here

till we can do the searches, and then we'll take it from there.

But there's no obvious signs of any gear at the minute.

When you have to make those kind of calls, it can be difficult

because you can sense the disappointment in the boss

or the DI that you're speaking to, the team are disappointed,

so it's not pleasant. Unfortunately, it does happen.

I'm quite realistic that sometimes these things do happen,

but it's just a shame for the team if we've put

a lot of work into something and it doesn't come out right at the end.

Despite the disappointment of the initial search, the team persist.

We can't search the house while those dogs are here, can we?

Yeah, yeah, I understand that. All right.

In this situation, my job was to go round to the back of the address

just to stop people escaping out the rear of the address.

We've been to this address, there's a cannabis plant in the back

so we've just got him for that at the minute.

Was he? Right. I've not, mate.

'As the address was detained, we went into the address.

'I said, "What were you doing outside?" and he made a comment'

about sorting something for the dogs or sorting something for the bins.'

As the search went on and we hadn't found anything,

at that point the relevance of that started to become apparent to me

and I thought, "Well, he's heard something on the street

"and then suddenly he's gone round to the back."

So, I went into the garden, and normally searching the bins

would be part of where we would search.

Do you want to film this, Phil?

Just let Phil get this on film here, right?

Finally, the result they've been after.

The officers discover three bars of pressed cocaine

hurriedly dumped in a wheelie bin.

Estimate, Dave?

Three lumps. Half kilo.

I'm not going to interfere with the packaging too much

cos that'll be subjected to forensic examination

when we get back to the station.

A lot of the work we do, we have to be in the right place

at the right time, and this is one of those examples.

If I hadn't been standing at the back of the garden

and we still had found those drugs, he could have said someone else put them in the garden,

anyone could climb over the fence and put that in the garden.

But in this situation, fortunately, I was in the right place,

so if at court later on he tried to say, "I've never been near that bin.

"I didn't put anything in the bin that day,"

he wouldn't be able to say that cos my evidence was there.

It's a great feeling because it means that all this work

has been worthwhile because then we've got the evidence there

that we can implicate, not just the person in the address,

but it's about those who are involved in arranging the movement

of these drugs and the sale of these drugs. So, it's great.

Personally, it's great to find, but also, you know, for the team,

it's something that's really good for the team.

Who's already arrested these gentlemen in here?

Possession of Class A with intent to supply.

Steve, we've found some drugs at the back of the address...

Listen to me now. You're also arrested on suspicion of possession with the intent to supply.

Philip you're under arrest - further arrest -

conspiracy to supply Class A, OK?

I remind you that you're under caution. All right?

Officers take Philip Turner off to the station,

while their colleagues complete the search.

Main table in the room here, we've got a number of pairs

of latex gloves. There's another small bedside table here

with the remnants of white powder on it and a razor blade.

Just at the side of that, on the floor there,

there's two individual bags of white powder

and, like, a rock substance.

So I believe that they're using this bedroom basically for cutting up

and preparing controlled drugs for resale in smaller amounts.

MUSIC RINGTONE PLAYS

Why's that phone ringing?

That's the phone that was on this table when we came into the room.

It might be somebody trying to get their hands on controlled drugs.

We'll get it downloaded and examined

and we'll get evidence off it at a later time.

'When we searched the address, there was a mobile phone

'ringing continuously. It happens where you'll go into an address,'

word gets around, people find out there's a warrant at so-and-so's address

and suddenly they'll start worrying, thinking,

"I've invested all that money in that batch of drugs."

So, it is something that does happen.

Ah, there's the scales. Hooray!

'When we find scales, that does implicate and it is quite

'significant to us that they are involved in wider drug dealing.'

And it's a way of measuring exactly smaller amounts of drugs,

and that shows us the person in that address is involved in,

as well as holding on to the drugs,

the wider distribution of handing those drugs out,

or bashing the drugs up to make it into smaller amounts.

During the search, they also discover a note handwritten by Lee Shaw.

There's a document that's been found in the drawer here.

It's titled, "Costs/benefits of my drug use."

It says here, "Continuing my drug use." The costs are,

"Everything. Every time I get involved with cocaine,

"I lose my home, my friends, family and all my money."

There's not many benefits on there, so we'll see.

We'll seize that. He can tell us about that in the interview.

Lee Shaw is also off to the custody suite.

The phones found will now need to be analysed

to see if there are further names linked to this criminal gang.

In Beeston, West Yorkshire,

the reality of the European Arrest Warrant

is slowly dawning on Polish national Piotr Betlejweski.

PC Dave Lockwood goes over the charges again.

This is the warrant for your arrest, which is your European warrant,

which my colleague's given you.

It's in English and Polish, so if you don't read English too well...

You can read both, can you?

So, acting with co-accused, other people,

you broke into a butcher's shop and stole...

You broke a window pane in the entrance door,

got inside where you've taken meat products worth 173.99.

Right.

Suspended, yeah. So I've got that.

Many people have said, you know,

they knew it would come in and just for one reason or another

it's not been sorted out or I think hope. People hope it just goes away.

Does your mum know about this problem?

Yeah, so she's going to be quite upset when you ring her.

Let's ring her from custody and take it from there, shall we?

When I'm sat in the back of the van and we're talking,

we're not mates, you know, I'm a police officer, I'm doing a job,

but I almost had an arm round him saying,

"Look, mate, it's going to be all right. We'll get through this."

From his version, he's here, he's working,

he's supporting his mum, he's come here to start a new life,

and something he did a while ago that he regrets doing

has come back to get him years later.

So, yeah, what can you do? What can you do?

You ready? Yeah. Come on, then.

All right.

It's time for Piotr to face the formalities in custody

for the crime he committed five years ago -

the theft of meat from a butcher's.

Piotr's been arrested from his home address this evening

cos there is in existence a European Arrest Warrant for him

for an offence of theft from shop

which occurred on the 17 December, 2009,

which occurred in Poland.

Is your English OK? Yes. Can you read and write English?

You can certainly understand what I'm saying? Yes. OK.

If there's anything else that you need explaining

whilst you're here then let us know, won't you?

Please can you sign on the pad?

You're just signing to say that I've given you your rights.

We'll contact... In fact, does your mum speak English?

OK, we'll let her know.

Yeah, I'll... It's usually me, but...

I'll sort that out.

So, that's just to put in your log entry, the extradition one.

Are you OK? Are you all right, mate?

Was it something in the text message? Yeah.

Once you get into that sterile area in custody

and you've got the custody staff sat behind

and they're asking all the formal questions,

and it's suddenly really structured and the alarm bells start going,

"I'm in custody here. It's happening, I might be going back,"

So, yeah, I think we were quite respectful

and when we saw, we just gave him a moment to compose himself

and give him some water, make sure he were all right.

In Greater Manchester, Operation Boma continues to unfold.

Police! Stay where you are! Get down, down!

In, in, in, in! Into the back, into the back!

WOMAN SCREAMS

Police! Open the door!

Kick it in, Mark.

Earlier, the Serious Organised Crime Group arrested

two suspected drug dealers in a pre-planned raid.

Any others?

Do you prefer Phil or Philip?

In the custody suite, the covert detective leading the operation

is about to interview one of the suspects, Philip Turner.

But first, he must share the evidence for the arrest

with Turner's solicitor in a process known as disclosure.

Your client was arrested on Friday the 25th of July, 2014 on suspicion

of conspiracy to supply controlled drugs and cultivation of cannabis.

During a search of the address, a number of items were seized

including a quantity of Class A drugs, which has been confirmed

as cocaine, plus evidence of the bagging

and weighing of drugs for sale.

When he was arrested initially, was he arrested on the way in or the way out?

He was stood talking at the doorway.

What evidence do you have connecting my client to that address?

As it says on the disclosure, your client was seen attending at that address.

My client having attended and been in that address

for a matter of minutes is the evidence you have to put to him

about the supply of drugs from that address, or is there more evidence than that?

I'm not willing to disclose any more in relation to that at this time. OK.

The disclosure process complete,

the officers can now question the suspect.

What it appears in this, Philip, is that you're the head of this.

Would I be right in saying that?

Are you involved in a conspiracy to supply drugs with them two lads?

Is that what you were doing on Platt Street yesterday?

You pull up in front... PHILIP YAWNS LOUDLY

We've asked you...

Do you want to have a minute before I carry on? No.

Obviously that drug, that white powder's been field-tested.

HE BREAKS WIND Excuse you.

This powder's been tested and it's cocaine, a Class A drug.

You've been arrested for all these serious offences,

but yet you still won't answer any questions.

Yeah, Philip Turner just sat there during interview, basically.

Gave his name at the beginning and then didn't say a word

throughout the interview then.

He just sat there appearing in total disinterest in what was going on.

A type of arrogance he had whilst he was in the interview.

Right, just listen to what my colleague says to you.

You're charged with the following offences. You don't have to say anything

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention something you later rely on in court.

Anything that you do say may be given in evidence.

Charged that, on the 25th of July, 2014 at Leigh in the county of

Greater Manchester, you had in your possession a quantity of cocaine,

a controlled drug of Class A with an intent to supply it to another.

Do you want to make any reply to that charge?

Whilst Turner remains in custody,

other members of the Operation Boma team

are travelling to the Leigh area.

Philip Turner has been spotted making regular visits to this scrapyard.

As a result, officers have a warrant to search

for more evidence of drug dealing.

Do you want these two back here? Yeah.

Leading the team on the ground is Detective Sergeant Richard Castley.

With no-one at the yard, the team have to force entry.

It's toughened glass, isn't it?

Right away, they find what they're looking for.

A couple of cannabis plants, Nobby.

Yeah, it just looks like two cannabis plants in here,

just at the side. A little light above them.

This looks like a mixer, a blender.

It's got no top on it, or no attachment on it,

but when you look inside, this is full of white powder

around the outside, which is quite unusual for a blender-type thing.

Just found a list here with names.

That looks like a debtors list, to us, with the amount that's owed

at the bottom, the people who owe money, the people he's sold to,

so that will be getting seized as a potential debtors list.

Yes!

Inside this shipping container,

there's a potentially more significant find.

So that goes on the side there...

Then you press it.

It's some sort of mechanical press.

Potentially could be used to mould the cocaine and press it together.

They'd use that press to get a load of rubbish cocaine together,

put it into a mould and then they'd press it at high pressure

and it compresses it and makes it look more sell-able, if you like.

As the team seize the evidence, the tenant of the site suddenly appears.

What's the camera for? They're with us at the moment, mate, from the BBC.

We're from Greater Manchester Police.

Shout Nobby for us!

You're under arrest at this moment in time on suspicion

of cultivating cannabis. Two plants!

OK. Cultivating cannabis, growing cannabis plants in a nutshell,

and also being concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs.

Class A and Class B? You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention when questioned something you later rely on in court.

Anything you say may be given in evidence. Do you understand? Yeah. OK, mate.

Let's take you back down here, sit you down somewhere.

'We searched the yard. We found a couple of cannabis plants'

and then there was a hydraulic press, a red press,

usually used in mechanics, but in this type of investigation

would often be used to compress cocaine, large quantities of cocaine

to a smaller, more compact portion.

In cases like this, you build up more and more evidence

to show their involvement in the investigation

and the crimes that you're investigating.

The man at the yard is eliminated from the police enquiries.

However, the scope of Operation Boma is widening

and the number of gang members appears to be growing.

Can you just sit down a minute? Tap there if you want some water.

All right.

In Yorkshire, police have arrested Piotr Betlejweski

for the theft of meat from a butcher's in Poland.

It's just two swabs on the inside of your cheek.

Using his powers under the European Arrest Warrant, PC Dave Lockwood

has taken the 22-year-old into custody.

This gentleman has never been arrested in this country...

So, we always take fingerprint and photographs,

but because he's never been arrested we also do DNA,

and what happens is, if there's any outstanding crimes within the UK

where we have a DNA sample, his will be matched against it,

and same with fingerprints. Any outstanding jobs in this country,

his fingerprints are going to be fed into this machine and go through it

and if we have any fingerprints from anything, it'll be matched up.

So that's the reason we do it.

Your fingerprints just stick on it sometimes and smudge on t'glass.

Oh, that's a spot on, that one.

Probation?

Yeah. That's why they've issued the warrant.

That's what the Polish want.

What I'd say is good for you, is you've not been in trouble

since you've been in the UK. You've not been a bad boy here,

committing crime, you've not been violent upon arrest.

That's good for you.

The severity of the offence... Yeah, it's theft, burglary,

it's not, you know, really, really, really bad.

No, that's a good way of thinking of it,

just deal with one stage at a time.

Tomorrow, your worry is whether you get bail or not.

Deal with that now. Don't deal with Poland.

Once you've got tomorrow over and done with, go on to t'next phase. I know it's not easy to do,

but that's the best way I can say it for you.

I've been doing this nearly six years and I've dealt with...

hundreds, and I don't remember all of them

but I'll remember Piotr, so...

He's one I'll remember for a good while.

I know you're not happy, but are you OK with how we've dealt with you?

Yeah. Yeah?

Can't do it any other way, can we?

OK? OK, thank you.

I don't know if he felt alone and he just needed somebody there...

I'm a police officer, I'm there to arrest him, but a police officer,

you can't put our job description on one sheet of paper, can you?

We do many other things, so...there we go.

Six months later, Piotr Betlejweski was sent back home to Poland.

He's now serving the remainder of his sentence.

He hopes to return to the UK once his punishment is over,

if the EU allows him to.

In Greater Manchester, the Serious Organised Crime Group

have identified more suspects as part of Operation Boma.

This is Gemma Bond. She was locked up with a kilo of cocaine

on the 5th of the 9th, but when we've seized her phone,

it's quite obvious that she's been dealing.

Calls and text messages have revealed that Gemma Bond

has not only been dealing -

she is also connected to the Philip Turner drugs gang.

She's about to receive an unannounced visit.

You might have to give it a louder one, Nobby.

Police! Come and open the door before we smash the door in!

Morning, Gemma, you all right? Is he all right? Yeah.

We need to come in.

As you know, you were arrested on the 5th, weren't you? Yeah.

And you're on bail for it?

We're going to have to further arrest you this morning. What for?

On suspicion of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.

Are you joking? No. From the 6th of May...

6th of May? ..up to the 5th of September. Right.

Cos of further evidence from the telephones and everything.

HE WHISTLES A TUNE

'When we looked at Gemma Bond initially she wasn't really'

on our radar, but when we get the phone,

which is seized from her, there's a wealth of evidence in there

which is obviously dealing drugs.

When Philip Turner gets arrested, she's sending text messages

to people saying, "Well, my main dealer, he's in custody now,

"so I can't deal you. Find someone else."

Some people are phone savvy, some are not.

And they don't only incriminate themselves,

they incriminate other people who may be involved in that crime.

Hiding behind me.

Another member of the gang is taken into police custody.

As Operation Boma unfolded, more gang members were accounted for

with connections to Philip Turner,

and the suspects appeared in front of the courts.

It took eight months of surveillance, warrants

and the gathering of evidence for the Serious Organised Crime Group

to get a successful prosecution.

All five suspects went down for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs,

with sentences ranging from four to 11 years.

We do a lot of work which is monotonous,

probably quite boring and laborious, but the success in the end

is well worth all the work we put in, putting people in prison,

making the community safer, and making a difference out there.

To be fair, my navigation was spot on,

so if we didn't do that great, then honestly,