Smugglers


Genre: Crime & Investigation


Duration: 3x60


Year of Production: 2011


Production Company: Wild Pictures


Broadcaster: ITV


Definition: SD


Europe’s prime destination for smuggled cigarettes and the leading consumers of cocaine. ‘Smugglers’ shows the extraordinary lengths crime gangs will go to beat border controls. Officers candidly acknowledge that any success is often short-lived; what they stop is the tip of the iceberg.

 At ports like Dover the numbers are stacked in the ‘Smugglers’ favour. 7,000 lorries and 10,000 cars pass through every day, hidden amongst the traffic is millions of pounds of smuggled goods.

The film follows the case of a 62 year old retired taxi driver from Birmingham caught with 5 kilos of cocaine cleverly concealed behind the engine of his car. The £200,000 worth of cocaine he was smuggling is a small fraction of the two and half tonnes of cocaine seized annually at UK Borders. But it is estimated that a further 25-27 and a half tonnes of cocaine, gets into the UK undetected every year.

Series 1: 3x60 | SD | 2011