Operation Seal Bay
BBC Radio Wales
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Introducing… Operation Seal Bay
In 1983 one of the biggest and most complex drug conspiracies in British history rocked a small fishing village in West Wales. A gang of international smugglers attempted to traffic tonnes of cannabis via the sleepy Pembrokeshire coast. But nothing gets past the inquisitive locals and once the rural police detectives are on their case, it's only a matter of time before the game is up. The story begins when locals spot unusual strangers around the fishing village of Newport, Pembrokeshire. Over a series of weeks, they’re seen walking on remote coastal paths and private farming land. They wear flash clothes and drive expensive cars. They splash £50 notes in the local pubs, eating lobster and drinking Bloody Marys. After more sightings of the men on remote beaches only accessible by boat and the discovery of a secret underground chamber, the local community team up with the police to capture the gang, one by one. Refusing to talk, the detectives are forced to work out the smugglers’ plan by tracking down the evidence. What happens next is a rip-roaring caper that sends the Welsh detectives on an international investigation to the Isle of Man, France, Spain, Denmark and Morocco as they attempt to decipher more and more clues. It’s an adventure involving sailing yachts, speeds boats, supercars with hidden panels, mansions with buried treasures and a cast of eccentric characters with extraordinary pasts. There’s the ex-public school boy yachtsman who’s thought to be one of the world’s most prolific smugglers. A handsome Danish millionaire who’s so good at disguises he’s known as the Man with the Rubber Face. And there’s a Rolls Royce driving playboy, a suspected cocaine trafficker with links to a Lebanese arms dealer. Told by the people who were there, this is the story of how a small Welsh community and a local police force came together to take on an international drugs ring.
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