#Scotland yard undercover detective professional#

I am also a published author - one book having reached No. It's time some of these methods/procedures/expressions, etc., were utilised/corrected in scripts. And don't get me on the use of the word 'target' as said by police officer characters during briefings, surveillance, etc. Interpol does not investigate crime! In fact, it was a punishment posting for London detectives.

#Scotland yard undercover detective professional#

A professional criminal would know this is a taboo! Another is the myth regarding Interpol. And errors! One that really annoys me is the villain wearing leather gloves. With the above background information in mind, it's worth mentioning there are so many ploys, tricks, cons, procedures, terms, scams, techniques, etc., used by both undercover police (and criminals) that writers of both film and television screenplays with a crime angle, are unaware. As for Blue Mountain coffee - well, Ian Fleming was right. Though it could be a tad dodgy back then, I fell in love with the country, the people and the food. Towards the end of my career, when responsible for money laundering investigations in the Caribbean region, I lived in Kingston, Jamaica. In addition, I was the detective who convinced the hierarchy at the Yard that an undercover detective (a 'buyer') able to skydive would be too large a temptation for drug traffickers not to utilise as a unique means of importing class A drugs into the UK and as a result of Scotland Yard giving the idea the green light, I was able to infiltrate an Asian cartel importing multi kilos of heroin into the UK.įurthermore, with the help of (then) Norman Tebbit MP, we persuaded the Home Office to raise the quantity of drugs undercover police officers could purchase from criminals when partaking in test/sample buys. Another was the seizure of a large chunk of the Mapplethorpe collection, artwork stolen from the Mapplethorpe Foundation, New York. When on the latter squad, one notable success was the recovery of paintings belonging to the Beit collection: masterpieces stolen by both the IRA and later, an infamous Dublin criminal, Martin Cahill, known as The General (played by Brendan Gleeson in the movie, The General). Whilst serving on the former, I was part of a team responsible for seizing the (then) largest illicit cocaine hydrochloride consignment to be landed in the UK - a tonne of coke tracked from Venezuela to London utilising a US DEA satellite. I am a former Scotland Yard Specialist Operations detective. During my career (and in addition to routine murder squads), I served on both the Central Drug Squad and the Regional Crime Squad.