The Filth (based on true events)

I have listed this work as a TV pilot. It could just as easily be written as a feature. The Filth is based on true events, as told by an undercover Scotland Yard detective at the heart of the confidential investigation, Operation Emerge. Due to both the UK government and the Metropolitan Police attempting to block details of this investigation being written about, I have only uploaded the teaser and a few additional pages. If interested in the script, please contact me and we can discuss the matter further. The story details an international criminal investigation that transcends continents and reveals methods - some legal, some not - used by the most famous law enforcement agency in the world, to bring an organised criminal cartel, to book. In the early 1990’s, a team of thirteen detectives within Scotland Yard’s elite Central Drug Squad, surpassed their Yard colleagues. In the space of 12 months, this select band of brothers held every UK record for the seizure of various illegal substances, bar one - cocaine. Then per chance, a tiny snippet of information - the Genesis of Operation Emerge. The eventual outcome - the seizure of a tonne of pure cocaine hydrochloride - until very recently, a British record for the Class 'A' controlled drug. Indeed, the value of the substance seized, makes the crimes subject of the movies The Great Train Robbery and The French Connection, pale into insignificance. Operation Emerge necessitated tracking the shipment of drugs across the Atlantic Ocean, after it had been parachuted into the sea off the Venezuelan coast from a C-130 aircraft. For that, the detectives used an American DEA satellite - which they discovered to their dismay, could only be utilised during daylight hours! As the vessel neared Europe, an RAF maritime surveillance aircraft and later, a Royal Navy submarine, took over the responsibility of trailing the ship. Shortly after the vessel, Fox Trot Five, finally docked in London, it was greeted by a reception committee consisting of heavily armed, black-clad Special Forces personnel; Royal Marines of the Special Boat Service. However, prior to the vessel setting off from UK shores, bound for South America waters; before the hit and the seizure of the drugs, the Yard detectives had been on the case for well over a year. Day after day, mundane surveillance was undertaken on those suspected of conspiring to flood Britain with the illegal drug. The properties of fringe players, the movers and shakers in the cartels outer circles, were searched and smaller quantities of drugs, as well as firearms, seized. Pressure and blackmail was applied to those arrested, and from such skullduggery, prisoners that had been bullied, threatened and cajoled, were turned - informants created, two of whom were killed whilst working for the Metropolitan Police. In fact, one such informant saved the day; stopping the police officers from storming the vessel after it had returned from the Caribbean on a dry run; the criminals having demanded evidence that the crew could manage a transatlantic crossing. Satellites, submarines and special forces; the as yet, untold inside story of the UK's largest drug bust; Operation Emerge.