New six-part podcast telling the story of how a small Welsh community and its rural police force foiled an international drugs ring worth millions
“Operation Seal Bay is one of the largest – and strangest – drug smuggling conspiracies Britain has ever seen. At the heart of the story is a culture clash between a glamourous international drug trafficking gang and the inquisitive Welsh townsfolk and rural detectives who thwart their audacious smuggling plot.” — James Hale, Producer
Published: December 5, 2024 — A 1983 drug smuggling investigation which began in Pembrokeshire is now the subject of a new BBC Sounds podcast.
Operation Seal Bay, the code name given to the investigation carried out by Dyfed-Powys Police, follows one of the biggest and most complex drug conspiracies in British history.
The story begins in the small fishing village of Newport, west Wales, where a local farmer discovers something strange on a secluded beach, only accessible by boat. What he stumbles across is a watertight hatch, leading to a secret underground bunker. Inside, there are wooden supports, plywood sheeting holding back rock, and walls covered in fibreglass waterproofing.
At the same time, locals have been reporting strange goings-on, sightings of men – not known to the tight-knit community – wondering around the clifftops and beaches near where the bunker was found, lobsters going missing from fishermen’s pots, expensive marine equipment found on another remote cove, and there’s gossip from the local pubs about the vast amounts of money these same men have been spending.
Dyfed-Powys Police begin tracking down the strangers one by one, and as the investigation unfolds it’s revealed a huge drug smuggle is underway and behind it is a gang of complicated characters. There’s the ex-public school boy financier, a skilled yachtsman with 17 different aliases, a mysterious Dane and former actor nicknamed ‘the man with the rubber face’ for his ability to change his appearance and evade capture, and a suspected cocaine trafficker who dons a cream-coloured safari suit and drives around in a convertible Rolls Royce.
This six-part podcast will follow the investigation through archive, along with new, exclusive interviews from the eagle-eyed members of the local community and the police officers involved in the operation, who ended up on an international adventure leading them to London, Denmark, the Isle of Man, the South of France and Mallorca. Listeners will hear tales of a secret underground base, expensive sailing yachts, super-fast speed boats, luxury cars with hidden smuggling panels, mansions with buried treasure and a cast of eccentric characters.
Producer James Hale, says: “Operation Seal Bay is one of the largest – and strangest – drug smuggling conspiracies Britain has ever seen. At the heart of the story is a culture clash between a glamourous international drug trafficking gang and the inquisitive Welsh townsfolk and rural detectives who thwart their audacious smuggling plot. There’s this feeling that these flash smugglers thought they could come to rural west Wales and conduct their huge drug running plan under the noses of the locals, without raising any suspicions. But how wrong they were!
“Over four decades later, the story seems to have largely been forgotten. But if you visit any pub in the Newport area, they’ll tell you about it. The locals remember it fondly as a time when people came together to take down something they believed threatened the peace and well-being of the close-knit community in which they lived. It’s become a folk story, a piece of Welsh history. So, we thought it was important to capture the story and have it told by the people who were there, before it slipped away into the mists of time.”
Episodes one and two are now available to listen to on BBC Sounds. The series, narrated by Welsh actress Hannah Daniel, is a Lazerbeam production for BBC Radio Wales and includes extracts from the book Operation Seal Bay, authored by Pat Molloy. The commissioning editor for BBC Radio Wales was Bridget Curnow, the producer was James Hale, the executive producer was Steve Robinson.
BBC Radio Wales Commissioner, Bridget Curnow, says: “The case of Operation Seal Bay is such a source of intrigue for the local community, so 40 years on from the start of this investigation, we really felt that this was a story worth delving back into. The podcast gets to the heart of this complex and compelling investigation by telling it through the voices of those closest to the story; the community of Newport, who were an integral part of the investigation, along with the police force who went to great lengths to crack the case.”
The first two episodes of Operation Seal Bay are now available on BBC Sounds, with a weekly double drop of episodes to follow.
Source
BBC Sounds
