Inside Operation Venetic: Britain's biggest organised crime crackdown
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 October 2020
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
While you and I were locked down in the middle of this year, the UK's National Crime Agency was frantically carrying out an unprecedented operation. By the time it was made public in July, Operation Venetic was the biggest crackdown on organised crime in UK history. What was it like to be an undercover detective working on one of the most high-tech, fast moving and risky investigations ever carried out in Britain?
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Guests:
Ross Kempsell, Special Correspondent, Times Radio.
Peter Stevens, Branch Commander at the National Crime Agency.
Matt Horne, Deputy Director of Investigations at the National Crime Agency.
Host: Manveen Rana.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a passenger announcement. You can now book your train on Uber and get 10% back in credits to spend on Uber eats. |
| 0:11.0 | So you can order your own fries instead of eating everyone else's. |
| 0:15.0 | Trains, now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. While you and I were locked down in middle of this year, the UK's National Crime Agency was carrying out an unprecedented |
| 0:35.5 | operation. We opened a Pandora's Box involving essentially hundreds of crime groups. By the time it was made public in July, Operation Vannetic was the biggest crackdown on organised crime in UK history. |
| 0:51.0 | More than 54 million pounds in cash, 77 firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle. |
| 0:59.0 | The story of how Operation Venetic unfolded for officers inside the NCA can now be revealed. |
| 1:07.3 | What was it like to be an undercover detective working on one of the most high-tech, fast-paced and risky investigations ever carried out in Britain. |
| 1:18.0 | You're listening to stories of our times from The Times and the Sunday Times. I'm Manveen Rana. Today, inside the covert operations |
| 1:28.6 | of the National Crime Agency. So it's a Monday morning, it's a Monday morning, it's gray overcast and a little bit chilly, |
| 1:40.0 | and we've walked down a side street just right off the River Thames. |
| 1:44.5 | That's Ross Kempsle. Special Correspondent for Times Radio. |
| 1:48.8 | It's a relatively quiet road, but really dominating one end of it is a large complex of buildings with |
| 1:57.1 | mirrored windows. |
| 1:58.8 | Last week the National Crime Agency let him into one of their London officers. |
| 2:03.0 | I have to say it's surrounded by security cameras. |
| 2:06.0 | I can count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight cameras just on one side. |
| 2:13.7 | He's there to look at an encro chat phone. |
| 2:16.9 | These were the encrypted mobile phones that they seized from criminals across the UK |
| 2:22.3 | as part of that massive investigation |
| 2:24.8 | operation, Vanetic. If you're a geeky journalist like me and you're interested in |
| 2:29.0 | things to do with crime, security, home affairs, policing in the UK, then getting to go inside the National Crime Agency |
| 2:36.3 | is a bit like fulfilling your spooks fantasy. |
... |
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