Fly-on-the-wall look at Hull drug dealer interview
DOCUMENTARY HIGHLIGHTS COURIER
HE doesn’t look like your typical drug dealer as Stephen Capp shuffles around looking older than his 56 years.
But the Hull man, who had no previous convictions, found himself at the heart of a major drugs operations which saw thousands of pounds worth of heroin and cocaine brought into the country hidden in innocuous goods such as spider traps.
Capp was the drug courier transporting the drugs to the north and was deemed a major player in the operation.
Not only did his crimes land him with a near ten-year jail sentence but he also featured on Channel 4’s gripping documentary series 24 Hours in Police Custody: The Home Counties Drug Cartel, which aired over Sunday and Monday night.
Capp was part of the operation headed by drugs kingpin Robert Brooks.
The documentary followed the Eastern Regions Special Operations Unit investigation into Brooks and his network, giving a rare fly-on-the-wall insight into the world of a top-level drug trafficker and the covert police tactics used to bring the gang down.
Part-time driving instructor Brooks, 50, tried to conceal his operation with a £15,000 encrypted phone contract, using the name Jaguar Palace.
Capp did not appear until the second episode after he was caught on Brook’s dashcam footage, which automatically switched on when he left the car.
After all the focus being on the south, suddenly the programme follows officers up to Hull where they carry out surveillance on Capp in the city and at a nearby holiday park.
Both Capp and Brooks figures once arrested.
Visibly upset, Capp kept saying “I’ve ****** up” after his arrest.
In one scene, while speaking on the phone at the police station to a loved one he pleads “don’t stop loving me” and breaks down in tears.
But you are reminded of the devastation the likes of Capp cause.
One undercover officer, known only as “Coops” tells the film: “What they are trying to achieve is very detrimental to society. I have seen what drugs can do at the bottom end and the people that are living at the top of the chain that are reaping the benefits from it never see cut forlorn the kids who are dying from it, and that annoys me.”
In one dramatic scene, Capp is arrested on the M25 in December 2019.
Officers surrounded his car and smashed a window to his car. A total of five kilograms of cocaine was seized from a hidden compartment in the car.
Detectives were first alerted on August 20 last year after Border Patrol officers found heroin hidden in spider catchers at a port in France.
Papers later recovered showed Brooks had overseen 39 separate deliveries of heroin and cocaine to a rented unit at Little Samuels Farm in Hunsdon, East Hertfordshire.
The network’s last two deliveries were intercepted with 45 kilos of heroin and 70 kilos of cocaine being seized.
Taking into account the previous deliveries, it was estimated that 1,835 kilos of Class A drugs had been imported with a total value was between £42m and £58m.
The drugs would come into the country from Europe hidden in lorries hidden under the bottom of consignments of cheap plastic goods.
Brooks pleased guilty to conspiracy to fraudulently evade the prohibition on the importation of Class A drugs and possession of criminal property.
He was jailed for 21 years at St Albans Crown Court in September.
Capp was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply a drug of Class A on 18 visits to the farm. He also admitted possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply.
You can still catch the documentary on All 4. fascinating