WE MAKE LIFE A MISERY FOR CRIME GANGS
You’ve seen Line Of Duty – now watch real-life elite cops
HIGH-SPEED car chases, drug mules, kidnap, torture, weapon-wielding thugs and victims held hostage by organised crime gangs.
You could be forgiven for thinking it sounds like a script for smash BBC hit Line Of Duty.
But this is not fiction. It is the reality for an elite police unit who now star in their own flyon-the-wall series looking at the war on organised crime.
Fast Justice, which starts tonight on Dave, follows Operation Sentinel, a 21-strong team with one mission – to make life a misery for organised crime groups (OCGs in police jargon).
In their turbo-charged BMWs, which reach speeds above 150mph, the Sentinels roam all over Suffolk hunting in packs of three vehicles.
They target the foot soldiers of gangs who operate within their borders, running drugs and sometimes weapons in “county lines” networks based in from London.
ENFORCEMENT
Sgt Mike Moon, who heads the Sentinel team, says their job is to make life so hostile for gangs that they leave for good.
“I’ve been around long enough to know that with enforcement of the law by the police in isolation, we’re just pushing water uphill,” he says.
“This is a health matter, it’s an educational thing, it’s about social justice – all sorts of really complex issues we can’t solve.
“What we can do is make this county, which is my concern, a really hostile place for OCGs to come and earn their money.
“If we catch them, then we nick them and we take their money, we take their cars, we take their communications, and we do it time and time again.”
“Burner” phones and other dodgy devices are commonplace for Line of Duty’s AC-12, but it is not just Supt Ted Hastings (played by Adrian Dunbar) who is interested in seizing such technology.
“I like being a disruptor,” admits PC Sophie Mitchell, one of only five women in Sentinel.
“Criminals need two major things to operate – communication and transport.
“If they can get around and they can communicate, they’re going to be making money.
“So if we can take the cars off them and take their devices, then that’s great.”
Violence, too, is commonplace. Sgt Moon explains: “It’s a dangerous business. Drug gangs kidnap and torture each other.
“We’ve had groups robbing each other, people getting stabbed, people getting murdered.”
Another serious problem on their radar is human trafficking. In Fast Justice, officers enter
We’ve had groups rob each other, people get stabbed or murdered SGT MIKE MOON ON WAR BETWEEN CRIME GANGS
a small terraced house to find every room filled with dirty mattresses, with locks on the doors and young Eastern European men cowering in the corner. One says that the house is used by “the mafia” and his passport and bank cards have been taken from him.
Says PC Mitchell: “OCGs aren’t interested in the wellbeing of these individuals. It’s all about money.”
Thanks to Line of Duty, viewers have got to grips with lingo like OCGs, MIT (Murder Investigation Team) and AFO (Authorised Firearms Officer).
The current series introduced a new one, a CHIS or Covert Human Intelligence Source. Sgt Moon explains: “We get intelligence from lots of sources, including CHIS.
“We also share information between police forces and other agencies. We get calls from the public, Crimestoppers, CCTV – all directions. So when a car linked to OCGs is in our area, we’re on them quickly.”
He and PC Mitchell are among Line of Duty’s 10 million fans – and while they admit it “takes things to the extreme”, they say it also raises awareness.
So with nearly three decades under his belt, has Sgt Moon worked out the show’s biggest question – who is H?
“I’m afraid I don’t have a clue,” he laughs. “I’ll just have to watch like everyone else.”