World's Most Dangerous Jobs | Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune | Free Documentary

[Music] being an actor I'm used to exploring new worlds worlds that are fictional and safe but over the past year I found myself in a world that is all too real none too safe and extremely controversial [Music] I'm on my way to can in the south of France home to the prestigious Film Festival as an actor I've been there several times before this time I'm going for a completely different reason places like the south of France have always represented money success and glamour but Behind These scenes there's a multi-million dollar industry protecting this world and

its assets whether it's the super wealthy living here in the south of France or International corporations vying for the world's resources these people don't depend on the police of governments to provide protection they rely on private security companies and business is booming from personal bodyguards to military contractors in Iraq to Diamond dealers in West Africa private security has become one of the fastest growing Industries in the world I spoke to writer and security correspondent Ralph Regal who outlined the rise of the modern-day private security contractor when the Cold War ended you the major military Nations

Russia the United States Britain France they basically had huge armies which they couldn't afford and they didn't need anymore so what they did was they wound them down which left an awful lot of very very experienced very seasoned military personnel at quite young ages I mean these guys were in their 30s and 40s without work and I suppose the second as well as the fact that the whole Advent of terrorism and this perceived threat has spilled over into the commercial areas things like the diamond industry the oil industry I mean if you look at East

Africa at the moment the shipping industry that you have Somali pirates it has created a demand for people who have very valuable assets that need to be protected it's taken about a year but uh as you can tell from the welcoming committee we finally got an in to this covert world I'm about to meet Paul Butler head of BDS one of the most successful security companies on the Riviera I want to find out what motivates these guys what makes them tick and why there's a growing worldwide demand for their [Music] services Butler is an ex-

Irish Army Ranger and has spent time in the French Foreign Legion today he employs 20 full-time personnel providing private security to celebrities royalty and and as I referred to high net worth individuals all across the south of France okay onload make safe back to the board Liam you well I wasn't expecting this now usually see this in Belfast nothing in provance the guys are wear in B Cloud was just to not be recognized in television really okay you know is this just a regular training exercise or yeah we come down here three times a month

just to have the teams work as one okay we're trying to keep it all together uh by putting these guys in firing live ammunition how do he Evacuate the VIP all that sort of stuff all right we were looking at some of the statistics for the south of France and we saw the crime is on the increase there and therefore security was on the increase is that a a thing that's happening like everywhere no I think it it's happening in areas where there's great concentrations of wealth or where wealthy people tend to go and if

you look at the south of France there's a lot of money there and what has changed I think in the last 10 years 15 years is that you've had very serious crime organizations emerge in the old Soviet block and a lot of those have located in the south of France and in certain parts of Spain and they're not averse to using extreme violence they're not averse to kidnapping armed robbery and it's natural that they're going to go where the wealth and the profits are in France it was uh last year was up 100% armed robbery

you kidding me yeah unfortunately but it's good news for you yeah it is but you know it's bad to meet people in those circumstances you know yeah but obviously they need our our assistance as well so everybody's happy at the end of the day after years of military service Paul's first Big Break was a private contract with actor Patrick swiy to date his clients have included Kevin Cosner and Sylvester Stallone among others and his business turns over a million euro a year what's the kind of profile of the client you look after could be for

followers wives could be you know Industrials coming down here with their children um this area is known for stars you know like film stars music the world is changing so these people they feel more vulnerable you know so want their money yeah absolutely and they they don't want to be hassled you know wealth isn't hidden anymore you know you have can turn on television you can listen to the radio and you're going to hear stories about the celebrity culture the celebrity lifestyle where people who have made huge amounts of money are enjoying that wealth and

people that are in living in slums people that are living in horrendously disadvantaged conditions it's inevitable they're going to want their share of the pie and for the wealthy the the wall that stands between them and the poor is manned by private security contractors just looking at these diamond encrusted pieces of jewelry a fully diamond encrusted watch I suppose that's what why the people are going to afford these things are requiring the services of Paul they bought them they pay for them and they want to hang on to [Music] them Paul took me to see

one of the properties he'd provide security for if you can afford €250,000 a month to rent this place then must another 10 grand a week to feel safe that's how much Paul charges Frederic is the agent who manages the Villa people ask us more and more security because they don't feel safe and the people that most of people that from you know Eastern Europe and they used to have security and they really don't feel that uh they could live without security it's kind of cultural those people are used to have you know a chauffeur Security

in the car in their Villas and uh they never drive without uh security that's for sure it's very very [Music] important later that night Paul got a rapid response call to a villa in the Hills outside can where's this [ __ ] place now the procedure is basically anybody who signed up for that emergency response to worried about that and the car will come up to him and uh they go into the Villa they look around the property and come out again okay hang on there all right don't move sponse time has to be between

5 and 7 minutes that's the that's the guarantee is yeah what the hell is that I've just seen him pulling something out of his bag I'm not really sure what it was it was some kind of weapon it wasn't a it wasn't a gone I don't think but all right mate looking good we going [Music] what's the uh Star Wars thing here this is non non-lethal right okay you guys have to be non nonlethal don't you as far as um a plastic bullet right they drop you at 50 m we had a block once there

he was being looked after by police uh he was a foreign nationality and he was kidnapped in his uh in his Villa yeah not here but overseas and they buried him under the ground for 6 months and feed them through pipes and everything till they paid up so those sort of people are are freaking out you know when they're in these Villas at night time so we provide a response call for okay so everything is in order okay sir Mia it's 5 weeks since KH and I'm on my way to yall in County Cork to

meet Paul he's back in Ireland to uh catch up a family and while he's here I'm going to dig a little deeper into his [Music] background so this is our playground here right yeah I used to live down there that house over there yellow roof in it yeah we'd have old cars we'd be driving off the top of the bank there onto the beach following you the [ __ ] police were yeah we were about 12 years of age right deadly with a Morris Miner we had we saved up all our money to buy that

right so this is it man my mother died when I was 13 and um I ended up in St Patrick's you don't end up in pts for the battery falling out of a car um I was arrested once or twice and then um I I think my family wouldn't uh wouldn't uh vot for me anymore because you could go further and further and further you know so they decided to put me in there for a while you know and the police the the man that arrested Me Andy magnotti he became a friend of mine afterwards

right he used to send me a FIV every every week you know so I'd be all right and then there was Tom be and uh and his wife CL there took me in after that and we made a deal like I wouldn't get into any more trouble and dead feed me and I'd stand there house you know yeah a bit of kindness huh yeah yeah that's it changed everything it doesn't take much does it really you can feel that stuff right away you know and just because of that I didn't want to leave any any

of them down anymore that's why I went through the Army I went through the the ranger Wing you know just to show them that it was wor like bit of prevention better than any cure exactly Paul joined the army at the the age of 16 within 5 years he had become part of the Army Ranger Wing Ireland's Special Forces Elite over 11,000 military personnel have attempted to become members of the unit but to date less than 400 have successfully completed training Paul is one of those men it's mostly the mental stuff there after you know

the physical fitness we can train tomorrow for three months and you'll be fit you know but the mental stuff if it's not there it's not there you come down to a certain level and then you e a crack and you forget it and you say [ __ ] this I'm going back to where I came from but I didn't come from anywhere you know so I said I have to stay here I didn't have any parents right so that was my parents YY a persistent knee injury cut short Paul's military career but that didn't dampen

his ambition he set a sights on the brand new world of private security where he could exploit his military experience I wanted to show people basically that I was warts something and that's why I pushed the close protection part in the security and uh to get to the highest level possible with celebrities and Executives billionaires around the world to show them that uh you know at least I I did something with my life you know what I mean yeah there's quite a few ex Rangers set up their own companies whether it be private security or

go into the private military field can you Enlighten us as to why that happens I think it's because of their skills training and their abilities I mean they're coming from a background where they're trained to think outside the box they're trained to think for themselves and when you transplant that from a military background to say a commercial background I mean they're ideally suited to seeing you know is there a niche in the market if that Niche is there how do you expand it how do you respond to the needs of what say companies or or

individuals or wealthy businessmen have and I think that's why they've been so successful any special forces they have a China command but when when they move from that military idea to a business must be an extraordinary change for these for these guys it is but it's a change that I think a lot of them have managed to to pull off very very successfully and it's not unusual that the most successful private security and private military companies are largely run on Military lines with the only difference is that the the guys running them instead of following

orders they're the ones giving the orders it was in y all that I discovered that Paul's ambition had taken him a lot further than protecting rich widows and movie stars we have another project coming up in Liberia been working down there preparing stuff for the next trip we're exporting diamonds out of the country so our job would be to go there and verify if they're there in the first place because businessman not going to waste time going to see these guys if the product is not there so I set up with that company to go

and verify if it's gold diamonds if it's there you know and how do we get it out legally of course so that's what the uh the challenge is to do that and what do you regard it as being high threat absolutely compared to close protection this is a lot a lot more dangerous yeah yeah 10 weeks later Paul was on the ground in Liberia and I was on my way to join him Liberia's greatest assets are its natural resources rubber gold oil Timber and diamonds but they are also the source of its problems bordered by

the Ivory Coast and Sierra Leon in West Africa Liberia has a reputation as a hostile environment Decades of tribal and ethnic unrest spilled over into two vicious civil wars that devastated the country Wars that were fought over and funded by natural resources today the country is only just starting to get back on its feet with an estimated 4 million people Liberia has roughly the same population as Ireland but that's where the similarities end the UN development index ranks Liberia 162nd out of 169 countries this country isn't just poor it's really [Music] poor but how can

a country so resourc rich be so evidently poor there are billions of dollars of foreign investment pouring into this country companies and individuals are queuing up to do business here Paul Butler has invested over $30,000 to secure his government approved Diamond license but that's part of the problem the majority of its resources are coming straight out of the ground and exported out of Liberia to be processed elsewhere there's 85% unemployment one un report describes the situation here as stable but fragile in official language Liberia has a security void well that's not to say that it's

Lawless there's plenty of Law and Order here but it's a private Law and Order if you want safety and Liberty in Liberia you pay for it security has become a commodity and it's a commodity most ordinary liberians can't afford I met up with Dr Thomas J an expert on African security who was able to tell me more about the Law and Order vacuum here comp was the only on record we have 3,500 police officers being trained but again you look at the distribution across the country you certainly still see that there's a void in different

areas here and there I mean even right here in Monrovia where we have a lot of police officers I think there's still a challenge in terms of the insecurity issues and how they can possibly deal with that then you have a situation where you have local private security companies that are hired to to guard the homes the commercial houses etc etc I mean I can afford to pay a private security company because of the nature of my job but how many people even in my immediate environment can afford that it's a question there's a huge

gap it means there's inadequate security being provided do you think these uh conflicts are are fueled conflict is business now this is the problem conflict is business and therefore security is business absolutely and private security is business when there's conflict and there's security then those who are experts in these areas can have a [Music] job there are about 16 licensed private security companies in Liberia one of them is co-owned owned by Guess Who Paul Butler so if Paul is dealing in millions of dollars worth of diamonds he doesn't have to rely on the local police

force or national security Paul's personal security is taken care of by Paul's personal security company Paul hey how are you please to meet again this isn't your first time here sure isn't no it isn't no we came in here last year and we did a wreck in the place to see what sort of opportunity there was there was a hole there between when the people come into town and they want to buy diamonds who they going to pay are they going to pay the guys that are actually giving them the diamonds and it makes it

a big risk for them so we decided that we set up licenses right for exporting diamonds and of course uh there's insurances and everything like that but we have our own insurances as well which is a different type of insurance if you know what I mean no I don't know what you mean what do you mean a different sort of insurance well a lot of people would say okay you're insured right and you pay $100,000 for whatever you're doing the insurance we would use that insurance in men you'd want to be mad to come in

here and do business in your own you have to spend the time and do the ground work and find the right people for the job so actually I met stepen Kane and he had values that was useful for us you know he's the type of guy that we needed around us you know cuz he was very honest and here we are hey Sten how are you man are you nice to see you Steven Kane is not only Paul's business partner he's also his eyes and ears on the ground for them the security void here isn't

a threat it's an opportunity in the van Steven let slip that they had just been contracted by an International Diamond dealer the geologist have arrived we have arranged with the Brokers the miners the dealers they have the parel the available to to strike this transaction what are your concerns security was for our security with the deal we are involved into our business um is is it's under control I wanted to find out what Paul had to say about this new client this is where we go normally when we want to have a quiet chat with

people want to sit here yeah so uh there's something going on with you at the minute as regards the the Diamond side of things on on the business apart from obviously the logistics thing which are setting up but you've got actually something on the go here haven't you you don't need to know about that yeah but by the time it comes out it'll all be finished so you can tell us you'll be fine'll be fine I don't need the uper right procedure just let us know what's going on right we're just sourcing for for international

clients sourcing and actually verifying packages that's it you know that's the first four phase of the program here and uh once we get over that but we can tell you about the rest after you know okay but you you have international purchasers coming in coming in yeah you know this is why we set up the company in the for space to try and get those people to come into and Trust our our setup and uh let us deal with all this stuff on the ground right what you're not getting involved in is exactly what you

get invol what you do back in can with this with the close Protection work I mean people come in they phone and you provide them with Logistics of security and you're not doing it here what's the difference everybody's the same in can we're the only white people down here operating is uh in this sort type of business you must remember we're coming from a war ridden country here 14 years of war a lot of the people here were involved with war they were chopping each other up and killing each other for years so all those

people were walking around the place so that's another threat to us right cuz they're capable of coming up and shooting somebody the blank of an eye the average monthly wage is like 100 US I mean when you're dealing with as you said yourself multi-million dollar clients and business deals I mean the the Temptation for Crime must be enormous I mean how do you protect yourself against that it's the same if a team was going to somaria looking after a ship and they get attacked by Pirates high risk as well you know so comes with the

trade man this is how we make our living name you know otherwise we're watching the [ __ ] grass go yeah yeah you know looking out the window at home I have to [ __ ] get out of here now a minute Paul's military background means he's more than qualified to cope with a high-risk business in an unstable country but that's nothing new even during the bloodiest period of Liberia's past companies continue to trade but only because they they pay for private security the sheer scale of Natural Resources here and the potential rewards means that

people have always been prepared to take risks a fact backed up by an American prospector Leonard kragnes so uh anyway you see the businesses here this is pretty much downtown monobia and when I got here I met these people went to the bush and they demonstrated to us that there really was the amount of gold they were saying and I was it was 10 times better than anything I'd seen in my my whole life in any country I've been in South America Chile you name it Argentina this country is basically a virgin there's most of

the ground 90 some per has never been other than hand Mining and hand mining doesn't even really count the country is suffering from years of war they've had pretty massive debts and they've had debts forgiven and they're trying to climb out of the hole but it's kind of [Music] tough so I'm in my hotel room uh reason being Paul somewhere in this hotel is doing some sort of a deal for diamonds with International clients who've just flown in from India we believe and he's got very nervous very Cy about us being around and um we've

been shut [Music] out but I hadn't come to Liberia to sit around a hotel room I wanted to visit West Point one of monro's worst sloms Paul and Steven had warned us not to go down there without them but they were nowhere to be seen however if they weren't available I knew some people who were the UN mission in Liberia is one of the largest in the world they were sent into Liberia in 2003 to stop the Bloodshed and establish some kind of stability and security not life must be very hard for people here this

is a country trying to get back up on its feet after almost a decade and a half of of Devastation we're following a guy who's coming in to do business here there's a lot of big businesses already in here do you think they are doing the nation a favor by being here the government is um rebuilding itself and to do that they need money the the speed of development here now has in the last year to two years has cranked up remarkably I think in most cases you just just got to to have that tradeoff

yeah you have to hand over your resources to get the you know I think it's necessary now you know is there exploitation of course so is this the toughest area for a police of if I had time I was going to take it to some ghetto see you're going to take me to some ghetto is this the nice part of West Point this is not the N part the next part is grish but if this is sucess you going run if you not if you are not brave enough you run even with a vest and

here it is quiet this is not quiet at night time what's it like here upside down she's got a really positive attitude I have to hand it to her she's cheery she ain't depressed it's easy to see how restoring lawn order here is a complex business while the UN oversees the training of an entire new police force multinationals like the rubber entire giant Firestone protect their interests with their own private police force Firestone are a very big company that's here and they have a a large private security presence have you had much dealings with them

the case of Firestone is is relatively I think unique here they go back a long ways and the relationship with the Liberian National Police is is a good working relationship and they are a good Police Service I mean are they private yes um while we the mission don't have a lot of interface with them the Liberian National Police um work in a in a cocation situation with them if you went out there now to the airport road leading to firest Stone you would see at the gate both l&p Liberian National Police and Firestone police in

1920th centuries you're talking about colonialism you know countries exploiting poorer third world Nations for their natural resources whereas what has happened I think in the 21st century is that it's corporations that are doing it rather than countries and in many ways private security companies private security contractors they're the thin end of the wedge they're the teeth in this whole corporate assault on the resources and the wealth of the world thinking about the difference between the rich and poor can and Monrovia and this is the country that's got the diamonds got the gold oil rubber wood

there's something really ironic about that there's also something odd about the wealthy coming over here with the protection of people like Paul people like Paul protect interests they don't protect [Music] rights monroi is not a place you want to be out and about in after dark it's clear to me after only a few days that the Liberian police have little or no control and although the UN have a strong presence here they still don't detar the criminal gangs who control the City by [Music] night but whatever about the dangers of morabia at night it was

nothing compared to what we were about to face the very next day from the plazas of can to the street here waron Liberia I've been trying to follow Paul Butler a private security [Music] contractor we haven't been able to access PA for the last couple of days so we were trying to get a hold of him last night uh we're all staying in the same Hotel so we rang his room to discover that he had checked out very odd um eventually we got a call say uh he's gone off the radar we have to be

outside the hotel at 9:00 this morning wear light clothing bring your passport and plenty of water so we're assuming we're going to see some diamonds some product uh but it's all very [Music] mysterious eventually we found Paul with the help of our two Liberian police officers and our local driver neither of whom inspired confidence James what's going on man you get huh getting we're getting out yes [Music] so we're outside this fairly rundown Hotel Steven Paul's partner is outside uh and um any more than that we don't know morning sir how are you doing good

man did you sleep well sleep well man how's everything good good what's the story story is uh we head for out of time today yeah we'll be leaving for the Loa Bridge area um can you tell us what's going to happen when we get there yeah we'll be looking at some Stones okay on the local market okay sure very good okay thank you Steven like some sort of low rent giant Bond mie here or something I don't know what the hell is going on and I think they want to get us back in the van

really quickly because we're drawing attention to the whole thing the whole sub future or we get the impression or maybe I'm being paranoid but just cuz you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not able to get you and then I spotted an Indian gent I suspected this was the client that Paul had been keeping from us for the past few days good morning how are you sir very good how are you nice to meet you I'm Liam very nice to meet you sir hey morning CH are you well how are you all right yeah you all set

all set to go uh how's things at the hotel good CL yeah you checked out yeah it did yeah we check out when we're doing business cuz everybody knows we're up there it Paul was becoming protective of his client it seemed he didn't want us getting too close I discovered that deep p is a gemologist a diamond expert he was here to verify the quality of the rough diamonds but more importantly he represents one of the largest diamond businesses in [Music] India we are now heading out of Monrovia um which apparently there's a lot of

advice one shouldn't do as we left Monrovia I couldn't help thinking about a story the American prospector Leonard kragnes had told me the day before about just how dangerous trips into the jungle could be can you tell me how come your son was in Africa how come you came to join him he left the computer World in California where he made $150,000 a year and had a nice house a nice motorcycle a nice boat and all the toys a man likes to have but he wanted more he wanted entrepreneurialship and so he wanted to go

to Africa and buy gold because he saw these articles and he believed that he could make a fortune so I went to New York to try to generate $10 million in the meantime he did something that him and I agreed wasn't safe go to the bush with cash so these two men we met these two guys the second day we were in Ghana they won his trust in four or five days they convinced him to go to the bank with their car pick up the money 60,000 he drew out of the bank and he had

probably 20,000 on him because he's looking for a car and an office and all that and then they told him they were taking him to Taqua and they actually shot him Point Blank and he fought him for several minutes after that and then they attacked him with cutlasses then it was done [Music] and you don't you don't think that kind of pursuit of gold is something that contributed to to what happened the pursuit of making money on my son's part wasn't necessarily gold was more making money he just picked a bad business because he was

naive I was naive every investor foreign investors that comes there are naive I send files to the FBI on a regular basis about exactly how it works and I could tell you some stories that would curl your hair the possibility of danger suddenly seemed very real as we drove deeper into the bush I noticed that our driver was struggling to keep up it was crucial that the two vehicles stayed in close Convoy he was becoming the very last thing we needed a liability we were starting to slow Paul down and as far as he was

concerned that just wasn't an option yeah demoting them demoting them for the moment you know cuz I'm not sure if you can uh drive that well yeah don't think he's too pleased is he he's doing a lot of dangerous stuff you know [Music] yeah Paul have you had any dealings with the UN at all this is the biggest un mission on the planet isn't this the it's the most expensive one and we see them around right but we don't get involved with them at all the less this you say the better it is you know

yeah I'll tell you one thing though when you go into the diamond the street and you come out 3 hours out of town the price changes about 40% how do you mean the price price of what the diamonds they it changes so 40% less the Brokers they have all these stones in town that are that are hanging around for like two and three months nobody will buy them and you get the OD people coming in that'll buy them you know but there you can never make money out of it so the professionals tell me anyway

so they these guys like to go into the bush deep into the bush and do their purchas in there Liberia's diamonds are Infamous in 1989 Rebel warlord Charles Taylor used the precious stones to fund his reign of terror these so-called blood diamonds were subsequently banned on the international Market in 2007 the UN lifted that ban when Liberia's newly elected government signed up to the Kimberly process a certification scheme to prevent the trade in Conflict diamonds it's supposed to track the origins of all rough Diamonds by only allowing government approved agents to handle them agents like

Paul but not everyone is convinced by the Kimberly process in Monrovia I had talked to human rights lawyer Alfred brenell generally there are huge issues of enforcement in the K process itself and for example it was established that there are more than a 100 border crossing points in Liberia maybe not more than 25 of them were actually Men by security officials the rest was open so anyone could go and come by how do we ensure that diamonds now the so called conflict diamonds are not entering the in Liberia or in Guinea or in s I

was quite um shocked to be honest when we were told that the government's tax on the diamonds through the Kim process is 3% is that is that correct this is where the real problem is because the lack of development is a source of conflict and I think it's a shame to war leaders to just want to focus just on conflict related diamonds and and don't want to address the hard issue I mean if you have a demo that is costing $1 million liia only gets 30% how of that 3% go around we have to appro

it from the whole value chain perspective in terms of where is the total value of this tomb from crle to grave from the pit to the drry shop how much does will this diamond cost and how much of that value will come back to the country or to those poor communities where the D are being M it's like the United Nations out there now Steve is off talking to Tony a producer Paul is all talking to his Partners uh we have no idea what's going on we've just pulled off the asphalt road so we're just

waiting to see what the ground ups are talking about we're trying to get get the driver to take us on he doesn't want to take us on so we're in negotiation at the minute it's getting a bit heated but uh we're not stopping here I'll tell you that it's all about money it's a question of money call your boss anyway we're losing time here so we got to move on so uh let's see what he says our driver and his boss were holding us to Ransom Paul was losing patience we were now a real threat

to his deal it was either pay up or get left behind yeah how much yes I'm listening $200 and no more problems right we can we can carry on now right if the brand breaks down you give me back to $200 you hear me go we're going in the van with $200 in his pocket our driver's concern for his van suddenly evaporated we headed for loer bridge a rebel stronghold during the Civil War today it's the gateway to some of Liberia's busiest diamond mines we pulled into the town Paul took a detour and disappeared out

of sight I don't know what I expected from The Hub of the country's Diamond industry but it certainly wasn't this just come across loord bridge and Paul Steven and the gemologist I've taken a snaky left left us here and I going have to look at some Stones um so uh we've been promised we're going to get a a look at the product um but uh we shall wait and see we're just waiting now I think it's kind of ironic the shop is selling flipflops plastic buckets L out and then these are sifters for diamonds the

most precious stone on the planet and this is not exactly uh Steven gra shopping center hello sir how are you how are you nice to meet you you are you a farmer yes do you do any mining no no no right now I want to do farming okay I'm why why not uh get the stones to to to feed my children in I only carry on farming so on your farm under the ground mhm is there diamonds yes when you check for it but you prefer to put vegetables I like your style after waiting for

the best part of an hour it was becoming clear that whatever deals Paul was doing they weren't going to happen in front of us the longer we hung around the more attention we started to get and not all of it was sounding too friendly okay we are the point there and then we got a break a local man willing to take us to the mines admittedly with the help of a $50 bill appreciate your it's lovely the F fast go go go go go oh go go go go go oh that was lucky that was

lucky we shouldn't have made that that's deep whatever concerns we had about the roads up to Loa bridge at least they were roads I'd say there's 50% chance we're going to get stuck uh like unbelievably stuck oh nice good driving but once don't go over to left that way that way dude you're going to catch the bottom of the C van they are now I didn't think it would be uh the middle of the jungle in a high ice if it was easy everybody be diamond mining wouldn't they I to ask stop st after an

hour of traveling deeper into the jungle we arrived at the mine once again not quite what I expected it's a far cry from the jewelry shops and glamour of the C theour hello hello yes when you think about it it comes down to a go with a bit of bamboo is that where it ends up from the Ping goes into the center it's like gold it's like the gold falls to the bottom but the diamond goes to the middle [Music] it's iridescent did you see that one can I see yes wow so this is half

carrot yeah half carrot half karat yes and this is sell for 150 200 US yes and I a long time ago bought just less than half half a car4 of a car of cut and I think I paid $1,100 $1,100 for a cut one and these gentlemen doing this will get 150 150 us for the a multiple of 10 times by the time it's called polished you went to loafer bridge now if someone say this is where it's a major source of the diamond production in Liberia you'll be shock so I think it's a shame

that we allowed that to happen what we are doing is preparing the next generation of Rebel leaders because in the end they are going to rise up and say we are not happy with this and you're going to find issue of insurrections and conflict breing once again because these are young men who are searing for livelihood for survival and every day they dig and they dig and they dig how long do we believe that they will continue digging in that pit until the world decide to respond to say look we need Equitable trade we need

to ensure that what we get from Diamond is share Diamond only bring prosperity to the west and to the north it brings no prosperity to poor African villages so this was a huge part of the war in this country and it's also the symbol of love for a lot of people in the world and these are the men who uh who give you the dream for all the girls out there if you saw the process with how this is done and some of the pain some of the misery you might think a little differently about

the ring on your finger not that I'm trying to rain on your parid anything but um yeah why isn't there in Liberia cutting polishing the whole process instead of selling these rough stones for very small amount of money and everybody else seems to be making huge meent of profit they are not advising this government that the best way to your resources is adding value I mean take for example the the oldest and largest invest in Liberia the prone fire company they were in 1926 is decade and a half they produce natural rubber we have not

been able to produce a rubber band since 19268 decades later everything link to rubber is exported they drive the policy that's what it is they drive the policies supported by their home [Music] governments investment should not be about people breaking Capital putting it in here explo primary resources and exploiting them to wherever they want to take them without processing them here you have a situation where all we are providing is the labor we're providing the resources we giving the contracts get a percentage and the rest is history but does that tell mean that the living

condition of the people right there in West Point has changed it's not going to improve or if you go further down into the rural area does that change the living condition of the people that for me is real development clearly some people are doing very well out of these diamonds but not these people now Paul the first thing I say is you had that bag around your shoulder and under your arm now it's now it's in a more delicate place you see too much yeah what's the story uh there's no story there's no story no

no there is a story you're just not telling us happening in the background you're leing in to it yeah yeah is he identifying the stuff yep let me ask you one thing Paul I mean you look around here the last thing if you didn't know where you were would you assume that you were in a place that has the most precious stone in the world you see that road we came up there the 41 km of that Off Track Road right three or 4 months ago there was nothing there right so they built that road

based on the the exportation of rubber Timber and diamonds and gold you know the government put down in so that'll tell you the trade don't ask me where the money is going when you look at this you know it's sort of hard to believe people live like that but it seems to be the way of life anyway obviously they're not seeing most of that money it's gone through uh people upstairs maybe you know or the investors or somebody like that I it's hard it's hard to believe that something something so precious is not at the

very least making the people who take it out of the ground I'm not saying wealthy but I mean the kids around here are every there TR you know what I mean it's yeah but maybe they have money and you would they wouldn't that's the way to live you know around here it's not like us way to have a a nice house to show off or a nice car to drive around you know what are you tell me to keep the money in the bank no they might send them your children to school and plac like

that colleges you know but they don't show any wealth here look around you man I know they don't show it it's I I my guess is they don't have it we had to get out of laa bridge if we were going to make it back to monra before dark I realized that myself and Paul had two totally different views of this hostile environment he sees a contract on a client to protect and is train to focus solely on the objective but from my perspective it's the contrast between the poverty of these people and the wealth

beneath their feet that is most striking for men like Paul there will always be a lot to gain in places like this and possibly a lot to lose you're making a good living you're in KH you're mixing with the Stars why the hell do you want this trouble why does anybody do it we're made for this job this is what we do we don't know how to do anything else so people need our assistance uh we'll come in and we'll do it to the end and then we'll get out we probably get killed doing this

you know but we might as well get killed doing something what world and getting knocked down by a car or something like that you know what I mean we take all the precautions you know and uh we're just get on with it it's not a big deal man that's what we do for a living you know as an actor I'm used to exploring fictional worlds but over the past year I found myself in places that are none too safe all too real and extremely controversial our captives are very impatient now and now I'm on the

trail of a bunch of Irishmen who are battling organized crime drug traffickers and pirates in The Last Place on Earth you'd call a hostile environment [Music] [Music] [Music] it's winter the days are shorter colder the night seemingly endless but I'm heading for summer in Paradise however there's a price glamorous romantic exotic the SE shell is made up 112 islands off the east coast of Africa with white sandy beaches tropical temperatures turquoise warm Waters and tax Haven status it should be perfect but things are not that straight forward because behind this ultimate honeymoon destination looks another

darker world a world populated by heroin addicts hostages drug cartels and Pirates an estimated 10% of the population are victims of heroin addiction their Offshore Banking system is is being undermined by International crime gangs and drug cartels on top of that the country's two main industries tourism and Fisheries have been decimated by pirate attacks I'm here to meet an elite group of Irish Personnel who' been brought in to combat the serious crime that threatens not only the stability of these idilic Island but global stability sounds like trouble in Paradise for the next 10 days I'll

be following n Scully and Dean Barber two ex Irish Army Intelligence Officers who came to the SE shells on a one-off contract 7 years ago and are still here I want to know why and I also want to know how a country with a population of just 85,000 seems to have become such an International Security hotspot I suppose the old property maner really is location location location and the SE shells in the Indian Ocean it's sitting on one of historically the greatest trade routs in the world you've had slaves you've had spices that have been

traded in those waters for for centuries it declined somewhat the time the Suez Canal was opened but when you had the Advent of super tankers and super container ships and it was discovered it was every bit as economically viable to use the Horn of Africa and the waters off the Indian Ocean it rocketed right back to its original historical importance the ocean for us has always been a key part of our way of life you know we're an island country our exclusive economic zone is 1.3 million square kilm so we're we're a small small country

in terms of land but we're a we're a big country in terms of ocean a lot of people don't realize 2/3 of the world's oil that is shipped meaning that it has to be transported by ship goes through the Indian Ocean 2/3 of the world's oil and that's this is where around the world people depend on this I mean the world stops if that stops exactly it's the same for container traffic onethird of the world container traffic goes through the Indian Ocean if anything that area has become even more important in geopolitical terms over the

last 20 years because you have two economic superpowers in terms of India and China both of which get most of their oil and natural resources through the Indian Ocean emerging it must be incredibly difficult to to protect your sovereignty your Independence yes when all these very powerful people from around the world would very much like to use your Waters not only to help you but to help themselves well is it a difficult balance I would say it is it is a difficult balance but at the same time the uh the the most of the time

the interests align but back in 2004 the sell's government came under severe threat they suspected that various official officers were being bugged they had no idea who was behind it or how to secure the leaks so if you don't have the expertise to deal with these threats who do you turnor to well you can't go to the English they only left in 1976 the Americans are the EU the Russians or the Chinese wouldn't be too impressed and vice versa so who else is there Niles Scully and Dean Barber specialists in counter surveillance arrived as part

of an Irish team to sweep government buildings mid 2004 I received a phone call uh and I was asked would I be interested in doing a job in SE shells at that time um we used to do a lot of what you call Electronic um uh um counter measures um both deployment and detection and uh it was on that basis I got the phone call see were we interested in in debuging or doing a Boog search in in the SE shell okay so your background yourself and Dean your your background is both military uh my

background is military deon's background is military okay you say military um you were Spooks military intelligent uh some of us were yes okay I know it's a it's a TV term but term uh I so we wouldn't consider ourselves spooked a previous book search by another foreign Security Agency had found nothing but the Irish sweep was more successful the actual physical implementation of it how was installed was absolutely world class and we would have regarded the techniques has been influenced by uh Eastern European old Soviet methodology this stuff was buried very deeply and it was

hidden beneath multiple layers of let's say technical distractors that that would move you you know left or right make it look in innocuous it was very clever it was a state level installation that we were call a state level installation so it it was somebody who knew exactly what they were doing had been very well trained did you guys find out who was the recipient of the information I think there were certain indicators of to where it may have been going but but we were never to who the the end recipient was the SE Shell's

government was impressed so much so a year later Scully and barber were offered another contract to oversee a new National Security program the government set up a strategic planning committee which was looking at se shell up to 2018 and through that um there were number of problems were raised and we were asked would we consider looking at them and one of the areas was police and the whole issue of drugs drugs was coming in increasing problem for SE shells so we said we would so you'd be in a much more visible much more visible capacity

and we brought in technicians you know from the guards and and they assisted Us in you know setting up an organization to completely combat drugs so we're on our way to the airport nla is that correct we have an aircraft uh coming in from an island of Zanzibar an island called Pemba it's slightly unusual in that they're just coming for an overnight stop or refuel and uh we don't have their armor destination but we believe it may be to uh Kenya so what we're going to do now is go just have a look have a

talk with the crew and uh search the aircraft in 2008 the national drugs enforcement agency the ndea was set up but this wasn't the first time an agency was set up to deal with drugs in the SE shells there was a drug agency here wasn't there yes yeah there was a drug a agency called Adams and I suppose the the common perception of the Adams unit was that if it was ineffectual and uh I think the local population did not trust the members of the Adams unit they haven't got any definite information about what's about

to happen and it's possible that there's either drugs or Ransom money and they just have to be prepared for anything and one of the arish guys was coming through the metal detector there and he just leaned into the security personnel and said of a firearm in there so there's all that that sort of thing going on bit a clog and Dagger have they landed no yeah it's had been directed just to the end of the terminal here so you're walking to set something like this up the first thing you're faced with is the group that

you may have to train up are possibly allegedly whatever you want to call it corrupt so what's your kicking off point okay what we recommended at that time was that we set up a separate agency which was independent of the police and of the old unit and and the the the principle behind that was that we need to establish the the confidence and the trust of the public okay so that's that's a clean sweep so we we basically a clean sweep and the legislation was written that the NDA was a separate entity in law while

we work quite closely and a full cooperation with the police we are not members of the police force where have you traveled from from today we've come from uh Pim MOS MOS we picked up those plan in South Africa okay what pilots yeah yeah yeah so in terms of routing is that a would SS be a normal stop off point H we don't normally uh do this very often yeah just this plane itself been based in Africa for quite a while now what type of stuff are you doing this this survey stuff yeah this is

pretty much all uh what we do at the moment they said they just come from a long Sten in working in in African around mosm Beque doing geological surveys um so it looks pretty legitimate at this point that two boys seem to be completely above board and the boys have stopped them and pull out all the stops I mean these boys are doing this job a hell of a long time I think they generally speaking they know it in about 30 seconds how many years you're going to be going to prison for the sell's government

believed an Irish Outsider like Nile Scully could administer Justice without fear or favor they also looked to warland and how he had hit organized crime where it hurts there's one very effective way of dealing with criminals and that is to make it not worth their while by taking the proceeds of their crimes and that was achieved back home with the setting up of the criminal assets Bureau and it's happening here with the financial investigations unit now the man who set it up here is the same man that set up cab Veronica gear was returning from

a court sitting in nce when her attackers struck after the shooting of Veron gar there was a serious confidence crisis in the justice system and the police in Ireland as a result of which the government embarked on a process of taking the money out of crime and Drug traffic and organized crime we brought in a multi- agency body to implement the laws and we beefed up anti-money laundering laws and we enacted proceeds of crime which is civil confiscation where you can freeze people's money without having to convict them of criminal offense and we also implemented

tax where like the American Al Capone where you couldn't prove any criminality but there's a fell and he's a multi-millionaire without ever having worked so against that background uh there was a problem out here and I was approached and asked to come out and to see what could be done but it was a in a sense a different set of circumstances because of the the Offshore Banking it was perceived that say shells because of some activity a few years previously they were in fact advertising the place as a confidential Center where you could bring your

money freely and they would guarantee that no one would interfere with it you wouldn't be prosecuted now because of international pressure those laws were repealed and they did have in place a fairly modern anti-money laundering act but at the time that I arrived there had never been a prosecution for money laundering there had never been action taken on a suspicious transaction report and there was no process of civil confiscation okay so that that was primarily Your Role then to to set up a framework where you could NAB the bad guys well no to NAB the

bad guys money yeah it's a different concept yeah okay after 3 days I'd heard plenty about the influence the Irish have here but I was still waiting for the chance to see that influence in action um it's 6:30 a.m. We are following in Cara which is bringing us to the National Drug Enforcement Agency the headquarters for a briefing and uh we're apparently going on a drugs bust and I haven't even had a cup of tea good morning now the function that we have here today is relation to intelligence which Nicole received in relation to heroin

possibly up to half a kilo of heroin in the post office now the function that we have here today is to intercept The Courier if he is The Courier with it before he leaves and passes it on hopefully turn him on our side and persuade him to work with the NDA in delivering this to its final destination we've always had drugs here I mean people have used marijuana I think uh it's the recent problems of heroin which came to the stal about 5 years ago when it came to the stal people didn't know that this

was heroin everybody was calling it powder powder and they were putting it on cigarettes and smoke it's only now when we start seeing the the effects of hering on people that people start to realize what what a serious problem it is we've just left the briefing we're on our way to uh get into position Brendan was saying traditional surveillance here is extremely difficult because the size of the place is really small so they have to operate in teams they have to pass the first team onto the next team so they're not um discovered to be

following so basically what they're doing is on this is they're going to surround the area they think that the guy is going to be in our instruction need to par here so the post office opens in 5 minutes yeah yeah that guy looked at us quite heavily didn't he yeah one of our first cases started with a suspected heroin trafficker so the NDA they got this information that this guy duash was heading out to Kenya to buy heroin so they met him at the airport and asked him had he cash and eventually he denied it

first and then he said he had and the cash was seized something to the order of $110,000 which was a huge sum for this jurisdiction to have in cash so they took the cash off him and as part of the explanation uh he was said you know where did you get his cash he said it was Cash belonging to himself and his friend Mr Hackle so uh when we were digesting this we made inquiries as to who or what was Mr Hackle and on inquiry we find that he's in pre-trial custody in Germany charged with

supplying heavyduty graphite suitable for the manufacturer of medium and long range ballistic missiles and the nuclear weapons program in Iran the German authorities came back they had been investigating this man for quite some time but had been unable to close the loop they had never been able to a financial trail that proved I suppose that he was involved in criminal activity and on the basis of the evidence that we supplied to Germany uh the guy pleaded guilty and was convicted result Johnny yes he's in the post office now so if you go go back out

and go around uh let me see the uh Barkley Bank Crossing cinema you're going to be very close at that stage okay all right no problem yeah well we h a clothing description of the guy his uh in the post office apparently he's already gone in to pick up the package so we're changing location to get us a bit closer to the action while we tried to cover one Escape Route and the other car agent Nicole got news none of us wanted to [Music] hear they lost okay all right no problem all right all right

it told me that the guy have already pick up the package and they managed to to lose him I don't know how and now we don't know we don't know where to go we know exactly where he's going to we know exactly where he's going to pick up he picks up the package and from going into the post office to coming out of the post office every road is covered and they still managed to lose him and he's driving a car it seems that the agency's mole in the post office had bottled it they hadn't

made the call in time to say the parcel had been picked up the suspect and the package were gone as a last resort Nile decided the unit should split up and search the area since our Inception we've arrested in excess of 2,000 people we have seized approximately 70 million sells rupes worth of heroin prior to that we were taught in single figures in terms of what had been done in terms of traffickers you know we've we've arrested approximately 173 trafficers so they're your guys who are bringing bringing bringing stuff in and they're significant players theyve

they've CAU him close to the hospital oh he is they've got him so they have him now so we'll we'll go back down then head towards the office does he have the scope on him or is he got did he get rid of it they what they do is they get him out of the area quick they're going to search him as soon as they get to the office the more successful you are at what you doing the further up this drug food chain you're going to go is that a bit of a bit of

a concern the more successful you are the more trouble you could be I'm aware of it and need to remain so some of our our cases our investigations have involved the international drug trade uh with one investigation in particular which was pivotal in the arrest of the second in command of one of the largest drug trafficking gangs in Africa and indeed in Europe that was the the Mela gang and it was a woman from Kenya or something yeah lady from Kenya very powerful supplying drugs to Ireland UK Holland France and most of Africa her second

in command has been arrested by the German authorities in Kenya on foot of a SE Shell's investigation and that is a direct result of our work you know so you have to be conscious at the fact that we're making people lose money and people do not like to lose money gu's over there by the wall being um spoken to by Nile he's sitting down I can see him shaking his head already um just belong to you no no this is the official vehicle this the truck I work in my no camera CA [Music] he's worried

worri very worried shaking there we just need to get this going fast because people settle very quickly yeah you know you need to get them all nervous I presume to at this point we haven't found any drugs or any suspected drugs so we don't really have anything to hold him on but he doesn't know that just yet so we know we will interview him and uh if we don't get anything from that if he's not Cooperative we most likely to release him after an hour of intensive questioning and with a prospect of having to let

him go NY and the team made a breakthrough after 12 hours of running around like headless chickens thinking this story was possibly going nowhere it um it turns out that the guy they picked up has been torn he's admitted picking up the drugs in the post office we are on our way now to the apartment where they apparently are and uh there's a team full of agents in the car in front of us and we're going to uh to film the pickup in return for cutting a deal the suspect was prepared to lead the agency

straight to the package [Applause] you don't know what's that content is I know there something things but I don't know you know there's something wrong in us something illegal in US yes okay you know there's something illegal in it right okay you are being arrested for possession of what we suspect is control drugs I feel sorry from I don't know why do the package contained $75,000 worth of heroin that's more than 3 years wages over here he says he did it simply because he needs the money he's he broke he's got a family ter R

and for no other reason he claims it's the first time he's done it what will happen now we will attempt to do a control delivery and at this point he's cooperating with us uh to affect that control delivery which will be to the person who he claims has asked him to collect these Idols this will stand to him this absolutely will stand to him yes the Irish are well known for being versatile and resourceful working on the international stage has never been a problem but this is different these guys have been handpicked to help rebuild

the entire Justice Department of a sovereign independent State that's a lot of responsibility and with responsibility comes power and with power comes scrutiny Nile Scully and Dean Barber have been labeled by some as nothing more than hired mercenaries both the SE shells and the international media have reported on accusations that Scully and Barber have been involved in phone hacking embezzlement surveillance and bugging news flash Irish cops and SE shells involved in financial piracy and kidnapping according to allegations men say SE Shell's kidnaps for ransom the men claim in federal court that they were kidnapped by

Irish mercenaries working for the sell's government and threatened with trumped up drug and moneya laundering charges that would have carried a 10-year prison sentence and there's a lot more than this well I think the whole private Contracting industry has become a sexy story over the last 10 or 15 years because people want wonder where it's going and I think in countries like the SE shells it has generated a lot of headlines for a number of different reasons first of all why Irish why Irish contractors I mean people would have expected American maybe French so there

was the interest in why irish guys were going out there doing this type of work and I think secondly whenever you have foreign contractors that come into a country providing a service an expert service that's going to impact on domestic policy both in the short term or the long term it's going to attract attention there's been various allegations in the papers about the arish guys that have been here how do you view these allegations I think you need to take with a pinch of salt where the information is coming from number one I draw the

distinction between local press and then press has connected politically now we're guilty of that in the SE shells um the governing party has its own own newspaper which likes to distort information in a certain way and the opposition parties have their own newspapers as well um and they like to go the opposite so somewhere in between the both there's the truth now as far as assassinations and disappearances and so today I think on those kind of reports uh things are sensationalized and it's um to make score political points we knew when we would be upsetting

certain people particularly the criminal types we were going to get some Kickback nonetheless you know when you see particularly lies blatant lies being printed and told about you it it is annoying it is extremely annoying but I suppose we made a conscious decision not to respond to it not to give it any credibility you know not going to engage with it we've been targeted you know in say shells they've used it in in New York in terms of negative publicity but the most disappointing aspect for me has been that there was negative and completely false

publicity propagated in Ireland you know and typically this would be say a case lodged and never served our professional reputations in orand were called into question you know all of the military and the guard of guys working here and uh it made me really angry it was a real negative but the AR's presence is not just attracted media attention it has also divided opinion among the locals here it's brought a lot a lot of discontent on the ground because uh people generally feel and then it is a general perception that a lot of qualified and

highly skilled SWA are being marginalized because of the politics of the situ ation and I think there in lies the certain reticence or perhaps what is perceived as a as a hostility towards towards foreign Nationals uh because people feel that they are taking our jobs that's probably how the Irish are being seen in the police force at the moment you're there to do a job to be effective but you're a farmer yes and and and that is difficult it is difficult and on one hand people some people may be unhappy and uh but in reality

there are very few people who will do the job and that that is a fact the president of sells and this government has always said well we want to get things done efficiently and uh we should base it on the fact that we need to get these things done and often we do need external expertise the nationality of that expertise doesn't matter even after a week I could see that the say sales is a country trying to get its house in order in 2008 had received the loan from the IMF to deal with its debt

crisis since then the FIU has been tackling moneya laundering while the ndea has been battling with the war against drugs on the surface things couldn't be more different to Ireland but the S shells are broke the IMF are in unemployment corruption you name it sound familiar but they have one big problem that we don't have to worry about Somalia or to be more specific Somalian pirates [Music] in 2007 the cel's government appointed former Irish Defense Force personnel to help them overhaul their National Security little did they realize at the time but these men were about

to come face to face with one of the oldest form forms of international terrorism we are very concerned about the future our captives are very impatient now that nobody has been in touch to enter into negotiations when we got here for we piracy was unheard of and it a bur that caught us all by surprise early in 2009 and our first direct experience of it was when a fishing vessel with a number of seel aboard went missing and it was missing for a number of days and there was no communication no radio contact and finally

we got a call from Somalia to basically say that they had them there they were holding them hostage and they were looking for $10 million in Ransom so it was some Shock as you can imagine to se shells to see that a small island a th000 miles away from Somalia could be threatened by Somali piracy the Somali coastline is the most dangerous stretch of water in the world in 2010 there were 445 pirate attacks almost 1,00 hostages were seized and millions of dollars in Ransom was paid [Music] out Somalia has 30 years since it's been

a failed State now 30 years without authorities without structures without police um does lead to I would say a unique brand of lawlessness what started in somania was you had angry fishermen that started to attack foreign vessels that were in their Waters illegally fishing there was an element of illegal fishing of illegal dumping of toxic materials there were a lot of illegal activities taking place in the Somas they were they were taking advantage of the lawlessness taking advantage of the lawlessness so you had essentially uh some of the local communities that that uh Hib at

that and that's how it started but then some of them realized that uh yes you seize these vessels these vessels had a value that's when the piracy I would say in its commercial aspect uh started this is the Warlords I presume this is where the Warlords realized that if they put money into these Ventures you know pay 10 boats go out see what they can bring back they could either sell the vessels that were brought back for money or they realized even more if there were people on board these vessels they could charge enormous ransoms

the SE shells economy is highly dependent on tourism which generates 70% of its external revenues and Fisheries and the tourism is essentially Maritime based see all these Yachts tied up around us here I mean under normal conditions many of these Yachts would be would be leas they'd be out on water so the impact of piracy on sea shells like it's my own personal opinion that that no country in the region has been as adversely affected by piracy in proportional terms in in economic terms as SE shelles it really adversely affected its economy this is how

it works there's 10 or 11 guys that's the unit on the main ship these barrels that contains the diesel they have a half barrel one of these which they cook on they can stay for a month these guys looking for vessels now when the attack takes place these are the attack vessels they can't be detected because they're so small and the waves at the sea rad there can't pick them up so they they do a dawn raid and basically everybody's half asleep the force guy goes up from this throws the ladder up he's on an

eighth share of whatever they take half of the money is gone with the finance of the fellow for the boat and the rest for the people that do it they share it this guy the forc over he's got a Kash cover on on his back he's up the ladder straight into the Wheelhouse opens fire or takes everybody and immediately these guys it's more than their jobs worth and they just put their hands up many of these Ventures would be unsuccessful but if you're lucky enough to be part of a successful hijack the returns are exceptionally

High you know with with maybe 1,200% profit for your initial investment it's extraordinary so it it's an extraordinary business model and LS though I am to say it it must be one of the most profitable business models in the world while we were there news broke that a seal W fishing vessel had been captured by Somali pirates I wanted to hear firsthand what the experience was like in 2009 Francis Ruku was one of the first seal W to be taken he spent 88 days in captivity in Somalia the method they used was the the skiff

with the attack boats yeah yeah yeah the skiff and the the motorship and when they came on board they just shot next to my feet and over my head that must have been horrendous yes once we get to Somalia they start the negotiation negotiation started with the Cals and the worst part where the time that we spend on land and this I'll tell you it was very tough it's very hard yeah and the and much was the initial uh demand at the beginning was around 4 $4 million asking $4 million and then they went down

down down down down and then we really sled the details of the negotiations have never been officially revealed by the sels government but Francis and the six members of his crew were released unharmed this has developed into something else now hasn't it since you came back yes because we know you were involved in negotiations at the moment for a ship that has been taken in the last few days yes because what's happened when we were in Somalia there was a committee here in SAS and there were two Irish that were involved in the negotiation committee

this de the Nile yes and now also I'm part of the team so you helped them uh with this psychology of the situation where people might be in their heads and yes yes when the hostage crisis broke the sell's government realized they had at their disposal two Irish specialists in counterterrorism when you came over what 2004 or isn't was it yes did you see yourself in 2011 being in a hostage negotiation room do you know what I mean AB when I come over it was basically largely I felt on an education brief so this is

quite different so how did you when you find yourself in those position I don't believe I reacted any differently to any other army officer who would have been in that room um so essentially you're you're taught to detach yourself from the emotion of the situation as best you can uh and and then to focus on the achievement of the mission and if there's one thing that defines army people um from all aspects of the army it's you've got to achieve the mission and the mission in this you know in this context the mission Narrows down

to a very sharp Focus stop them going to Somalia and military people are turned to think in terms of What's My overall situation what are my options what are the constraints and they iteratively reduce them down to whatever needs to be done with the minimum use of force to solve the problem as we know you're the head of the financial investigations unit how does that correspond with your particular involvement in in in piracy your direct involvement um the fu would have an interest in in piracy straight away because it's it's an organized criminal activity and

the financial Trail the financial streams are essentially a driving motivator for for piracy The Ransom of $2 million was fed in a dingy to a pirate speedboat offici no government will admit to paying ransoms yet hostages continue to be released and Somali pirates continue to make large profits but now the sell's government has decided to lay down the law the global response has to be one of law enforcement and this is where the key issue is how do we look at the ocean the problem when when looking at the ocean is a lot of the

ocean is not under the control of any individual State now if a crime is committed in these International Wars there is the principle under the law of the Sea of universal jurisdiction meaning that any state has the right to prosecute a crime that has taken place now that's the theory in practice soon as anybody hears that they're Somali pirates oh we don't want them in our prisons in 2009 the Shell's government began a systematic program to deal with a piracy crisis they developed unique legislation which meant that they became the first country to arrest and

prosecute Somalian Pirates they also set about transforming their local Coast Guard into a maritime security unit so the response of the SE shells government to piracy was essentially the response of a national servant jurisdiction fighting for its survival fighting for its ongoing existence and essentially they decided that they would do everything that they possibly could to stop seela hostages been taking back to Somalia okay guys just check each other okay straight down the Interceptor once more Barber Drew on the Irish connection and drafted in ex Irish Army Ranger Sheamus Griffin to train up a specialist

Navy assault team in a very short period of time you've had five fullon assaults operations that's correct um are you with them on those I'm not here operationally to actually go in and lead them on an assault my job here is solely to train them okay I had retired from the Defense Forces in 2005 I was asked could it come and give a hand here uh just to work on the Special Forces you have a lot of international experience don't you well what the Defense Forces yeah we traveled all over the world obviously we operated

in Lebanon and East teore and other places a big part of my uh operational time the rang Wing was to do with um in the the black R we said so that would be counterterrorism okay so that's really what this is a ship is just like a big building okay that's floating okay so all the same things apply very soon after Griffin arrived the fledgling Commando unit was called on to deal with a hostage situation Griffin was asked to accompany them something he definitely hadn't signed up for up until this the Coast Guard were really

used for a Lifeboat service okay and for fishery protection that they hadn't used their weapons so on the way out they welded on a Russian anti-aircraft G and they were welding it on as we left the harbor so you know I suppose it's on the job training yeah but some people's on the job training involves been shown had to use a new computer not not getting RPGs for at you and and col the C yeah when it comes down to it okay when it comes right down to it you know you go into those situations

for the guys beside you okay sure you're doing it for your country okay and that was my experience certainly with the Army rangering I understand where these guys are they're young they're trying to defend their country all I did was just try and do the best I could to get them into the right type of training okay and to the right you know condition to go and face that fire yeah but these things on fault absolutely you have experience you're the most experienced man on that boat absolutely you're not going to stand back and say

and you you [ __ ] the the AK and you that's him over there he'd be a good fell at the F you're going to be in the thick of that H well it didn't happen no we're just getting into pirate season okay and as I said earlier with two s were gone already and there will be other incidents okay during this season okaye the guys just have to be ready for it and try and be one step ahead of the p in the ongoing battle for security in the Indian many countries and interested parties

are operating on the ground organizations like Interpol the FBI on the US Naval criminal investigative service also provide vital intelligence to the SE shells the SE shells is a perfect environment for us because of the aggressive nature of SE Show's law enforcement in dealing with with the problems of piracy and narcotics to work with ndaa and develop information that might lead to time interdiction of drugs that's what we get paid for to work with FIU and and Dean Barber and potentially get at the supporters of piracy that's that's what I get paid for I suppose

when you think about this it's extraordinary the Somali pirate ships here you've got the the PE bouts the gun bouts that have been a gift from the United Arab Emirates just there over there just to the left of those trees there's an American warship you've got the Earth guys who are assisting the the SE shells people and there's a huge amount of people have a vested interest in this place strategically it's incredibly important you've also got the French here Russians and the EU and everybody wants a little piece of this and because this place is

no money they have to take assistance from wherever they can get it and also keep their independence which is incredible tight rout that they have to walk it's I I don't envy them I really don't envy them the SE shell Zero Tolerance approach to piracy and the non-payment of ransoms has seen them engage in forceful military tactics which has led to the successful prevention of five separate pirate attacks the result the effective release of 35 hostages and the incarceration of 63 Somali pirates held here in the country's only prison if no ransoms are paid the

business model is dead but also ransoms are paid to protect life of course so where how do you find the balance the it is a very difficult balance the uh but I will look at it from a slightly different angle in any capital of the world or in any city of the world if a bus is taken hostage I doubt that ransoms will be paid now the fact that it's taking place at Sea should not mean that we suddenly agree that this is a lawless area and that we have different rules when pirates seese hostages

they are committing an act which is essentially terrorism my time in the SE shells was drawing to an end but there were still two hostages being held by Pirates somewhere off the coast despite that Nile Scully and his unit were going in a night drug raid to the outer islands and I persuaded them to take me with them right guys um last week we had an NDA team attempting to make an arrest on pralin and uh they were unable to affect that arrest as they were surrounded by a group of criminals uh at that time

they were outnumbered approximately 5 to one the mission Team Alpha zigi's Team we're going to advance the residence and a primary reason for being there is it is a drug search I had a report this evening that suspected Pirates have been cite approximately 20 nautical miles from our destination three Skiffs observed in the area I've instructed Ken when we board the bo to Lea with the team leaders and we want Lookouts posted on the way over and on the way back back and if it spot something Guys Don't Take Your Eye Off it if there's

any engagement to be done that would be done by the rear Gunner on the boat we're good to head down to the harbor now and we've just received the information not only are we going on a potentially dangerous ride but this Pirates about 20 mil from where we're going there's two ways of viewing it if you're are going to get met by Pirates to the right team to be with but at the same time it's a double threat h as I boarded the gunboat I was struck by the sheer scale and treacherous nature of the

job that this small group of men face in trying to protect these most hostile of waters as we got closer to the shores of pralin Island and the risk of a pirate attack got smaller I began to relax all we had to worry about now was the next stage of the operation to find confront and arrest a drug dealer and his gang there could be up to eight and it's a very small house but it just depends um what could be luing in fact the less people in here CRS the better it be easier to

control okay is this it basically what you would normally see in that blue paper was her her own wrapped MH in that blue paper the Hardline approach the Irish are taking to the seel's problems may be working on the ground but questions have been raised as to whether it can be effective in the long term waves of of foreign Nationals have come in and gone and the question is why we talk about the strong arm of the law but the strong arm of the law needs to be seen to be working if it's tied up

behind somebody's back and that's the general perception that very often that's what's happening and you can bring in as many foreigners and and many foreign Nationals to try and resolve the situation it's not going to go away because there isn't there there isn't the ultimate will to make it happen you hear stories all the time about who's bringing the drugs in I mean there small guys if they can't bring in 2 million uh rupees worth of drugs into the country we know who's got the money we know who who can bring the drugs in and

are those people are they in power here no they're well connected okay they're well connected and they obviously now very wealthy people do you think there's the political will here to catch the boys at the top a lot of people think they're very well connected but I would have to say it has been our experience that there's an awful lot of misperception out there for example that there are very big drug lords that some of them may be politically connected Li we hav an experience that directly now having said that perhaps someday we will actually

come against a a figure within the establishment or who's prominent in some other sense who is either organizing or involved in drug trafficking or money laundering or or whatever and and and we believe and I don't think we would stay here if we didn't we absolutely believe that that the government are completely committed so tell me what happened last week I know here tell me about this man I know you brought in one of the agents who was here last week yes he's by two people this this gentleman here and the guy who's just inside

searching being searched at the moment um this guy was present the guy who's inside was present he had machete he said the machete was in your hand yes it was in my hand but I not sure him is this the one it's very important for the agents and for the credibility of the agents that we do this um and that we show the Agents that we're prepared to stand up and back to and stand by them in situations like this otherwise you know uh it's going to be impossible for an agent to be able to

walk around here without being threatened what's the sh of the machete going to be chairs with uh threatening an NDA agent um obstructing an NDA agent threatening an NDA agent is a very serious offense okay it can result in up to 5 years imprisonment and are 300,000 Rupees of a fine get with t-shirt shoes to push whatever else he needs take a step back looking at coming over looking at What's Happening Here what's your personal overall view of the thing I would like to say I I you know I'm finishing up every Christmas I keep

saying I I'll finish up with Christmas however the job never seems to be finished and and you know I've committed to seeing this true to the end and you know I think the government and say shells and certain members of they've listened and they've had the patience to let us try what needs to be tried and has proven to be successful the big thing for me has been losing a lot of time with my family with my wife and my family that you know and you you can't get that back and no money replaces that

time you spent away from kids growing up and for birthdays no and I miss lots of that and I suppose with hindsight if you know I had to make this decision tomorrow knowing what I know now you know what I do it probably not the professional experience has been very worthwhile but I'm not sure I'd pay the personal price uh that I think we've all paid here I think I think any of the guys here but particularly no and myself who've been out here so long I said the same thing I wouldn't pay the personal

price again I feel yeah it's just a sense of responsibility and Duty that keeps you here it's not uh it's not for the beaches well we'll finish what we've [Music] started if you get a phone call from another State say to come over now do my wife didn't ask you to ask that no no let's pretend she's not listening all right okay um it it would be tempting and uh I don't it may be selfish on my part but it it certainly would be tempting [Music]