Military Drug Smiggling

When a bunch of SBS guys got busted smuggling a boat load of drugs in the late 1990's, you'd think that it would be a massive story. After all, these are the fellows who do an awful lot of counter-terrorism work, guard North Sea oil rigs and escort nuclear weapons.

So when three of them arrived, on remand, in Bristol nick there was quite a stir. Turns out that they sent their mates in the SBS who weren't smuggling to go and arrest them.

On arrival they were classified as Category -A, the highest security category, reserved for those whose escape must be made impossible due to the risk they pose to the public or the State. Cat-A's are personally escorted everywhere in the prison by screws and dogs.

So it was a bit of a surprise to be sitting in my room in the Education building and have a screw stick his head through the door. "Anyone seen a Cat-A...?" There was only one corridor and five rooms in the building, and this idiot had lost tabs on his prisoner. He was found browsing the Library.

These criminal geniuses were acquitted. They were charged with conspiring to import drugs into the UK. But their boat was stopped as it approached the Channel and they advanced the defence that they were actually going to Holland. Clever!

What still amazes me is how little media attention there was on this episode. Let's hope that drug smuggling is out of fashion with Special Forces these days, particularly given their theatre of action is now the worlds centre for heroin production.