1. The Secret Chamber

In 1983 a sleepy Pembrokeshire fishing village became the unlikely setting for an audacious drug smuggling plot worth millions of pounds. A gang of international drug runners planned to traffic tonnes of cannabis via the remote coastline of West Wales. But the smugglers overlooked one important thing: the inquisitive locals and dogged rural detectives who hunt them down.

The investigation leads the local police on an international adventure involving speed boats, supercars with hidden panels, mansions with buried treasure and a cast of eccentric characters. Told by the people who were there, this is the story of how a small Welsh community and a local police force came together to take on an international drugs ring.

In this first episode, the local farmers and fisherman of Newport make a series of strange discoveries. Oddly dressed men traipsing over private clifftop farmland. Expensive marine equipment found at a cove only accessible by boat. And a hatch hidden in the shingle of another beach, which leads to a huge underground chamber…

CREDITS Includes extracts from the book “Operation Seal Bay” by Pat Molloy Narrator: Hannah Daniel Producer and Editor: James Hale Executive Producer: Steve Robinson Researcher: Tane Rogers-Eirug Music and Sound Design: James Hale Additional Musicians: Lowri Mair Jones and Mark Foley Actors: Llinor ap Gwynedd, Aneirin Hughes, John Rowley, Gruff Harries and Scheiffer Bates Additional Mixing & Mastering: Hoot Studios

A Lazerbeam production for BBC Sounds.