2. The Man with the Rubber Face

In 1983 a sleepy fishing village in West Wales 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 Pembrokeshire coastline. But the smugglers overlooked an important detail: the inquisitive locals and dogged rural detectives who hunt them down.

What begins as a rural investigation eventually 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 second episode, the local detectives begin to close in on the gang with the help of intelligence from the observant locals. The two men already in custody reveal some strange coincidences under questioning and a third man is arrested. He’s caught after a high-speed chase that nearly ends in him falling to his death. Back at the station, he tells detectives “When you find out who I am you will have a very big surprise.”

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.