[church bells ring]
[cheering]
[electronic music plays]
[Candy Man] When you're handing someone a pill,
you're handing someone love, innit?
Enjoyment and a good time.
[Haze] I don't really see myself as a criminal, man.
[Big Trish] Customers love the pure MDMA.
[Haze] I've got a guy that sends it over from Europe, 'Dam.
[Vincent] This is what they want now in the UK.
And we send a lot of them.
They could die of a heart attack because they're not used to it.
[sirens wailing]
[officer] Police!
[Crow] The culture of raves is excess.
If you wanna drop your pill right here or right there, it makes no difference.
I don't think that anyone can stop...
the drug problem.
[DJ shouts] Make some noise!
[siren wailing]
[Haze] I'd rather sell the real MDMA,
'cause pills are normally mixed with a lot of shit.
MDMA, you see it, you can taste it,
you know it's pure.
[narrator] Haze is based in Birmingham,
in the heart of the UK.
He's just picked up a kilo of the dance drug, MDMA.
[Haze] I've got a guy that sends it over from Europe, 'Dam.
Best shit I've had for ages.
[narrator] MDMA usually comes in a pill,
but Haze prefers dealing in crystal.
[Haze] If it's been mixed with anything, you can taste it.
I've been taking ecstasy since I was about 16.
You know, I know my game.
[man] What does it taste like?
[Haze] Sour.
Sour.
That's what they called it.
Like, when we was raving, like...
four, five times a week,
we used to call it sour power.
[laughs]
If it's not sour, if it don't make you argh...
It's not... it's not the thing.
["Get The Job Done" plays]
♪ Let's go ♪
- ♪ Round 'em up ♪ - ♪ Let's get it ♪
- ♪ We're about to get it ♪ - ♪ Get it ♪
[narrator] Haze distributes to a network of street dealers.
♪ Y'all, y'all, y'all ♪
♪ Top level don rebels We will not settle ♪
♪ Got 'em locked leveled Make it pop like a hot kettle ♪
[Haze] Take a kilo and chop it down.
Obviously, people have been waiting for it when it comes normally anyway,
so I'll probably have half of it sold as soon as I get it.
I paid ã275 per key,
and I'll... I'll raise double,
so I'm doing all right.
It's not too bad. It's a good income.
♪ Nobody get the job done Like the king does ♪
♪ Feel that quick rush Running through your veins ♪
♪ It's insane how I keep it going Yeah, we maintain ♪
I don't really see myself as a criminal, man.
I would say I'm a law abiding citizen.
[narrator] The cops wouldn't agree.
So Haze has to take precautions.
[Haze] I mean, you have to have reliable people around you whatever you do.
You know, you gotta have people
that are gonna do what they say they gonna do.
Otherwise, it just fucks up your own shit.
[Big Trish] Well, I'll give half of it to my G, which is my friend,
and then, I'll take a quarter of it, I'll break it down...
and I'll sell that.
[narrator] Big Trish usually sells at parties and clubs.
It'll all go on one weekend because it's that good.
[narrator] But with summer coming,
there's only one place for dealers like Trish to be.
[Big Trish] It's easy for me to get my stuff into the festivals because...
[chuckles]
Well, I'm not gonna give all my secrets,
but I'm a woman, so it's very easy.
[screaming]
[narrator] As police and security move through the crowd,
Trish uses a tactic that plays straight to the heart
of what MDMA is all about.
[Big Trish] I hug a lot of people when I see them,
so it doesn't really look as bait.
I'll just see my friend, and I'll hug him or I'll hug her,
and we just do the exchange, and you probably wouldn't even notice it.
You've just gotta be very clever and, also, inconspicuous.
[upbeat music plays]
[narrator] Every summer, the UK goes festival mad,
and the demand for drugs skyrockets.
And the chemicals soon kick in.
I've took about half a gram of MDMA.
Um, I've taken a pill, so I think it's MD and ecstasy.
Two grams of cocaine, uh...
It's pretty strong.
[laughs]
And about six pills.
Just feels like everywhere is really loud,
and I wanna go towards the music and dance and... and have a good time.
Well, that's why we're at the festival.
I'm not gonna sit here and play the fucking piano, am I?
Do you know what I mean?
[narrator] Dealers like Trish rise to the demand.
[Big Trish] Summer ain't over yet, is it? It's just beginning.
So, yeah.
There's a few more festivals coming up, so...
yeah, I'm ready.
[narrator] But the cops are ready, too.
[man over radio] Six-three-three, we're about one minute away now.
[Short] There's a lot of work being done in the background leading up to this.
[narrator] It's a few days after the festival,
and West Midlands Police are targeting an MDMA distributor
in the Birmingham area.
[Short] The intelligence is that
one of the occupants is quite high up in the chain of distribution.
The main dealers will have runners working for them that they'll send out,
but they're using or dealing all different types of drugs.
[narrator] Taking out a key supplier could do a lot of damage
to the region's drug network.
[Short] It's gonna be a rapid entry when we get there.
Secure people inside, and then do a full search of the premises.
- Police! Step away from the door! - Police!
Police! Stand away from the door! Police!
It's all under control.
Uh, two occupants and a child.
Uh...
All secure in there, sat down there with officers,
so now it's the painstaking search time.
[sighs]
There ain't gonna be nothing here, is there?
[narrator] While the search continues,
Sergeant Short heads outside.
[Short] Come have a look at the car.
[narrator] The car search begins to yield results.
- [Short] Is it a lock knife? - [man] Yeah.
[Short] We'll have to seize that, won't we?
It's an offense to have one in public.
That's the type of weapons that we're coming up against quite regular, that is.
[narrator] And back inside the apartment...
[Short] It was just in a pot in the kitchen.
[narrator] ...a chance to hit the distributor where it hurts.
Uh, looking at probably about ã10,000...
in cash.
Yeah. All in ã20 notes, you can see.
That will be seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
This would be a sign of some sort of drug dealing.
The intelligence we got is that he's high up the chain of the dealing,
so he wouldn't keep the drugs, he'd bring, import them in
and sell it on straightaway. And it's being dealt from other premises.
[narrator] A bust like this won't affect the supply chain for long.
Because the UK lies
next to one of the world's biggest producers of MDMA...
the Netherlands.
[Vincent] Children live here.
People walk with their dogs.
It's just a normal neighborhood.
Bad things happen in normal places.
[narrator] Vincent has been making pills in a quiet Dutch suburb
for five years.
[Vincent] This is the stamp.
The Blue Punishers.
So I have to put it in there correctly.
But you can buy all kinds of stamps...
Donald Trumpies, whatever you want.
I also have big machines,
but this is what I use for small, fast orders.
You can use this everywhere, we're now in a shed.
This one can make up to 6,000 pills in one hour.
[narrator] Vincent is aware of the mixed rep pills have
among users in the UK.
[Vincent] The UK market changed a lot.
A few years ago, they'd take everything,
but now, they're used to quality.
So we have to send good quality, or they're not, they're not gonna buy it.
[narrator] So his pills have just one main ingredient.
[Vincent] This is MDMA.
This is the best to make pills.
[narrator] MDMA traditionally comes from a compound that's organic.
But Vincent's MDMA is made differently.
[whirring]
The result is purer...
cheaper...
and it's taking the ecstasy trade by storm.
[Vincent] The high is very intense,
and the rush possibly lasts longer.
And you can make them as soon as you want.
They also get bigger in here. For example, 100mg, 200mg, 250.
[narrator] The good news for British buyers
comes with a catch.
It's also dangerous because if you take too much, you can die.
They could die of a heart attack because they're not used to it.
It's their fault if they take too much.
[narrator] For Vincent, the drug trade is all about one thing...
profit.
[Vincent] The harder you work, the more you sell.
You can make 10,000 euros each week.
So, I can buy whatever I want, I can do whatever I want,
I can go on holiday whenever I want.
So, it's just like a little bit of freedom for me.
[machine buzzing]
If you're scared to go to prison, then don't do this, it's not for you.
You can't be scared all the time. If you're scared, you make mistakes.
[knocking]
[engine turns over]
["The Devil Rides Out" plays]
[Frank] There's a lot of police activity everywhere.
I hear helicopters, see police cars.
[narrator] Frank heads up the trafficking side of the operation.
[Frank] We have our own crew,
our own organization.
And everybody got their tasks.
I make sure the transport is okay, so that everything gets packed...
to stash cars and this gets shipped to the UK.
[narrator] His team makes up to ten trips to the UK every year.
When it arrives and they get sold, I get a piece of the pie.
Per kilo, it's like 2,500 euros for pills and MDMA.
It's a big business in the UK right now.
That's what we're aiming for.
♪ Y'all got it comin' When the devil rides out ♪
♪ When the devil rides out ♪
Right now, I'm busy in the evening.
My family kind of knows that something's up.
'Cause they see I don't have usual business hours like from 9:00 to 5:00.
But they don't ask a lot of questions.
So I just keep it that way.
[narrator] It takes nearly seven hours to get to the UK via car ferry.
Remaining cool is one part,
but it's also stay calm.
Don't draw attention.
If you draw attention, you get caught.
[narrator] The pills are soon landed at the Port of Harwich
and heading for the UK's capital...
London.
[siren wailing]
["The Ends" plays]
♪ Tell a young boy come They be like OK ♪
♪ I comin from the streets Where dem man don't play ♪
♪ Wanna know about beef Wanna know about peak? ♪
♪ Wanna know about street Come and fuck my straight ♪
♪ What can I say Bare man a move sick in their ends ♪
♪ Bare man wanna switch and pretend You snitch in the ends ♪
I got the link to the man that made it.
That's ten times better than sending your money online
and waiting for the postman.
That's all I'm saying, so.
[narrator] Candy Man is a distributor with a Dutch connection,
who sells all over the UK.
When you're handing someone a pill, yeah, you're handing someone love, innit?
Enjoyment and a good time.
People like to self-medicate with ecstasy and it's never gonna stop.
Ecstasy is just something people will always do.
Yeah, so someone's ordered something.
Gonna weigh them up quickly.
[narrator] Just like a real candy store,
he offers a tempting range of products...
at a price.
If you sold every pill for ã10,
that would be on the street like, what,
ã30,000.
Everyone's selling, by the way, like...
Probably some of the people watching your documentary,
they don't know that their little 17-year-old Harry
is ordering drugs online, 300 pills.
They're youngsters, they're on it,
they're like what I would have been doing when I was a kid if I knew about drugs.
Going with his mates, sell it to all of them.
Gonna come back with three grand.
And buy your parents a holiday or some shit.
But he ain't gonna buy you a holiday.
He's gonna go and have more fun. It's just what I'm saying.
That's what we're living in. That time, man.
[narrator] In such a fluid market, you need to promote your product.
Candy Man must reach out to influencers
to help him spread the word.
[cell phone rings]
Yeah, how long you gonna be?
- [man] I'm at Bridge Road now. - All right cool. Bye.
Done, mate.
[siren wailing]
[horn honks]
[Mr. Smith] London is very unpredictable.
You can meet anybody from all walks of life.
Anyone could be a potential threat.
At the same time, anyone can be your friend.
♪ I saw you look at me ♪
♪ I felt the rush ♪
♪ I felt the chemistry ♪
♪ I know you felt it, too ♪
♪ I saw it in your eyes ♪
♪ It called to me ♪
[narrator] Mr. Smith has access to an underground dance scene...
[siren wailing]
that has no security...
and no rules.
Illegal raves.
[Mr. Smith] The rave scene and the drugs within the rave scene
might appear frightening to someone who does not know.
First couple of raves I went to, they were just like...
frothing at the mouths,
like foam was coming out of their mouths, like...
moving around and whatnot.
[narrator] For dealers, raves are a great place
to generate a buzz around a new brand of pills.
[siren wailing]
[Mr. Smith] If you're in the know, you're in the know.
And if a party happens, it doesn't happen,
if you're there, you're present,
you know, you're famous, or you're infamous.
[dog barking]
[narrator] And what ravers take today,
the festival crowd will take tomorrow.
[Mr. Smith] Everyone's got a mobile phone in their pocket, Facebook, everything.
Tonight, there's only a sort of few on sale.
What these are is pure MDMA pills.
These are the Premiers.
Each one has got pictures of, like, different football clubs.
I don't follow football, mate. I can't read that shit.
But, anyway, that's what it is.
That cost me 150,
and I'll be selling each one for about 20 quid each.
I'm hoping to get about ã400 profit off that.
[narrator] To realize that profit,
Smith needs to get the product to market.
But in the underground, nothing is easy.
Last three years has been big issues, mate.
Parties going up, parties going down.
It's hard to know when things are gonna be a success,
and when things aren't.
[narrator] Luckily, Smith has the right connections.
[Crow] Cracking is getting into buildings
so that people can use them for raves.
[narrator] Crow is hunting for rave venues.
He knows the score.
[Crow] We don't know if a building will have alarms, CCTV,
and that could trip us up.
When I'm going to crack a building,
the first thing that runs into my mind is...
whether or not there's witnesses.
[narrator] He's scoping his first target of the night.
[siren wailing]
[Crow] Here's a little something for you.
After climbing all this shit,
found an entrance right here.
This down here looks like an entrance.
[clattering]
Fucking pigeons and shit, man!
[pigeon fluttering]
This place is definitely under construction.
It was abandoned, but now they're renovating it.
This is not good.
There are a lot of cameras here.
So I'm gonna have to leave.
[narrator] Crow isn't having a lot of luck,
but he's got help.
And one of his crew has spotted something.
Looks like an abandoned building site thing.
[Crow] Jump over from here, fam.
Come on.
Yeah, we got the lock here.
We got the lock here, we can pull this down.
I think there's a second lock somewhere here as well. There it is.
[K] What we need to do is either bust that lock...
or the lock down there.
[Crow] We might as well do that one, 'cause that's an actual door.
[K] Wait, wait. Hold up, hold up, hold up.
Hold up.
Wait for the people to go.
Hold on.
[Crow] We got it.
Quick, quick, quick, quick.
This is nice, mate. This is fucking nice!
[narrator] Crow's getting a good feeling.
[K] How many entrances does it have?
[Crow] Usable entrances, it has about three.
[narrator] He's got a plan to fend off the cops...
if they buy it.
[Crow] We are, in fact, in an abandoned building.
I'm putting on Section 144, this clears our name as squatters.
It officializes squatters' rights on this building.
First is, you need to get your supplies.
That's your rigs...
power...
your decks...
your speakers.
Sometimes a little bit of drugs as well.
Did you put the snap out saying "inbox for location," yeah?
[K] Yeah.
[narrator] Crow and his crew start plugging their contacts.
You just keep telling people to ask for the location,
and then we just send it to them.
To, like 3,000 people.
Literally, you have to go through every single person.
[narrator] Social media isn't safe,
and that means messaging everyone individually.
It was very easy to stay ahead of the police at one point.
It's becoming a bit harder and harder now.
[K] What did you stop at last?
[Crow] A lot of times, it's through social media.
But, of course, social media has become more and more, uh...
bait to the police.
Because there's a lot of undercover police acting as normal accounts on there.
So, nowadays, we're trying to go more through personal messages
and word of mouth.
[cell phone chimes]
Um...
There is a rave happening.
[narrator] Mr Smith knows that once he's inside the venue,
he and his pills will be safe.
But getting in won't be easy.
[Mr. Smith] My main concerns for getting into a venue
are the authorities.
The police want to shut things down.
You don't wanna get stopped and searched, it's not worth it.
[dance music plays]
[narrator] The rave is heating up.
[Crow] The culture of raves is excess.
You wanna smoke weed, you can.
If you wanna drop your pill right here or right there, it makes no difference.
[narrator] But cops are already on the scene.
[dramatic music plays]
[siren wailing]
[indistinct police radio chatter]
[Crow] I don't know if you didn't read that.
We're using this building as a squat and a temporary house.
I don't need to give you a name. I'm a squatter.
- [officer] What? - [Crow] Squatter.
[officer] You're all on CCTV at this current moment in time.
So you can either leave with your gear or you'll be leaving without it.
[narrator] Caught between a rock and a hard place,
Crow is out of options.
[Crow] Well, when the police come and block off the entrances,
and they circle the buildings, there's nothing more we can do.
So, it's looking like a done deal.
[narrator] The party's over,
but Mr. Smith did okay.
I was still able to, you know,
sell enough before any police bullshit happened.
["If You Want It" plays]
I've made 90 tonight.
I'm just gonna try and see if I can find some more customers.
♪ If you want it, want it ♪
♪ You want it, come on, come on ♪
♪ So you really want it all ♪
♪ You just can't get enough ♪
♪ Be careful what you wish for ♪
♪ I might just give it up ♪
[narrator] With super strength pills selling at raves,
the word soon spreads.
Demand starts to build...
and dealers are on hand to supply.
[Smiler] I don't know if these are killing people,
but they're very strong, I will say that much.
[narrator] Smiler has just picked up a batch.
My busiest season is the festival season.
May to September,
there's money to be made every week in different parts of the country.
[narrator] He's driving through the night.
His destination?
A major festival.
[Smiler] Obviously, right now, the country's on high terror alert.
So the fact that we're on high terror alert,
it means that anyone with a bag that's bigger than the A4 size
is considered... could be a threat.
You'd have to, obviously, get past the sniffer dogs,
you have to get past the search.
There is a network that people do use to get into festivals.
But myself, I just have to get a little bit lucky, that's all.
[narrator] The festival is happening 200 miles from London,
just outside the UK's northern powerhouse...
Manchester.
["Not Gonna be Alone" plays]
[announcer] Make some noise!
[cheering]
[Dickenson] These are people that have potentially been identified as carrying.
So anybody that is identified as potentially carrying
is then led into a separate tent here.
- [officer] Who you here with today? - Three friends.
- [officer] They gone in? - [man] Yeah.
[narrator] Police are guarding the entrances,
zeroing in on anyone suspicious.
[man] Honestly, these were all for them.
[officer 2] He's been paid to bring them in?
[officer] Right.
They've chucked me an extra five
to put it in my thingy and get through with it.
This is the worst thing in the world.
It looks like I'm dealing, and I swear to God I'm not.
[officer] It's gonna be in your benefit
if you pass me details of who's paid you to bring them in.
[narrator] But the man says nothing.
Let me just inform you, at this moment in time,
I'm arresting you on suspicion
of being in possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply.
[handcuffs clicking]
[electronic music plays]
[narrator] With the cops busy,
Smiler has made it through.
[Smiler] I know what I've come to do. Like, I'm not afraid.
If I act afraid they'll... they'll pick up on my fear.
I leave the worrying up to the other people.
[narrator] He's soon doing brisk business.
Police are aware that high strength pills are on site.
Every festival you seem to go to at the moment,
there is, you know, reported deaths which occur.
You can see some of the ages of people coming into the festival.
They're relatively young, and...
uh, obviously we need to make sure that they're protected.
[narrator] Inside the festival,
it's down to the organizers to respond.
There's obviously major concern given the strength of them.
That message has obviously been relayed throughout the site
as well for festival goers,
just to make sure that they're aware of that.
[narrator] But on the streets, the cops can do more.
A GMP Tactical Unit
is on its way to an address in Greater Manchester.
Their mission:
to disrupt the distribution network with links to the Netherlands.
[Broadbent] The organized crime group that we're targeting today
could be involved in distributing ecstasy.
When we arrive at the address, we have a number of concerns go through our head.
The first major concern will be
what access do they have to any potential weapon.
Hopefully, a state of shock takes place,
so people tend to stop what they're doing and look before they then decide to move.
So as long as we're on the ball, hopefully everything will go to plan,
and we'll try to, essentially, dominate and contain
any person on that... on that property.
[dramatic music plays]
[officer] Right, everybody!
[narrator] Police hit multiple entrances to the property at the same time.
Anyone here?
[officer speaking indistinctly]
Police!
All clear. It's alright.
Police!
All clear.
- All clear? - Yeah.
[narrator] The gang has already fled.
An extensive search begins.
A small amount of cannabis isn't much of a haul.
Then they strike gold.
No drugs, but maybe something better.
[officer] We've got two, uh, passports relating to the subject.
Uh, they're Dutch passports.
So that ties into the intelligence picture around this operation.
[narrator] Another piece in the jigsaw
that could bust the Dutch supply ring wide open.
But this is just one region in one part of the UK.
Meanwhile, the Dutch connection continues to churn out pills.
[Vincent] It's a daily business for me, so...
It's like you are now filming me,
that's your work, this is my work.
[narrator] Dealers and distributors continue to push them.
[Vincent] There's more pure pills now, 'cause there's more access to MDMA.
You can get it freely now, so, obviously, the pills are gonna be pure.
[narrator] And with the UK festival scene growing larger,
there will always be someone waiting in the wings.
[Smiler] I don't think that anyone can stop the drug problem.
'Cause if I don't give it to someone,
someone else is gonna give it to them.
♪ Okay, I'm from a place Where they play the chase ♪
♪ 'Round here ♪
♪ These ladies ride hard as a man Just for a taste ♪
♪ Man, we ride ♪
♪ See, the hustling's in my blood ♪
♪ Mama told me keep going Till that sun come up ♪
♪ Boy, I'm hard ♪
♪ I was built by the game ♪
♪ You don't really want this drive Well, stay in your lane ♪
♪ See, we move ♪
♪ Like a thief in the night ♪
♪ You will never see us coming But I'm dumpin' on site ♪
♪ On site, on site ♪