which is straight after this programme. there is a ship at the bottom of this harbour that was once used by an organised crime group. there is no name on the ship, but i can identify it from the serial number. it's called the rich harvest... ..and it made news

headlines here in 2017. my name is ga dalomba. i'm a rapperfrom cape verde. ever since the ship arrived in my island, i've been captivated by the story. and ifound there is so much more to it than i could ever imagine. the owner of the boat, the alleged mastermind of the drug—trafficking operation, is yet to face justice. his name is george saul — known by his nickname fox. now i'm going searching for him, following his trail across three continents...

the car just arrived. ..to hopefully find out his side of the story. yeah, we can see him now. my islands of cape verde, right in the middle of the atlantic, are a little paradise on earth with all—year—round sun and beautiful beaches. but the location of cape verde has always been a blessing and a curse. its position between south america and europe makes cape verde a hub for drug traffickers. the traffickers�* route is known as highway 10, named after the tenth parallel north — a circle of latitude which passes by cape verde

on the shortest route across the atlantic — with europe's $11 billion cocaine market often the traffickers�* final destination. according to the united nations office on drugs and crime, at least 50 tonnes of cocaine crosses west africa every year, with most arriving via highway 10. but around 30% of it is sold during transit and countries like cape verde suffered the consequences. unfortunately, i know a lot about the cocaine trade... ..because even though this is me today — a celebrity on the red carpet — a lot of people

don't know my story. i was a regular cocaine user. it's sad, the first time i used drugs. it's very sad. i was nine years old. it's messed up, what happened. me and a friend of mine, my brother till today, with somebody that was a guard at his house, we were sitting in a garage in the afternoon like this. he gave me what he had. that action was a monster action. why would you pass narcotics to a nine—year—old kid, man? why, bro? like. . . it's not acceptable. from there on, i fell in love with cocaine.

i was a slave for drugs. i was a slave. and the sad part of it... ..it�*s how i made anything or anybody that loves me become a slave as well. when i was a user, it was simple to buy cocaine. but today, it's even easier. i even found this graffiti on one street advertising drugs for sale. of course, the simplest way to prevent cocaine getting into cape verde is at the border. i met with the police officer who supervised the search of the rich harvest. he wants us to film him

anonymously because he's scared of reprisals from organised crime groups. but he agrees to talk me through what happened that day. tell me about the search — how hard was it? what did the crew tell you?

this is the brazilian crew who sailed the rich harvest. each of them was sentenced to ten years in this cape verde prison. their convictions were later overturned, and the case dismissed. it was these sailors who claimed that a british man, fox, was responsible. i want to speak to fox — but first, i need to find out exactly what happened from the crew who sailed the rich harvest. i'm teaming up with bbc braziljournalist

cristine kist, who has been following an investigation by the brazilian authorities into the rich harvest and tracking down the brazilian crew. hi, ga, nice to meet you. how are you doing? i'm doing fine, welcome. thank you very much. so, this is daniel, one of the sailors. 0k. and these are daniel and rodrigo, two sailors. rodrigo dantas was only 2a when he joined the crew of the rich harvest, having seen a job advert on facebook. like all the crew, he had no idea there were drugs onboard the boat. the position was unpaid, but rodrigo�*s videos show

how excited he was for the opportunity of a lifetime... ..to sail across the atlantic and fulfil his goal of becoming a professional sailor. rodrigo agrees to meet to tell us his story. as a sailor, what were your dreams?

you know when you talk to people, it's best to talk to the person who's... and also in a language they understand. fox appears happy and relaxed. the only one who brazilian police believe knows the boat's secret.

0ne tonne of cocaine is hidden under the crew's beds. fox, rodrigo, and the rest of the crew departed the next day... ..unaware that the police were monitoring their every move. fox sailed the rich harvest up the coast to natal. this would be their last port before their atlantic crossing began. we've come to meet daniel guerra, one of the other crew members,

at the natal yacht club, where the rich harvest docked. i've got some pictures, maybe you recognise them. let's see. yeah. is this familiar to you? yes. these photos of fox were taken by undercover brazilian police here in natal. let's check this one out — this is the restaurant. yeah, i rememberthe day. rodrigo, fox, they went in some store to buy some tubes. - i was waiting in the boat. when they arrived, i saw two guys there in the restaurant. j they took the picture - from the glass, you know? we saw this picture first time when we were in. the jail in cape verde. five days after these photos were taken, fox flew back to the uk, claiming he had to attend a friend's wedding. a few days later, the rich harvest set sail for europe. fox was already back in the uk,

so a new captain was hired to skipper the boat. according to brazilian police, he was also completely unaware of the cocaine hidden onboard. at first, the journey went well. then, in the middle of the atlantic, the ship's engine broke down. the crew had no option. they had to stop in cape verde for repairs. and in a matter of hours, rodrigo and daniel's worlds came crashing down. did you know how much trouble you were in? how did you feel when the judge gave you ten years? wow.

if you met fox right now, what would you tell him?

do you know where he is? we've managed to find fox's instagram account. it's a gold mine of information. if we can figure out where he's posted from in the past, we might be able to predict where he goes next. i can see that over the years, he has travelled a lot. there are posts tagged in gibraltar, but also

botswana, the virgin islands, spain, berlin, and the netherlands. but most of the posts are from the united kingdom and we already know fox is a british citizen... good girl. ..so it's time for us to continue our search in the uk. cristine and i are teaming up with a british journalist — a guy called colin freeman. hi, guys, thanks for coming. nice to see you. how are you doing, colin? nice to meet you, i how are you doing? colin has written about cape verde before and he's been searching for fox for the last five years. he says he has some new information. can i get you guys . some tea or coffee? anything to drink? tea.

tea as well. so, colin, it's been a couple of years, right? you're still working on the story — why is that? well, it fascinated me, the rich harvest story, j because it'sjust one of these sort of strange, intriguing - cases, really, where somebody, you know, has had the finger. pointed at them but never seems to have actually . faced any court over it. colin plays an audio recording by a man called robert delbos. delbos was convicted of marijuana trafficking in the 1980s. he sailed the rich harvest down to brazil with fox back in 2016. delbos played no part in the cocaine trafficking and was acquitted by brazilian authorities in 2021. so he was expecting to make three million off of this?

apparently, yeah. apparently, that was the going rate for a transatlantic- trafficking operation. it seems, from what delbos was saying there, that fox was — - he was accusing fox of cutting corners, of essentially hiring i an innocent crew to do - the job unwittingly, rather than hiring a professional team of smugglers, which he could l have done with some of the three million l that he was allegedly getting paid for the job. _ and, according to delbos, even in the world of drug i trafficking, there are some dos and don'ts. _ some ethics, as it were.

you should not be using. innocent people as mules. that'sjust notl on in his world. we take our search for fox online again and try a public records database for business in the uk. when we enter the name george saul into this database, seven different uk addresses come up. all of these addresses are in a city called norwich, to the east of london. and we already know fox — or george saul — has connections to norwich from some of his instagram posts. but where exactly can we find him? a new search combining his name with his business addresses leads us to a profile page for fox on the website of a professional networking group.

scrolling through the group's web page, we find that the members meet every thursday morning at 7am at a hotel on the outskirts of the city. and on their socials, we see that fox is a regular attendee. this is a great lead, and that's where we go next. maybe just one of us should go, not to scare him off, but also for safety reasons. like, if something happens, it's easier ifjust one of us has to come back to the van. 0k, yeah. look, do you want me to go? if he decides to try— and chase me away, then i can make a quick exit, hopefully. yeah, 0k. 0k. our plan is to wait until fox arrives. then, when he's walking

to the reception, we will intercept him and ask him a few questions. we're still waiting here and there's no sign of saul yet. | it's about 6.45am in the morning. the business meeting| is due to start at 7am. i'm hoping that hei is going to turn up. there's plenty of comings . and goings, though, so let's just hope that fox turns up. jules, ourspotter, is positioned in a vehicle by the entrance to the car park, watching all the cars arriving. we are communicating with each other on an open phone line. jules, are you there? yeah, yeah. - what time does - he normally get here? now — yeah, he's two minutes late. 0k. it feels a bit nerve—racking. there's a lot riding on this. with doorsteps, -

the thing is, you only get one chance at them. stand by, stand by. car approaching — yes, yes, his car is here. 0k. turning into the hotel now — go. go _ he's getting out of the car, and so is the dog. dog barks excuse me, i'm from the bbc. i was wondering if i could ask. you a few questions about your yacht, the rich harvest? erm, no. can you explain why more than a tonne of cocaine i was found onboard it... what? _ ..back in 2017? - go away — seriously. brazilian police say thatj you are an international drug trafficker. - well, i'm not, so... and that you masterminded this operation to put a tonne - of cocaine on the rich

harvest boat, and... i listen, i'm not doing this, so... i'm not here to talk to you. there were four sailors, i innocent sailors, who went to prison as a result . of the drugs that were found on that boat. guys, this is such a strange... do you accept that i that was your fault? this is such a strange... you're walking away. is that what you do - if trouble takes place? have you got any remorse over what happened? - would you consider. going back to brazil? there's a case to answer there, isn't there? - sorry... yeah, sorry, carry on. we're here to listen. i'm not here to talk, i'm afraid. if you want, - there's probably... you've probably got your own version of events. . if you want to give usl your side of the story, you're welcome to, yeah. right, he's driving off. 0k.

didn't want to talk. i think we all should have both sides of the story — but unfortunately, we couldn't get his. we wrote to george saul to ask if he had anything else to say about the allegations contained in this film. however, we received no reply. we asked the national crime agency in the uk if they are aware of george saul and the crime the brazilian police suspect him of. the nca said if brazil chooses to pursue extradition from the uk, they would need to send a full extradition request to the home office as the central authority.

there is currently no warrant in place to arrest george saul and we are not aware of any offences he may have committed in the uk. back in cape verde, i know the war against drugs has no end. my country will never be free from the scourge of cocaine until people like fox are fully investigated. justice must be done. and if he's found to be guilty, then he must take responsibility for his actions.

hello there. high pressure continues to dominate. for many, a lot of low, grey cloud around on thursday. but for a favoured few, we had some sunshine north—west wales, north—west england along with the far north of scotland, a beautiful day here. and temperatures responded — a high of 19 celsius. quite unusual to get 19 celsius in scotland, in november — it's only happened twice in the last 20 years. but in staffordshire, it's a disappointing day, where the cloud lingered and the mist lurked — only a high of nine celsius. now, as we move out of thursday into friday, we're still under this influence of high pressure. bit more of a breeze out

towards the west, continuing — and that is the reason for breaking up some of the cloud on thursday. so, there is a chance that we could see that happening again during friday. we start off on a relatively mild note, 8—9 celsius in the east, double digits out to the west. again, a cloudy, misty start across central and south—east england. the mist lifting to low cloud. hopefully, the breeze will break up the cloud, particularly once again in northern scotland. so, there will be some glimpses of sunshine for some, and temperatures again ranging between 12—13 celsius — we might see a 16 if we get the sunshine coming through. then, as we move into saturday, almost a repeat performance once again. a lot of cloud around. by the end of the day we could see some patchy drizzle into northern ireland, perhaps wales and southwest england, as well. scotland could again see the best of any sunny breaks. 11—14 celsius here — we might again get 16 somewhere in the south—west. sunday, remembrance sunday, anotherfront will move in —

this time, it could bring some showery outbreaks of rain with it but, as that front moves through, it's a cold front. it's going to introduce cleaner, fresher air following on behind — welcome news for many of us. top temperatures through sunday afternoon, again, between 12—16 celsius. but as we move into monday and that weather front eases away, we see this area of high pressure building in from the west. so, change in wind direction will certainly bring a change of fortunes for many. there is a greater chance for sunshine on monday. the cloud breaking up, and temperatures staying slightly above where they should be for this time of year.

live from singapore, this is bbc news. donald trump makes the first appointment of his upcoming term, naming his campaign manager, susie wiles, as chief of staff. presidentjoe biden addresses the nation for the first time since the election, saying there must be a "peaceful tra nsition" of power. something i hope we can do no matter who you voted for see each other not as adverse areas, but as fellow americans. bring down the temperature. —— adversaries. meanwhile, russia's president putin congratulates mr trump on his victory and praises his comments on ending the war in ukraine. and prosecutors in argentina charge three people over the death of liam payne, the former 0ne direction pop star who fell from a hotel balcony last month.