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Factual: Crime & Justice

A dramatic hunt for one of Europe's most-wanted people smugglers, recorded as it unfolds.

Two seasoned investigators go on a dramatic hunt for one of Europe's most-wanted crime bosses. Code-named Scorpion, he's smuggled thousands of people into the UK and is on the run.

'Jaw dropping', 'gripping', 'bingeable,' 'thrilling' - dramatic true stories and investigations that reveal how the world really works.

To Catch A Scorpion: The dramatic hunt for one of Europe's most-wanted people smugglers, recorded as it unfolds. 

BBC journalist, Sue Mitchell, and former soldier and aid worker, Rob Lawrie go on a search for a crime boss: a people smuggler on the run, whose codename is Scorpion. He is one of the central characters controlling the transport of migrants from the European mainland into the UK. 

Barzan Majeed - codenamed Scorpion - leads the Scorpion gang. He's on international most-wanted lists. He started his criminal career in Britain and went on to build a smuggling empire which now spans the globe. 

An international police surveillance operation trapped more than 20 of his gang and almost netted Scorpion himself, but he was tipped off and escaped. 

Sue and Rob, two seasoned investigators, team up to try to do what the police have been unable to achieve: to find Scorpion, to speak to him, to ask him to account for his crimes and to seek justice for the families he has harmed. 

Their investigation takes them to the heart of an organised criminal gang making millions from transporting thousands of migrants on boat and lorry crossings that in some cases have gone dangerously wrong, causing serious injury and putting lives at risk. They witness his operation in action and record as intense situations unfold, where vulnerable people desperate for a better future, put their lives in the hands of ruthless and dangerous criminals. 

As they edge ever closer, they meet the people helping and supporting Scorpion and unpick the financial side of his business funding his luxury life. As they start to understand the man himself, can they garner enough clues to trace his whereabouts?

Mayday

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Intrigue: Mayday: Mayday: The Evidence Gatherers

Factual

Mayday: The Evidence Gatherers

BBC Radio 4 - Intrigue, Mayday, Mayday: The Evidence Gatherers

More than a million documents have been taken out of Syria by a Western funded NGO.

A Western-funded NGO has helped extract more than a million documents from Syria which they say contain evidence of war crimes but the information warfare has now turned on them.

In a secret location in a European city is an archive that contains over a million documents. It’s run by a tough-talking Canadian, Bill Wiley, who set up an evidence-gathering organisation funded by Western governments. Using undercover criminal investigators operating inside a war zone, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) has spent the last eight years extracting official documents from Syria. Wiley says that evidence will prove that the Assad regime has been responsible for a campaign of torture and murder against its own people. CIJA's documents are being used right now in a criminal case in the West to prosecute members of the Syrian regime. But there are those who would discredit the evidence and the people who gather it. These include a group of respected academics here in the UK who are accused of spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about the war, twisting the narrative so that the Syrian regime becomes the victim and the British government bears responsibility for war crimes.  It is a new kind of warfare being fought not on the ground but on the internet. Who will win?

Correction: We stated that Feras Fayyad won an Oscar - instead his films were nominated on two occasions for an Oscar but did not win.

Intrigue: Mayday

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

When James Le Mesurier fell to his death he left behind a tangle of truths and lies.

When James Le Mesurier fell to his death in Turkey he left behind a tangle of truths and lies about his involvement with the White Helmets first responders in Syria.

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