World Of Secrets - Finding Mr Fox: 4. A detective calls

Episode Date: November 13, 2024

A police chief in Brazil investigates Fox. He spends months overseeing surveillance of Fox’s yacht, then months more investigating how more than a tonne of cocaine ended up on board. For Andre Gonçalves, it begins with a tipoff from Britain’s National Crime Agency. He’s determined to fix what he sees as a grave injustice for the sailors after their arrest and harsh sentencing.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Before we begin, just to remind you, many of the people we've interviewed for this season of World of Secrets speak Portuguese, so their words are spoken by actors and members of our BBC team. I'm in Bahia, northeast Brazil, on a boat with someone who's taken a keen interest in fox. Andre Gonçalves is going to show me where he first saw foxes' yacht, the Rich Harvest. But there's a problem. As we approach the spot where it spent the best part of a year,

we find another boat, anchored offshore in the fading sunlight. Music blaring out. Not great for recording an interview. Despite our frantic hand gestures, the crew seem not to notice us. But Andres says he's got this. After a piercing whistle to get their attention, he turns around so his broad shoulders face the noisy boat. It takes him a second to realise

across the back of his beige polo shirt are two words. Federal Police. The music stops. In 2016, the year before Daniel and Rodrigo first set foot on the rich harvest, Andre gets a tip-off. He's told that a suspicious yacht is believed to be on its way from Europe to Brazil. We received information from a British intelligence agency about the crew of this boat. They were suspected of coming here with the objective

of loading the boat of drugs, specifically cocaine, and then taking the boat back across Atlantic, probably to Europe. The tip-off comes from the National Crime Agency, which is a bit like Britain's version of the FBI. Andre says it names the boat The Rich Harvest and three crew members, including a man called George Saul. members, including a man called George Saul. George Saul, who's known as Fox. That's what he calls himself. As head of the narcotics suppression unit, Andres tasked with overseeing Brazil's response to the tip-off. He'll spend almost a year organising covert surveillance, months more investigating, and eventually he'll figure out how he thinks the drugs ended up on the yacht. organising covert surveillance. Months more investigating.

And eventually, he'll figure out how he thinks the drugs ended up on the yacht. But first, he has to find it. The search focuses on one location, the Bay of Aratu. But it's a vast area, peppered with small islands, little inlets. There are lots of discreet places to drop anchor. So it's the perfect place, a hidden place,

a good place to mount an illicit international drug smuggling operation. Finding the yacht was made more difficult because it didn't have a flag or its boat number or name on it. It probably entered Brazil with all these things because they are obligatory but they must have been taken off. It takes time but after combing the area police do eventually find the 70-foot long yacht, helped by its two distinctive towering masts. The police use unmarked boats to monitor it from the water, while André's agents do the same from the land. They're ready to pounce. In the first few days, we kept watch all night. The drugs could have been anywhere in the bay. They could have been on a

fishing boat. They could have been on land. They could be on one of the boats docked here. So this first few days of surveillance, we had multiple teams taking turns to monitor the crew, take photos, to figure out what was going on. It was really intense. But Andre and his team quickly discover that the boat isn't going anywhere. Instead, the rich harvest starts to undergo a series of complex renovations. Police resources are becoming strained, and at this point there's no evidence that any crime has been committed. They only have the tip-off from the NCA in Britain.

It's a catch-22. They're unlikely to uncover a crime without a search or a formal investigation. But a search at the wrong time risks revealing the boat is under surveillance. Andre's team decides to get creative. What we call covert action. Covert action. Police went to the marina without identifying themselves several times.

And they started talking to people, including the mechanic, to find out if the boat was staying or living. The undercover agents even pretend to be interested in buying the rich harvest, all the while gathering intelligence on the state of the renovations. They want to know when it will be ready to leave. They're also gathering intel on its crew and on its British owner, Fox. But shortly after the rich harvest arrives in Brazil, Fox and a colleague fly out of the country. They leave behind their third crewmate to oversee the renovations.

He's another Brit called Robert Delbos. He was hierarchically subordinate to Fox. Fox called the shots. He was in charge. Everything revolved around him. For months, police watch as work continues on the boat. Then, all of a sudden, Fox is back. Joined by a couple of new crewmates, he and the rich harvest are on the move. We had a situation where the boat left and instead of going north, he went south. If you have drugs on board, you wouldn't go south.

You'd go north. Either you stop at another Brazilian port or you sail straight into the Atlantic and leave. But he went south. And it didn't make sense. What is he going to do in the south? We don't know. Andre needs to figure out what Fox is up to. But his jurisdiction is limited to his own state, Bahia.

So as the rich harvest sails down the coast, But his jurisdiction is limited to his own state, Bahia. So as the rich harvest sails down the coast, he and his team have to sit and wait. When Fox does reappear, around a month later, André senses that something's different. He personally came back to supervise. In fact, he did some of the renovation himself. It started to set off alarm bells. But it wasn't a formal investigation, so we didn't have wiretaps.

We didn't have anything like that. So the question remained, what now? Are the drugs on the boat or not? We didn't see the guy putting the drugs on the boat. the drugs on the boat or not. We didn't see the guy putting the drugs on the boat. Andre has his suspicions, but it's not enough to act.

Then, eventually, after around ten months of surveillance, two new sailors arrive. It's Rodrigo and Daniel, ready to set sail. The Rich Harvest's transatlantic crossing will begin from a city a few days' sail up the coast, in Natal, Brazil's most northeasterly point.

We were like, should we board the boat or not? Not yet certain that the drugs are on board, police decide it's still too soon to raid the yacht. Until the very last minute, we had this dilemma. Go? Don't go. The only way to improve the odds of finding any drugs? Wait until the very last moment, right before the boat leaves Brazil. So Andre and his team watch

one last time as the rich harvest sails away, this time heading north. We crossed our fingers and said let's wait and see what happens. As we heard at the very beginning of this podcast, the boat is eventually raided in Natal by armed police and their sniffer dog.

That was when Daniel was watching and Rodrigo was standing by and filming. But they didn't find any drugs. With no other option, the rich harvest is cleared to cross the Atlantic. Then, when I received the news that the drugs have been seized in Cape Verde, that shook me and left me confused. And then I really started trying to fit the pieces together. I said, how am I going to hold Fox to account? This is World of Secrets.

Season 5, Finding Mr Fox. A BBC World Service investigation with me, Yemi Siaregoke. And me, Colin Freeman. Episode 4, A Detective Calls. When police in Cape Verde find more than a tonne of cocaine on board the Rich Harvest in August 2017. It's headline news, one of the island's biggest ever drug busts. And when that news filters back to Brazil,

it's clear everything has changed for Andre. No longer is he stuck in a catch-22. He now has his evidence that the crime has been committed. No more covert photos. No more endless surveillance. He can finally act. When I formalised the investigation, the objective was to attribute responsibility for the drugs.

It was time for me to put my hand in the fire. Andre tells me his starting point is that everyone is a suspect, including Rodrigo and Daniel. From our surveillance, these sailors, they just appeared out of nowhere. We had no idea who they were. So we were left with a question mark, right? Did they bring the drugs? Are they part of the group that supplied the drugs? Are they drug mules? This idea that they had nothing to do with it, it didn't really occur to us. On other occasions, when we arrested people on sailing boats, the entire crew was compromised. So at that moment, I thought, right, I'm going to have to find out who these guys are.

We've seen Brazilian police files made during the investigation, and they're full of information about Rodrigo and Daniel. Copies of their ID cards, pictures of them with Fox. There's Rodrigo's CV, his professional references, his yachting qualifications. I can even see the messages that Rodrigo exchanged with the company that first advertised the chance to work for Fox. During the investigation, I got to know Dan really well. I had to go digging through all the crew's lives,

through the information systems. I went over Dan with, like, a fine-tooth comb. Andre's searching for some previous connection to Fox, anything that ties them directly to the drugs. It became clear that they were hired at the last moment. The deeper I went, I still couldn't find a connection. But at the same time, it strengthened the evidence we had against Fox. The police files make for interesting reading about Fox.

They reveal he paid the equivalent of about US$130,000 for the rich harvest in 2015. Copies of his passport show that he was born in Norwich, a city in the east of England. There were also receipts which show he was wiring money from Norwich to Brazil to pay for the yacht renovations. But that was all long before Daniel and Rodrigo even arrived on the scene. on the scene. Next on Andre's list of possible suspects, he sends his agents to question staff at the marina who worked on the rich harvest as it underwent

months of renovations. But we ruled them out just like we ruled out the crew. The police obtained contracts which reveal the scale of the work fixing leaks on deck installing solar panels and updating the interior nothing unusual here but Andre is most interested in the tanks staff at the marina were asked to fit removable water tanks under two of the yacht's beds on opposite sides of the boat. They would be installed above old fuel tanks, which also needed to be cleaned and repaired. Again, this isn't unusual. Boats that might be in the middle of the ocean for weeks on end need plenty of fuel and fresh water.

It's only what happens next that makes the work seem suspicious. Because it's inside these fuel tanks that the drugs would later be found in Cape Verde. Andre feels certain that the drugs must have been loaded onto the rich harvest when it had sailed south to a city further down the Brazilian coast. The point at which Andre and his team couldn't follow. But as we've heard, when Fox returned from his trip down south,

Andre says he'd noticed a change in Fox's behaviour. It was enough to sound an alarm in his head. But since the whole operation was covert, he had no way of finding out what was really going on. When we actually interviewed employees at the marina, it became crystal clear he really had changed completely. Fott practically never left the boat again.

After he took the reins, he restricted access to the boat. He started doing the work himself, making several changes, mainly to the inside of the vessel. There are a lot of details in the statements given by the marina employees. We've not spoken to the employees ourselves or to the mechanic who worked on the rich harvest, but we've seen copies of their police statements. Two of them tell police that when they'd arrive at work in the morning they'd see tools and pieces of plywood left out suggesting someone had been working on the boat at night. One of them adds that before Fox left for his trip south he'd ordered up materials that could be used for further renovations of the boat and then ordered more when he got back. And another staff member says Fox put up tarpaulin

and started to work on the inside of the boat himself, including the tanks under the floor. He says Fox told him he'd use them for storage rather than fuel. Remember, these were the tanks where police in Cape Verde found the hidden drugs. And they were really well hidden. Sealed inside fuel tanks beneath false floors, under tanks filled with water and covered by beds in two of the cabins.

Andre thinks it's understandable that his colleagues in Natal failed to find the drugs. So you need to understand the limitations that a police officer has when he's conducting a search. I wasn't there. I'm just speaking from my own experience, right? Because I have done searches several times where there were drugs, but we didn't have the sufficient degree of certainty to mess with the structure, to break the car, to destroy it, to find something that you're not sure that is there. So that's how it is. Who will be held responsible for that?

Do you know where the drugs on the rich harvest came from? No, but in Brazil today, international drug trafficking is dominated by one cartel, one criminal organization, which is the PCC. We can say that more than 90% of drug exports in Brazil are linked to this group. As Andre acknowledges, there are some gaps in the police's understanding of how they think it all worked, but there's only one person who they saw present at key moments in the Rich Harvest story. Fox. Andre sums up their case. All right, look, we had this tip-off that made him a suspect.

He came to Brazil with the boat, he paid for the renovation, he went to the south, then he isolated himself on the boat. He modified the internal structures of the boat and restricted access. He went into the hold and made changes right in the place where the cocaine was found. Then he took the boat to its last point in Brazil, but did not embark on the Atlantic crossing himself. No one saw Fox with any drugs, but the police have enough to convince a judge in Brazil to issue an arrest warrant. The only problem? Fox isn't in Brazil. So they secure the help of Interpol, the international policing body.

They can send an official request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and apprehend anyone of interest. Try to cross an international border and, if the system works, you'll be arrested. The trap is set. All Andre has to do is wait for Fox to walk into it. When Fox was arrested,

that was a moment of pure joy. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles.

It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles, from the BBC World Service and CBC, are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts. In August 2018, about a year after the drugs were found on his yacht, Fox is apprehended in Italy and taken to jail. I remember it was during the World Cup,

and I think I was watching a game when I received the news. That was the moment when I was really satisfied, a feeling of duty accomplished. Inspector Andre Gonçalves has got what he wants. Fox is about to be returned to Brazil to be questioned. I even thought about going to Italy to take his statement there myself. But for various bureaucratic reasons, it didn't work out. Andre is putting it politely. Brazil files a request to have Fox exudated. But there's a problem.

Apparently, the paperwork arrives too late. Authorities in Italy have to let him go. the paperwork arrives too late. Authorities in Italy have to let him go. Despite all of Andre's hard work, his months of covert surveillance, his painstaking investigation. Just like that, Fox is released. I knew it before it happened. The people at Interpol told me he was going to be set free. I said, what do you mean? Is there nothing we can do? No, he's going to be released today. And there was nothing we could do. How did it feel to get so close and then he was freed without having to respond to anything? Frustrated. I was frustrated because the job of the police is to bring people to face justice.

So we were left with the feeling that that was it. It was unfinished. I kept thinking about that and all, but it was very, very frustrating. He was no longer in my hands. At this point, did you think of the crew who were imprisoned in Cape Verde? I thought a lot about their situation, not necessarily because they were Brazilian, but because our job isn't simply to arrest people. It's to bring the truth to light. And if the truth absolves someone, how are you going to deal with the fact that the person is in jail?

Not just in jail, but already sentenced to 10 years. Brazilian authorities have had better luck with Robert Delbos, Fox's British crewmate, who sailed into Brazil on the rich harvest and oversaw the first stage of its renovations. He's arrested in Spain, brought to Brazil and put in jail. He said he didn't know about the drugs and he only found out about them later. His testimony was really interesting. It clarified a lot of things for us,

corroborated several lines that we've been investigating, that Fox really was the one who was the centre of the whole thing, that the crew didn't know about the existence of the drugs. For Andre, it's the final piece of the puzzle, at least in terms of Daniel and Rodrigo. He's left in no doubt they are innocent. But nearly 2,000 miles away in Cape Verde, that seismic shock doesn't even register.

The crew of the Rich Harvest are still sitting in their prison cells, their 10-year sentences stretching out before them. But there's been a development here too. Their case has been reviewed. Three appeal court judges have analysed the original ruling and decided that the first trial did not give the sailors the right to present a full and proper defence. More than that, they say the original judge failed to call the sailors witnesses. In short, it was not a fair trial. The sailors dare to dream. Is this it? Will we be set free?

For the imprisoned men, it's a fleeting moment of immense hope. But it would be painfully short-lived. After their sentences are overturned, the sailors' case is sent back to be reconsidered. But if they'd hoped for a different outcome, things aren't looking good. It took us all these months for three judges to say, let's do it again. Return to the same judge who sentenced us to 10 years. Get that same judge to redo the trial. It's a crushing blow. The previous guilty verdict had

only been overturned on a technicality. Now their case is being sent back to the very same judge who sentenced them in the first place. I didn't have any hope that this judge would change his opinion. Because our witnesses already submitted statements. Hearing the witnesses wasn't going to make any difference to the story. But OK, let's go back to court. But there is a silver lining. As Rodrigo waits to have his second trial,

he reaches the maximum length of time someone can be held on remand in Cape Verde. Basically, now that his first sentence has been overturned, he spent too long behind bars without being convicted of a crime. So he should be released. The good news about all this is that we knew that they were going to let us out of prison to wait for a retrial. It's the same story for Daniel. He's been locked up for even longer. In the 18 or so months he's been on the islands, Daniel has never slept anywhere other than in a cell. I remember just waiting, counting the days. Then, one afternoon, after lunch, they came and

opened the cell door and said, go take a shower. The judge wants to see you. I already knew what was going to happen. I took my bucket, went to the bathroom. Rodrigo was on the other side, taking a shower, and we celebrated. Then we went to see the judge. I exchanged a few words with him and agreed with what he said. I had a lot to say, but I kept it to myself. I signed what I had to sign and then left. Back at the prison, the sailors collect their belongings, handing most of them out to other inmates.

Then they walk out of the gates. How am I going to explain this? It was the day we'd all been waiting for. I felt like I was being born again because I left there a completely different person from when I arrived. I remember my father standing at the prison gate, holding his cell phone with a video call to my mother, because my mother wants to see this moment, but she was in Brazil.

And then I finally got to hug my father outside. We were always hugging each other during visits. But that hug on the way out was very special. After a year and a half in prison, Daniel is finally free. He makes a video call to his parents back home in Brazil, then goes to the apartment they've organised for him, where he waits for the next court date. Then, I think it was two or three days later, we were told, you can come and get your passports.

I'm a surfer, I wanted to catch some waves, I wanted my board back. Rodrigo can't wait to leave. We bought the first flights we could out of there. Rodrigo can't wait to leave. We bought the first flights we could out of there. Though they aren't sure why, the sailors are told that they're allowed to leave the country and wait for the new trial date back home with their families. A few days later, the public prosecutor's office tried to appeal, asking for us to be arrested again.

But it was too late. We were already in Brazil. There, they have to report to their local police stations. Even though we were free and could return to Brazil, which was great, I still had that feeling that nothing was over yet and that the process is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Fox is still free And although the authorities don't know where he is

he casts a long shadow over the sailors When I was in prison I thought it should be him in this place and not me After I came out I just thought if the justice system is incapable of dealing with it, then God will. I can't do anything but trust God.

If you had the chance, what would you say to Fox? My hand will do the talking. Daniel is so affable he can't help but smile after saying it. But you can see how deeply he feels the betrayal. He lifts his fist in the air, but lets it fall. Sorry, but I think it's true. So I don't want to meet him. I don't want to.

Because if I meet him, it won't be me who's going to talk. It will be another Daniel. All the bad feelings I had in jail will come up and I won't be able to be a civilised person, so I don't even want to talk to him. Do you know where Fox is? No, I have no idea. But I would really like to see some justice done. It's a question we also ask his fellow sailor, Rodrigo. No. I've no idea. And Andre,

the counter-narcotics police chief. I have no idea. The investigation is now closed. Since Fox has not yet been found, he has not been tried. But if one day he's found,

he can still be held accountable. So, if he's ever located, he still needs to answer to Brazilian justice. We have to find Fox. And we might have found someone who can help.

Hello? Can you hear us? Say yes if you can hear us. I can hear you very well indeed, Colin. Robert Delbos, the British man who oversaw some of the boat's renovations in Brazil. And what are you going to say to him when you find him? Or if you find him? That he owes me a bit of money.

How much does he owe you? 18 months of misery. That's next time on World of Secrets. World of Secrets. This has been episode four of six of Finding Mr Fox, season five of World of Secrets from the BBC World Service. We'd love our investigation to reach as many of you as possible, so please leave a rating and a review. And do tell others about World of Secrets.

It really helps. I'm Colin Freeman. And I'm Yemi Siadegoke. The producer is Charlotte MacDonald. The executive producer is Joe Kent. The series editor is Matt Willis. The production coordinator is Gemma Ashman. And the sound design and mix are by Nigel Appleton.

Additional production is by Iam Leroy, Christine Kist, Nick Norman-Butler and Chiara Francovilla. Andre, voiced by Ben-Hur Santos. Rodrigo by Edison Alcaja. Daniel by Antonio Fernandez. At the World Service, Cat Collins is the senior producer, and John Munnell the commissioning editor. For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown,

there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood. All episodes of Hollywood Exiles,

from the BBC World Service and CBC, are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.