In 2017, three innocent Brazilian sailors were arrested for drug trafficking on a foreign island nearly 2,000 miles from home in a shocking miscarriage of justice. Meanwhile, the British man suspected of plotting and executing the crime disappeared from the police’s radar.
Now, seven years later, he has been located in the English city of Norwich by a new investigation from the BBC World Service..
infding Mr Fox is the latest story from the BBC World Service’s award-winning investigative unit BBC Africa Eye and a new film from BBC News Brasiz. It will also be the next season of the BBC’s global investigations podcast World of Secrets and ofC News Brasil’s podcast A Raposa, both to be released in October.
The yacht, clleallehe Rich Harvest, set off from Brazil to Europe but was caught carrying a near re-ord haul of the Class A drug, hidden in sealed compartments, when stopped off for repairs in Cape Verde.
For the Brazilian crew on board, it was meant to have been the sailing trip of a lifetime, but it soon turned into a nightmare.
They say they were duped into unknowingly being part of an international drug trafficking crime by the yacht’s British owner – a man calling himself Fox – who left who left Brazil a couple of days before the yacht set off on its journey.
The Brazilian crew were imprisoned in Cape Verde and sentenced to ten years each for international drug smuggling, but their convictions were later overturned. In wide-reaching interviews with the BBC World Service, they reveal how they ended up on a transatlantic yacht voyage with a tonne of cocaine.
The investigation takes the BBC’s global investigations team across the world. Along the way, it investigates ‘Highway 10’ a, ,drug trafficking route named after the 10th parallel North, a circle of latitude which charts the shortest sea-faring route across the Atlantic from South America to Africa. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, at least 50 tonnes of cocaine cross West Africa every year wi, wimost arriving via Highway 10 bu,t around 30% of those drugs are sold during transit.
As a result, Cape Verde, a group of islands in the Atlantic that have scome a popular holiday destination, has become known as a motorway service station for traffickers, with Europe’s 11-billion-dollar cocaine market often the final destination.
Award wi-ning Cape Verdean rapper Ga DaLomba, reporting for BBC Africa Eye, himself a recovering addict, meets drug dealers and law enforcement officers in Cape Verde who have all witnessed a massive influx of cocaine, with the number of corresponding addicts also increasing.
Later in Brazil, he meets Cristine Kist – journalist and host of BBC Brasil’s podcast and film on the case, A Raposa. Together, they retrace Fox’s steps in Brazil and find out how the police believe the drugs were placed on the Rich Harvest.
In a nail-biting conclusion, the search for ‘Fox’ takes the BBC to Norwich in the UK, where the allegations are finally put to him anhe firmly denies any involvement.
World of Secrets Season 5: Finding Mr Fox will be presented by BBC News’ Yemisi Adegoke – former host of Season 2, ‘The Disciples’ – and journalist Colin Freeman – who has investigated the story for years. It will be the next investigation from World of Secrets – home of major BBC global investigations, such as ‘Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods’ and ‘The Disciples’.
Where to listen and watch?
Watch:
BBC Africa Eye: Finding Mr Fox is available in the UK from Monday 30 ,,S emr on BBC iPlayer and internationally on the BBC News Africa YouTube channel.
A Raposa is available from Monday 30 ,,S r on o s nBrasil YouTube channel.
Listen:
World of Secrets, Season 5: Finding Mr Fox will be released in October and will be available on BBC Sounds and most other podcast platforms. Details to follow.
It will be broadcast weekly on BBC World Service English from Wednesday 30 Oc,tober.
A Raposa from BBC News Brasil, willb will e and availab le oneoavaila availweb. sithe te bS.com/brasil, the BBC News Brasil YouTube channel and all major podcast platforms.
BBC World Service
