The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated the Global Drug Trade

"Gripping" DAILY MAIL

"Incredible ... reads like a thriller" THE SUN

Guy Stanton was a London gangster with a big reputation. For years he operated at the top of the drugs trade, moving huge shipments around the world, and knew the major players in global organised crime, from Asian warlords and Turkish heroin barons to Colombian cocaine cartels.

Yet all along he lived a perilous double life. For ‘Stanton’ was the legend – the fake identity – of a covert investigator leading a bold new concept in deep infiltration. Beta Projects was Britain’s most secret undercover unit. Formed by HM Customs, it trained an elite cadre of officers to adopt false personas and penetrate the underworld – for as long as it took.

Posing as money launderers, yacht skippers, lorry drivers and gangster’s molls, and often just a word away from betrayal and retribution, they lived among the villains they pursued, while helping to seize tonnes of drugs and contraband. Yet their clandestine exploits have never been revealed – until now.

Stanton’s extraordinary work took him to four continents. He and his colleagues survived gun battles, kidnaps, disasters at sea and false claims of corruption. And the job cost him dear, pushing him to the limits of physical and mental endurance.

The inspiration for LEGENDS, a major Netflix series starring Steve Coogan and Tom Burke, THE BETRAYER is the authentic account of a ground-breaking assault on the world’s most brutal narcos and of the courage, camaraderie (and humour) of the men and women who took the War on Drugs deep into the heart of the enemy.