In the 1990s, ex-cop Garry Rogers worked in the UK’s Omega Unit to infiltrate football hooligan gangs, disguised as a 17-stone skinhead.
While undercover, he was arrested numerous times, spent most of his days at the pub and lived a double life for six years.
Ex-cop Garry Rogers share stories from his time undercover on the latest episode of Crime Insiders:
Football hooliganism erupted in the mid-eighties. What started as vandalism and violence at games quickly escalated to riots and fatalities.
While this was a problem for many countries with popular soccer teams, England’s soccer fans were notorious for it.
“It was getting out of hand and the UK clubs, football clubs were banned at the time from playing abroad,” Rogers said.
The task force assigned Rogers and other undercover cops to attend games, pubs and riots. Their mission was to slowly gather and record information about their meetings to keep police one step ahead.
“Some people think, oh, you must be being watched all the time, to look after you, to support you in case things go wrong. But you get out there on your own. The vast majority of the time and what they would do is regularly check to see if you had been arrested with the false name.”
This undercover operation became one of the UK’s most successful and eventually extended to target serious and violent crime.
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