Chapter 36 Section five

The search took three hours and took place in two separate suites.Butler walked from one room to the other, his frustrations mounting.When customs opened the luggage, if it contained what they were looking for, it would have been found by now.They emptied the hippie's two backpacks and searched the lining and frame.They got nothing but a few packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes.That didn't surprise Bill Butler.Coverers are never carrying any contraband. It was Hugo Seymour who discouraged him.They checked the leather suitcase more than ten times in the X-ray security inspection equipment, measured the internal and external dimensions, and tried to find the interlayer hidden inside, but found nothing.The alligator briefcase, too, contained only a bottle of antacid tablets.After they crushed the two pills, they tested the powder.The test results were still antacid tablets.They also asked Seymour to undress and scan the clothes with security equipment.They then made him go through security checks naked to see if he had anything inside him.nothing.

It was about ten o'clock, and there were still fifteen minutes before the two people had to be released.Seymour is already loudly threatening legal action.Butler ignored it.Passengers under inspection usually do that.That's because they don't know the powers Customs really has. "Tracking them, boss?" asked the sullen second-in-command.Butler thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Probably fake news. If they are innocent, then there is no point for us to follow up. If they are not innocent, I suspect that the Bangkok envoys behind them will not contact them before confirming that they are not being followed. Forget it. Let's talk about it next time."

The first Canadian to be released took an airport bus into London and checked into a run-down hotel near Paddington.Mr. Hugo Seymour got into a taxi and went to a luxurious hotel. Just after two o'clock in the afternoon, four people in different London streets received calls.By prior arrangement, everyone stood in a public phone booth.They were all notified by phone to report to a location.One of them made another phone call, then left the booth to keep an appointment. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Bill Butler was sitting alone in his car.The car was parked outside a serviced apartment complex, the kind that could be rented out by the week or even by the day.

At 4:05, the unmarked cargo van he had been waiting for pulled up behind him and ten members of the Heavy Hit Team got out.There is no time to introduce the specific situation.Although the curtain was not lifted after half an hour of observation, it is very likely that those people arranged for someone to follow them.He just nodded, and then led the team into the gate of the apartment building.There is a desk in the foyer, but no doorman.He left two slightly disappointed team members to guard the elevator door, and then led the remaining eight up the stairs.That apartment is on the third floor.

The "Hit Team" is not limited to etiquette.A sledgehammer knocked the lock off and they entered.The players were young, athletic and highly motivated, but none carried firearms. The five people in the living room of the apartment did not resist.They sat there, transfixed by the unexpected intruder.The team members reached into the inner pockets of their clothes and took out their ID cards.Butler was the last to come in, looking like a leader.He tackled the American who was glaring at him angrily first. A later voice test will reveal that he was the one who called the customs hotline at Heathrow and denounced Canadian hippies as fronts.Beside him was a travel bag containing six kilograms of pure Colombian cocaine.

"Mr. Salvatore Bono, I arrest you on charges of cooperating with others in smuggling prohibited items into the country..." After the formalities were completed, the man from Miami, USA was handcuffed and taken out.Butler tackles the hippies next.As the sullen-looking Canadian hippie was led out, Butler yelled at his colleague, "Get in my car. I need to talk to that guy." Mr. Hugo Seymour had given up his silk suits for a duffel suit and baggy trousers more suitable for late January in England.He's the second guy to hit the screen.For his role in the operation, he also received a wad of money, totaling ten thousand pounds, all in fifty-pound notes.He was also taken away silently.Butler turned to the remaining two.

The goods were on the table between them, just as they had been through customs, still in the suitcase.The bottom of the fake box had been cut open, exposing the interlayer underneath, and the items contained in the plastic bag were later detected to be two kilograms of Thai white heroin.Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Dog stickers can still be seen on the suitcase. "Mr. John Higgins, I am arresting you on charges of cooperating in the smuggling of prohibited goods into this country..." The conscientious citizen had to be escorted into the bathroom to vomit.When he was taken away, Butler turned to the last man - the mastermind of the Bangkok drug smuggling operation.He sat looking gloomily at the London sky, which he knew he would never see again.

"I've been staring at you for a while." He said nothing. "Clever ruse. Not one cover, but two. Walking in the rear, avoiding the din of the Greenway, innocent Mr. Higgins, with a docile wife and lovely daughter." "This plan succeeded." The middle-aged man snapped. "Very well. Mr. Harry Palfrey, I arrest you now..." Butler left two of his men to search the house for any evidence that had been disposed of when they smashed the door, and the rest followed him downstairs to the street.There was work to do until midnight, but it was a job he loved.His deputy was already in the driver's seat of his car, so he slipped into the back seat beside the silent Canadian.

As the car pulled off the upper curb, Butler said, "Let's sort things out. When did you know Seymour was a partner in this double-cover?" "Just now in the apartment," said the hippie. Butler was shocked. "What happened to the conversation at the door of the airplane toilet in the middle of the night?" "What talk? What bathroom? I've never seen him before." Butler laughed, the rarest way he laughed. "Oh, of course. I'm sorry you were treated like that at Heathrow. But you know the rules, I can't reveal your identity, not even there. Anyway, thanks for the phone call, Sean. I'll buy you a beer tonight."