World's Toughest Cops: On the Front Line of the War against Crime. Vinnie Jones
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World’s Toughest Cops
Vinnie Jones
ON THE FRONT LINE OF THE WAR AGAINST CRIME
DEDICATION
This book is for cops everywhere who risk their lives in the name of law and order…but especially for those we met, got to know and saw in action for ourselves. Proper, straight-up heroes, every one of them. It was a privilege.
Table of Contents
Welcome to the World’s Toughest Cops. This is a no-holds-barred look at the people who risk their lives to serve and protect, in the front line of a war against drugs, gangs, gun crime, violence and smuggling. Over the following pages you’re going to see just what it takes to police 10 of the world’s most dangerous beats…and meet the men and women fighting a desperate battle to keep law and order.
A couple of years ago I was asked by a TV production company to help them out with a show they were making. They were flying to meet cops in some of the most lawless places on the planet – and they were going to ride with them as they took down wanted men, busted gangs and smashed criminal organisations.
Did I fancy coming along?
Dead right I did…I wanted to get in there for myself, on the front line. I wanted to live and breathe the danger and the adrenaline of policing some of the worst neighbourhoods the world has to offer. I wanted to make it personal.
Me and a bunch of guys flew out to see just what the score was. And we met some amazing people, had some amazing experiences. I’ve always believed in living every day to the full, pushing yourself to the extreme, giving whatever you do everything you have…but these guys taught me a lesson or two about commitment. They’re risking their lives, every day, because they believe in trying to protect the public, in trying to make their little part of the world a safer place.
I was in awe of them. And as for the action…I loved it. The buzz was like nothing else I’ve ever known.
But there’s only so much you can show in a TV programme. The cops we met were so dedicated, so extraordinary – and so much of what happened couldn’t make it on to the screen, that we decided to go one further. When I was asked to write a book to take in both series – from raiding terrorist camps with the Special Ops Commando Unit in Colombia to patrolling the back alleys and no-go zones of New Orleans, from chasing cop killers in Jamaica and Papua New Guinea to busting gangsters in South Central LA-I jumped at the chance.
These are great stories; but they’re also true stories. We were there.
All I’m doing in this book is showing what goes on – what these guys have to deal with day in, day out. And we weren’t hiding behind minders or security men: we were right in amongst it, out with the cops in some incredibly dangerous situations, usually kitted up in bullet-proof vests. This isn’t a Hollywood movie or a celebrity jaunt, this isn’t us pretending to be cops for a few days…this is real. This is us embedded with 10 groups of police officers around the planet as they put their lives on the line in the name of law and order.
They are the world’s toughest cops. And this is how they roll.
Vinnie Jones
LA, February 2010
HEART OF DARKNESS: SPECIAL OPS WITH JOHN OREJUELA
Colombia was always going to be a challenge. For decades, this bustling South American nation has been at war with itself: since the 1960s, government forces, left-wing insurgents and right-wing paramilitaries have all been engaged in the continent’s longest-running armed conflict.
The consequences add up to nothing less than carnage. Terrorism like you wouldn’t believe, guerrilla warfare, kidnapping as big business – and sometimes small – and vast, powerful drug cartels worth billions of pounds. Dense, impenetrable jungles and sprawling slums. Incredible wealth and indescribable poverty. Kids with machine-guns, rampant knife crime, casual murder, political assassinations, dead cops…and everywhere the magical lure and deadly stink of cocaine.
Trying to control this country is a nightmare. And it means the Colombia National Police are a force like no other. To nick a line from one of my favourite films, charging a man with murder in this place is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.
Like I say, Colombia was always going to be a challenge. Not because of the violence, the danger, the risk involved in just getting in and getting out again…but because, with so much going on, we didn’t know where to start.
THE YOUNG POLICEMAN stood to attention, facing a simple stone statue. In front of him, on a bed of rock, a pillar rose about 12 feet high; inscribed upon it were a few words in Spanish. Flowers had been planted around the base. Beyond lay a garden, a church, a complex of low, modern-looking buildings. Other police officers – some in uniforms, some not – passed by in silence.
Behind the lone figure, the main road to Bogotá. A Colombian flag, whipped up by the mountain wind, obscured the view briefly; but when the