The Gold | Season 2 | Episode 4 - PBS

In Tenerife, John Palmer has an unwelcome visitor as the pressure continues to build.

In Tenerife, John Palmer has an unwelcome visitor as the pressure continues to build.

The British police join forces with the DEA to take down the international money laundering operation. In Tenerife, John Palmer has an unwelcome visitor as the pressure builds.

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The British police join forces with the DEA to take down the international money laundering operation. In Tenerife, John Palmer has an unwelcome visitor as the pressure builds.

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♪ ♪ LUNEZ: Two bodies have been found off Fort Lauderdale.

♪ ♪ CAMPBELL: Are you part of this insanity, Douglas?

The returns are hard to ignore, Logan.

(grunts, crowd gasps) IVAN: We are partners now with your business.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (insects buzzing, animals calling) ♪ ♪ (men talking in background, Tina panting) ♪ ♪ What do you want?

Your first interview with a Western journalist.

(chuckles) Western journalists call me drug dealer.

You want freedom, or justice, or independence.

But along the way, you get fame, money, power.

Eventually, you get enough of those things to forget what you wanted at the beginning.

That means I need to send envoys to the West.

If you want to speak to me, then I want visas.

(smacks lips) Then you have come all this way for nothing.

I won't leave without an interview.

♪ ♪ Six men break into a warehouse at Heathrow to steal three tons of gold, and all these years... (door closes) ...and all this money later, you go to Heathrow and shut down the airport.

Some might call that irony-- I prefer gross incompetence.

Forget the six men and forget the gold.

The Brink's-Mat investigation is now about the largest criminal fortune in British history, and about us taking it from them.

Once it's gone through the courts, that money is yours, sir.

The new Drug Trafficking Offenses Act.

Any criminal proceeds with a provable link to drugs can be seized by the investigatory body.

Now, one of Miller's network is wanted on drugs charges, so when I find Miller's money, I can seize it on that basis.

Equally, when we bring down Palmer, if I find one penny of drugs money within John Palmer's money-laundering operation, I can take everything he has.

That's tens of millions of pounds-- every penny that's been spent on the Brink's-Mat investigation and more.

The biggest financial seizure in British policing history.

I believe you're looking to film a documentary on John Palmer.

Being stonewalled by the Yard is one thing.

You applying personal pressure is quite another.

Jarrett, but I'll help you get him.

My concern is, you haven't got to him yet.

He's careful, and he's clever, but he's not without weakness.

(birds chirping) (talking indistinctly) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ For you.

HENRY: Yes, sorry to interrupt your little sojourn, but we have an in on John Palmer.

Undercover documentary, prime time.

But he's a lot more interesting now.

♪ ♪ (engine stops, brake engages) ♪ ♪ (door closes) So what's happened, Kenny, eh?

You can't have got yourself into bother this fast, surely?

(inhales) Don't you worry about that.

Could have been a lot worse, though, couldn't it?

My plane can get you halfway round the world.

To spend a bit of time with a mate.

(exhales) 'Cause we're mates, aren't we?

(breathes softly) I got to get to work, Kenny.

Well, you're an important man, John.

(stammers): I mean, do you want me to stick around for a bit?

Best you go and look after your millions.

♪ ♪ BOYCE: You're in a conspiracy with dangerous people, who will be concerned that you'll reveal that conspiracy.

They'll do you in, mate, is what he's saying.

I appreciate the clarity, gentlemen, so let me offer a little of my own.

You have no evidence against me, and in 11 hours' time, you have to let me go, at which point, I'll demand a written apology and safe passage to the Isle of Man.

(chuckles) You know, the Isle of Man doesn't offer much.

Uh, I once ordered a martini in a pub over there, and the landlord came at me with a poker, but the Isle of Man does offer something to people like me, doing the kind of things you perhaps imagine I do.

I have all the protection I require.

You registered front companies for him to launder proceeds from the Brink's-Mat robbery.

Ah, Brink's-Mat-- how are you doing with that?

I think in reaching me, you have reached the very limits of your power.

DOUGLAS: Your jurisdiction ends at borders, but money doesn't respect borders.

If you take on money of this nature, you are doomed to be forever stuck behind a fence, watching it slip away over the horizon.

(door opens) (door closes) (insects buzzing) ♪ ♪ (birds chirping) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (phone ringing) (phone continues) (button beeps, ringing stops) MARNIE (on phone): Hello?

(button beeps) (dial tone buzzing) (button beeps, tone stops) (breath trembles) (sighs) You know it won't be in there?

Money laundering is about movement.

If Miller's money was here, then it's not here anymore.

All we can look for is a, a suggestion as to where it's gone.

And I've learnt enough to know that whatever Baxter gives up, we're only at the start of something.

And I reckon... ...this might be where it goes next.

DOUGLAS: I wonder what Isle of Man police would say about illegal entry.

BOYCE: Isle of Man police are being very helpful, which is good news for you.

LUNDY: They'll agree to reduced charges, open prison, and no company director ban.

If you tell us where Miller's money is.

Which I suspect means telling us about this.

(scoffs) I hope this isn't loyalty, Douglas.

The world you're in, this world, is not a place for loyalty.

They'd give you up in a bloody heartbeat, mate.

BOYCE: We're going to charge you, which means we can choose to give you police bail or to put you on remand, and right now... It's remand.

I'm sorry, I couldn't take the suspense-- it's remand.

Last time I enjoyed the hospitality of Her Majesty, I worked in the library, which was heavy on Erle Stanley Gardner, but had a certain charm.

(inhales) There's only one person behind this.

I was told you could clean a lot of money, Mr.

Then I arrive on Tenerife and discover you are a humble hotelier.

They're timeshares-- who told you that?

I help people who have a lot of money and are willing to have a little less money in order to keep that money.

It is a small community, and in that community, people talk.

(chuckles) I don't know what you're talking about.

But if you fancy a timeshare, do take a brochure.

I know you're working for the Russians.

I imagine it can't be without its challenges.

I'm just a kid from Solihull, love.

I could tell you some bollocks about tax evasion or the looting of a regime, but I won't.

The money is the proceeds of the heroin trade.

It will be wired to you through a Singaporean bank, you clean it, you send $80 million to Switzerland.

$20 million commission and not a Russian in sight.

He's one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world.

And in two days' time, he will be at the Ritz in London.

(phone ringing in background) If you don't come to the Ritz to meet him, that's your answer, and we'll give the 20 million to someone else.

(crowd cheering, announcers speaking on TV) All right, Kenny?

You know, we played golf at West Kingsdown?

Yeah, you sold me a couple of watches, which, well, to be fair, Kenny, barely lasted the journey home.

(laughs) Yeah, you all right, Dave?

Yeah, well, uh, have a good one, yeah?

You deserve one, don't you, after a stretch like that?

(chuckles) Here, do you want a beer?

Yeah, uh, all right, mate, well, yeah, I'll tell, tell Barry you were asking for him, yeah?

Because if I find out that you told Barry, or your missus, or your (muted) dog that you saw me here, then that ain't gonna work out well for you, Dave.

That ain't gonna work out well at all.

Yeah, no, no, I ain't seen you, Kenny.

(exhales) I need a bit of time off from this.

The island's quiet, my team are struggling.

They're not bringing in punters, so there's no money in the system to hide yours.

You clean our money, you send it on.

If you can't clean our money, you send your own money on.

Whatever happens, you send us money.

If you have problems, give them to me.

(exhales) Got myself out of worse than this.

There are some tourists asking where their apartments are and some are asking for their money back.

I've got the money for all of them.

This time, but then they will all come back, again and again.

(scoffs) Who will buy a development that has been sold twice over?

If the Russians want it, they will take it.

They want me to clean $100 million.

We take 20 million and get the (muted) off this island.

I would be creating a mirage that would last a few days, no more.

Yeah, you can get a long way from here in a few days.

Christ, kid, what would you do with $5 million?

(insects buzzing) (sighs) What's going on, Kenny?

Do you remember when I came to you with that first bar of gold?

I thought... ...it was gonna change our lives, that.

Change who we were, change who we could be.

But you knew that was bollocks, didn't you?

Yeah, you looked at that gold, and you didn't see none of that.

Don't matter what I'm running from.

What matters is staying ahead of it.

The amount of English on this island, I may as well be in bloody Kent.

♪ ♪ And I need enough dough to stay there.

'Cause you don't want me coming back here, do you?

Every time I need a little bit more of what you got from the gold?

Look, what I've got here didn't come from the gold.

Everything comes from the gold, John.

And you'd do well to remember that.

'Cause, you see, this, this life, it's too big.

But right now, it sounds like they're coming for you.

♪ ♪ (sighs) BOYCE: Keep your jackets on.

You're going to the British Virgin Islands.

and use Baxter to get to a Logan Campbell, who has control of Miller's money.

Lundy will explain the rest on the plane.

No, I won't be with them, sir, I've got to find Miller.

You'll get to Miller through the money.

The quicker you find the money, the quicker you'll find Miller.

Take a wire and keep a close eye on Baxter.

He's about as weak as a cooperating witness gets.

And I don't think he's fully decided whose side he's on.

(engine idling) Viktor will get you to the plane.

(inhales) You know the difference between us, John?

We're both on the run, but only I know it.

♪ ♪ (piano playing, thunder rumbling in distance) Well, you know, if we can't get you home, we can sure get you drunk.

♪ I knew a man ♪ ♪ Bojangles ♪ ♪ And he danced for you ♪ ♪ In worn-out shoes ♪ ♪ Silver hair and ragged shirt ♪ ♪ And baggy pants ♪ ♪ He would do the old soft shoe ♪ WAITRESS: From the guy at the bar.

♪ He could jump so high, jump so high ♪ ♪ Then lightly ♪ ♪ Touch down ♪ What's your most expensive vodka?

ROSA: Well, we've got a whole lot of tequila.

Because I'm trapped in Arizona airport and there's not many things that could make that worse, but being hit on by a guy in a sweater like that might just do it.

WALTER: ♪ I met him in a cell ♪ Well, it's cashmere.

WALTER: ♪ I was down and out ♪ ♪ Looked to me to be ♪ (tape ripping) This is demeaning.

LUNDY: The problem when people wear a wire is that all they think about is that they're wearing a wire.

You need to put it out of your mind.

(chuckling): And how might one do that?

Don't try and get him to confess right off the bat.

It's not going to start playing Radio Two.

You should have contacted me before you left London.

With all respect, we've nicked Errico for you, and we're here with an informant to take out Campbell.

I can authorize this as a joint D.E.A.

You just need to take me along for the ride.

You haven't got to anyone around him?

We'll go to the town hall, pick up a marriage certificate, I have it witnessed, and then the admin is done.

He told me that he was the finance director of a construction company, but... ...I've recently discovered that he is a drug trafficker, which was a somewhat disappointing revelation.

You launder money for drug traffickers?

Your government's policies attract two types of people, tax dodgers and criminals.

And then you ask people like me to tell them apart.

And sometimes, the crooks slip through the nets.

How much of this, how much of you, is built on drug money?

Take that school that I'm building for you.

Take them away and everything collapses.

Same for your government, same for this island.

I would rather it collapse than be supported like that.

You're naive to think this island can afford such morality.

(door slams) (piano playing) (thunder rumbling in distance) If I was you, place like this, I wouldn't have thought it was cashmere, either.

(sighs) I can deliver the message more politely, but the message doesn't change.

I thought the old accent might get me a bit more interest, you know.

(sighs) (piano and thunder continue) My name's Charlie.

Isn't it... (in accent): "Charles"?

This is me, exceptionally bored, willing to talk to you for as long as you temporarily ease that exceptional boredom.

(snaps) BOYCE (loudly): "A senior police source confirmed "the Brink's-Mat Task Force is active "in the Caribbean island of Tortola, following inquiries in the Isle of Man"?

Avoiding criticism of your leadership by endangering my team and a cooperating witness!

Without my intervention, that story would have been, "As Britain "shivers its way through a recession, "the Brink's-Mat Task Force have blown another few million of your..." This is bloody disgrace... Boyce!

(breath trembling) It's page 23, next to the obituaries, Boyce.

I don't think it'll make it to the colonies.

I've got through the financial advisers on this island.

And one more chosen than the others.

Which is why I saw you leave Logan Campbell's house this morning.

(people talking in background) We're engaged.

Congratulations-- does he clean drugs money?

You should be speaking to me with the governor.

And yet, I've chosen to talk to you when you're not at work and you're not with her.

That's what I'm trying to find out.

Well, this is an unwelcome surprise.

I met Errico, gave him half-a-million pounds, and haven't heard a peep since.

And Christ only knows where Miller is.

I didn't feel this conversation was well suited to a phone call.

How are you cleaning the money from Errico and Miller's drug deals?

CAMPBELL (on speaker): What's going on?

DOUGLAS: What's going on is that I'm (muted) myself, mate.

(chuckles) Errico, Miller, the drugs, uh-- I'm in over my head.

You might recall that I tried to dissuade you from getting involved with them.

They're not our kind of people, Logan.

So tell me how you cleaned it and I'll tell you how we make sure, if this goes down, it's those two bloody reprobates, and them alone, who go down with it.

(speaker hissing) (fax machine beeps and whirs) Perpetual motion.

(fax machine whirs on speaker, Campbell speaking indistinctly) NICKI: What is that?

In the Venn diagram of nations offering reduced banking rates, no extradition, bribable local officials, political stability, there are nine countries.

(fax machine whirring, Campbell speaking indistinctly) The money moves between those nine countries in perpetual, invisible motion.

One account, controlled by me, which transfers money to temporary holding accounts in the foreign banks, takes it back, and, and sends it on.

(fax machine beeps, whirring stops) And on.

An old friend comes all this way, twice.

(stammers): Oh, don't be daft-- we're talking shop here, Logan.

See what you can find in Campbell's office.

(sighs) (piano playing) (exhales) So, what do you do?

I work for a hedge fund on Wall Street.

Do any of those words mean anything to you?

So, with a hedge fund, where's the money... Is this interesting?

Means I'm on my way back from Kansas and I should have taken the (muted) bus.

(both chuckle) (exhales) What's in Kansas?

(thunder claps loudly, people gasping) It's getting closer.

Well, she called it a beer, but I'm starting to think she was having me on.

(laughs) (piano continues) Logan thought Errico was legit.

When he found out he wasn't, he cut him loose.

I just don't know how much damage was done before that.

Well, I'm sure that Logan will be more careful in future.

The first time Logan asked me for dinner, you told me not to meet him.

I know how men like that see women on this island.

Because you went for dinner, Kadene.

Now you have to do what you have to do to keep it.

I've cut poverty, raised literacy levels, extended life expectancy, and I have looked after you the way I promised your mother I would.

♪ ♪ These are the things you tell yourself.

We're both going to have to decide what we choose to know.

(chuckles) I'm not built for this kind of thing.

We should really tie up our discussion.

I'm sure I can lend you some trunks, Dougie.

(chuckles) I was never as confident as you with matters of the flesh.

Gonna pay whatever I need to pay to get out of here.

(exhales) This was, uh, better than I hoped.

Let's be honest, expectations were kind of low.

Uh... It's a, it's a petroleum company.

It's found a lot of oil, and, uh, doesn't have the money to get it out of the ground.

So I'm gonna fly to New York, raise the finance, and then fly back to Kansas and close the deal.

Financial institutions, pension funds... How much each?

Uh, it was really nice to meet you.

(chuckles) I don't know, uh, two million apiece?

(sighs) I'll have it sent to you tomorrow.

This is America, I have money, so give me my shot.

(piano playing in background) All right, I... I think you're full of (muted).

But, um... (chuckles) If $2 million clears in this account tomorrow, then I will be flying back through here the day after that on this flight.

You know, I could have got out, before the storm.

I sat in here, looking at all those flights, all those places, all those lives I could have.

(exhales) ♪ ♪ (piano playing) (talking indistinctly) (piano continues) (sighs) It's all in code.

We're not gonna get anything out of this without Campbell's help.

Which means that we need a confession.

Which means we need Baxter to get that out of Campbell before Campbell realizes that Baxter's flipped.

♪ ♪ Is there something you'd like to tell me now that we're alone?

This island is, um... It's a magnet for the world's detritus.

They come here with their dirty money and their (muted) stories and one eye over their shoulders to check for pursuers, and I pity them, Douglas.

I sit behind my desk and I pity them, because you'd be surprised how easy it is to tell myself that I am above the fray.

With my office and my brochures and my bank accounts, it's easy to feel safe.

I'm right there, in the gutter, with the detritus.

With their casual disregard for the truth.

I don't think you want to bring loyalty and friendship into this.

Laundering drugs money is a federal crime.

I'd get 20 years-- did they tell you that?

Did you weigh them up, those two decades?

Did you hold 20 years of my life in your grubby little hands before saying yes?

There was an opportunity here for both of us.

You didn't think to mention this was (muted) Brink's-Mat?

I wouldn't have touched Brink's-Mat with a barge pole!

Oh, no, oh, no, oh, Jesus (muted), that's it?!

You are talking about me, about my life!

(screaming): I am not an irrelevance!

(gasping) ♪ ♪ (softly): Campbell knows we're here for Brink's-Mat.

(whispers): I'm not authorized for that.

LUNDY: Did you tell Campbell we're on him?

(classical music playing in background) (music continues) Mr.

Palmer-- it's lovely to see you again.

(on speaker): Let me introduce you to Han-So.

(clears throat) May we have a mineral water, please?

You know it won't stand up in court.

It's good TV, but legally, it doesn't give you much.

He just needs to allude to criminal activity in Spain, then I take the tapes to Spain and get warrants to find what I need for court.

BOYCE: He grew up next to a dump and he's in the Ritz Hotel.

(engine idling) Thought I'd pick you up.

TINA: Your reputation precedes you, Mr.

Palmer, but, for our peace of mind, can you outline how you would go about laundering the money?

(chuckles) When you clean the Russians' money, do you use shell companies or is it a case of... Sorry.

(music continues, people talking in background) Where's he off to, then?

We just need to hope that he's desperate enough to ignore it.

This is your chance to tell me what the (muted) is going on.

There's a lot I could tell you, and I will.

But for now, what you need to know is that I've... (engine slowing) ...laundered large amounts of drugs money.

and the British police are here to arrest me.

(gear shifts, engine stops) But instead, we're leaving.

And I'll build our new life around that.

♪ ♪ Well, then, I guess it's time to choose, Kadene.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (inhales) (sniffs) (sighs) (sniffs) (sighs) (exhales) (playing softly) ♪ I knew a man, Bojangles ♪ ♪ And he danced for you ♪ (people talking in background) ♪ In worn-out shoes ♪ ♪ Silver hair and ragged shirt ♪ (people laughing) (sighs) (exhales) Why do you always play that song?

Jerry Jeff Walker gets thrown in jail for being drunk.

In that cell is an old man called Bojangles, who says, "Well, we can stare at the floor or we can talk."

And Bojangles started to talk about life, about love, about good times, bad times.

About what Bojangles called "the whole fiasco."

And the next day, Jerry Jeff Walker said, "Where's Bojangles?"

And his name sure as hell wasn't Bojangles."

(people talking in background) (classical music playing) 25 million.

TINA: For $25 million, you will launder $100 million?

I mean, I'm not cheap, but I'm good.

(chuckling) This money comes from heroin trafficking, Mr.

We can't afford a last-minute wobble.

(chuckles) Listen, love, in Tenerife, I'm doing a boatload of cash every week for the Russians, and they ain't no choirboys.

(chuckling) Well, we should drink to that.

(phone ringing out) AUTOMATED RECORDING: The number you have dialed is not in service.

The number you have dialed is not in service.

The number you have dialed is not... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I chose Tortola.

♪ ♪ (police radios running) We won't keep you any longer, Mr.

I'll be in touch to finalize the arrangements.

(inhales) You ain't saying much, mate.

(exhales) I just offered to clean $100 million for you.

You look like someone's nicked your lunch money.

(classical music playing) What's he mean, "What you need"?

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ JOHN: If you come for me, it won't end well for either of us.

We're only interested in the Brink's-Mat money.

BOYCE: We welcome the chase, Palmer.

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Preview: S2 Ep4 | 30s | In Tenerife, John Palmer has an unwelcome visitor as the pressure continues to build. (30s)

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Funding for MASTERPIECE is provided by Viking and Raymond James with additional support from public television viewers and contributors to The MASTERPIECE Trust, created to help ensure the series’ future.