A police officer went deep undercover into one of the most dangerous football firms in history and actually revealed he was a policeman.
Football hooliganism was rife in England during the 1980’s and 1990’s with some fans opting to avoid attending football games as a result of the sickening violence between ‘firms’ of some clubs.
West Ham’s Inter City Firm (ICF), Chelsea’s Headhunters, Manchester United’s Red Army and Millwall’s Bushwackers were just some of the most infamous firms in the United Kingdom which proved to be a stain on the English game for years.
James Bannon, 21 at the time, was placed deep undercover in Millwall’s terrifying Bushwackers in an attempt to gain intelligence and ultimately bring an end to hooliganism.
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In 1987 as part of Operation Pegasus, he gained the trust of the firm’s members after posing as a painter and decorator called Jim Ford and attending their local pubs.
In his book, ‘My Double Life as an Undercover Football Hooligan’, Bannon revealed he actually performed an arrest on one of the firm’s associates as a joke in order to keep his cover.
Bannon described being in the pub with various firm members before noticing one of his associate’s friends dealing drugs.
The undercover officer went to investigate further and asked to buy £500’s worth of ‘Moroccan’ from the dealer who was described as being terrified of selling to strangers in case they ‘worked for the old bill’.
Bannon then claimed he wished he’d have known that and he could have pretended to arrest him which the firm members agreed would have been hilarious to watch, without knowing their ‘friend’ was actually a member of the Metropolitan Police.
He was prompted to perform the fake arrest.
“Something very strange happens to you in this line of work. You are constantly striving for the next big test of your abilities and I was starting to do little things to deliberately trip myself up to see how I got out of it and this was one of those moments. Everything about what I was about to do was wrong but it was a test, a proper test,” he wrote in his book.
“As Scott came over Chris came back from the bar and handed me my beer and as he did so I stood up and walked over to Scott and as he went to sit down I took hold of his arm. ‘It’s Scott, ain’t it?’
“He nodded back. ‘A bit of bad news I’m afraid.’ ‘What’s up? The gear’s all right, trust me. It’s good s***.’
“I am sure it is but that’s not the issue. You are now under arrest. I’m a policeman and you have just sold me a large amount of an illegal substance that I believe to be cannabis. Now, I need to formally caution you. You are not obliged to say anything unless you wish to do so but anything you do say may be taken down in writing and given in evidence. Do you understand?’
“The colour had drained from Scott’s face. He nodded his head. ‘Good, is there anything that you would like to say?’ He then shook his head. ‘Okay, no comment to caution at... What’s the time?’
“I looked around and everyone was now staring at me, including Chris, who looked like he wanted die ground to open up and swallow him. Mark looked up at the clock behind me, ‘It’s twenty to ten.’ ‘Okay, no reply to caution at 9.40.’ I then picked up my beer and took a sip. ‘Someone will be here in a minute to pick us both up.’ Scott looked at me and nodded. I then sat on the edge of the table and looked over at him. ‘Oh, and I forgot to mention something else.’ He was now close to tears. ‘What?’ And as I stood up I started to laugh. ‘Got ya. It’s just a wind-up.’ And I then expected everyone to start laughing, but nothing happened.
“Everyone was staring at me open-mouthed including Dave. I then turned to them, still laughing. ‘It’s a wind-up, it’s a f****** wind-up.’ Everyone looked pale and Dave finally broke the silence. ‘Fuck me. You f****** had me there and it was my f****** idea.’”
Bannon revealed his fellow undercover officer named ‘Chris’ was present during the interaction and the pair drove back to their office after the incident.
His fellow officer did not find it as funny as Bannon did.
Bannon asked him: “Mate. How can you not find that funny? An undercover cop living the life of a football hooligan who then convinces his targets that he is an undercover cop. How is that not funny?’
Marcus Banks