New BBC documentary about kidnapping gang in Manchester watched by millions

A new BBC documentary focusing on organised crime in Manchester was watched by millions last night.

The first episode of the series, called The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime, focused on a kidnapping gang in our city and the officers working to catch them.

The five-part series will explore real instances of organised crime in Manchester, with each episode covering cases as they happen.

Filming took place over two years, with in-depth coverage of the live police investigation and unprecedented access to GMP throughout.

In the first episode, police were called after a man – suspected to be linked to drug crime – was kidnapped by an armed gang, taken from his home in front of his wife and kids, before being held hostage and tortured until a £34,000 ransom was paid.

Police located the address at which the victim was held, with forensic evidence giving officers the names of suspects, but while this is going on another kidnapping happens.

The Major Incident Team (MIT) suspect it could be the same gang, and discover footage of the kidnap in action after trawling CCTV, leading to specialist undercover and firearms units to search for the criminals.

The Detectives: Fighting Organised Crime continues next Tuesday at 9pm on BBC Two, with the second episode set to cover a separate incident involving drug-related gang crime.

If you missed it, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer here.