Fake Names & Secret Identities: How Intelligence Agents Operate | David Bickford | FO569 Raj Shamani

David Bickford (0:00)

The amount of cocaine that's consumed in London is outrageous.

They think it's a fun thing to do, like alcohol. They don't realize what they're doing. That's the problem. Well, if you go back to the origins of cocaine, where does it come from? It comes from Columbia, South America, where it's grown, and you've got farmers who are being oppressed by the drugs lords. You've got inter-gang warfare, where people are being killed. Then, the drugs get transferred over to the UK. They're in a direct chain from murder, mayhem, torture, rape, all the rest of it. They're part of it.

Raj Shamani (0:40)

You've also said somewhere that organized crime is more dangerous than terrorism. Why?

David Bickford (0:45)

You can see terrorism. You can see the bombings and killings. You can see the organizations open.

Organized crime isn't insidious. It goes into money laundering, goes into cafes and pubs and prostitution, fraud. The problem is the amount of money that can be made is huge.

Raj Shamani (1:11)

What do you think is the biggest problem for all the agencies in the world today?

David Bickford (1:15)

Fraud is extremely difficult. Trying to trace back where it comes because it comes out of the dark web, arms trafficking.

Raj Shamani (1:22)

You were the legal director for MI5.

David Bickford (1:25)

And 6

Raj Shamani (1:27)

When the top intelligence agency, when they are recruiting somebody, what are they looking for?

David Bickford (1:32)

At the top of the list of any intelligence agent is integrity, because their whole essence is to go out and pretend to be someone they're not. And to tell lies, to draw people in. Very careful lies, Marku, because if you're found out, you're in trouble.

Raj Shamani (1:50)

What do you look for? They're like, oh, this is golden, I want to hire this.

David Bickford (1:53)

They're determined, they have a lot of patience. Some operations can take years to come to fruition. And balance, to understand people, to understand how far you can go, how far you can't. Those are the really important qualities of an intelligence agent.

Raj Shamani (2:11)

What are the powers of an intelligence officer?

David Bickford (2:13)

Yeah, good. They can follow people around, they can investigate their background against their right to privacy entering somebody's property, for instance, stealing their documents or all that sort of thing.

Raj Shamani (2:24)

How easy it is to make passports and give like multiple countries passport to one person?

David Bickford (2:29)

You know, if you go down the pub, you can always get a passport.

Raj Shamani (2:32)

Really? You can get a fake passport on an internet? On some website, really?

David Bickford (2:36)

Yeah, deep, deep net, yeah.

Raj Shamani (2:39)

Did you ever had any fake passport in your life?

David Bickford (2:41)

Yes, I did.

Raj Shamani (2:42)

These are different passports. This is British, US, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Pakistan, Republic of Korea. Which is the easiest passport to get out of all of them?

David Bickford (2:53)

Now, I'll tell you something.

Raj Shamani (2:56)

That is scary.

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Okay, so tell everyone if someone's watching you for the first time, right? Who are you and what have you done in the past? And why should somebody watch this? Because my loose framing of your introduction would be that you held one of the most important jobs in the world.