Undercover: Operation Julie - The Inside Story
by Stephen Bentley
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Pub Date Jul 14 2017 | Archive Date Dec 06 2017
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Description
Operation Julie is still today the point of reference for all British undercover operations and training. In 2011, the BBC claimed this massive and unique police operation was the start of the war on drugs.
Stephen Bentley was one of four undercover detectives engaged on Operation Julie, one of the world's largest drug busts. Together with his undercover partner, he infiltrated the gang producing around 90 percent of the world's LSD and uncovered a plot to import huge quantities of Bolivian cocaine into the UK.
The underworld knew the author as Steve Jackson. How did he successfully infiltrate the two gangs? Did he have to take drugs, and how did 'living a lie' affect him?
Discover the answers and get inside the mind of Steve Jackson, an undercover detective.
A fascinating, straightforward, honest account of an insider who was in truth an outsider... a tale of outrageous greed, lust, violence, and bravery of a few men who had an admirable goal and how they managed it. An insider’s perspective of the drug trade, told with charm, intelligence, and at times humor, by a talented man, uniquely qualified to dish the real story, who above all was an honest decent man. Just a plain good read. - Review excerpt
Amazon Customer Reviews:
Brilliant book, I couldn't put it down and was gutted to finish it last night. Wonderfully written. It provides an insight into life in the late 70s and the expectations placed on undercover officers at the time. A must-read, you won't be disappointed. Liz
Great read really insightful really written well. Philip Danaher
This is the stuff of legend , a blinding good read ! Highly recommended, funny, witty as well as serious & insightful a real page turner ! Thanks. Emma J
Just knowing that the author, Stephen Bentley, was one of the two detectives assigned to go undercover in an operation which not only spanned the globe, but put his life in peril on a minute-by-minute and day-to-day basis as he infiltrated a drug cartel.
'Undercover: Operation Julie - The Inside Story' is a thriller of epic proportions. I highly recommend it, not only for the thrill of Bentley's dangerous assignment, but as a history lesson in international drug culture. Anne Carmichael
A compelling and very well written book by an extremely courageous police officer. An excellent read! Kenny
Masterfully told by undercover officer Stephen Bentley, this isn't a run of the mill sensationalist true crime book. Dive underneath the visible parts of the water and into the murky depths as you are pulled along through not just the operation but the aftermath, both personal and public. A must read for true crime lovers and historians alike. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was a very enjoyable read. Liliyana.
Advance Praise
"Masterfully told by undercover officer Stephen Bentley, this isn't a run of the mill sensationalist true crime book. Dive underneath the visible parts of the water and into the murky depths as you are pulled along through not just the operation but the aftermath, both personal and public. A must read for true crime lovers and historians alike. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was a very enjoyable read."
"'Undercover: Operation Julie - The Inside Story' is a thriller of epic proportions. I highly recommend it, not only for the thrill of Bentley's dangerous assignment, but as a history lesson in international drug culture."
"Brilliant book, I couldn't put it down and was gutted to finish it last night. Wonderfully written. It provides an insight into life in the late 70s and the expectations placed on undercover officers at the time. A must-read, you won't be disappointed."
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781548996208 |
| PRICE | £6.99 (GBP) |
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Featured Reviews
Ellesse O, Media/Journalist
Undercover: Operation Julie, the inside story is the personal story of Stephen Bentley one of three undercover detectives in Operation Julie, a UK police investigation that took place during the 1970’s. The investigation was UK wide and aimed to bring down a number of LSD drugs rings. From a personal point of view despite being a fan of true crimes I’ve never heard or read about anything relating to the operation, so I appreciated the overview of other books given.
We begin after the operation and see the dire effects the undercover work had on Stephen, we are also given an insight into the standards expected of police during that time (these standards would not be accepted by the public now), including multilevel corruption.
We then go back in time to the beginning of Stephen’s undercover work, paired with Eric they are sent to mid-Wales to gather information about the drug dealers in that area. With very little formal training both undertook an identity change and had a cover story as to why they were in the area, we get to see how they are accepted into the community.
Steve discusses how feeling can get mixed up between himself and his persona feeling like the people he had met where is real friends at times, having to remind himself they weren’t and he had a job to do very aware one mistake could have given them away as police. There is an open discussion of what drugs he used and what effect they had on him, it was a relief to see such openness about these.
When the leaders of the operation had found out all the information they wanted, Steve and Eric were pulled from their undercover operations and back to their real lives without much chance for adjustment. The interviews and a limited section of the trails are discussed within the book but don’t go into tremendous detail.
Once the conclusion of the trails had been discussed I felt it should have been the end of the book, if I wanted to know more about the operation or about different drugs and their legal status I would have searched for them. The last quarter of the book felt like a collection of blog posts rather than coherent chapters of a book and repeatedly referred to a different edition of the book (I have to say I’m not interested in the content of an earlier edition, just the one I’m reading!). Aside from this I generally liked the book but there were a few parts that I felt could have been improved upon, I didn’t like the way he described women or travellers.
I rarely have any trouble rating a book, but with this one I did. If the last quarter wasn’t there I would have rated it 8/10 as it was interesting and unique, but unfortunately the last part made it drag so I drop to 6.5/10
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