Paddy Craig joined the RUC in 1975. He was promoted to Detective within two years. His subsequent career led him through all the most troubled areas of the province. He secured two further promotions and was a Detective Inspector in the Belfast area when a serious attempt on his life and that of his young family led him to be transferred to Headquarters CID.

He found it seriously lacking in covert operations capacity. Appointed head of CID Surveillance Unit, he set about a root and branch reform to bring it into line with best modern practice. Until now, CID had played second fiddle to Special Branch in covert and surveillance operations. That changed.

Under his leadership, an elite and secretive undercover unit was established which immersed Paddy Craig in a shadow-world fight against criminals and terrorists throughout the UK, the Republic of Ireland and continental Europe. Its initial successes in Northern Ireland led other police forces, including the Garda Siochana, to seek the secondment of Craig and his men in the war against drug dealers and their networks. Often operating alone and in hostile environments, he was involved in the seizure of multi-million pound consignments from crime syndicates and terrorist groups as far afield as Turkey. His main weapons were his training, his guile and false identity papers: he carried up to three passports at any one time. He has been kidnapped, questioned and arrested, and was often minutes from acute danger and death.

In Undercover Cop, an account of his time in the unit, he covers some of the most hair-raising of these adventures. The cast of characters range from drug-dealing solicitors to ruthless terrorists and criminal gangs. These include many rendezvous with major consignments in locales from the port of Rotterdam and the lay-bys of Amsterdam to the beaches of Spain.

Books by Paddy Craig