A new series of Gangster tells the story of Viv Graham, a man who ran a protection empire which spanned Newcastle and beyond.

Viv Graham, a 17-stone man mountain, a man feared and revered in equal measure, came to dominate Tyneside’s nightlife through brutal and uncompromising violence.

His murder, in an organised hit on New Year’s Eve 1993, sparked recriminations and repercussions which echo to this day. It remains one of the country’s most notorious unsolved murders.

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

The EncroChat hack has given the police unprecedented access to the secrets of organised crime. Nearly four years on from the hack, the detective who led the Met’s EncroChat investigation, DCI Driss Hayoukane, reveals what the police have learnt about OCGs which they didn’t know before.

Presenter Mobeen Azhar hears about the impact of the EncroChat operation from Driss and from the National Crime Agency. There have been thousands of arrests, 200 threats to life averted and tonnes of drugs seized. But has taking out the kingpins cut crime?

Thanks also to Beena Khetani, Adele Humbert, Hugh Levinson, Ali Rezakhani, Rhiannon Cobb, and Jack Griffith.

The truth unearthed about Met police officer PC Kashif Mahmood is stranger than an episode of the fictional drama Line of Duty. And it was evidence unearthed in the EncroChat operation which made him plead guilty.

PC Kashif Mahmood had won five awards for his outstanding service as a police officer. But he was secretly working for an OCG in east London.

A detective from the Met police’s anti-corruption unit talks publicly for the first time about the most brazen case of corruption he’s ever seen.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

Little is known about who invented the EncroChat network and who owned it. Even the police who investigated the criminals using the network, know little about who’s behind it.

Journalists David James Smith and Joseph Cox explain what their investigations into the company reveal.

Plus, why an expert in cryptography thinks the whole EncroChat operation could fall apart on a legal technicality.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

In the wealthy village of Denham in Buckinghamshire, Lee Hannigan and Harry Hicks-Samuels play the part of successful businessmen really well. Hannigan has a car garage, a mansion with a Ferrari on the drive and a place in Dubai. Hicks-Samuels is only 27 but has a watch business and flat in a luxury development.

But the secrets of where their money really comes from are on their EncroChat phones.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

It's April 2020, and the Metropolitan Police are overwhelmed with messages hacked from the EncroChat network.

Buried among the millions of texts and photographs, are the outlines of a murder plot. An anonymous EncroChat user is trying to source a gun and some ammunition for a drive by shooting.

Will the police discover the messages before it’s too late? And will they be willing to risk the secrecy of the entire EncroChat operation by arresting someone on EncroChat evidence alone?

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

Catching the Kingpins is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.

Police across Europe prepare for a top-secret operation: the hacking of EncroChat, an encrypted phone network favoured by organised crime groups.

EncroChat’s server has been discovered in northern France. The French police are planning to secretly inject some code into the users’ next software update. If it works, police could be reading the criminals’ messages for weeks.

At the Metropolitan Police in London, DCI Driss Hayoukane is summoned to a confidential meeting where he hears about the plan. He realises this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and decides to put his retirement on hold.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar

A 6-part true crime podcast documenting the biggest organised crime bust in British policing history. It happens in 2020 when police in France penetrate an encrypted phone network called EncroChat. According to police, the phones were used exclusively by criminals.

- A murder plot unearthed by the Met in a joint operation with South Wales police.

At a time when the Metropolitan Police Service has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, it’s a story of an extraordinary success: nearly 1000 arrests; over 400 convictions; the seizure of £19 million in cash, three tonnes of Class A and B drugs and 49 guns.

Thanks also to Beena Khetani, Adele Humbert, Hugh Levinson, Ali Rezakhani, Rhiannon Cobb, and Jack Griffith.

Despite the landmark trial of 2004-05 leading to several convictions for the murder of Charlene and Letisha - the gang murders in the city continued. What more could be done to tackle the violence?

In the final episode in the series, we look at how a combination of one man’s brilliant gang mediation and West Midlands police’s Operation Ventara slowly started to turn the tide and begin the process of restoring peace to the city of Birmingham. At the same time as the police were making inroads into dismantling the Burger Bar Boys’ operation in the city, the gang’s ambitions had begun to stretch to neighbouring cities –

We’ll hear from an undercover police officer who was sent into Northampton to join the city’s Burger Bar Boys offshoot there, and how developments in ballistics allowed police to trace the movement of guns like the MAC-10 as they were passed around the country from one gang member to another.

We conclude the series by looking at where things stand now in the city. What became of the convicted gang members, and how the Burger Bar Boys name still echoes around the streets of Handsworth to this day. We will hear how the families who lost loved ones feel as they reflect on the events of the last few decades, and how back in the Burgers’ home territory of Handsworth, there is at last some optimism.

New episodes are released on Fridays. If you’re in the UK, listen to Gangster: The Burger Bar Boys first on BBC Sounds. bbc.in/40W5Chz

Presenter – Livvy Haydock

It’s late 2004 and the buzz of police helicopters and sea of armed police around Leicester Crown Court creates a tense, intimidating atmosphere as one of the biggest murder trials of the decade gets underway. West Midlands police have the men they believe responsible for the deaths of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare ready to stand trial for their crimes. But this was not going to be an easy conviction. Detectives had identified 75 people they believed could provide key evidence - yet all of them refused to testify. Then a break came from a man in prison who told prison officers he had seen some of the men in the car involved in the shooting. The problem was - he needed to remain anonymous, and this would involve a legal first.

The trial would go on to last the best part of six months - at that point it was the longest trial in British history and there were several times when it threatened to collapse. Meanwhile, the Burgers were doing everything they could to find out the identity of the secret witness, using extreme violence and intimidation to uncover the name of this faceless man trying to put them behind bars. For the families of Letisha and Sophie and West Midlands police - would they get to witness the killers being put behind bars and finally bring the Burger Bar Boys’ reign of terror to an end?

New episodes are released on Fridays. If you’re in the UK, listen to Gangster: The Burger Bar Boys first on BBC Sounds. bbc.in/40W5Chz

Presenter – Livvy Haydock