The Men in the Shadows | TF1 | Reportages

You never see them, but they are everywhere. In the stadiums they watch for violent supporters; at demonstrations they count the numbers marching; in the projects they hunt down illegal trafficking. They also work on prevention of terrorism; break illegal immigrant networks; plan for strikes. They are the former RG, the Police Intelligence service, now renamed Department of Intelligence. Usually, they work undercover, but for an exceptional 6 months, they gave us permission to follow a number of their investigations. We shared the everyday existence of Lionel, police captain, and Hervé, his assistant. Their team hunts down networks extorting thousands of Euros from illegals in exchange for provisional rights of residency on French soil. They’re totally unscrupulous,” explains Lionel, “they’re interested in only one thing: money.” And to make more money, the heads of these networks stop at nothing: fake fathers, phantom patients…   In the anti-hooligan division we were able to accompany Christine, police inspector, on her surveillance operations. For 10 years she’s been watching violent supporters and admits that she still can’t understand why they fight each other. “I think it’s an adrenaline rush, the fact of being part of a gang. More that sort of thing than about supporting a team. They only come along to have a fight.” On November 24, we witnessed an “anti-hooligan hunt” in the middle of Paris. The Intelligence Department narrowly avoided a massive brawl between violent supporters of Ajax of Amsterdam and of PSG.”