Mr. Good: Cop or Crook? (2022) s01e02 Episode Script
Operation Silent
1
A NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY SERIES
Numerous priceless antiques
were stolen last night
from the royal summer palace,
Oscarshall, on Bygdøy in Oslo.
A stone's throw away lies the caretaker's building, but they didn't notice anything.
Not even the guard dog noticed anything wrong.
It includes smaller objects such as a silver lamp, two console clocks, a carriage clock, two porcelain busts, a water jug, a washstand and a washbowl with silver overlay.
Everything made in the 1800s.
POLICE HEADQUARTERS IN OSLO We would receive information in the form of a directive on special incidents.
So we had our own contacts in the art scene.
We had our own contacts at auction houses and scrap yards and everything.
So we just had to start at one end and start to seek out people.
I remember the Bygdøy case very well.
I didn't know it at the time.
I found out later.
But it was Cappelen who provided the information.
It was Gjermund Cappelen who called and said, "You have to come to Bærum and meet me.
It's important.
" And I think, "What the fuck is this?" So we jumped in a car and drove out to meet him.
And he had the stuff lying in the back of his car.
Gjermund Cappelen can jump fences, and the missing goods are found.
And this leads to Eirik Jensen being able to waltz into the chief of police's office, unwrap the goodies and be in the top brass' good books.
And this resulted in Eirik Jensen receiving an award that year from the chief of police for his fantastic work.
So he had to go up to the chief of police to receive this award.
But, you know, the way he looked, with jeans and a ponytail and stuff, So I said, "You have to dress up, Eirik.
" I said, "We're going up to the chief of police's office, and afterwards to the cafeteria to eat on the chief's expenses.
" And then he showed up in well, he dressed up.
He wore his confirmation suit with a short jacket, which of course had gotten way too small and tight, and a white shirt that wouldn't button up at the collar, but he had done his best and stood there and received his prize.
And he was really proud.
He who always criticized his colleagues for wanting to climb the hierarchy.
So So he was pretty pleased after all.
This is the time when Eirik Jensen starts to collect awards.
Not only does he receive the chief of police's golden watch, he also receives a letter of gratitude from the royal palace.
All thanks to Gjermund Cappelen.
EIRIK JENSEN, THE ENIGMA Cappelen and I built a connection that eventually led to us trusting each other.
That's a part of the interaction between handler and informant, to provide safety.
And the easiest way to do that is to talk with each other, and we talked a lot together.
And and this included personal things, of course.
We were quite similar in the way that we didn't have a lot of friends, few people to talk to, and Cappelen is a damn charming guy.
You can talk to him about a lot.
He knows a lot of stuff.
The first time I saw Gjermund was with a mutual buddy.
And this was the core of the local gang.
And suddenly, Gjermund started being friendly with me.
And I was a little surprised, because he was so cool and I was more insecure and more of an outsider, but we ended up friends.
And Gjermund, he was he was polite, very intelligent, incredibly funny.
He could talk to anyone who he wanted to.
He was handsome, very charismatic, and the ladies, they they fell head over heels.
But he never settled down with anyone.
Because, well, we partied.
We raged, and eventually, Gjermund got himself a car.
Even though he didn't have a license.
I remember turning 18, we drove to Amsterdam.
There were four of us.
I think we decided that same night.
So we got in the car and drove there as fast as lightning.
He didn't care about the rules and regulations at all.
And shortly after, he started going down the wrong path.
And I remember one time when we were discussing right or wrong, and I questioned things that he did.
And then he said, "You see, I am a criminal.
" I liked that he worked hard, delivering results.
What I didn't like was that he had a huge drug problem that sometimes made him totally out of it, that made him hide.
His dad contacted me and asked if I could help his son.
So I drove out there, and it was like he said.
There was a zombie sitting in the chair up there, with all the windows covered and imagining things.
Coughing and hacking.
Plus, he was completely hyper and paranoid.
So I had to help him.
The result of playing both sides plays on your nerves, and he did this to get us information.
I-I felt partly responsible for that.
I don't really remember the first time I met GT, but Eirik said that he was gonna stay with us for a while, because he was going to some kind of rehab in Spain.
Eirik was going with him, and they were gonna spend a week in Spain.
What the fuck! I don't know why he had to go with him at all.
I would have understood if he was a relative of Eirik's, but why the hell would he go there with a junkie? "Well, he's given me a lot of good information and stuff.
" Well.
So I thought maybe that's true.
Why did Eirik spend time with him at all? In private too? I asked him, "Have you taken time off to do this, or how do you handle it?" "Do your bosses know that you are going with GT?" It was approved.
I took a week's leave, and I said I was going to take a client to a rehabilitation centre.
And this was quite normal back then.
Anyway, it worked.
And Cappelen was actually clean for many years after that.
I took it upon myself to help him feel safe and be like a father figure for him when it came to the hard facts of life.
FORMER POLICE LIEUTENAN ASKER AND BÆRUM - ASBJØRN LINAKER When we first heard about Cappelen, he was named.
In police circles, he was known as "GT," because he was named Gjermund Thorud back then.
We noticed him through sources, meaning informants, who said that he was selling hash.
And we eventually also saw that there was smuggling involved.
I remember one time he came driving by as I was out on a walk, and he stopped, rolled down the window and showed me a Kiwi bag completely full of hash.
And that was his way of showing me how far he'd come.
That things had turned out the way he wanted them to.
The thing with hash, it's like everything else.
Røkke started selling fish, then a ton of fish and so on and so forth.
Gjermund started with bricks, then two bricks, then bags, then a ton.
We're now on Marstrander Road, where Gjermund Cappelen, the drug lord of Asker and Bærum, lived.
He had a large market, imported a lot, sold a lot and earned a lot of money doing it.
It was vital we stopped him and put him behind bars to limit the drug use in town.
Administratively, the Oslo Police Department was the largest, and the Asker and Bærum Police Department was in many ways a district police department.
This led to typical friction between these departments, as they were in close contact with each other.
Eirik visited our district many times.
And we addressed the fact that he just travelled around doing whatever he wanted.
I told Eirik that he needed to let us know when he was doing work in the Asker and Bærum police district.
But he didn't care.
He didn't want to cooperate with Asker and Bærum at all.
We were like second-rate officers compared to him.
In his mind.
POLICE We had opened a case against Cappelen in the fall of 2000.
FORMER SURVEILLANCE LEADER ASKER AND BÆRUM - ROLF MEYER The aim was to uncover his organization and network, and we received information about a meeting he was going to have in Oslo, which was important to him.
Cappelen, he lived in our district.
He was our responsibility.
But we informed Oslo, of course.
So the Oslo police were fully aware that we were running surveillance on Cappelen.
He meets a person who gets into the car.
The surveillance leader reports back that he can't see who it is, but they drove off and drove around the city.
And after a relatively short period of time, they stop driving, and the person who was picked up gets out of the car.
That's when the patrol sees that it's Eirik Jensen.
We knew Cappelen was Eirik's informant.
We didn't think that their cooperation went further than that.
Cappelen drives back towards Bærum, and at some point, drives towards the surveillance leader and waved his phone at him.
He appeared to want to talk to him.
Shortly after, he calls on the surveillance leader's phone.
How he got that phone number is It's impossible.
It's a closed phone number.
No one outside of the police has that phone number.
Cappelen explains that he knows he's under surveillance by Asker and Bærum and asks us to leave it and stop the surveillance.
It was like being punched in the face, because it was obvious for the surveillance team that their cover was blown, and it was blown by Eirik.
Because I met with him just before, they are convinced that I blew their cover.
But I didn't.
Asker and Bærum had Cappelen under surveillance.
Cappelen saw it, understood it, and then out of his own initiative, called the Asker and Bærum operator and was transferred to the surveillance leader.
Then all hell broke loose.
Everyone was angry.
Everyone was angry with Jensen, because they were sure it was true.
So this story did the rounds.
After a few days, I got a call from one of Eirik's bosses in Oslo, that we were to cease the surveillance on Cappelen, because according to them, they had information that he'd stopped importing drugs and selling them.
He was now in the IT business.
Yes.
And my response to that was, "Do you think we're idiots out here?" In short, that meant that Oslo knew exactly what had happened and accepted it.
I was furious, and all the officers in Asker and Bærum were of course furious.
We had put a lot of time and effort into this, and we felt that the case was put on ice, completely ruined.
So we abandoned all surveillance and unorthodox methods.
Everything was stopped.
There's a slight paradox to this place.
Because when the airport was shut down and the police authorities moved out of Fornebu and over to Gardermoen, Cappelen moved his office into the old control tower at Fornebu, where he ran his cover business.
In the 2000s, the hash business started doing really well.
In 2006, he reached a point where he's no longer able to spend all his money and was forced to find ways to launder it.
He buys horses.
Among other things, he invests heavily in a Swedish-owned pornographic film and magazine company.
He deals with watches.
Deals a little in art.
And after that, a snus business, Pure Nordic Tobacco, if I recall correctly.
And when Cappelen brings his family on holiday, he doesn't check into a really expensive hotel.
He checks into the world's most expensive hotel and stays there for weeks.
He buys clothes he never wears.
He has a car intended for heads of state.
This is a lifestyle that's completely crazy, any which way you look at it.
We had several projects to catch him.
Sometimes we waited for large amounts of drugs, and every time, he always got away.
At the last minute, right before the drugs were to come, he was like a bar of soap.
Strangely enough, his activities stopped, like he knew we were there, like he knew that we were running operations against him.
It became really frustrating for us.
So a decision was made to no longer share information with other districts, like we normally would.
OPERATION SILEN Operation Silent was an operation initiated by the Asker and Bærum police district.
Asker and Bærum didn't have enough resources to run the case alone.
So it was decided that Oslo would supply one surveillance team, but they were forbidden to talk to other colleagues about the case.
The police have Cappelen under surveillance.
They see him come out of the house, get in the car and drive to Lysaker Station.
LYSAKER STATION Cappelen entered Tintin Sushi, sat down at a table in the back, where a man was already seated.
This person was not identified.
He becomes known as "Mr.
X" during the surveillance.
Approximately five minutes later.
Another man walks into Tintin Sushi.
Identified as "Maxopak.
" He is a known member of the B gang in Oslo and is also a known drug dealer.
He sat down at the table where Cappelen and the unidentified man were seated.
It seems pretty obvious that this conversation is about Cappelen organizing a new hash deal.
DECEMBER 3, 2013 5:55 P.
M.
December the 3rd, the detectives follow Gjermund Cappelen to Sandvika Shopping Mall.
He walked into the store called "Telekiosken," bought two phones without SIM cards.
We got the so-called IMEI number of these phones.
The IMEI number enables real-time listening, and they can read his text messages.
Almost immediately, the police see that there are certain numbers Cappelen is in frequent contact with, for example, "The Soft Drink Seller.
" "SOFT DRINK SELLER" Who is a close associate in the network.
But then they discover another number that is not in the directory.
There's so much contact between Cappelen and this mysterious number, that they're very interested in finding out more about this contact.
They were strange messages.
Like, what we call "bad guy messages.
" Meeting arrangements and things like that.
The detectives do a search of this mysterious number, and they find out that the phone number belongs to, or did belong to, a Pakistani national who emigrated to the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2008.
And this "Karachi Man" appears to be a central figure in Cappelen's network.
Through listening in on his calls, they also hear that Gjermund Cappelen plans to travel to Copenhagen the next day.
CAPPELEN'S HOME DECEMBER 6, 2013 12:13 PM On December the 6th, Cappelen is spotted coming out with shopping bags full of cash.
250,000 kroner.
And Cappelen starts to stash these bags into every conceivable cavity in the car.
Cappelen has a meeting with a Danish contact on the day he arrives, and this is a guy who is connected to large quantities of hash.
On the day of Gjermund Cappelen's trip to Copenhagen, there are four text messages between him and the so-called "Karachi phone.
" Based on these messages, it's clear Cappelen and the Karachi Man are planning to meet.
Finally, they are going to expose who the Karachi Man is.
DECEMBER 10, 2013 2:18 P.
M.
THE KARACHI MAN: WHEN? WHAT ARE WE DOING? KIWI IN 15 MINUTES 2 MINUTES We had no idea what would happen.
I was on the lookout for a person of Pakistani appearance.
And then I see a person enter Cappelen's car.
I'm taking photos from a pretty long distance away, and then the car drives off.
I have no idea who it is, so I looked at the camera and zoomed in.
That's when I saw it was Eirik Jensen getting into the car.
It made me feel unwell, sick to my stomach.
And then I got a little nauseous.
I did not expect him to be the one sitting in that car.
When Jensen turns up in a criminal case, you could say that they got a hot potato in their laps.
They talk with their bosses in Asker and Bærum, and they send a request to internal affairs, who are the only ones qualified to investigate the police.
And the only ones allowed to investigate the police.
And then, in a way, watching Jensen became a case of its own.
While the investigation into Cappelen continues.
Monday, the 16th of December, a new figure appears in Gjermund Cappelen's cast of characters.
This "Plumber" has been a friend of Gjermund Cappelen's since they were teens, so the police know who he is.
DECEMBER 17, 2013 5:25 P.
M.
On the 17th of December, detectives watch the Plumber drive to Sørkedals Road in Oslo.
He then carries two huge black bags into a pretty shabby garage.
This is probably Cappelen's drug ring's hash storage facility.
Up until now, the police have assumed they're waiting for a delivery from abroad, but it turns out that the ring probably has enough hash to complete the buy as planned.
The police now decide to break into the facility and steal the hash.
They make it look like a regular break-in.
What the police are hoping for with this operation, is that the network will react in such a way that Cappelen reveals himself.
What they find in the garage is 109 kilos of hash and 68,000 Norwegian kroner just lying around in there.
Now they wait for the reactions.
Will Cappelen or one of his associates reveal anything? PHONE CONVERSATION Hi.
I'm outside right now.
There's been a break-in at the workshop.
They've taken fucking everything.
Fuck.
I'm outside and I - No? - Yes.
Things got pretty hectic with the network.
But one of the first things Gjermund Cappelen does is to send a text message, and it is sent to Eirik Jensen.
ARE YOU IN TOWN TODAY? NEED TO TALK.
IMPORTAN Cappelen doesn't get an answer from Eirik Jensen until later that afternoon.
ANYTIME AFTER 11 I'LL BE IN AROUND 10.
ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW? I'LL EXPLAIN TOMORROW DECEMBER 19, 2013 10:35 A.
M.
At approximately 10:40 a.
m.
, Cappelen's BMW turned into Platous Road and stopped outside Kiwi in Grønland.
Eirik Jensen entered the car, and the car drove to Ekeberg where the car turned around and drove back to Platous Road.
Eirik walked towards the police station.
He has something white that he puts in his jacket pocket.
What is it? Is it a notepad? Is it an envelope? Is it money? Numerous messages between Cappelen and Jensen ensue about what they discussed.
WATCH HIM IF HE SUDDENLY LEAVES.
TELL ME WHO? RØ? YES THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM.
100&% NO, BUT VITAL TO BE AWARE! Gjermund Cappelen's wife also calls him while he's in the car.
PHONE CALL Hi, just wondering if it's all sorted now.
- No.
- After your chat.
Nothing? - No.
- No help? Not much.
What? Oh, my God.
I thought he was going to help you.
According to Cappelen, he now has a suspect, a specific person he suspects of breaking in and stealing his stash of hash.
And he airs this with Jensen.
According to Jensen, this is Cappelen talking on behalf of a friend.
It's a friend's stash that has been stolen.
Eirik knows that a load of hash has gone missing.
We are talking about many kilos.
This information, he keeps to himself, even though he has a duty to report it further up the chain of command.
Why wasn't a drug theft of this size reported to others at the police station? What were Jensen's motives for not taking this further? A hundred kilos, that's mouse piss in the grand scheme of things.
And what we deal with, what we receive reports of, that's half a ton, 250 kilos and 300 kilos.
We don't have resources for that, so we just leave it.
And the police have limited resources.
So it has, on that criteria, from what I knew then, not a chance that it would have got priority.
That's why it was never followed up.
DECEMBER 19, 2013 3:08 P.
M.
Cappelen came out of his residence at approximately 3:08 p.
m.
and drove to the Sandvika shopping mall.
Three minutes later, Cappelen is observed walking.
In his right hand, he was carrying a heavy bag.
It looked similar to the type of bag seized during the break-in at Sørkedals Road.
Cappelen and his crew don't just have hash in the raided storage depot in Sørkedals Road, but they also have a depot in Asker.
From there, he gets transferred a new bag of hash.
Normally, Cappelen is never in personal contact with the hash, but now we see him carrying the goods.
At 7:02 in the evening, Cappelen parks outside Lysaker Station.
Here he meets the buyer, the so-called Maxopak.
Maxopak took a plastic bag out of the trunk and entered on the driver side, while Cappelen was on the passenger side.
He sat in the car for approximately ten minutes, before Cappelen exited the car with a bag identical to the one Maxopak had taken out of the trunk.
A plastic bag containing 930,000 kroner in cash.
So now the police have exactly what they need.
A hash deal they can prove.
At 8:10 p.
m.
, Cappelen is home again.
As another Christmas evening draws to a close, the police strike and arrest Cappelen and his wife.
ON MY WAY BUYING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS ANY NEWS COULDN'T YOU JUST CHECK HIS GOODS AND PARTS SELECTION THROUGH SOMEONE WHO'S HAD AN ENGINE FAILURE? YOU'LL KNOW IF THEY'RE ORIGINAL PARTS WHEN YOU SEE THEM HEY YOU ALIVE? HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING VACATIONING? I was informed rather quickly by the police that Cappelen was charged with a significant quantity of hash.
He was, of course, disappointed, scared.
Cappelen's greatest sorrow was, of course, that they also arrested his wife, and he hoped he would get out quickly.
That he would be released.
And he wanted contact with his so-called handler.
And when he had given them this information, then he got a categorical "no.
" It was not an option, and this came from Asker and Bærum.
And then the so-called "Ila Talks" started.
They came to talk to Gjermund.
We suspected an unhealthy relationship between him and Eirik Jensen.
That was our suspicion, and we went there to hear him out and explore if he was on board with what we believed.
It was important for us to do it by the book.
We were not to put words in his mouth.
THE ILA TALKS As I understand my situation Mm-hmm.
I don't want it to escalate further.
- I would like to put an end to this.
- Uh-huh.
I'm sitting on a lot of information, and I've been an informant for the Oslo police for over 20 years.
Mm-hmm.
You can call my handler and ask him, and he'll say that I'm Norway's greatest source of all time.
He appears to be quite on the offensive.
He wanted to sell himself.
Said he could provide sexy information, as we call it.
Information that is highly relevant to the police.
I've solved a lot of cases.
I've solved huge cases.
Mm-hmm.
What you are saying, I believe it, and I know you well enough that what you are saying, it's true.
Uh, but we are looking for something a little different.
What? I think you know what.
No.
- You've never been caught.
- No.
- Until now.
- No.
And I wonder why not.
There was about ten to 20 seconds of silence.
Then I look at Cappelen, and his face began twitching, the type you can't control.
I could tell his mind was working furiously, and he's probably a little shocked, a little scared maybe.
Cappelen, he starts these conversations with trying to ingratiate himself with the police, to sell himself as Norway's greatest informant.
Norway's greatest informant of all time, a term only he uses.
And that's just utter nonsense.
It's just utter nonsense.
The officers there are not interested in that.
They want to know why he hasn't been caught until now.
That's when Cappelen understands what they're after.
- Have something? - It's a bombshell.
What is this person's name? Eirik.
- And last name? - Jensen.
I take the dog out before I go to work and put on some coffee, and I like to have a travel mug in the car.
Then I head out.
An Oslo police commander has been arrested in connection with a large narcotics case.
The former police commander is charged with smuggling several tons of hashish into Norway, as well as gross corruption in millions of kroner.
Cappelen has stated that Jensen helped him smuggle hashish for many years.
When we heard it was Eirik Jensen, I almost didn't want to believe it was true.
Our jaws dropped to the lowest notch.
What in the world is this? My first thought was that now he's gone and pushed it too far.
He's going to try to do me in.
He's going to try to kill me.
That animal must never get out! He wasn't threatening me to bring in stuff, but he would pressure me.
For quite a while.
The last few years.
The last six, seven years it's been like that.
He gets a certain amount per kilo.
- How much? - 500 kroner.
- Per kilo? - Yes.
Is that true? Is it? Did he trick us? CONTAINS REENACTMENTS OF AUDIO AND EVENTS CAPPELEN DECLINED TO BE INTERVIEWED
A stone's throw away lies the caretaker's building, but they didn't notice anything.
Not even the guard dog noticed anything wrong.
It includes smaller objects such as a silver lamp, two console clocks, a carriage clock, two porcelain busts, a water jug, a washstand and a washbowl with silver overlay.
Everything made in the 1800s.
POLICE HEADQUARTERS IN OSLO We would receive information in the form of a directive on special incidents.
So we had our own contacts in the art scene.
We had our own contacts at auction houses and scrap yards and everything.
So we just had to start at one end and start to seek out people.
I remember the Bygdøy case very well.
I didn't know it at the time.
I found out later.
But it was Cappelen who provided the information.
It was Gjermund Cappelen who called and said, "You have to come to Bærum and meet me.
It's important.
" And I think, "What the fuck is this?" So we jumped in a car and drove out to meet him.
And he had the stuff lying in the back of his car.
Gjermund Cappelen can jump fences, and the missing goods are found.
And this leads to Eirik Jensen being able to waltz into the chief of police's office, unwrap the goodies and be in the top brass' good books.
And this resulted in Eirik Jensen receiving an award that year from the chief of police for his fantastic work.
So he had to go up to the chief of police to receive this award.
But, you know, the way he looked, with jeans and a ponytail and stuff, So I said, "You have to dress up, Eirik.
" I said, "We're going up to the chief of police's office, and afterwards to the cafeteria to eat on the chief's expenses.
" And then he showed up in well, he dressed up.
He wore his confirmation suit with a short jacket, which of course had gotten way too small and tight, and a white shirt that wouldn't button up at the collar, but he had done his best and stood there and received his prize.
And he was really proud.
He who always criticized his colleagues for wanting to climb the hierarchy.
So So he was pretty pleased after all.
This is the time when Eirik Jensen starts to collect awards.
Not only does he receive the chief of police's golden watch, he also receives a letter of gratitude from the royal palace.
All thanks to Gjermund Cappelen.
EIRIK JENSEN, THE ENIGMA Cappelen and I built a connection that eventually led to us trusting each other.
That's a part of the interaction between handler and informant, to provide safety.
And the easiest way to do that is to talk with each other, and we talked a lot together.
And and this included personal things, of course.
We were quite similar in the way that we didn't have a lot of friends, few people to talk to, and Cappelen is a damn charming guy.
You can talk to him about a lot.
He knows a lot of stuff.
The first time I saw Gjermund was with a mutual buddy.
And this was the core of the local gang.
And suddenly, Gjermund started being friendly with me.
And I was a little surprised, because he was so cool and I was more insecure and more of an outsider, but we ended up friends.
And Gjermund, he was he was polite, very intelligent, incredibly funny.
He could talk to anyone who he wanted to.
He was handsome, very charismatic, and the ladies, they they fell head over heels.
But he never settled down with anyone.
Because, well, we partied.
We raged, and eventually, Gjermund got himself a car.
Even though he didn't have a license.
I remember turning 18, we drove to Amsterdam.
There were four of us.
I think we decided that same night.
So we got in the car and drove there as fast as lightning.
He didn't care about the rules and regulations at all.
And shortly after, he started going down the wrong path.
And I remember one time when we were discussing right or wrong, and I questioned things that he did.
And then he said, "You see, I am a criminal.
" I liked that he worked hard, delivering results.
What I didn't like was that he had a huge drug problem that sometimes made him totally out of it, that made him hide.
His dad contacted me and asked if I could help his son.
So I drove out there, and it was like he said.
There was a zombie sitting in the chair up there, with all the windows covered and imagining things.
Coughing and hacking.
Plus, he was completely hyper and paranoid.
So I had to help him.
The result of playing both sides plays on your nerves, and he did this to get us information.
I-I felt partly responsible for that.
I don't really remember the first time I met GT, but Eirik said that he was gonna stay with us for a while, because he was going to some kind of rehab in Spain.
Eirik was going with him, and they were gonna spend a week in Spain.
What the fuck! I don't know why he had to go with him at all.
I would have understood if he was a relative of Eirik's, but why the hell would he go there with a junkie? "Well, he's given me a lot of good information and stuff.
" Well.
So I thought maybe that's true.
Why did Eirik spend time with him at all? In private too? I asked him, "Have you taken time off to do this, or how do you handle it?" "Do your bosses know that you are going with GT?" It was approved.
I took a week's leave, and I said I was going to take a client to a rehabilitation centre.
And this was quite normal back then.
Anyway, it worked.
And Cappelen was actually clean for many years after that.
I took it upon myself to help him feel safe and be like a father figure for him when it came to the hard facts of life.
FORMER POLICE LIEUTENAN ASKER AND BÆRUM - ASBJØRN LINAKER When we first heard about Cappelen, he was named.
In police circles, he was known as "GT," because he was named Gjermund Thorud back then.
We noticed him through sources, meaning informants, who said that he was selling hash.
And we eventually also saw that there was smuggling involved.
I remember one time he came driving by as I was out on a walk, and he stopped, rolled down the window and showed me a Kiwi bag completely full of hash.
And that was his way of showing me how far he'd come.
That things had turned out the way he wanted them to.
The thing with hash, it's like everything else.
Røkke started selling fish, then a ton of fish and so on and so forth.
Gjermund started with bricks, then two bricks, then bags, then a ton.
We're now on Marstrander Road, where Gjermund Cappelen, the drug lord of Asker and Bærum, lived.
He had a large market, imported a lot, sold a lot and earned a lot of money doing it.
It was vital we stopped him and put him behind bars to limit the drug use in town.
Administratively, the Oslo Police Department was the largest, and the Asker and Bærum Police Department was in many ways a district police department.
This led to typical friction between these departments, as they were in close contact with each other.
Eirik visited our district many times.
And we addressed the fact that he just travelled around doing whatever he wanted.
I told Eirik that he needed to let us know when he was doing work in the Asker and Bærum police district.
But he didn't care.
He didn't want to cooperate with Asker and Bærum at all.
We were like second-rate officers compared to him.
In his mind.
POLICE We had opened a case against Cappelen in the fall of 2000.
FORMER SURVEILLANCE LEADER ASKER AND BÆRUM - ROLF MEYER The aim was to uncover his organization and network, and we received information about a meeting he was going to have in Oslo, which was important to him.
Cappelen, he lived in our district.
He was our responsibility.
But we informed Oslo, of course.
So the Oslo police were fully aware that we were running surveillance on Cappelen.
He meets a person who gets into the car.
The surveillance leader reports back that he can't see who it is, but they drove off and drove around the city.
And after a relatively short period of time, they stop driving, and the person who was picked up gets out of the car.
That's when the patrol sees that it's Eirik Jensen.
We knew Cappelen was Eirik's informant.
We didn't think that their cooperation went further than that.
Cappelen drives back towards Bærum, and at some point, drives towards the surveillance leader and waved his phone at him.
He appeared to want to talk to him.
Shortly after, he calls on the surveillance leader's phone.
How he got that phone number is It's impossible.
It's a closed phone number.
No one outside of the police has that phone number.
Cappelen explains that he knows he's under surveillance by Asker and Bærum and asks us to leave it and stop the surveillance.
It was like being punched in the face, because it was obvious for the surveillance team that their cover was blown, and it was blown by Eirik.
Because I met with him just before, they are convinced that I blew their cover.
But I didn't.
Asker and Bærum had Cappelen under surveillance.
Cappelen saw it, understood it, and then out of his own initiative, called the Asker and Bærum operator and was transferred to the surveillance leader.
Then all hell broke loose.
Everyone was angry.
Everyone was angry with Jensen, because they were sure it was true.
So this story did the rounds.
After a few days, I got a call from one of Eirik's bosses in Oslo, that we were to cease the surveillance on Cappelen, because according to them, they had information that he'd stopped importing drugs and selling them.
He was now in the IT business.
Yes.
And my response to that was, "Do you think we're idiots out here?" In short, that meant that Oslo knew exactly what had happened and accepted it.
I was furious, and all the officers in Asker and Bærum were of course furious.
We had put a lot of time and effort into this, and we felt that the case was put on ice, completely ruined.
So we abandoned all surveillance and unorthodox methods.
Everything was stopped.
There's a slight paradox to this place.
Because when the airport was shut down and the police authorities moved out of Fornebu and over to Gardermoen, Cappelen moved his office into the old control tower at Fornebu, where he ran his cover business.
In the 2000s, the hash business started doing really well.
In 2006, he reached a point where he's no longer able to spend all his money and was forced to find ways to launder it.
He buys horses.
Among other things, he invests heavily in a Swedish-owned pornographic film and magazine company.
He deals with watches.
Deals a little in art.
And after that, a snus business, Pure Nordic Tobacco, if I recall correctly.
And when Cappelen brings his family on holiday, he doesn't check into a really expensive hotel.
He checks into the world's most expensive hotel and stays there for weeks.
He buys clothes he never wears.
He has a car intended for heads of state.
This is a lifestyle that's completely crazy, any which way you look at it.
We had several projects to catch him.
Sometimes we waited for large amounts of drugs, and every time, he always got away.
At the last minute, right before the drugs were to come, he was like a bar of soap.
Strangely enough, his activities stopped, like he knew we were there, like he knew that we were running operations against him.
It became really frustrating for us.
So a decision was made to no longer share information with other districts, like we normally would.
OPERATION SILEN Operation Silent was an operation initiated by the Asker and Bærum police district.
Asker and Bærum didn't have enough resources to run the case alone.
So it was decided that Oslo would supply one surveillance team, but they were forbidden to talk to other colleagues about the case.
The police have Cappelen under surveillance.
They see him come out of the house, get in the car and drive to Lysaker Station.
LYSAKER STATION Cappelen entered Tintin Sushi, sat down at a table in the back, where a man was already seated.
This person was not identified.
He becomes known as "Mr.
X" during the surveillance.
Approximately five minutes later.
Another man walks into Tintin Sushi.
Identified as "Maxopak.
" He is a known member of the B gang in Oslo and is also a known drug dealer.
He sat down at the table where Cappelen and the unidentified man were seated.
It seems pretty obvious that this conversation is about Cappelen organizing a new hash deal.
DECEMBER 3, 2013 5:55 P.
M.
December the 3rd, the detectives follow Gjermund Cappelen to Sandvika Shopping Mall.
He walked into the store called "Telekiosken," bought two phones without SIM cards.
We got the so-called IMEI number of these phones.
The IMEI number enables real-time listening, and they can read his text messages.
Almost immediately, the police see that there are certain numbers Cappelen is in frequent contact with, for example, "The Soft Drink Seller.
" "SOFT DRINK SELLER" Who is a close associate in the network.
But then they discover another number that is not in the directory.
There's so much contact between Cappelen and this mysterious number, that they're very interested in finding out more about this contact.
They were strange messages.
Like, what we call "bad guy messages.
" Meeting arrangements and things like that.
The detectives do a search of this mysterious number, and they find out that the phone number belongs to, or did belong to, a Pakistani national who emigrated to the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2008.
And this "Karachi Man" appears to be a central figure in Cappelen's network.
Through listening in on his calls, they also hear that Gjermund Cappelen plans to travel to Copenhagen the next day.
CAPPELEN'S HOME DECEMBER 6, 2013 12:13 PM On December the 6th, Cappelen is spotted coming out with shopping bags full of cash.
250,000 kroner.
And Cappelen starts to stash these bags into every conceivable cavity in the car.
Cappelen has a meeting with a Danish contact on the day he arrives, and this is a guy who is connected to large quantities of hash.
On the day of Gjermund Cappelen's trip to Copenhagen, there are four text messages between him and the so-called "Karachi phone.
" Based on these messages, it's clear Cappelen and the Karachi Man are planning to meet.
Finally, they are going to expose who the Karachi Man is.
DECEMBER 10, 2013 2:18 P.
M.
THE KARACHI MAN: WHEN? WHAT ARE WE DOING? KIWI IN 15 MINUTES 2 MINUTES We had no idea what would happen.
I was on the lookout for a person of Pakistani appearance.
And then I see a person enter Cappelen's car.
I'm taking photos from a pretty long distance away, and then the car drives off.
I have no idea who it is, so I looked at the camera and zoomed in.
That's when I saw it was Eirik Jensen getting into the car.
It made me feel unwell, sick to my stomach.
And then I got a little nauseous.
I did not expect him to be the one sitting in that car.
When Jensen turns up in a criminal case, you could say that they got a hot potato in their laps.
They talk with their bosses in Asker and Bærum, and they send a request to internal affairs, who are the only ones qualified to investigate the police.
And the only ones allowed to investigate the police.
And then, in a way, watching Jensen became a case of its own.
While the investigation into Cappelen continues.
Monday, the 16th of December, a new figure appears in Gjermund Cappelen's cast of characters.
This "Plumber" has been a friend of Gjermund Cappelen's since they were teens, so the police know who he is.
DECEMBER 17, 2013 5:25 P.
M.
On the 17th of December, detectives watch the Plumber drive to Sørkedals Road in Oslo.
He then carries two huge black bags into a pretty shabby garage.
This is probably Cappelen's drug ring's hash storage facility.
Up until now, the police have assumed they're waiting for a delivery from abroad, but it turns out that the ring probably has enough hash to complete the buy as planned.
The police now decide to break into the facility and steal the hash.
They make it look like a regular break-in.
What the police are hoping for with this operation, is that the network will react in such a way that Cappelen reveals himself.
What they find in the garage is 109 kilos of hash and 68,000 Norwegian kroner just lying around in there.
Now they wait for the reactions.
Will Cappelen or one of his associates reveal anything? PHONE CONVERSATION Hi.
I'm outside right now.
There's been a break-in at the workshop.
They've taken fucking everything.
Fuck.
I'm outside and I - No? - Yes.
Things got pretty hectic with the network.
But one of the first things Gjermund Cappelen does is to send a text message, and it is sent to Eirik Jensen.
ARE YOU IN TOWN TODAY? NEED TO TALK.
IMPORTAN Cappelen doesn't get an answer from Eirik Jensen until later that afternoon.
ANYTIME AFTER 11 I'LL BE IN AROUND 10.
ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW? I'LL EXPLAIN TOMORROW DECEMBER 19, 2013 10:35 A.
M.
At approximately 10:40 a.
m.
, Cappelen's BMW turned into Platous Road and stopped outside Kiwi in Grønland.
Eirik Jensen entered the car, and the car drove to Ekeberg where the car turned around and drove back to Platous Road.
Eirik walked towards the police station.
He has something white that he puts in his jacket pocket.
What is it? Is it a notepad? Is it an envelope? Is it money? Numerous messages between Cappelen and Jensen ensue about what they discussed.
WATCH HIM IF HE SUDDENLY LEAVES.
TELL ME WHO? RØ? YES THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM.
100&% NO, BUT VITAL TO BE AWARE! Gjermund Cappelen's wife also calls him while he's in the car.
PHONE CALL Hi, just wondering if it's all sorted now.
- No.
- After your chat.
Nothing? - No.
- No help? Not much.
What? Oh, my God.
I thought he was going to help you.
According to Cappelen, he now has a suspect, a specific person he suspects of breaking in and stealing his stash of hash.
And he airs this with Jensen.
According to Jensen, this is Cappelen talking on behalf of a friend.
It's a friend's stash that has been stolen.
Eirik knows that a load of hash has gone missing.
We are talking about many kilos.
This information, he keeps to himself, even though he has a duty to report it further up the chain of command.
Why wasn't a drug theft of this size reported to others at the police station? What were Jensen's motives for not taking this further? A hundred kilos, that's mouse piss in the grand scheme of things.
And what we deal with, what we receive reports of, that's half a ton, 250 kilos and 300 kilos.
We don't have resources for that, so we just leave it.
And the police have limited resources.
So it has, on that criteria, from what I knew then, not a chance that it would have got priority.
That's why it was never followed up.
DECEMBER 19, 2013 3:08 P.
M.
Cappelen came out of his residence at approximately 3:08 p.
m.
and drove to the Sandvika shopping mall.
Three minutes later, Cappelen is observed walking.
In his right hand, he was carrying a heavy bag.
It looked similar to the type of bag seized during the break-in at Sørkedals Road.
Cappelen and his crew don't just have hash in the raided storage depot in Sørkedals Road, but they also have a depot in Asker.
From there, he gets transferred a new bag of hash.
Normally, Cappelen is never in personal contact with the hash, but now we see him carrying the goods.
At 7:02 in the evening, Cappelen parks outside Lysaker Station.
Here he meets the buyer, the so-called Maxopak.
Maxopak took a plastic bag out of the trunk and entered on the driver side, while Cappelen was on the passenger side.
He sat in the car for approximately ten minutes, before Cappelen exited the car with a bag identical to the one Maxopak had taken out of the trunk.
A plastic bag containing 930,000 kroner in cash.
So now the police have exactly what they need.
A hash deal they can prove.
At 8:10 p.
m.
, Cappelen is home again.
As another Christmas evening draws to a close, the police strike and arrest Cappelen and his wife.
ON MY WAY BUYING CHRISTMAS PRESENTS ANY NEWS COULDN'T YOU JUST CHECK HIS GOODS AND PARTS SELECTION THROUGH SOMEONE WHO'S HAD AN ENGINE FAILURE? YOU'LL KNOW IF THEY'RE ORIGINAL PARTS WHEN YOU SEE THEM HEY YOU ALIVE? HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING VACATIONING? I was informed rather quickly by the police that Cappelen was charged with a significant quantity of hash.
He was, of course, disappointed, scared.
Cappelen's greatest sorrow was, of course, that they also arrested his wife, and he hoped he would get out quickly.
That he would be released.
And he wanted contact with his so-called handler.
And when he had given them this information, then he got a categorical "no.
" It was not an option, and this came from Asker and Bærum.
And then the so-called "Ila Talks" started.
They came to talk to Gjermund.
We suspected an unhealthy relationship between him and Eirik Jensen.
That was our suspicion, and we went there to hear him out and explore if he was on board with what we believed.
It was important for us to do it by the book.
We were not to put words in his mouth.
THE ILA TALKS As I understand my situation Mm-hmm.
I don't want it to escalate further.
- I would like to put an end to this.
- Uh-huh.
I'm sitting on a lot of information, and I've been an informant for the Oslo police for over 20 years.
Mm-hmm.
You can call my handler and ask him, and he'll say that I'm Norway's greatest source of all time.
He appears to be quite on the offensive.
He wanted to sell himself.
Said he could provide sexy information, as we call it.
Information that is highly relevant to the police.
I've solved a lot of cases.
I've solved huge cases.
Mm-hmm.
What you are saying, I believe it, and I know you well enough that what you are saying, it's true.
Uh, but we are looking for something a little different.
What? I think you know what.
No.
- You've never been caught.
- No.
- Until now.
- No.
And I wonder why not.
There was about ten to 20 seconds of silence.
Then I look at Cappelen, and his face began twitching, the type you can't control.
I could tell his mind was working furiously, and he's probably a little shocked, a little scared maybe.
Cappelen, he starts these conversations with trying to ingratiate himself with the police, to sell himself as Norway's greatest informant.
Norway's greatest informant of all time, a term only he uses.
And that's just utter nonsense.
It's just utter nonsense.
The officers there are not interested in that.
They want to know why he hasn't been caught until now.
That's when Cappelen understands what they're after.
- Have something? - It's a bombshell.
What is this person's name? Eirik.
- And last name? - Jensen.
I take the dog out before I go to work and put on some coffee, and I like to have a travel mug in the car.
Then I head out.
An Oslo police commander has been arrested in connection with a large narcotics case.
The former police commander is charged with smuggling several tons of hashish into Norway, as well as gross corruption in millions of kroner.
Cappelen has stated that Jensen helped him smuggle hashish for many years.
When we heard it was Eirik Jensen, I almost didn't want to believe it was true.
Our jaws dropped to the lowest notch.
What in the world is this? My first thought was that now he's gone and pushed it too far.
He's going to try to do me in.
He's going to try to kill me.
That animal must never get out! He wasn't threatening me to bring in stuff, but he would pressure me.
For quite a while.
The last few years.
The last six, seven years it's been like that.
He gets a certain amount per kilo.
- How much? - 500 kroner.
- Per kilo? - Yes.
Is that true? Is it? Did he trick us? CONTAINS REENACTMENTS OF AUDIO AND EVENTS CAPPELEN DECLINED TO BE INTERVIEWED