TV show tells story of how Northamptonshire detectives tracked down gang of sheep killers

A Northamptonshire Police operation which caught a notorious gang who terrorised county farmers by slaughtering sheep features on a new TV documentary.

Special Ops: Crime Squad UK, on Dave, examines the work of the super-specialist, elite police teams across the UK that are assembled to make a breakthrough in investigations where regular police work has hit a brick wall.

One such case was a seven-month reign of terror for county farmers as Robert Iordan, 23, Florin Nutu, 35 and Voirel Manu, 38, butchered around 120 sheep.

The show features gruesome images of butchered lambs and previously unseen video of the trio being captured on the A14 in October 2019, fleeing from the scene of their latest midnight butchering.

In the back of a dirty van, police found bloodied butcher knives, a motorised air pump and nine sheep carcasses.

It took the effort of dedicated police operation, Operation Stock, launched by Northamptonshire Police to catch the men.

DCI Johnny Campbell told the programme: "It was something so different, not anything I've really experienced before in policing.

"The community were angry about it, farmers were contacting police saying we've got an issue here and we really need your help."

The show tells how CID linked up with community policing teams to crack the case.

Community Sergeant, Sam Dobbs, said: "We went to the scene, we saw it and we smelt it... it was just like the worst horror movie.

"Just to have to deal with that yourself but then to see the affect it had on the farmer, it was horrendous.

"This problem landed on our patch and we hadn't a clue where it had come from or why it was happening."

After months of investigations, police cashed in on advice from farmers and hi-tech equipment to hunt down the butchers.

DCI Campbell said: "Farmers were telling us to look out for full moon nights. It needs to be a clear and dry night, you're not going to be under torchlight because people would see them.

"We put ourselves in the suspects' shoes and asked what they would you need.

"You're not going to do it alone, so we knew we were looking for multiple people. They would need a vehicle, a large vehicle that can travel on rough ground potentially a refrigerated vehicle."

Eventually, a vehicle spotted by Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras (ANPR) triggered vital clues in October 2019.

DCI Campbell added: "We pieced together a common pattern of behaviour that when one particular vehicle of interest was in our county we tended to have an offence happen.

"When it came to our attention one Sunday evening I was very quick to get on the phone to make sure we were ready to put a plan into operation."

Two men were arrested immediately and a third a few days later in Birmngham.

Iordan, 23, Nutu, 35 and 38-year-old Manu were all sentenced at Northampton Crown Court the following March when her Honour Judge Adrienne Lucking said: "On one occasion two very young children were completely traumatised finding their sheep slaughtered and butchered."

■ Special Ops: Crime Squad UK is availble on UK TV Player until April 12.