Button shrugged. ‘Somalis are big on nicknames. His has something to do with his skin colour being so black that he’s gone beyond black and blue. I think you’ve got to be Somali to get it. Anyway, so far as we know, he doesn’t do anything without checking with Crazy Boy first. We think Crazy Boy plans the operations, funds them, then repatriates the profits and washes them through his businesses here.’ She gestured at the surveillance photographs of Crazy Boy. ‘He came to the UK about four years ago. And you’ll like this, he lives in Ealing. Not far from your old house.’

‘Small world,’ said Shepherd. ‘Why Ealing?’

‘There’s a very large Somali population there now, and in Southall. It probably has something to do with the proximity to Heathrow.’

‘The airport?’

‘More specifically, the khat leaves that Somalis like to chew. It has to be eaten fresh and there are supplies coming in every day to Heathrow. Ealing is close to the airport so the Somalis there are guaranteed the freshest leaves. The fresher they are the better the buzz, apparently.’

‘And this khat isn’t illegal?’

Button shook her head. ‘Not yet,’ she said. ‘It is in some countries but not in the UK. The principal ingredient is an amphetamine-like stimulant and the World Health Organisation has classified it as a drug of abuse. You’ll see Somalis chewing it as naturally as smoking a cigarette.’

‘I don’t remember seeing that many Somalis when I lived in Ealing.’

‘There’s been a huge increase in the last few years, but even so they tend to keep to themselves. The women are at home most of the time and the men go to their own social clubs. They don’t mix much. The number of Somalis in the area has probably trebled since you moved to Hereford.’ She tapped the photograph. ‘Crazy Boy has the brains of the family, it seems. He bought himself passage across Europe and into the UK, slipped through in the back of a truck from Calais with half a dozen genuine asylum seekers.’

‘And got asylum, presumably.’

‘He was on track,’ said Button. ‘He had false papers and a top immigration lawyer.’

‘But Five must have known who he was, right?’

‘Not then,’ said Button. ‘He came in under the radar. We knew that he’d left Somalia but no one knew where he’d gone. And to be honest, even if we had known there wouldn’t have been much we could have done. We didn’t have his DNA or fingerprints so all he had to do was to stick to his story and he’d get asylum.’

‘The world’s gone crazy, Charlie. You’re telling me a Somali pirate can just waltz into the UK and end up with a British passport?’

‘It’s not as simple as waltzing, but most of Somalia is a war zone so any Somali who can get into the UK is pretty much assured of asylum status.’