'Policing in the Highlands is not for the faint-hearted", says the narrator as the camera pans over a rugged landscape.

A new six-part BBC documentary series, starting on Sunday, explores what it takes to keep the peace in the one of the UK's most beautiful and challenging terrains.

With 12,000 square miles of loch, glens, islands and mountains, the Highlands and Islands division is Scotland's biggest police beat.

"You are one of the locals but you still have to maintain law and order," says Maggie Pettigrew, Operational Superintendent.

"The Highlands and Islands has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world.

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"[But] it's sparsely populated in places which can difficult for us as a police force."

In the first episode, which will be screened on Sunday night, police tackle drug dealers, wildlife crime, a missing walker and boy racers in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands.

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It’s March 2022 and 32-year-old father and bushcraft expert Finn Creaney, has been missing for 48 hours. 

With little information about his planned route, local officers unite with mountain rescue and a coastguard helicopter crew to trawl the area.

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Fours days later as temperatures plummet he has still not been traced, despite the efforts of several teams.

The senior team in Dingwall have to assess the situation and make tough decisions. 

The following day the decision is taken to continue the search. 

The drama switches to Inverness where traffic cops are on patrol on a "big night for Scotland's boy racers".

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Around 60 are meeting at a retail park for an organised "car cruise".

"I'm a Highlander born and bred. This is my home so it's an area I'm passionate about," says PC Calum McAulay.

"I wasn't a boy racer. I joined the police and learned how to drive a car quickly.

"We are keen for people to enjoy their cars but if it's putting people at risk, that's not something we tolerate."

One driver is issued with a warning, while another with a previous antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) has his car is seized after he's caught revving loudly.

"I don't think I done anything wrong," he says. "You are going to seize the vehicle. How am I supposed to get home?"

His mum and younger brother are also in the car and he is later banned from driving for eight months.

Before police arrive at the scene they pull over a driver who is doing 63mph in a 50 zone.

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He's four times over the legal limit and is arrested and taken into police custody.

In Thurso Acting Sergeant Andy McKay says the dynamic of the drugs scene in the Highlands has changed.

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"When I started it was mostly cannabis and cocaine," he says. "There was a few people did heroin but more recently they are into their 'benzos' like Diazepam, their Xanax, their Progabalin, mixing them with alcohol which then creates a pretty drastic situation.

"The number of drug deaths we have dealt with over the last few years has just been astronomical," he adds.

Officers are called out to investigate a suspicious package in Caithness believed to contain cannabis, which has a street value of £2000 and the home of a woman the package was addressed to is searched. 

"The dark web has definitely played a part in the accessibility of drugs in the community," says the police sergeant.

"Since Covid, postal seizures of drugs have increased exponentially.It's everywhere."

Highland Cops starts on Sunday on BBC Scotland at 9pm.