Episodes

  • The Billion Dollar Scam Cult King who tried to Take Over an Island

    The Billion Dollar Scam Cult King who tried to Take Over an Island
    Oct 29 2024
    When Bougainville fought an incredible civil war over a colossal mine, and won, its military leader emerged a hero. But he would soon fall under the spell of a conman and cult leader who wanted the Pacific island—and believed himself to be its king. The unlikely pair soon carved an empire out of a coconut palm jungle—and a wild, picaresque myth about Eden, ancient monarchs, and gold. The wildest thing was that almost everybody in the region believed it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    57 mins
  • North Korea's Meth Trafficking: The Hermit Narco-Kingdom

    North Korea's Meth Trafficking: The Hermit Narco-Kingdom
    Oct 22 2024
    When a bizarre group of international gangsters shook on a massive meth deal with a DEA agent in Bangkok, Thailand eight years ago, it kicked off a manhunt ensnaring Hong Kong Triads, Outlaws bikers and an ex-US Army sniper’s band of contract killers. But the bust also shone a light on the shady drug network of North Korea, part of a crime machine fuelling the world’s maddest dictatorship. This is the story of how a war-torn Hermit Kingdom became a narco-trafficking, cash-counterfeiting, pimping Mafia state. An Underworld Classic Merch: https://underworldpodcast.myshopify.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Indian Posse: The Native Teen Gang Ruling Canada's Prisons

    Indian Posse: The Native Teen Gang Ruling Canada's Prisons
    Oct 15 2024
    Danny and Richard Wolfe were barely even teenagers when they formed the Indian Posse in their mother's basement with a handful of friends, but they had already been living the street life since they were in grade school, robbing, stealing and fighting. Never did they expect that within a few short years, the gang would balloon to hundreds and then thousands of members, taking shape in Winnipeg's poor and violent North End where there was no shortage of poor indigenous teens from broken families looking for brotherhood. Drug-dealing, pimping, armed robberies and murders went along with it. The Indian Posse exploded into Canada's western prairies in the 1990's and soon came to dominate the prisons, enforcing their reign with brutal violence. This the story of how the Wolfe brothers founded the gang, and then succumbed to its violent nature. MERCH: https://underworldpodcast.myshopify.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • The Warring Prison Cartels Carving up Ecuador

    The Warring Prison Cartels Carving up Ecuador
    Oct 8 2024
    Jon Lee Anderson is an author and staff writer at The New Yorker. Anderson recently profiled Ecuador’s young president Daniel Noboa for a piece entitled “Ecuador’s Risky War on Narcos”. Jon Lee spoke about his weeks long visit to the embattled nation, its place in the wider drug world, and how political movements across Latin America have metastasized into the biggest and most violent underworld on the planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • The Cartel That Went to War w/Pablo Escobar: The Gentlemen of Cali

    The Cartel That Went to War w/Pablo Escobar: The Gentlemen of Cali
    Oct 1 2024
    As Colombia's cocaine industry exploded in the 1980's, Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel became the dominant player, capturing headlines across the world. But there was a second cartel rising up, one that operated more in the shadows and would soon grow more powerful - and more profitable - than even Medellin. The Gentlemen of Cali were slick, sophisticated and always looking for a solution that wouldn't attract headlines. They fancied themselves businessmen and aristocrats, and as Pablo went to war on the state, they invested hundreds of millions into businesses and politicians all over Colombia. Though originally good-natured rivals, the Cali and Medellin cartels maintained decent relations...only they didn't. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • How Chinese Money Launderers Took Over the Narco Underworld

    How Chinese Money Launderers Took Over the Narco Underworld
    Sep 24 2024
    When gunmen ambushed a Mexican-Chinese businessman outside his Guatemala City casino in 2016, few outside the DEA paid much attention. But the shootout presaged the downfall of a man who, feds would later say, hadn’t just made a tidy living out of money laundering, but pioneered it. But Xizhi Li, who grew up in the border town of Mexicali, was just one of a new army of Chinese money launderers who, tooled with millennia of underground banking skills, and China’s own economic policies, have become the go-to guys for Latin American cartels looking to wash their dirty cash. And with fentanyl flooding America’s streets, their work is becoming deadlier by the day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • The Legend of Bum Farto and the Florida Keys Cocaine

    The Legend of Bum Farto and the Florida Keys Cocaine
    Sep 17 2024
    Something about Bum Farto, Key West’s fire chief, stunk. And it wasn’t just his red suits, bling and lime green company car. By the early 70s Florida’s farthest-flung outpost was a lawless drug enclave. And Bum was smack bang in its center. ((NOTE: This isn't just our best episode, it might be the podcast episode ever, in the history of podcasts.)) When the state’s governor dispatched a multi-agency task force to Key West, however, they stumbled on something far darker than an errant Farto. Out poured a world of murder, mafiosi and massive shipments. What happened next remains a mystery to this day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    47 mins
  • Colombia's FARC Guerillas: From Revolution to the Golden Age of Cocaine w/Toby Muse

    Colombia's FARC Guerillas: From Revolution to the Golden Age of Cocaine w/Toby Muse
    Sep 10 2024
    The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia fought a guerrilla war against Colombia’s government - as well as against right wing militias and drug cartels - for over four decades before signing a peace treaty in 2016 and then dissolving in 2017, though splinter faction known as The Dissidents still prowls the jungles. As the FARC were coming up, another violent group in Colombia hellbent on taking over territory was also growing: the country’s infamous drug cartels. In this episode, we’re joined by longtime cartel correspondent and frequent guest, author Toby Muse to detail the history of the FARC and what exactly was their role in Colombia’s cocaine trade. Toby is the author of Kilo: Life and Death Inside the Secret World of the Cocaine Cartels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 20 mins