In the chaos of 1970’s New York, it took a lot to shock the city. But the Westies managed to leave quite the impression. Dubbed the last of the Irish mob despite being more like an anarchic gang, they terrorized the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, garnering headlines due to their penchant for daytime hits and chopping up their victims bodies.  They even managed to attract the attention of New York’s five mafia families, who took notice of their numerous hits and started contracting out to them. In less than a decade though, things would get a little too messy, and they would tear themselves apart.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This year, the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert has been rocked by the death of 16-year-old Preston Lord, at the hands of a group calling themselves the ‘Gilbert Goons,’ jocks and hicks combining forces to unleash violence on the city’s streets. The craziest thing? This happened before. And back then, the group’s godfather was none other than Sammy the Bull, Gambino consigliere turned super-snitch. The 90s are well and truly back in fashion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club first chapter emerged in the US in the 1940's but didn't reach Canada until 1977. Less than 20 years later, they would be neck deep in the bloodiest motorcycle gang war ever fought as the Quebec chapter sought to monopolize the cocaine trade, utilizing car bombs and death squads to turn the city of Montreal into a war zone. Led by the psychotic and brilliant Maurice "Mom" Boucher, the Hells got so powerful they not only took on any and all rival biker gangs and criminal organizations, but the state itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here’s a special preview of the new season of Cautionary Tales from Pushkin Industries. On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author Tim Harford shares stories of human error, natural disasters, and tragic catastrophes from history that teach us important lessons for today. In this preview, you’ll hear about the 1981 Hyatt Regency Hotel collapse, a shocking design failure that resulted in 114 deaths and many more injuries. Hear the full story, and more from Cautionary Tales, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/ctunderworld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*Note: technical difficulties with Sean's microphone this episode, apologies* By the late Seventies Jai Alai, a superfast, racketball-like sport, had become one of the US’ most lucrative betting markets. That attracted Roger Wheeler, a mega-rich Tulsa tycoon, to pour millions into the game. It was also riddled with crime. Boston’s Irish Mob, led by the bloodthirsty James “Whitey” Bulger, would make a mint skimming its earnings and building an underworld empire off Jai Alai’s back. Then Wheeler figured out his latest investment was rotten. Bulger sprang into action, launching a campaign of terror that would claim several lives in gruesome fashion. Eventually, the Jai Alai slayings would bring down drug barons, dirty cops and dozens of New England’s biggest gangsters. Ja Alai wouldn’t fare much better. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're joined by author Noah Hurowitz to tell the story of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, one of the most powerful narco-traffickers to every live, with an estimated fortune of 25 billion dollars. After having spent his youth learning the ways from the old guard of top-level drug lords, he rose to the top of the Juarez Cartel and became infamous for the fleet of jets he used to transport tons and tons of cocaine. He also became known for his business savvy and negotiation skills, bribing police, military, judges and politicians at the highest level while uniting various traffickers into a federation of cartels. His downfall, though, came at the hands of a hapless plastic surgeon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a little teaser from this week's patreon episode, with Sean on the ground in Belize doing a bigger story and sharing some of his work along the way. To get access to bonus episodes for $5 a month, go to www.patreon.com/theunderworldpodcast "John" grew up on the violent South Side of Belize City in the early 2000s, when a vicious turf war between Crips and Bloods tore up the neighborhood. Nowadays, with guns readily available and cartels lurking, it's a different, more dangerous scene. Part of a series on the Central American nation's struggles with organized crime (sorry about the breaks and occasional bus). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1980s, as the Soviet empire crumbled, organized criminals eyed up the sprawling VAZ automobile plant in the city of Tolyatti, “Russia’s Detroit.” When it collapsed all hell broke loose. Old-school “thimble kings” battled it out with bodybuilding skinheads, Chechen paramilitaries and the Volgas, partying hotheads who’d become a fearsome mob, for supremacy over one of Russia’s most fabled companies. It’d take hundreds of deaths and Kremlin SWAT teams to bring the bloodshed to an end. A story that we don’t think has been reported in English before, the Tolyatti Car Gang Wars are one of Russian crime’s bloodiest episodes. And given the terrible things they’re doing now, that says a lot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode thrown together because of a last-minute delay, Danny recounts recent reporting trips to Philadelphia and St. Louis. 2021 saw Philadelphia hit it's highest murder total in history, with 560 homicides when the previous high was only 500. Driving the inordinate amount of gun violence is the Kensington neighborhood, home to the largest open air drug market in the United States that is said to generate over one billion dollars in sales. We also dive into the making of a short documentary on fentanyl in St. Louis, which has quickly come to dominate the entire drug market, and a street dealer gives us the lowdown on his business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York City in the late 1980's and early 1990's was a war zone. The crack era ushered in a record number of murders, topping 2,000 some years, as gangs battled for control of million-dollar corners. One crew stood out among all the crews of killers: The Wild Cowboys, a group of former high school friends who used their connections to the Dominican Republic to expand their territory in the South Bronx. Led by the notorious Sepulveda brothers and following in the footsteps of the Washington Heights-based dealer who allegedly introduced crack to the Big Apple , they left no witnesses or competitors breathing...until a wanton act of violence on the West Side Highway tipped off investigators and led to their downfall. Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/UNDWRLD - Enter promo code UNDWRLD for 83% off and 3 extra months free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the early Nineties Colombia had one of the world’s best soccer teams. Some even tipped them for 1994’s World Cup in the USA. But the country’s narco mayhem would come crashing down on the squad long before the tournament began. And for the nation’s captain, a tall, stoic defender from Medellin they called ‘The Gentleman’, one on-field mistake would have fatal consequences back home. Featuring gunned-down referees, a deadly cross-country rivalry, Pepes, Pablo and a kidnap-mediating, scorpion-kicking goalkeeper. Get Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/UNDWRLD - Enter promo code UNDWRLD for 83% off and 3 extra months free! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As badly-planned 1960s projects pushed Glasgow's poorest people to the city's fringes, ice cream vans became a lifeline, delivering food, drink and cigarettes. Before long, gangsters got in on the act, packing out vans with drugs, guns and stolen goods. A war between the city's hell-bent, crucifying 'Godfather' and pretenders to his throne ensued. But it was mostly beer-money "frighteners" and smashed windows. Until somebody committed mass murder, and sent the city into a tailspin. What Glasgow's underworld did next would define Scottish crime for decades. What the police did, might just be worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ‘raskol’ gangs that terrorize Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea’s chaotic capital city, have their roots in the isolated, rainforest conflicts of dozens of tribes vying for control of lucrative mineral wealth. But drugs, guns and government corruption means that today’s gang bust-ups, and clan come-tos, are virtually indistinguishable - and threaten to tear the Pacific nation apart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since 2019, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has smashed the country’s two main gangs, MS-13 and Barrio 18, throwing almost 80,000 people into megaprisons and implementing a harsh but effective “state of exception,” aka martial law. Murder rates have plummeted and, for the first time in years, Salvadorans can live without the fear of violence, extortion, or death. But the sneaker-wearing “world’s coolest dictator” has also gerrymandered El Salvador’s political map, silenced the press, and packed out the judiciary with sycophants and wallflowers. And as human rights NGOs cry foul, Bukele has gone full-tilt, telling citizens not to call him a dictator, but a “philosopher king.” Is his fragile peace about to come crashing down? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SPECAL PROMO: Deep Cover tells true stories of crime and corruption. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jake Halpern reveals dark underworlds most of us know nothing about. The new season, Mob Land, tells the true story of a high-rolling Chicago lawyer who fixed court cases for the mob. He did this for years... until he decided to betray them and work with the FBI. He wears a wire to expose a black market of corruption—where politicians were bought and justice was sold. Where, for the right price, even murderers could walk free... With first-hand interviews from FBI agents, mobsters, family members, and criminals, the story is truly a wild journey into a world of corruption, murder and deceit. Today, we're sharing a preview of Episode 1. You can listen to the new Deep Cover season now at https://link.chtbl.com/underworlddeepcover Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Vancouver and the little known city of Surrey, violent gang wars between rival factions in the Indo-Canadian Sikh community has seen upwards of 200 young men killed in the last 25 years, as bloody battles fought in nightclubs and bars have seen gunshots ring out as crews of contract killers make their presence felt. Surprisingly, many of these gang members come from middle class families in well to do neighborhoods. The community traces this all back to one man: the swaggering and deadly Bindy Johal, who issued threats live in-studio on newscasts, got off on a murder trial after one of his co-defendants seduced a juror, and assembled his own hit squad that did dozens of contract killings. To some he's a folk hero, but to most of the community he's a terrifying scourge whose brutal legacy refuses to fade away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He’s a recluse, a cockfighting high-roller, a former cop and a maniac. But will Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, aka El Mencho, do what he’s been threatening for years and become the most powerful cartel boss on the planet? From avocados to abogados, weed to coke to fentanyl, Mencho is a narco so bloodthirsty his men are compared to ISIS. Can the Mexican state cut him down to size? Or will a lifelong quest to build a citadel in his home state of Michoacan come off, ruling local civilians with a sadistic iron fist? We look at the past, present and future of who might just be the scariest criminal we’re profiled on this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the late 1980's, a new gang threw asian immigrant communities across America into chaotic spurts of violence. They were brutal, they were vicious, and they weren't going to play by any of the rules set by any of the established organized crime players. Born To Kill emerged from Vietnam's Lost Generation: child war refugees, often times orphans, who had been left to fend for themselves without any support or protection. Led by the charismatic and cult-leader like David Thai, the gang would wreak havoc across the country, dropping bodies and terrorizing people at a level previously unseen in Chinatown. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leslie "Ike" Atkinson rose from Army sergeant to international casino hustler, to Bangkok bar owner and quarterback of one of the biggest heroin smuggling rings in history. Recruiting disillusioned black Vietnam vets from his Harlem-themed joint, Ike trafficked billions of dollars of ultra-pure Golden Triangle dope into the States - right under the nose of Uncle Sam. But did he ever smuggle heroin stitched into the bodies of fallen war heroes? This episode focuses on one of organized crime's most interesting, but least known, kingpins. And despite what Frank Lucas claimed, New Jersey's infamous "Superfly" was little more than a starry-eyed bit-part player. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We meant to get this up a few episodes back for the 50th episode special but figured it would work for the holidays. Danny and Sean go through all the questions they've received from listeners about the podcast, their careers, and Sean's crippling gambling debts. If you've ever wondered what sort of cricket bets can cost you a finger, this is the episode for you. We'll be back next week with regular eps! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Belize City, rival factions of Bloods and Crips clicks have turned the south side of the city into one of the most violent cities on earth in an endless cycle of retaliation. The violence in Belize took off in the 80's and 90's after Belizean immigrants who had joined various Bloods and Crips sets in LA's then burgeoning gang scene got arrested and deported. They brought the gang culture with them to this small, sleepy Central America/Caribbean nation. They also brought the violence, which Belize's overmatched and underfunded police seem powerless to stop. Now Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, a Belizean-American former protege of Sean P Diddy Combs who once served 9 years in prison for shooting up a nightclub in New York City, has joined his political dynasty family in politics and hopes to be the one to finally talk some sense into the warring gang members who have turned Belize City into a bloodbath. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, New Zealand's biker gangs fought each other for turf, cash and kudos. Violence between its two biggest outfits, the Mongrel Mob and Black Power, often turned deadly, and acts of cruelty shocked the public. Then, in the mid-90s, a new, potent drug worth billions arrived on the country's pristine shores - and with it a wave of foreign narcos looking to take control of what might be the world's most profitable black market. The gangs gave thousands of disaffected Maori and Pacific Islanders an identity. Meth—known locally as P—changed everything. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Does any country deserve the title of narco-state more than tiny Guinea-Bissau? The West African nation has become the beating heart of the global cocaine trade, with political leaders serving as little more than pawns in a trade that transformed its cashew coast into a gangster’s paradise. And it doesn’t even have any proper prisons! We explore street fights, assassinations, DEA plots, Colombian conspiracies - and a round-bellied former military chief that totally _isn’t_ a druglord, pinky promise. A truly incredible melting pot of crime on the streets of whose tumbledown capital city cocaine bricks, not banknotes, have become the principle currency. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A President assassinated. Amish missionaries from Ohio held for million dollar ransoms (per person!). A former cop named Barbecue turned vicious gang leader in the slums claiming to be a revolutionary with aspirations of political power. And a country held hostage by warring street gangs who now control more than half of the capital city and the flow of essential goods. This is the story of how Haiti's gangs were nurtured by the political and business elite, only to grow so powerful that they turned on their former patrons and now control the country. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When hitmen shot dead Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver last June, Canadian cops blamed the government of India’s strongman leader Narendra Modi. Subsequent assassination plots in NYC, the UK and Germany have pointed at two men. One is India’s most notorious mobster. The other is its most decorated spy, a man whose undercover ops—and willingness to dip into the underworld—has earned him the nickname “India’s James Bond.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the smog-filled streets of industrial Birmingham, groups of ‘Peaky Blinders’ earned a reputation as Britain’s most feared gang, terrorizing anybody who stepped in their paths with bats, blades and whatever else they could get their hands on. They ruled the UK’s second city until the turn of the century. Led by Anglo-Irish prizefighter Billy Kimber, what followed them was even more fearsome. The ‘Brummagems’ forged alliances with London crews, robbed the rich and ran Britain’s ultra-lucrative horse racing courses. They couldn’t hold the throne for long. Italian Londoners and a long-suffering Jewish bookmaker helped launch the ‘Racecourse Wars’ of the 1920s, pitting brutalized World War I veterans against each other in mob clashes the likes of which the country had never before seen. Decades later Kimber and his Birmingham boys would be immortalized in the hit TV show Peaky Blinders. But the truth may just be stranger than the fiction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Out there in the jungle, something evil and powerful grows. This is the story of Dairo Antonio Usaga, better known as Otoniel, Colombia’s most wanted drug trafficker for a decade. A communist guerrilla turned right wing death squad leader turned cartel boss, he was known for his massacres and predilection for underage girls. He was also known to be particularly brutal, in a way that shocked even other narcos, and he had been hunted by the largest search operation in Colombia’s history for 6 years when he was finally caught 2 weeks ago, deep in the jungles of northwestern Colombia. Tracing his rise and fall with special guest Toby Muse, this is the story of the next evolution of cartel leaders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last 5 years, murders in what's known as Israel's Arab sector have increased 50%, setting new records every year as criminal clans and organized crime have turned cities and towns into fiefdoms run by powerful gangsters who operate with impunity, where guns do most of the talking and Israel’s police are stuck trying to take back territory they abandoned. The clans have moved from extortion and drug smuggling to completely taking over municipal governments where they use shell companies to give themselves hugely profitable government contracts. Local politicians who get in the way have been killed, their families threatened, and attacks have gotten so brazen that even rivals traveling under police escort have been murdered. This week we are joined again by Ben Hartman, a former crime reporter in Israel who last guested on our "Car Bomb Wars of the Israeli Mafia" episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Khun Sa was a mercenary, a rebel, a warlord and a freedom fighting drugmaker who all-but created the modern heroin industry in the wake of the Vietnam War’s smack epidemic. At one point, the Shan hero, his fiefdom buried deep in the Burmese brush, supplied three quarters of all the gear in America. No wonder Washington called him the ‘Prince of Death.’ But Khun Sa’s path was actually paved by a princess, who eschewed a life of Kokang royalty to become a gun-toting shaven-headed, trans opium kingpin. Few dared to mess with Miss Hairy Legs, who dated Hollywood stars and went everywhere with a cigarette-carrying lackey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Nicky Louie stalked the streets in the 1970's, he was the first gangster to scare Chinatown in decades. At only 22-years-old, he led his gang of gun-toting teen hitmen known as the Ghost Shadows in countless shootouts against the Flying Dragons. Both street gangs were linked up with the established and secretive community groups known as Tongs that had been operating and controlling Chinatown since the 1890's. Together, the gangs and tongs ran the protection and gambling rackets, getting a piece of every single business in the neighborhood. But when the tongs linked up with Hong Kong Triads, who themselves had linked up with Burmese opium growers churning out the 95% pure heroin known as China White, things really got interesting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Something a little different this week: No regular episode but we've decided to put the patreon bonus episode up for free. Max Daly, based in London, is the Global Drugs Editor for VICE. The Orwell Prize-winning investigative journalist has freelanced for The Guardian, BBC, Independent and other publications, and his 2013 book _Narcomania_ explored Britain’s booming drug scene. Sean spoke to Max about London’s drug and knife crime explosion, county lines—and how the government has failed to act—Albanian takeovers and something called ‘cuckooing.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sweden: ABBA, IKEA, third-wave coffee. A wealthy paradise? For some. For others, the Scandinavian state has become a homicide hotspot, with gun crime and grenade attacks on the rise. We tell the tales of its early Mafia kingpins - from bikers to the feared "Yugo Mafia", Arkan, Jokso and a spate of high-octane, helicopter bank heists. But when the Yugoslavs lost their grip on Sweden, they gave way to a new, chaotic and altogether more violent brand of gangsterism, that has enveloped low-income hoods in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö in shocking levels of violence - some of it played out in the music videos of rappers whose producers sit behind bars for murder. How did a rich, stable nation become the home of daylight drive-bys and revenge bombings? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last two decades, the Taliban have moved from simply taxing Afghanistan's opium farmers to controlling every link in the chain of the world's biggest heroin supply. In Afghanistan's Opium Nation, we took you through the history of Afghanistan's opium and heroin industry up until the American invasion in 2001. In this episode, we recap the last 20 years of failed efforts to curtail the country's drug trade, detailing how US allies ramped up their growing and trafficking efforts just as the Taliban were doing the same. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ulrike Meinhof is dead and the remaining founders of the Red Army Faction, aka the Baader Meinhof Gang, are behind bars in Stuttgart. Is this the end for Germany's most notorious hard-left terrorists? Those who pull the levers of power certainly hope so. But 250 miles north in Cologne, a second generation is gearing up for their most audacious kidnapping plot yet. And on a runway in Mallorca, some of the RAF's foreign comrades are about to spark an international incident that has the world hooked - and engages some of the gnarliest SWAT cops around. Featuring bombings, murders, bank robberies, a golden age of hijackings and the gunning down of the guy tasked with reviving East Germany's post-Cold War economy - part two of our Baader Meinhof double-header is a breathless account of the gang's spiraling out of control, and existence to a shockingly late date. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, starting a few years even before the Taliban took power the first time around, Afghanistan has dominated the world’s opium and heroin market, in some years producing up to 90% of the global supply. It’s also provided hundreds of millions of all dollars for all sorts of less than desirable entities. Warlords, Druglords, insurgents, rebels, US allies, US enemies and yes, the Taliban. There’s a couple of wild characters who pretty much have been each one of those things at one point or another in their careers. Then there’s the Pakistani and Iranian and Tajik smuggler networks that help get it across borders, the various criminal syndicates in Turkey, the Balkan, Russian, Kurdish and Central Asian traffickers who help get it across more borders all the way to the street crews in London, Scandinavia and everywhere else. All have fed off of the opium poppy planted in Afghanistan. So have the millions of heroin addicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran...and all over Europe, Central Asia, Africa and Russia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Louis Sarcella might be one of the most corrupt NYPD detectives ever, though he was once heralded as a master at getting confessions on homicides. A slick dressing, tough talking cigar smoker who could bench 400 pounds, he got such a good reputation that he was invited on the Dr. Phil show. But while he was waging a war on the streets, his uncle, Nicky Black Grancio, was waging a mafia war as the third Colombo family civil war heated up and bodies started to drop. Both Nicky and Louis's luck would soon run out. We're joined by the host of The Burden, journalist Steve Fishman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Baader Meinhof Gang, or Red Army Faction, came about as post-war Germany sought to rebuild from the death and destruction of the Nazi era. As the Cold War gripped the world and self-declared revolutionary groups rose up, the gang's reign of violence across Germany in the 1970's brought international infamy. Bank Robberies, prison breaks, and the Shah of Iran, what else do you need in a story? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Dominican Republic has long been a transshipment for cocaine heading to the United States and Europe. In recent years Dominican traffickers have started playing major roles in the supply chain. Corruption has flourished as local 'capos' have grown more powerful. All of this came to head when iconic and world famous baseball player David Ortiz was gunned down in a crowded bar in the summer of 2019. A week after the shooting, Sport Illustrated sent us down there to figure out what happened, opening up a door of cocaine, corruption, and the island's most powerful drug lord, Cesar The Abuser. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 6, legendary Dutch crime reporter Peter de Vries was shot in broad daylight on an Amsterdam street. A week later he was dead - another casualty of the sprawling Marengo Trial that could snare the Netherland’s biggest druglord - and bring the decades-old Mocro Mafia down with him. We get to the heart of the shooting, the history of the hash trade, ports, planes and cocaine - and why even one of Holland’s top cops admits his country is Europe’s ‘narco-state’. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Multiple billion dollar shipments of the drug known as Captagon have been seized in the last few years as the cheap amphetamine floods the Middle East. Alleged to have helped fund the Syrian Civil war, the tiny pills have been showing up in numerous massive shipments confiscated in Mediterranean port cities, often sent by shadowy, high level networks. The pills are all almost exclusively made in Syria, and they're very likely the Assad regime's most valuable export. But what, exactly, is Captagon, who is doing it, and where did it come from? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jose Miguel Battle's Cuban Mafia known as The Corporation ran a billion dollar numbers racket with brutal enforcers for three decades, growing so powerful that they went to war with the Luccheses, firebombing each other's spots all over New York City. This episode has got failed assassination plots, CIA Training, Fidel Castro, Harlem arson wars, cockfighting, billion dollar numbers rackets, ruthless hitmen with dozens of bodies, broad day shootouts in Central Park, Peruvian casinos and Miami cocaine trafficking, what more could you want? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did an Icelandic band of international drug smugglers pull off their nation’s most shocking heist, robbing millions in Bitcoin mining machines then disappearing into the frozen wilderness? And how did its mastermind (some say: pawn) escape from jail, hop across Europe only to be hobbled by the exact network he’d relied on as a free man? Iceland’s ‘Big Bitcoin Heist’ is a tale of boom and bust, opportunity and clownish failure. Above all it’s a great story. Does anyone know the correct pronunciation of the word "Geyser"?!?!? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Acapulco has become one of Mexico's, and the world's, bloodiest cities. It saw a stunning 127 murders per 100,000 people in 2019, making it the most murderous city in the world. It's a long way from it's previous reputation as the premier vacation destination for the rich and famous with everyone from JFK to Frank Sinatra to Liz Taylor singing it's praises. So how did a tropical paradise go from spring break hotspot to shootouts and severed heads? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She was the greatest smuggler, a Chinatown hero. Or was she a menace? Sister Ping made millions from those fleeing eastern China to the US. But ‘The Snakehead’s legacy is wound up in legend, conspiracy and lies. Here’s the truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Haiti's gangs have effectively taken over the country, plunging into chaos and violence as warring gangster warlords like the infamous Barbeque fight for territorial control. In February gangs stormed police stations, shot up the airport and freed thousands of prisoners after storming the country's biggest prisons, causing a humanitarian crisis. Things have gotten so bad that Kenya is sending in 1,000 police officers to try to regain some sort of control. We're joined by reporter Jason Motlagh, who's been reporting down there for years and has hung out with Barbeque before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emerging out of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans-based international thieves known as the Pink Panthers have coordinated many of the world's most lucrative heists, sometimes stealing tens of millions of dollars worth of diamonds and jewels in less than 3 minutes. Said to be disciplined, cultured and meticulously organized, they've struck in dozens of countries, often times targeting prestigious jewelry shops in daring smash-and-grabs, including an infamous Dubai robbery that involved driving an Audi through a mall. But, what, exactly, do we know about them? And who are the men that make up this secretive organization? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Soviet Union collapsed in the late 80's and early 90's, both gangsters and hockey players headed to America (and Canada!) for new opportunities, making use of the skills they had developed back home. It didn't take long before both groups were on a collision course. As a bunch of 20-something Russian and Ukrainian players started earning more money than they had ever dreamed of, some of their equally ambition countrymen wanted to make sure they got a taste as well. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sedat Peker has long been a top mafia boss in Turkey, but in recent weeks he's found a new calling: Youtuber. He's taken to youtube and social media to air out accusations of corruption and conspiracies that go all the way to the top of Turkish politics, including the current president. After a gentlemen's agreement with the government went south and many of his soldiers got arrested, he fled to Dubai where's he been releasing youtube videos that have been watched by tens of millions of people in Turkey, revealing political murders, corruption, and drug trafficking charges against top government officials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jimmy Cournoyer brought a billion dollars of weed into New York City and the east coast through an organization that brought together the Rizzuto and Bonnano Italian Mafia families, Native American Smugglers, Hell's Angels, and the Sinaloa Cartel into one massive money-laundering, weed-smuggling, cocaine-distributing organization. And he did it all before he was 30 years old while dating a lingerie model, being besties with top MMA star George St. Pierre, and partying with Leonardo Dicaprio. With a lovely tangential story about the time Danny made a documentary about the owner of a butcher shop who ended up being Mikey "The Butcher" Virtuouso, Bonnano crime family soldier and maker of the best sandwiches in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices