Shows / The Underworld Podcast
The Underworld Podcast
Underworld exposes the secret world of transnational criminal networks that have flourished since there were banks to bust, drugs to smuggle, and scams to run. Journalists Danny Gold and Sean Williams bring their experience reporting on dangerous people and organizations to take listeners on a global tour of mobsters, warlords and crooks - from Brooklyn to Beijing, from the streets to the boardrooms - and everywhere in between. Underworld is a show about heroes, villains, and the barely visible…
Episodes
- The Underworld Podcast
Cuba’s New Synthetic Drug Wave
How Cuba is Slipping into Drug Chaos Since the beginning of the year, the US has placed Cuba under an oil embargo, crippling its public services and throwing a…
The Underworld PodcastCuba: From Lansky’s Casinos to Castro’s Guns
Sean got beaten up in Cuba! To celebrate this, we’ve thrown together a biopoly of crime in the tropics, beginning with the story of how American organized…
The Underworld PodcastStash House: Cartel Wars, Coke Boats, and Gangs Gone Global
Danny and Sean take another lap around the criminal world, where somehow everything is getting bigger, stranger, and more international. Sinaloa’s cartel war…
The Underworld PodcastAssassination Nation: The Balkan Clan War that Took Over Europe
In the picturesque Montenegrin port of Kotor, a cocaine trafficking partnership fractured into one of Europe’s bloodiest gang wars. A dispute over a drug…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Fall & Rise of Pakistan’s Escobar
In our final episode on the rise and fall and rise of the Pablo Escobar of Pakistan, he negotiates his own surrender to the DEA, maneuvers his way into the…
The Underworld PodcastHow an Albanian Mobster Derailed MAGA Island
In Albania's turbulent Nineties, the small, seaside town of Vlore became a gangster’s paradise, playing host to hundreds of crooks ferrying drugs, weapons and…
The Underworld PodcastThe Biggest Unknown Drug Dealer in US History
He might just be the biggest US drug smuggler you’ve never heard of. 1.3 billion in product moved. 16 different aliases. Bank accounts in 10 countries. A…
The Underworld PodcastShafted: How Cartels are Killing for Rare-Earths
Bolivia's Cerro Rico has been spewing out tons of silver for centuries. It was the economic bellows of the Spanish Revolution, whose lust for the precious…
The Underworld PodcastThe Heroin Warlord of Pakistan: Armed Tribesman, the CIA, & a Smuggling Empire
5000 armed tribesman at his beck and a call. A mountain compound in a lawless territory. A seat in Pakistan’s parliament bought and paid for. And a heroin and…
The Underworld PodcastRussian Mercenaries African Drug Empire, Israel’s Sushi Mob war & the murdered Assassin: Stash House
On this episode of Stashhouse: Wagner's leftover mercenaries are running a tramadol empire in the heart of Africa, while in Monaco a bomb takes out a Ukrainian…
The Underworld PodcastEl Mayo Behind Bars: Cartel War, Conspiracy and Narcopolitics
Earlier this month, Sinaloa Cartel mastermind Ismael Zambada García, aka El Mayo, was sentenced to life in prison for his role in growing one of the world’s…
The Underworld PodcastEmpire of Blood: The Fall of the Godfather of Crime and the Green Gang
When his Green Gang goons killed thousands of leftists in 1927’s Shanghai Massacre, Du Yuesheng was welcomed into the political scene of China’s nationalist…
The Underworld PodcastChina’s Mob King Prepares for War
By the mid-1920s, Green Gang Boss Du Yuesheng had conquered almost all before him — including his own underworld mentor Huang Jinrong. Shanghai’s opium scene…
The Underworld PodcastBrazil’s Pablo Escobar: The Ghost
They call him Brazil's Pablo Escobar. Sérgio de Carvalho was an elite Brazilian police major who became one of the most wanted drug traffickers on Earth…
The Underworld PodcastThe Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat
In 1992, the New York Mafia is falling apart. The Gambinos are in chaos, the Colombos are at war, the Genoveses are hiding behind Chin Gigante’s bathrobe act…
The Underworld PodcastThe Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER
Born into a peasant family on the outskirts of Shanghai, Du Yuesheng grew up an inveterate gambler and opium addict. But as he forged alliances in the growing…
The Underworld PodcastChinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy
Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow possesses one of the best mob nicknames out there. The San Francisco Chinatown gangster went from teenage immigrant hooligan from the…
The Underworld PodcastRedux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha
Ibrahim Akasha was the kingpin of East Africa’s heroin highway, setting up a massive tracking empire that stretched from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to…
The Underworld PodcastSex, Drugs and Shinto: How the Yakuza’s Only Woman Found Redemption
When Mako Nishimura, the yakuza’s only female member, fell in love with a rival gangster, it would send her on a long and painful path from drug and sex…
The Underworld PodcastItaly Clan Wars, Irish Gangster Politicians & Cartel Nigerian Breaking Bad: Stash House!
On this week's Stash House: A fugitive Dutch cocaine kingpin dodges capture off the coast of West Africa. An Irish gang boss trades gangland warfare for…
The Underworld PodcastThe Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child
Mako Nishimura graduated from high school delinquent to kamikaze biker gang, street tough and, eventually, a fully made member of a yakuza syndicate - the…
The Underworld PodcastThe Cartel Del Noreste's Kingdom of Terror w/ Andrew Glazer
Nuevo Laredo is one of the most feared cartel cities in Mexico, a place where disappearances, gun battles, and corruption became part of daily life as the…
The Underworld Podcast140 Banks! The Craziest Robbery Crew You've Never Heard Of!
Meet the Stopwatch Gang: three polite Canadian crooks turned bank robbery into a precision sport, hitting over 140 banks across North America and walking away…
The Underworld PodcastThe Uncatchable Outlaw: Greece’s Helicopter-Riding Robin Hood
Vassilis Paleokostas, and his big brother Nikos, grew up shoeless in a Greek mountain village. When the boys moved to a city, they discovered a talent for…
The Underworld PodcastEl Mencho's Heir Takes Over CJNG!
When Mexican special forces killed El Mencho in February 2026, the throne of Mexico's most powerful cartel was up for grabs. But there's one man who many…
The Underworld PodcastThe Triple Frontier: Triads, Hezbollah and Narco Heavies
When Paraguay extradited French-Corsican heroin kingpin Auguste Ricord to the US in 1972, some thought Paraguay’s narco trafficking days might be numbered. If…
The Underworld PodcastHow a Nazi French Mobster Made Paraguay a Smugglers’ Paradise
The French Connection and Paraguay In 1968, a gang of smartly-dressed gangsters robbed a bank in Buenos Aires. The fallout from the raid would lead authorities…
The Underworld PodcastBoston's Irish Mob Gang War: The Winter Hill Gang
In 1960s Boston, Buddy McLean ignited a savage gang war after tensions with the McLaughlin brothers boiled over into open bloodshed. What started as…
The Underworld PodcastThe Trillion Dollar Scam King Gangster Taking Over
When fleets of young Chinese men arrived in the tiny, Pacific nation of Palau in 2018, authorities wondered why they’d eschewed the archipelago’s pristine…
The Underworld PodcastDaniel Kinahan's Iran Oil Games, The King of the South & Trump's War on Narcos: Stashhouse!
We're back with another Stash House and there's a hell of a lot of crazy stuff going on. Daniel Kinahan is spotted in Dubai palling around with a shady oil…
The Underworld PodcastThe Iraqi-Aussie Gangster Lighting up Melbourne: Kaz Hamad
Melbourne has been gripped by a new wave of underworld gang wars, this time fueled by the booming billion dollar black-market tobacco trade. Firebombings…
The Underworld PodcastThe Narco Fugitive who Took Over an African Country
When a 2023 club brawl ended in a Freetown, Sierra Leone parking lot shooting, cops and reporters pointed the finger at “Omar Shariff,” a portly Turkish…
The Underworld PodcastEl Mencho Dead! And Mexico Explodes
We told you his life story in our 2022 episode, and now we're back with the sequel. El Mencho rose from poverty to build the CJNG into Mexico’s most violent…
The Underworld PodcastThe Notorious Irish Gangster Who Took on The IRA
Not even the IRA scared Martin "The General" Cahill. He terrorized Dublin with audacious heists that left police scrambling. Rising from the gritty streets of…
The Underworld PodcastThe First Gangster Kingpin of New York
Monk Eastman ruled the depraved streets of turn-of-the-century Manhattan with fists and absolutely zero regard for human life, commanding an army of 1,200…
The Underworld PodcastThe OG Yakuza Godfather, Kazuo Taoka
Orphaned and kicked out of work, Kazuo Taoka was an unlikely candidate to become one of postwar Japan’s most important characters. But by combining violence…
The Underworld PodcastRyan Wedding Arrest & China's Scam Executions: Stash house!
What's going on with the big Ryan Wedding arrest and extradition? The Canadian city that had to declare a state of emergency because of Indo-Canadian gangs…
The Underworld PodcastItaly's Unknown 5th Mafia, The Stidda
In the late 1970s, as Sicily descended into all-out mafia war, the island’s allegiances split between the ruthless Corleonesi clan, led by Toto Riina, and…
The Underworld PodcastAmerica’s Craziest Mob Boss (Sort of!) Vincent Gigante
Vincent “Chin” Gigante was the most powerful mob boss in America...and he was also the mob's best performance artist. By day, he wandered Greenwich Village in…
The Underworld PodcastThe Weed Kingpin who Hired Woody Harrelson’s Hitman Dad
Ever hear about how Woody Harrelson's dad was a hitman who killed a federal judge? The Chagra brothers came up along the El Paso and Juarez border when…
The Underworld PodcastA Cocaine War and the World’s Dumbest Bust
When the son of Suriname’s president offered to ship drugs and guns for a major terror group in 2013, it was the dimwitted denouement to decades of…
The Underworld PodcastCrime! Drugs! Cartels! Gangs! Holidays!
It's stash house time! We bring you all the news on organized crime, gangs, drugs, cartels and the holidays that you could ever want. And, at the end, Sean…
The Underworld PodcastSweden's Brutal Gang Civil War: The Kurdish Fox vs Strawberry
In the last few years, Sweden’s gang wars have erupted into a brutal battlefield of shootings, bombings, and shifting allegiances even worse than the decade…
The Underworld PodcastThe Super Cartel King: Daniel Kinahan
In the wake of the EncroChat bust, swaths of the world’s biggest narco traffickers have been swept up by European cops — from Balkan tough guys to Camorra…
The Underworld PodcastSweden's Gangland Child Soldiers
Starting in the mid 2010's, Sweden’s gang wars transformed from neighborhood disputes into a national crisis, driven by splintered immigrant-area crews who now…
The Underworld PodcastWar in Venezuela?!?! Narcoterrorism, Maduro and Trump
With gunboats parked in the Caribbean, fast boats blown up, and the White House threatening to invade, we unpick some of the narratives surrounding Venezuela’s…
The Underworld PodcastMafia NBA Gambling Rings & The Louvre Robbery: A Thanksgiving Special
In this special Thanksgiving episode, the guys are in the studio together and do a deep dive on the insane Louvre Heist of the French Crown Jewels. They also…
The Underworld PodcastCattle Rustlers to Cocaine Kings: Los Cachiros
When feds convicted Honduran cocaine kingpin Juan Matta Ballesteros in 1990, authorities hoped it would spell an end to the Central American nation’s growing…
The Underworld PodcastThe Tijuana Cartel's Bloody Rise and Fall
When the godfather Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo got busted in '89, he divvied up his empire from a prison cell and handed the coveted Tijuana plaza to the…
The Underworld PodcastThe Cartel Puppetmaster: Juan Matta Ballestero
Juan Ramon Matta Ballesteros began life as a pickpocket in his hometown of Tegucigalpa, before heading out on the perilous border roads of Latin America as an…
The Underworld PodcastThe State Line Mob: Redneck Mafia
Along the blood-soaked border between Mississippi and Tennessee, a ruthless crime empire ruled the night where whiskey flowed, dice rolled, and anyone who…
The Underworld PodcastThe Cartel World's Donnie Brasco w/ Ian Frisch
Starting at the tail end of the wild cowboy days of 1980's Miami, undercover FBI agent Martin Suarez didn’t just infiltrate a cartel...he nearly rose to the…
The Underworld PodcastWarlords, Narco-Pirates, & The Gangster King of Vietnam
Emerging from Saigon’s system of warlords and narco-pirates, Nam Cam built a criminal empire by making sure everyone — cops, politicians, media — was in his…
The Underworld PodcastThe OG Mexican Narco: Pablo Acosta
Pablo Acosta ruled Mexico's drug trade from a dusty border town, turning Ojinaga into a narco-empire that funneled billions in cocaine, weed and heroin into…
The Underworld PodcastCambodia’s Untouchable Gangster-in-Chief
Hun To, the nephew of Cambodia’s former PM, is also the ruler of a criminal empire stretching from illegal logging and Triad-run casinos, to corrupt Chinese…
The Underworld PodcastLondon’s Corrupt Cops & Gangland Killers: the Epping Forest Slayings
When a London couple were found dead in a lover’s lane, in 1987, evidence pointed quickly at some of the city’s most notorious gangland figures — both…
The Underworld PodcastWorld's Most Dangerous Mobster: The Russian Mafiya Godfather
They say Semion Mogilevich is the most powerful gangster on the planet, the mastermind who rewrote the playbook for organized crime worldwide. Boss of bosses…
The Underworld PodcastBurmese Warlords, Gangsters & A Scam Utopia
Buried on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, Shwe Kokko is a shimmering city of skyscrapers, casinos and fresh-laid highways. But peek a little closer and…
The Underworld PodcastEurope's Deadliest Biker War: Hells Angels vs the Bandidos
In the 1980's and 1990's, America's biggest outlaw motorcycle gangs were looking to expand all over Europe. Unfortunately, they set their sites on the same…
The Underworld PodcastAmerica's Nightmare Mafia Boss: Gaspipe Casso
Anthony “Gaspipe” Casso was the Lucchese family’s brutal underboss, the brains behind boss Vic Amuso's reign, and architect of one of the Mafia’s bloodiest…