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 PodcastFidel Castro: Cuba’s Cocaine Trafficker-in-Chief?
In 1959, when Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, they wasted no time booting out American business owners, casinos and…
The Underworld PodcastThe Dixie Mafia's Texas Millionaire Murders
When Bill Richardson, a troubled oilman and pro pigeon shooter, was gunned down on his Corpus Christi doorstep in 1971, everybody assumed it was an…
The Underworld PodcastMexico's New Ultraviolent Narco-Terrorists: The CDN
From the ashes of Los Zetas rose the Cartel del Noreste or Northeast Cartel, a brutal splinter group led by the infamous Treviño Morales family and…
The Underworld PodcastCrack, Chaos, and Cartels: Rayful Edmond’s Empire
In the 1980's, Rayful Edmond rose to infamy as Washington D.C.’s most notorious crack kingpin, building a multimillion-dollar empire by the age of 19. At the…
The Underworld PodcastAustralia's Gangster King of Sin: Abe Saffron
Abe Saffron rose from wartime wheeler-dealing to become the king of Sydney’s underworld, a man whose appetite for sex, money and scandal was unmatched by any…
- The Underworld Podcast
Africa's Pablo Escobar: Kenyan Kingpin 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 Podcast
The Shaman-Gangsters Who Built Indonesia
For centuries, brigands, gangsters and street toughs ruled the island of Java so thoroughly that they were woven into local myths. But in the 20th century…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Narco Lord of the Skies: Amado Carrillo Fuentes
Amado Carrillo Fuentes was one of the most powerful drug traffickers of the 1990s, moving hundreds of tons of cocaine and amassing billions while forging deep…
- The Underworld Podcast
Cocaine, Camorra, Call Girls: Maradona's Downfall
In 1987, Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona was on top of the world. He’d just handed his nation a World Cup, and his club side Napoli its first league title…
- The Underworld Podcast
Russian Mafia Superhitman: Alexander Solonik
The 1990's in Moscow were the glory days of Russian organized crime. Emerging out of the downfall of communism, wannabe oligarchs and gangsters turned the…
- The Underworld Podcast
Scotland's Narco Blood Feud Explodes!
When cops on the English coast busted a bid to bring in a huge shipment of cocaine in 2020, it sent shockwaves through the underworld hundreds of miles north…
The Underworld PodcastThe Wild, Murderous Rampage of the Zizians
When cops arrested a group of masked, black-robed protesters at a California campsite in 2019, most folks thoughts they’d caught some eccentric but harmless…
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The Chinese Mafia Takeover of America's Weed Industry
There''s a new king at the top of the US weed game, raking in tens of billions of dollars, so organized and prolific that they've replaced the cartels. A…
The Underworld PodcastHow Diego Maradona Fueled the Rise of Naples’ Camorra
When Argentine soccer wizard Diego Armando Maradona swapped Barcelona for lowly Napoli in 1984, it shocked the sporting world — and sent Naples’ deadly Camorra…
The Underworld PodcastThe Olympic Snowboarder Narco Kingpin
How did a Canadian former Olympian build a one billion dollar narco empire? A few months ago, the feds added a new name to their 10 most wanted list: Ryan…
The Underworld PodcastThe Sinaloan Train Robbers Causing Havoc in the Mojave Desert
You may have missed it, but there’s a new gang of train robbers in the American West — and they’re suprisingly like the bandits of old. For over a decade a…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Gunrunner Who Tried to Save China: Two Gun Cohen
On Christmas Day, 1941, as bombs tear Hong Kong apart, gunrunner Morris "Two Gun" Cohen — a street hustler from the slums of London turned Canadian…
- The Underworld Podcast
Los Muchachos: Miami's Cuban Cartel
In 1980s Miami, amid the glitz, gunfire, and power boats, two Cuban-American friends Sal Magluta and Willy Falcon, built one of the most powerful drug empires…
- The Underworld Podcast
The 'Ndrangheta's Notorious Kidnapping Gang Wars
Today the ‘Ndrangheta, Calabria’s clan-based Mafia, is one of the world’s richest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations, worth an estimated $55…
- The Underworld Podcast
Meet The Chicago Outfit's Most Infamous Hitman
Kurt Calabrese grew up in the Chicago mafia known as The Outfit. His father, Frank Calabrese Sr, was the premier hitman, known for strangling his victims with…
- The Underworld Podcast
Jalisco’s Death Camp, El Salvador's Mega-prison and Mexico’s Cartel Extraditions
Will Grant, the BBC’s Mexico, Central America and Cuba correspondent, was recently on the ground at Jalisco’s Rancho Izaguirre, dubbed ‘Mexico’s Auschwitz’…
- The Underworld Podcast
Mexico's Most Sociopathic Druglord: El Mencho & CJNG
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Most Insane Prison Gang Ever: South Africa's Numbers Gang
South Africa's secretive Numbers Gangs almost defy description; they're one part cult, one part religion, and all parts violent psychopaths. Emerging…
- The Underworld Podcast
Duterte Arrested: Was the Drug War a Cover Up?
Sean Williams reports from the Philippines, where former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug war cost up to 30,000 lives and tore Philippine society to…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Last Street Boss of Chinatown: Ghost Shadows Peter Chin
The Ghost Shadows are said to have been the wildest of Chinatown's gun-toting teenage gangs in the 1970's and 1980's, engaging in countless shootouts with…
- The Underworld Podcast
The World's Biggest Arms Trafficker Goes Down Hard
When Adnan Khashoggi, Saudi arms dealer and self-styled world’s richest man, met with US officials to discuss the Ayatollah, it may have seemed like a chance…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Dixie Mafia: Gone South w/Jed Lipinski
The Dixie Mafia terrorized the southern US for decades before authorities were finally able to bring them down. Starting off as a loose collective of career…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Richest Arms Dealer Ever: Adnan Khashoggi
Adnan Khashoggi was born in Mecca — but his life was anything but pious. The billionaire had multiple wives, girlfriends and armies of callgirls, not to…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Mobster Who Ruled Hawaii & His Brutal Revenge Quest
Michael Miske came from a broken home through years of petty crime to lead a gang of lost boys in Honolulu, cornering its drug scene and befriending cops to…
- The Underworld Podcast
America's Most Dangerous Prison Gang: The Aryan Brotherhood
What started as a small gang of white prisoners in a California state prison in the 1960's is now one of, if not the most powerful prison gang across America…
- The Underworld Podcast
Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster and the Battle for Los Angeles: Mickey Cohen
Mickey once said of himself, quote, “I was a pretty fair replica of the devil.” He also killed a bunch of people, and got away with it. A street hustler since…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Nazi Drug Kingpin, the Biggest Narco You've Never Heard Of & The Cocaine Coup
It’s January 5, 1982, and the central American state of Panama is playing host to one of the most extraordinary narco summits in history. Hosting the pow-wow…
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The Teenage Hitmen of Marseille's Gang Wars
You might recognize the city of Marseille as the home of one of the biggest drug trafficking operations in history, the French Connection. These days, though…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Nazi Fugitive Who Created The Modern Cocaine Cartel & Befriended Escobar
When Klaus Barbie, the “Butcher of Lyon”, escaped Europe at the end of the war and fled to Latin America, he didn’t follow his fellow Nazis into hiding. In…
- The Underworld Podcast
STASH HOUSE: Captagon Craziness, Free Narcos, Russian Crypto Scams, and More!
In this holiday special, we get into some of the big stories of the month from Captagon updates, the Gulf Cartel leader and Zetas creator going free, a wild…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Biggest American Weed Cartel Ever: The Cornbread Mafia
When the Cornbread mafia started to unravel in the late 1980's, the feds had no idea what they had stumbled upon. Within a few years, they had seized 400…
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The Human Trafficking Illegal Casino Kingpin Who May Have Been a Chinese Spy
Alice Guo was a Philippine success story, a homeschooled farmhand who rose to become a millionaire business leader. But when Guo ran for mayor of the small…
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The Lord High Executioner of Brooklyn: Albert Anastasia
You don't earn a nickname like The Lord High Executioner by not killing a whole lot of people. And Albert Anastasia, one of the most psychotic gangsters to…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Sinaloa Cartel Civil War Raging in Mexico: Los Chapitos vs El Mayo w/Nathan Jones
Sinaloa’s capital Culiacan is roiling with violence in the wake of El Mayo’s capture, and his alleged betrayal at the hands of the Chapitos. But the bloodshed…
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Peru's Shining Path Narco Terrorists: From Commie Civil War to Cartel Muscle
Peru’s Shining Path, a Marxist-Maoist guerrilla force, plunged the Andean nation into a two-decade civil war that put villagers of the VRAEM, a remote…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Bloody Turkish Mafia War Raging Across the World
With their leader sentenced to life in a Dutch prison, the most powerful heroin trafficking organzation in Europe, the Turkish-Kurdish Baybasin clan, wasn't…
- The Underworld Podcast
Europe's Pablo Escobar: The Heroin Emperor Huseyin Baybashin
From a village in rural Turkey, Huseyin Baybasin emerged as one of the most powerful drug lords in Europe, setting up a global heroin trafficking ring…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Billion Dollar Scam Cult King who tried to Take Over an Island
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
North Korea's Meth Trafficking: The Hermit Narco-Kingdom
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…
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Indian Posse: The Native Teen Gang Ruling Canada's Prisons
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Warring Prison Cartels Carving up Ecuador
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Cartel That Went to War w/Pablo Escobar: The Gentlemen of Cali
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
How Chinese Money Launderers Took Over the Narco Underworld
When gunmen ambushed a Mexican-Chinese businessman outside his Guatemala City casino in 2016, few outside the DEA paid much attention. But the shootout…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Legend of Bum Farto and the Florida Keys Cocaine
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
Colombia's FARC Guerillas: From Revolution to the Golden Age of Cocaine w/Toby Muse
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
Venezuela’s Cop Killing Street Gang Tren de Aragua Takes America - Or Does It?
The Tren de Aragua grew out of disastrous regime policies to give gang leaders more power in prisons. Its mysterious leader, Niño Guerrero, soon controlled an…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Westies, Psycho Killers of Hell's Kitchen and the Last of the NYC Irish Mob
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…
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Sammy the Bull, Nazis and Mormon Killers: How the Gilbert Goons Terrorized a Phoenix Suburb
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…
- The Underworld Podcast
The 30 Year Old Billionaire Cartel Boss Playing Professional Soccer
In recent years, Sebastian Marset has emerged as the first narco kingpin out of Uruguay. He rose from a mid-level weed dealer to an international cartel boss…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Rise and Fall of the Dark Web Fentanyl King
When Mohammed Alaa Allawi, a former US military interpreter, moved to Texas in 2012, selling weed was a side hustle. But when a company asked him to design a…
- The Underworld Podcast
EL MAYO ARRESTED! Was he betrayed by Chapo's son?!?!
Bombshell out of Mexico, El Mayo (!!!!!) is in US federal custody after arriving on a small private plan alongside El Chapo's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. What…
- The Underworld Podcast
South Africa's Rampaging Murder Rate: Gangs, Corruption and State Capture
When Nelson Mandela and the ANC delivered South Africa from Apartheid in the 90s, hopes were high that the country could become a beacon of freedom and…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Fugitive British Gangster Instagramming His Crimes in Africa: Sam Walker
Sam Walker already had a huge rap sheet in his native Liverpool before 2018, when he took off across Europe and through the Sahara Desert into Sierra Leone -…
- The Underworld Podcast
El Chapo's Sons Built a Fentanyl Empire: Los Chapitos
With El Chapo locked up in a supermax prison and never going home, there's been a battle to maintain the power of his feared Sinaloa cartel. Many thought his…
- The Underworld Podcast
The Deadliest Biker War in History: Hells Angels vs Rock Machine
In the mid 90's, the Quebec Hells Angels made an offer to every drug trafficking organization in Montreal: buy from us or die. The Rock Machine motorcycle club…