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PODCAST

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

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

64:51

Fidel Castro: Cuba’s Cocaine Trafficker-in-Chief?

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/08/19

In 1959, when Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, they wasted no time booting out American business owners, casinos and drug kingpins — much to the delight of US law enforcers.But as time passed, and Castro’s socialist regime sought ever-trickier income streams, the Caribbean island proved an irresistible stepping stone for cartels getting product from the Andes through Central America into Florida. Ambassadors, generals, and madcap American financiers: they

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65:32

The Dixie Mafia's Texas Millionaire Murders

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/08/12

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 open-and-shut organized crime hit. But when Richardson’s supposed killers walked free from court, and another body showed up in the Gulf of Mexico, investigators stumbled on a conspiracy that pitted millionaire gamblers and sharpshooters against the narcos, conmen and killers of the Dixie Mafia.For decades the case fell cold. But has a reporter just

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54:56

Mexico's New Ultraviolent Narco-Terrorists: The CDN

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/08/05

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 headquartered in the blood-soaked border city of Nuevo Laredo. Known for their military tactics, narco-tanks, and paramilitary wing “Tropa del Infierno” aka the Hell Troop, CDN wages war not only against rivals but against the Mexican state itself. This episode dives into their origins, their iron grip on smuggling routes, and the savage methods they

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55:50

Crack, Chaos, and Cartels: Rayful Edmond’s Empire

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/07/29

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 height of his reign, D.C. became the murder capital of America, with crack cocaine fueling a deadly wave of violence and addiction. Edmond's lavish lifestyle and ruthless control of the streets made him a legend, and a target. He was arrested and imprisoned for life before the age of 25, but his story didn’t end behind bars. In prison, Edmond

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65:30

Australia's Gangster King of Sin: Abe Saffron

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/07/22

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 other Aussie gangster in the swinging Sixties. Saffron paid everybody off, brought Sinatra to Sydney, and hosted Sinatra. He was, in the words of one reporter, “Mr Sin”.But as Saffron’s empire of vice grew, so did the list of those desperate to bring him down — including his own henchmen. And as the Seventies dawned, Saffron would be

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63:24

Africa's Pablo Escobar: Kenyan Kingpin Ibrahim Akasha

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/07/15

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 Kenya, South Africa and Europe. When he was gunned down in 2000, his sons stepped into the void, hungrier and even more violent...but also, more sloppy. They struck deals with Pakistani mobsters and Colombian cartels, turning Kenya’s ports into gateways for global dope. But their empire crumbled in a DEA sting straight out of a Hollywood

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67:36

The Shaman-Gangsters Who Built Indonesia

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/07/08

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, when the world bounded towards war, mob bosses in Jakarta spotted a chance to turn underworld kudos into an independent nation.When the war ended, and Indonesia dove into chaos, a handful of kingpins would emerge as the architects of a new, modern state. But the madness was only just beginning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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51:27

The Narco Lord of the Skies: Amado Carrillo Fuentes

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/07/01

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 ties with Colombian cartels and corrupt Mexican officials. At the height of his power, he controlled the Juárez Cartel and operated a fleet of private jets, outpacing rivals and law enforcement alike. His influence stretched from Mexico to South America and the U.S., making him a near-mythic figure in the drug world—until his sudden death

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69:08

Cocaine, Camorra, Call Girls: Maradona's Downfall

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/06/24

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 in over 60 years.But Maradona’s hard-partying lifestyle and underworld friends would soon take their toll - and before long, the world’s greatest sportsman was in a tangled web of vice, drugs and match-fixing that would haunt him until his dying days. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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55:50

Russian Mafia Superhitman: Alexander Solonik

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/06/17

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 country into a free-for-all as they fought for control. And no where, is more deadly than Moscow. In 1992, there was 2,500 murders in Moscow alone.There’s a lot of action, and everyone wants a piece of that action. Problem is, sometimes two people wanted a piece of that same action. In Moscow, in 1993, they didn't go to the courts. They went to

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56:24

Scotland's Narco Blood Feud Explodes!

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/06/10

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 in Scotland, where the drugs were destined for, and reignited a bitter feud between the Lyons and Daniel crime families that had simmered for almost two decades.Today, with a third, international gang entering the fray, the feud has spilled into all-out war, with residents of Glasgow and Edinburgh watching in horror as homes burn and bodies

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71:53

The Wild, Murderous Rampage of the Zizians

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/06/03

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 members of the Bay Area’s niche rationalist movement. But over the next few years the group would rally around its charismatic leader, Ziz LaSota, tearing across North America on a rampage of robbery and murder.But even today, with LaSota in prison and several members dead, nobody’s quite sure what the Zizians are: a cult? A gang? Or just the

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58:14

The Chinese Mafia Takeover of America's Weed Industry

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/05/27

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 sprawling, shadowy empire of Chinese triads is running thousands of illegal grow ops across the U.S. From California suburbs to rural Maine, these operations are powered by slave labor, stolen utilities, and chemicals banned in America.But it gets even crazier. Cause behind it all? Links to high-level officials in the Chinese Communist

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49:47

How Diego Maradona Fueled the Rise of Naples’ Camorra

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/05/20

When Argentine soccer wizard Diego Armando Maradona swapped Barcelona for lowly Napoli in 1984, it shocked the sporting world — and sent Naples’ deadly Camorra into overdrive. Corrupt from the very start, the move would send the world’s greatest player into a tailspin of drugs, sex and crime, even while his onfield performances won Napoli its first league in over six decades.But as Maradona Mania gripped the Italian city, the star’s underworld friends realized how big a cash cow he was — and

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47:22

The Olympic Snowboarder Narco Kingpin

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/05/13

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 Wedding, a former Olympic athlete and middle class Canadian kid who managed to build himself into a powerful narco kingpin. But how the hell did a middle class kid from small town Canada go from being one of the world's best snowboarders to ordering numerous hits across Canada, moving thousands of kilos from Mexico through the US, and having a

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51:36

The Sinaloan Train Robbers Causing Havoc in the...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/05/06

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 team comprised mostly of Mexicans from the state of Sinaloa has been jumping aboard freight cars, sometimes at 70mph, and grabbing…Nike sneakers.Yes, these enterprising thieves have got their eyes on a very particular prize: unreleased, limited-edition Nikes, mostly Air Jordans. And they’re good at it. This week’s show digs into the gang’s MO,

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60:59

The Gunrunner Who Tried to Save China: Two Gun Cohen

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/04/29

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 frontiersman turned Chinese general — stares down death from a hotel room. From underground boxing rings to arms deals, Cohen fought the Japanese and Soviets, battled communists, warlords and mercenaries, and drank his way through China's bloodiest years. This is the story of the outlaw who ran guns and dodged death while becoming the bodyguard to the

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57:44

Los Muchachos: Miami's Cuban Cartel

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/04/22

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 in U.S. history. Known as Los Muchachos, they moved mountains of cocaine through a city shaped by Cuban exiles, ambition, and an underworld that blurred the line between loyalty and lawlessness.From funding anti-Castro revolutionaries to working with both the Medellin and Cali Cartel, this is the story of how they rose, ruled, and ran. Learn

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52:23

The 'Ndrangheta's Notorious Kidnapping Gang Wars

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/04/15

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 billion. But it wasn’t always like that. From the 1960s, as European politics went mad, the group glommed onto a new fad taking Italy by storm: kidnapping. And it got them the capital to get into property, cigarette smuggling, and cocaine.But they were far from gentleman thieves. The ‘Ndrangheta’s kidnapping streak cost lives, outraged the

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46:08

Meet The Chicago Outfit's Most Infamous Hitman

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/04/08

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 his bare hands. But Frank didn't just leave the violence at work. He trained his sons Kurt and Frank Jr in the mob enforcer life since they were kids, through fear, intimidation and horrific abuse.When the entire Calabrese family got locked up for extortion, his other son, Frank Jr, who had battled a bad drug problem and stolen hundreds of

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98 results

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