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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

54:51

The Richest Arms Dealer Ever: Adnan Khashoggi

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/02/11

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 mention gambling sessions and club nights whose costs ran into the millions of dollars.Khashoggi made his first riches shipping arms from the US to Saudi Arabia. But soon his “fees,” and the ways he got them, began to catch up with him. And dalliances in politics, bad investments, and some friends in dark places, would send the life of the

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62:51

The Mobster Who Ruled Hawaii & His Brutal Revenge Quest

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/02/04

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 build an empire of pain in the Aloha State.But when Miske’s son slammed his car into a truck and died, it sent the kingpin on a spiral of misplaced rage — ending in murder, conspiracy and even a chemical weapon attack. Even when the law caught up with him, Miske had one last trick up his sleeve. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit

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51:41

America's Most Dangerous Prison Gang: The Aryan...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/01/28

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, with tens of thousands of soldiers across federal and state lines. Though they're alleged to only have approximately 150 full-fledged members, the Aryan Brotherhood has found ways to dominate prison economies and expand their rackets into the outside world.The Brand, as the Aryan Brotherhood is sometimes called, has morphed from a

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61:58

Hollywood's Celebrity Gangster and the Battle for Los...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/01/21

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 he was 6, Cohen gained a rep as a hard-fighting professional boxer despite his short stature, and a rep as a wild-haired stick up kid that never backed down from a gunfight or a robbery.But when he got the call to head back to LA to serve as the number 2/bodyguard for Bugsy Siegel, everything changed. Under Bugsy, Mickey's statue rose

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50:16

The Nazi Drug Kingpin, the Biggest Narco You've Never...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/01/14

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 is Manuel Noriega, chief of Panamanian military intelligence and just a year from siezing its control. Pablo Escobar, head of what will become the feared Medellin Cartel, is there too.But even these criminal heavyweights aren’t the biggest gangsters in the room. That title belongs to Roberto Suarez Gomez, Bolivia’s so-called King of Cocaine,

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64:10

The Teenage Hitmen of Marseille's Gang Wars

The Underworld Podcast ·

2025/01/07

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, it's no longer Corsican mobsters using France's second biggest city as a transshipment point to move heroin across the Mediterranean. Instead, the last two decades have seen street gangs of mostly North African teenagers warring over retail drug spots that can make over $100,000 a day.2023 saw nearly 50 narco-homicides, as the French police

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56:06

The Nazi Fugitive Who Created The Modern Cocaine...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/12/31

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 fact, Barbie remained on the books of western spy agencies, including the CIA, and reaped enormous wealth, power, and protection. Barbie then hooked up with the fascists and druglords of Bolivia, christened a death squad called the “Bridesgrooms of Death” — and took the country in a brutal coup backed so far to the hilt by marching powder, that

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49:02

STASH HOUSE: Captagon Craziness, Free Narcos, Russian...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/12/24

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 Russian crypto London drug dealing scam, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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62:26

The Biggest American Weed Cartel Ever: The Cornbread...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/12/17

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 million dollars in marijuana grown in 30 locations in 10 states, indicting 70 people. And it all started with some country outlaws. These men were farmers, mechanics, and handymen by day, and by night, they transformed into savvy businessmen managing an underground empire. They recruited others from the local community, including friends,

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54:27

The Human Trafficking Illegal Casino Kingpin Who May...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/12/10

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 town of Bamban in 2022, eyebrows were raised. Sure, she was rich: but how did Guo own a helicopter, $200,000 jewelry and a McLaren sports car?Perhaps she really was an industrial savant. Or perhaps there was something a little more sinister going on, perhaps something to do with the giant offshore gambling complex located a stone’s throw from

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53:28

The Lord High Executioner of Brooklyn: Albert Anastasia

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/12/03

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 ever come out of New York City, was alleged to have participated in at least 60 murders as part of his role as one of the leaders of Murder, Inc., the hitmen organization that Lucky Luciano and the other members of The Commission tasked with doling out mafia justice.Anastasia's rise to power in the violent mob wars of the 1920's and 1930's is

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62:19

The Sinaloa Cartel Civil War Raging in Mexico: Los...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/11/26

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 is just part of an ever-changing drug landscape, that’s increasingly dominated by the Sinaloa factions and the CJNG. How do these two organizations work? How can they work together? And what on earth can Mexico’s new president do to stop the bullets from flying? Sean spoke to expert Nathan P. Jones to find out. MERCH:

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57:46

Peru's Shining Path Narco Terrorists: From Commie...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/11/19

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, coca-producing region, on its bloody frontline.The Peruvian government captured the movement’s despotic leader, and the war died. But the rebels switched gears, protecting coca shipments from Peru’s interior to its coast, and out across Latin America. Today the VRAEM is the global trade’s ground zero — even for the leaves that make their way, via an

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53:39

The Bloody Turkish Mafia War Raging Across the World

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/11/12

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 about to call it quits. Younger brother Abdullah Baybasin set out to control the streets of North London with his feared crew of Hackney Bombers. But another powerful gang, the Tottenham Turks, and the met police investigators, had other ideas. Two decades later, control of Europe's heroin market is once again facing instability, as the Taliban

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63:55

Europe's Pablo Escobar: The Heroin Emperor Huseyin...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/11/05

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. Stepping into the vacuum left by the downfall of the French Connection, Baybasin and his clan, dubbed "The Family," brought in billions of dollars of opium from Afghanistan through Iran and smuggled into Turkey before it headed to western Europe on the so-called Balkan route, all with the help of the Kurdish separatist militia known as the PKK. But

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57:11

The Billion Dollar Scam Cult King who tried to Take...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/10/29

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

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58:33

North Korea's Meth Trafficking: The Hermit Narco-Kingdom

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/10/22

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

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64:52

Indian Posse: The Native Teen Gang Ruling Canada's...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/10/15

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

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73:23

The Warring Prison Cartels Carving up Ecuador

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/10/08

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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57:45

The Cartel That Went to War w/Pablo Escobar: The...

The Underworld Podcast ·

2024/10/01

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

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91 results

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