How 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...
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Society & Culture
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 Sea...
Episodes
20 of 279 episodes
The 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...
Shafted: 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 fo...
The 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...
Russian 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 ta...
El 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 on...
Empire 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 Chi...
China’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. Shang...
Brazil’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 traffick...
The 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 Gigan...
The 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 allian...
Chinatown’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 immigran...
Redux: 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, Pakist...
Sex, 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...
Italy 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...
The 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 s...
The 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 dai...
140 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 Americ...
The 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 discovere...
El 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...