The Underworld Podcast

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 reputation as a narco state — a status that had caused havoc across the region. Those hopes were dashed almost immediately — and not just by Matta’s family, who carried on his legacy of cartel wheeler-dealing. In the jungles of eastern Honduras, another power was on the rise, forging ties with crooked cops and banking magnates. The Cachiros were a family of cattle rustlers, whose rural smarts and ruthlessness would make them some of the most unlikely leaders in cartel history. But they would fall almost as quickly as they had risen, as US agents went on a rampage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Arellano Felix Brothers, who transformed it into one of the most violent drug organizations in Mexico. At their peak, the brothers, led by Benjamin, were pumping an estimated 40 percent of America's cocaine through their border kingdom recruiting both rich kids from elite Tijuana families and gangbangers from the states as sicarios. But when psychotic enforcer Ramón tried to take out El Chapo at the Guadalajara airport in '93, his gunmen accidentally murdered a Catholic cardinal instead, bringing the full heat of Mexican and U.S. law enforcement down on the family and signaling the beginning of the end for the infamous Tijuana cartel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 emerald smuggler. Soon he was making friends in high places, scoring deals on consignments of cocaine - and connecting coca producers in the Andes with up-and-coming narcos in Mexico. All the while, Matta forged ties with the elites and corrupt soldiers who’d run Honduras for a century, capturing the small state and ensuring its future as a coup-happy transshipment point for years to come. But when Matta took part in the narco world’s most notorious murder, in 1985, his world came crashing down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Along the blood-soaked border between Mississippi and Tennessee, a ruthless crime empire ruled the night where whiskey flowed, dice rolled, and anyone who crossed the wrong person disappeared into the darkness. The State Line Mob, bankrolled by a hammer-wielding madam and led by a wannabe southern Capone, turned a stretch of highway into America's most lawless strip, where corrupt cops looked the other way and violence was the only language spoken. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 top. As a smuggler, he helped move a billion dollars worth of product while rising through the ranks of the Medellin cartel before moving into the secretive world of elite money launderers for cocaine kingpins. For years, he lived a double life inside the most dangerous syndicates, surviving hits, betrayals, and near-death missions. And he did it all longer than any agent ever had before...or since. He's the narco world's Donnie Brasco. Journalist Ian Frisch, who co-wrote Suarez's story with him in the newly released Inside the Cartel, joins us for this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 pocket. But that meant that when everything came crashing down, it crashed down hard, and he took out a decent portion of the city’s leadership with him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 America during the 1980s. Known as the Fox of Ojinaga, he was a ruthless trafficker who taught the narco-world that it was better to buy the authorities than fight them. His dealings with the Colombian cartels changed the Mexican underworld as we know it...until a coke problem and a bloody FBI-backed raid in 1987 turned a remote Mexican village into a war zone. This is the story of the man who pioneered the border drug corridor, leaving a legacy that still shapes the cartel wars today. https://quince.com/underworld for all your clothing needs, use code Underworld at checkout! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nathan Southern is an investigative reporter in Phnom Penh specializing in organized crime, while Lindsey Kennedy is a journalist focusing on corruption and trafficking in Cambodia. They dive into the notorious Hun Toh, revealing his rise from illegal logging to running a vast criminal empire. The discussion covers scam industries, the geography of crime in Southeast Asia, and how Chinese investments inadvertently empower these activities. With insights into the evolution of drugs from heroin to meth and the challenges journalists face, this conversation uncovers the dark underbelly of Cambodian politics.

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 established and upcoming. But despite informants and wiretaps the trail ran cold.Then another body showed up. Then another. Before long, cops were connecting the dots between four different killings, all carried out in disturbing fashion across the British capital. And it looked a lot like the Metropolitan Police, London’s historic force, was directly involved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 in the Russian Mafiya, with a hand in everything from trafficking nuclear material, arms dealing, narcotics trafficking, massive prostitution rings, multiple billion dollar frauds, hundreds of murders, controlling the gas and oil industry in entire countries and even art fraud. He's allegedly the closest thing there is to Keyser Soze...but is he REALLY who they say he is? We go deep on what's fact and fiction about a man wanted in half a dozen countries for pretty much every organized crime imaginable. DON'T FORGET TO BUY ASSET!!!: https://www.thatasset.com/underworld Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices