The Underworld Podcast

Curtis Warren wasn't known as "Cocky" for nothing. Perhaps it was his rapid rise to the top of Britain's drug trade, becoming Cali's man in Europe and Interpol's "Target One". Perhaps it was a fortune so big it made him the only narco on the UK's rich list. Or perhaps it was the time when, just weeks after emerging from a Dutch prison, he tried to take over an island. Bulgarian wines, county lines and way way more in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the late 1970's when a military dictatorship ruled Brazil, revolutionaries and hardcore criminals formed a collective in a brutal maximum security island prison, giving birth to Brazil's first super gang, the Red Command. Though their political ideals soon melted away, leaving only a ruthless, well-armed network of drug dealers, they would eventually have enough power to take on the state and take over most of Rio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Frank Matthews went from a poor boy in North Carolina stealing chickens to running one of the biggest heroin rings America has ever seen before disappearing without a trace after getting arrested with a rumored 20 million dollars he had stashed away, never to be seen again. Along the way he took on the Italian mafia and the Black Mafia, importing kilos of heroin from Venezuela with the help of the French Connection and setting up shop in Brooklyn. He still hasn't been caught. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1990, the tiny Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago saw the only attempted Islamic militant overthrow of a government in the Western Hemisphere. The coup led by Abu Bakr and his Jamaat Al Muslimeem followers failed, but many on the island see it as a turning point that has led the murder rate to increase by 400% over the last few decades. Now, a raging war between the Rasta City gang and the Muslims gang doesn't show sings of stopping as they battle over lucrative government contracts and the street drug trade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Mafia Shqiptare" was forged during communism, exploded into life during a nationwide pyramid scheme, and unleashed a wave of drugs and violence across Europe from the late 90s. We dive into its most notorious bosses - and how gangs including the 'Hellbanianz' have taken over the UK's lucrative drug scene. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The "Maxi Trial" pitted two fearless Palermo prosecutors and turncoat "Pentiti" against the Cosa Nostra, its thuggish leader Toto Riina, and a whole host of corrupt cops, politicians and businessmen. But when the judge handed down 344 guilty verdicts, the real chaos was just beginning. We dive into an era of Italian Mafia history-car bombs, daily hits, heroin billions-that looked more like war than organized crime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early one morning this past June, 6 fully kitted out SWAT teams in Dubai fanned out across multiple luxury buildings. They were targeting a vast criminal conspiracy that had scammed hundreds of millions of dollars through pretty simply cyber trickery. From Brooklyn Blood sets using cryptocurrency to facilitate their credit card scams to the Nigerian fraud king Hushpuppi getting busted with 40 million dollars in cash, we have some fun talking scammers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Car bombs, shoulder-fired missiles, grenades and hits across 5 continents; the Israeli mafias that rose up in the 90's and fought each other for control of gambling and drug rackets for the following decades are among the most sophisticated in the world. At one point, they controlled 80% of the world's global ecstasy trade and partnered with street gangs in Los Angeles to distribute. The Alperons, Abergils, Rosensteins, and Abutbuls had no problem going after judges, politicians and cops. And when they weren't busy killing each other over bottle recycling rackets in Israel, they established global networks of drugs and gambling across Europe, Asia, and America. Danny is joined by Israeli crime reporter Ben Hartman in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last few years, Sean's been on the ground covering the Philippines' brutal drug war amongst the dealers, addicts, and killer cops. Rodrigo Duterte, the architect of the Philippines' blood-soaked drug war, has shot men dead with uzis and fed them to crocodiles. How did he become the country's top man? We take a ride on Manila's gruesome 'Night Shift,' and tell the tale of a showdown between a killer cop and infamous gang down south, to find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

( note: we weren't able to record in the studio so audio is off a bit) The murder capital of the United States isn't Chicago, Baltimore or Detroit - it's St. Louis, Missouri, which for each of the last **SEVEN** years in a row had has the highest murder rate in the United States. The city just finished 2020 with a record breaking murder rate of 87 per 100,000 people, making it the deadliest city in the world not in Mexico or Brazil. A city of only 300,000 people, it had twice as many murders as London, population 9 million. This is the story of how St Louis became the murder capital of America; guns, gangs, drugs, poor policing, population loss, disappearing industry, concentrated poverty, and a history of systemically racist policies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices