Episodes

  • Brazil’s Pablo Escobar: The Ghost

    Brazil’s Pablo Escobar: The Ghost
    Jul 14 2026
    They call him Brazil's Pablo Escobar. Sérgio de Carvalho was an elite Brazilian police major who became one of the most wanted drug traffickers on Earth, accused of flying 45 tonnes of cocaine into Europe with his own private fleet of planes. Along the way he burned through ten fake identities, ran his empire from a prison cell, collected a police pension the entire time, and faked his own death from COVID. Then one morning in Budapest, it all ended over breakfast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 mins
  • The Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat

    The Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat
    Jul 7 2026
    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 Gigante’s bathrobe act, and the Bonannos—the forgotten, disgraced family left for dead after the Donnie Brasco disaster—are waiting on one man: Joey Massino. Known as “The Last Don,” Massino quietly rebuilds the Bonanno family into the most powerful mob outfit in America, using paranoia, discipline, and an almost supernatural instinct for survival. Then, after a lifetime preaching silence and loyalty, he does the one thing no Five Families boss had ever done before: he flips. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 mins
  • The Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER

    The Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER
    Jun 30 2026
    Born into a peasant family on the outskirts of Shanghai, Du Yuesheng grew up an inveterate gambler and opium addict. But as he forged alliances in the growing metropolis’ underworld, members of a secret society-turned-cartel saw promise. Before long, ‘Big Ears Du’ was running gambling dens, opium divans and brothels. And as Shanghai, cleaved into foreign concessions and wildly unequal, became a global megacity, Du knew just who to befriend, best or kill to get his way. And by the mid-1920s, when China’s nationalists and communists were ready to throw down in Shanghai, Du stood ready to carve his name into Chinese history forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins
  • Chinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy

    Chinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy
    Jun 23 2026
    Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow possesses one of the best mob nicknames out there. The San Francisco Chinatown gangster went from teenage immigrant hooligan from the streets of Hong Kong to one of the most infamous Asian organized crime figures in America. His story has everything: Chinatown tongs, Hong Kong triad influence, immigrant protection rackets, gambling dens, and the violent gang wars that turned San Francisco’s streets into a battleground. Then comes Shrimp Boy’s strange second act, when he reemerges from prison claiming to be a reformed community leader, even as the FBI is building a sprawling undercover case around him. It all ends in a wild corruption and organized crime scandal involving guns, money laundering, murder allegations, and a California state senator caught in the same net. Subscribe: www.patreon.com/theunderworldpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Redux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha

    Redux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha
    Jun 16 2026
    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 script. *Note: Sean disappeared while on vacation in Amsterdam, Danny had to be hospitalized post Knicks win, so we took a week off for the first time in a year. Enjoy this classic episode from last summer: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Sex, Drugs and Shinto: How the Yakuza’s Only Woman Found Redemption

    Sex, Drugs and Shinto: How the Yakuza’s Only Woman Found Redemption
    Jun 9 2026
    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 drug and sex trafficking, to painkiller addiction and finally a role helping ex-yakuza go straight. Her journey would mirror the downfall of the yakuza at-large, from the world’s largest criminal gangs to social outcasts, outwitted by cops and outpaced by new, digital criminals taking over the Japanese underworld. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Italy Clan Wars, Irish Gangster Politicians & Cartel Nigerian Breaking Bad: Stash House!

    Italy Clan Wars, Irish Gangster Politicians & Cartel Nigerian Breaking Bad: Stash House!
    Jun 2 2026
    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 warfare for electoral politics. Mexican officials accused of working for the Sinaloa Cartel surrender to U.S. authorities. A violent mafia feud erupts in southern Italy. Nigerian authorities uncover an industrial-scale meth lab allegedly linked to Mexican cartel cooks. And with the World Cup approaching, Mexico’s cartels reportedly decide that protecting tourists is simply good business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • The Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child

    The Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child
    May 26 2026
    Mako Nishimura graduated from high school delinquent to kamikaze biker gang, street tough and, eventually, a fully made member of a yakuza syndicate - the first (or perhaps second?) woman to do so. Nishimura made her gang huge amounts of cash selling women plus selling, and taking, huge quantities of methamphetamines. But by the end of the 1980s, Nishimura’s life was unraveling into a mess of addiction, violence and madness. When Japan’s economic bubble burst at the end of the decade, the yakuza would be staring at a long and painful decline. And Nishimura had bigger problems: she’d fallen in love. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 2 mins