A (6:57)

Yeah, it's been a. It's been a long December, my friends. And there's. There's reason to believe maybe next year will be better than. Than the last. That's right, John. All sorts of references here. You know, you never know what you're going to get.

B (7:09)

Well, you. I mean, you just said as close shave yourself, right? So your years you're looking up already.

A (7:13)

We're not. We're not working on talking. We're not going to talk about that.

B (7:16)

Okay. All right, well, maybe we'll get into it at some point Anyway, as 2025 comes to an end. Thank you to all those who support us on Patreon. You're better employers than any magazine publisher we got. Bonus. Still going there strong. And I'll have something from a brief upcoming trip to Australia, which would be cool in a couple of weeks. There's merch still available if you forgot someone over Christmas and want to get a New Year's gift. Am I missing anything? Critical thinking? Good looks? I don't know.

A (7:41)

Yeah, I mean you forgot to tell them how they can sign up for the Patreon, which is@patreon.com sh podcast or you can sign up for on Spotify or on iTunes or YouTube I think too. Underworldpod.com you go there for the merch, the shirts and whatnot. And the underworld. Podcastmail.com for tips, comments, advertising inquiries, or if you're, I don't know, a TV producer looking for us to do your work for you.

B (8:07)

Yeah, yeah, your mind's sharper than mine. There must be something about that. Variety just took. Anyway, let's dive into Suriname. So as you may have guessed from the cold open, it is pretty, pretty crazy in Suriname. And it has been for some time. But being a place the size of California or Belarus, which is South America's smallest country with a population of 630,000, which is also the smallest population in South America, you can understand why it doesn't get much press. But that is why we're all here, isn't it?

A (8:36)

Yeah. You know, I can tell already this is going to be an incredible episode full of stuff that, like, nobody knows, but that also we would get a lot more hits and downloads if we just like interviewed some no name, kind of former gang banger, fake gangster who just says outrageous stuff that makes absolutely no sense and definitely isn't true. But, you know, that's the, that's the price that, that you pay Sean Williams for doing such fantastic work. It's your sacrifice charmer.

B (9:00)

Yeah, we can do that on Patreon anyway. But yeah, today's show is going to get into some of the mad stuff that happened in the 1980s that brought Daisy Bouters. It is Baltas. It just looks like booters. Anyway, it's like the victor Boot bout thing to power. How he came to rule Suriname like a king. The civil war against one of his former best friends. How both of them got crazy into the drug trade and then the life of Dino Baltus. And how he came to be wound up in the mad sting from this cold open. And if you think the drug smuggling politicians of Jamaica or Guinea Bissau are off the hook, wait until you get a load of today's rogues gallery. And then once we get up to the mad bus from 2013, I'm going to do a bonus episode for Patreons about what happened next, how Suriname is today and how it's never really gotten over its narco hangover. Because we love our subscribers. They deserve the world way more than the peasants scum. And listen to us for free. How. How dare you guys? Anyway, we good? Probably not. Let's do this.

A (10:00)

Definitely not.

B (10:01)

Yeah. Yeah. Like I mentioned in the intro, Suriname shakes off its Dutch rulers in 1975 in a peaceful transition of power. But things are not going to stay rosy for long. In fact, the roses will almost immediately like that plant in the background that I've just noticed is dying behind me. Because Suriname's lobbied for and won its independence so quickly that its leaders really forgot to work on a standalone economy. Henk Aaron, the country's first prime minister, is also dogged by rumors of corruption. And in the late 70s, the young country' military, particularly a stout goatee leader named Desi Buters, prepares to throw. I even said his name wrong. Then Desi Baltus prepares to overthrow him in a coup. Actually, before we get into Balters, a quick pub quiz fact, because this is pretty incredible. Did you know that in 1667 the British actually traded Suriname to the Dutch for New Amsterdam, which is now Manhattan. Do you reckon that was a good deal?

A (11:01)

I actually did not know that. It's fascinating. Probably not a good, good deal on their part.

B (11:07)

No, it doesn't sound like it. Anyway, you can keep that one in your back pockets. Guys, for Christmas parties, this is Daisy Baltus. I'm. I'm really, really, like, screwing up that Dutch pronunciation. Anyway, he's been born into poverty in 1945 in a mixed American Indian, African, Dutch, French and Chinese family, and he then drops out of high school to join the Dutch army. This guy is like a real tough guy. And he speaks the language importantly of regular Surinamese people, which is something called Sranan tongo, which is a creole that's English based, but it mixes in Dutch, Portuguese and West African languages. In 1980, Baltas follows through on his coup plan, chucks Henkaren in jail, and he takes over the country, some say with the help of the Netherlands. Although this is unproven. But Bautist isn't much better. His hunter doesn't have the skills to run a sovereign nation, and it is repressive.

A (12:06)

You know, I feel like this happens a lot, but how hard could it really be to run a country of like a few hundred thousand people? Like, if I had a junta around me, like, I just got a bunch of buds, we had a junta going. Like, I'm pretty sure we could just figure it out as we went along, you know?

B (12:20)

Yeah, where's my. Where my hunter at? Where the vibes in the area? Yeah, I mean, why not? Let's take over a country. That's where this podcast was always going to go. Um, in fact, but Daisy Balturst, right, He. He does it so badly, runs the country into the ground enough that even the Dutch draw up an invasion plan to remove him alongside America that never comes to fruition But a movement inside Suriname to toss Baltus from power does. In 1982, a small clique of military officers plot to launch a counter coup against Bautus and co. But some of them snitch. The plot fails and Bautus executes one of the counter coup's leaders. And then he sets about jailing anybody he claims to have been a part of the 1982 plot, including plenty of folks who have of course just critics or political opponents. Demonstrations by trade unionists and students and other groups fill the streets of Paramaribo soon after. But Balteas isn't a man taken to bowing under pressure. In fact, in December 1982, he, his men round up, torture, then execute 15 of the juntas opponents, including labour leaders and journalists. Baute claims they were shot while trying to escape fort Zelandia, which is a 17th century Dutch fortress that looms over the city. But few believe him. And the so called December murders will remain the most important event in modern Surinamese history until today. But Baltas doesn't stop there. In 1982, he seeks allyship with the Caribbean's marxist revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Maurice bishop of Grenada. He also gets close to Libya's Colonel Gaddafi. And Gaddafi pays Baltus $100 million to open a quote, cultural mission in Paramaribo. Plus a less public facing military training camp in a remote village near the Brazilian border alongside Cuba.

A (14:18)

So how far is that from. From Cuba though? Like. Like alongside. We're talking like hundreds of miles. Like nautically. Like what, what would that be?

B (14:27)

Yeah, yeah. I mean these, they had these like Cuban guys training at the camp.

A (14:31)

Not like physically alone.

B (14:33)

No, no, no, no. Okay. Yeah.

A (14:37)

It's been a long. This ever. Dude, it's been a long December.

B (14:40)

Yeah, it's, it's. It has, it has. Yeah, it really, really has. Anyway, Baltas, right hand man, I gotta get through this before I start bursting into Bose's right hand man, however, who's a guy named Roy Horb. He goes off and meets the agents of the CIA instead. And when Baltos finds out, he has Horb locked up at Fort Zealandia where in December 1983 he announces that Horb has hanged himself. But a security officer later debunks the claim to an Amsterdam newspaper saying that Horb was instead killed with a lethal injection. Quote, I don't know exactly what was in the injection, but it wasn't a gentle euthanasia. Hob died instantly. He fell and died instantly. Perhaps they later took the trouble to hang him from a rope. But I didn't see anything. One man who's beginning to dislike Baute's taste for blood and vengeance is Ronnie Brunswick. Brunswick, I think is the right way of saying it. I'm going to just say Brunswick because that's. I just can't do these Dutch names. He is one of the top capos in the junta and quite possibly the most interesting man in Suriname, if not South America. So Brunswick had been born into poverty on a rice, cassava and banana plantation in Suriname's poorest region, hunting animals with cutlasses with one or more of his nine siblings. He's a mischievous boy, but he's got a generous streak, too. He fetches firewood for his neighbors, and he's a member of the 100,000 or so maroon community. Maroons are Africans who escaped slavery to form independent settlements back in the day. Maroons are disproportionately poor, unemployed and undereducated all over Suriname. But Brunswick, he gets his break age 10 when a Catholic priest picks him as the only one of his family to attend a nearby boarding school. I don't know, there's red flags when some random priest comes along and picks one of your sons to come with him. Anyway, this is when, according to Brunswick, he first sees electricity, which is not a euphemism. That's actually the case. He continues to study and in 1980 joins Daisy Bautus national army. Enthused by Bautus pledge to eradicate corruption. He's a big guy, good fighter, and he becomes one of the country's top 12 paratroopers sent for training to communist Cuba before being handpicked as Bautus bodyguard. The two men get really close. But as Bowther's military rule deepens and he continues to murder anybody who stands between him and. And absolute power, Brunswick grows disenchanted. And when Bowters turns his sight on independently minded maroons, Brunswick has seen enough. He quits the army in 1984 and he goes on the run, robbing banks and people at gunpoint and handing money to poor maroon villagers, earning him a reputation as a. Yeah, guess what? A Robin Hood figure.

A (17:34)

I mean, I got to say, like in this case, like, it's. It's kind of accurate this time, you know, like, I'll. I'll allow it. You know, he's literally robbing banks and giving it to like, legit. You gotta. You gotta give it up for him.

B (17:46)

Yeah. At this point, it's. It's pretty. It's pretty okay. Authorities capture Brunswick at this point. For now. For now, he's Robin Hood.

A (17:54)

Something changes, I think.

B (17:56)

Yeah, yeah. As the title of our podcast in the last 300 episodes would suggest, authorities capture brunswick, but he busts out of jail and he flees to the netherlands, where he hooks up with surinamese exiles plotting bautheurst's auster. Now that's a very nice story all wrapped up and tied in a bow. And reported by the new york times as gospel. In fact, though, it's also reported that brunswick had left the army after getting turned down from a raise and refused back pay. Whichever sale you choose to believe in 1986, Brunswick forms a group called the jungle commando and vows to win a guerrilla campaign against bautus surinamese army and liberate the maroon people. In July 1986, he captures 12 Surinamese army soldiers in a town near paramaribo. This kicks off something called the surinamese interior war. Why do they call it that and not just a civil war? I don't understand. It intensifies when Bautos dispatches 70 soldiers to the maroon village of moiwana, November that year. And these people block both ways out of the village and then shoot every villager they encounter over the following four hours. By the end of this massacre, 39 people, including women, children, babies, are dead. The libyans are believed to have taken part in the killings as well. There's an eyewitness account that includes one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever read in my life, and I'm not going to repeat it here, which is. Which is truly something for what we normally report on, but it's. It's hideous.

A (19:27)

What's the environment like?

B (19:28)

I'll send it to you if you want to cry even more. I don't.

A (19:31)

I don't think I need that at this point in my life. What's the. What's the environment there?

B (19:35)

Like.

A (19:35)

Like. Like amazonian jungle tropics. Like, is that. Would that be accurate?

B (19:40)

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, pretty much everything outside paramaribo from what I can see is like a tiny, like, bamboo village in a clearing on the side of a river in the Amazon. It's like a really kind of weird place. And there's a lot of american indians in the kind of south of it, where I think it backs onto, like, two of the major indigenous, like, reservations in. In the Amazon, like Brazilian Amazon. So it's a really kind of strange place. Anyway, after this massacre in moana, the war ramps up and thousands of people flee suriname into neighboring French guiana, which is not an independent nation, but a department of France. Somebody who places an ad at this point in the International Herald Tribune, which is what the New York Times global edition used to be called. It reads simply, men wanted ex military personnel to work abroad. Welcome to our ugly home.

A (20:35)

Reddit is back for a historically hideous season.

B (20:39)

It's our 100th ugly house.

A (20:41)

This place is mayhem.

B (20:43)

That is impressive.

A (20:45)

And if these walls could talk. Do you cry a lot?

B (20:48)

I do.

A (20:49)

They'd have a lot to say.

B (20:51)

What in God's name is this pit? Don't get too close. You've seen the show.

A (20:56)

I'm scared of that. Ugliest house in America. Season premiere Wednesday at 8 on HGTV. Kind of feel like you could have done that better, you know? Like, I mean, this is the era of like, classifieds being everywhere. But, like, men wanted, like right away to work abroad. It just seems like you're recruiting for like. Like a jigalo situ, you know, that was my first thought.

B (21:19)

No, and also, like, look, I mean, whatever you. However your mind wants to read, that is. It's fine, man.

A (21:27)

Also, like, people I know, I know everyone read newspapers back then. Not like now, but do you think that many soldiers of fortune are, like, flipping through the classifieds in the New York Times looking for work? Like, wasn't there? Like, wouldn't you go in, There's a magazine called Soldier Fortune. Wouldn't you just, like, advertise there? I don't know.

B (21:43)

Yeah, true.

A (21:44)

I'm just. I'm brain.

B (21:45)

I don't know. I mean, look, whatever. Whatever your thoughts about his marketing techniques, this, unsurprisingly, is Ronnie Brunswick, who is using his wealthy connections to Surinamese exiles in the Netherlands to hire foreign mercenaries, which is like a major feature of this conflict. And soon after, the FBI arrests 14American guns for hire in New Orleans who've just been hired by a Surinamese exile in Amsterdam's red light district to join Brunswick's Jungle Commando.

A (22:16)

I mean, it's like, you can't. They just don't want you to work or earn any money anymore, you know? It's not the land of the free at all.

B (22:24)

Nah, screw those guys. Another guy who answers the call is Carl Penter, a wiry British ex forces guy from Liverpool who features his time in Suriname in a 2002 biography called have Gun Will Travel, which is a very good name for a book. Penta describes how drugs play a massive role in the war. Neither of these conflicts belligerents are flush with cash, so they turn to the ballooning market in narcotics, particularly cocaine. Here's Baltus, security Guy again, quote, the entire army revolved around cocaine, just like politics and business. Baltus regularly received advisors from colombia and Brazil in 1986 and 1987. But he also knew exactly how to handle things himself. And here's carl penta, the mercenary, describing an episode early on in the conflict. Desi baltas had been in brazil with a gang of his bodyguards in a hotel. They were carrying holdalls full of cash, and he had whores in their room. When they'd finished, the whores told the police they'd just been with a gang of bank robbers. The brazilian cops raided the hotel room and found holders stuffed with many thousands of dollars in cash. They arrested bautes and took him away with him, protesting all the while. I'm the president of suriname. Eventually it was all cleared up. Bautes asked for an official apology, but received none. It later transpired bautes had been in brazil to buy a large consignment of ether, which was to be used for the manufacture of cocaine. Bautos forces register a whole bunch of limited companies, often straight out of fort zealandia itself and sometimes operating for just a single day. Soldiers get busy packing powder into fish, pumpkins, timber and a ton of other exports before shipping it out to miami or the netherlands. The final step is to use the drug money to buy food or gas back which is sold in suriname, thus laundering it. In another ingenious move, sometimes the surinamese would entice a dutch national with money and a free vacation to fly to paramaribo and then return to amsterdam with a small amount of cocaine, for example, five kilos. But the surinamese military would place another guy on the plane with 50 kilos and then tip off dutch customs about the guy with the smaller amount. Hey, presto, you've just successfully trafficked 45 kilos of product. And I guess you've also won favor with the dutch authorities, Says the security chief. Quote, there was something going on with cocaine. Every week the entire army was called in. The drug was stored in the barracks warehouses. And soon there are cliques of rival surinamese military officers murdering each other in their barracks for access to the drug shipments. And brunswick, with his contacts in the maroons and his home village of moengo, close to a, the ocean and b, the moroni river that marks the border between suriname and french guiana. He also offices forces who now number some 1200 men to regional drug kingpins. Pretty much within a year, possibly way shorter than that, Suriname has turned into a full fledged narco state. And it will never really put the toothpaste or the coca paste, am I right? Back in the tube. Here is Carl Penta again describing something that happens while Ronnie Brunswick is in Moengo. An aircraft flew in from Colombia carrying 2,000 kilograms of cocaine and 4 million pounds in counterfeit $100 bills with five different serial numbers. Apparently this was to be used in a CIA sting to destabilise the government of Suriname. Unfortunately, the airfield that had been designated to land in was too short for the plane, an Australian made GAF Nomad. The airfield needed a plane with short takeoff and landing capability. The Nomad didn't have it. The pilot took out the air charts and looked for the next suitable airstrip, somewhere covert, away from Paramaribo. On the map, Mwengo looked very good. And that is where they landed, right behind Ronnie's front line. The two occupants of the plane were dragged out. One, a Colombian, was beaten up. There was something odd about the other pilot. He turned out to be an officer from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency in disguise, pretending to be a Colombian drug baron's personal pilot. Very amateur. So just to catch you up if you didn't get all that, that is a DEA team attempting to catch Daisy Bouteurs in a sting, but accidentally landing him on an airstrip in jungle commando territory and getting beaten senseless by Ronnie Brunswick's men, which is pretty mad. And by now you've got all kinds of weird forces in Suriname. US and UK mercenaries, Cubans, Libyans. There are even Lebanese there. Oh, and there's the French who are very upset that thousands of poor Surinamese are pouring into French Guiana as refugees. And they are working hand in hand with the American government who are trying to bust cocaine traffickers across Latin America. But also both belligerents in the Surinamese interior war, but particularly Bouters because he's in bed with Washington's Cold War enemies. Does any of that make sense?

A (27:39)

No. Can you. Can you repeat it one more time? I wasn't paying attention.

B (27:45)

Good. Thank you. Yes. Basically, let's go for the US bit first. They're trying to sort of down both men, Brunswick and Bauer Bouters, but they're particularly interested in screwing up Bowters and overturning the government of Suriname because Suriname by this point is working hand in glove with Cuba and Libya and Washington doesn't like it. Yeah, people can just press rewind. There's a rewind button. You can just do that and then rewind it again and then rewind it again and then get angry and stop listening. And as Carl Pence describes in his book, which is surprisingly like really good. Bowters, Brunswick are getting so rich ferrying coke from Suriname to the US or Europe that they kind of just keep the war in a holding pattern which keeps the drugs flowing. In fact, at some point Bowters and Brunswick start working on cocaine deals together. Writes Penta, Quote the rebel leader. He means Brunswick had degenerated into a drug baron.

A (28:40)

I mean, it really is the great uniter. You know, like think about how many absolute freak weirdos you made friends with during your Berlin nights at like 4am that you never would have talked to during the day.

B (28:52)

You know, there is a. There is genuinely a moment when I'm. When I think about those long nights and I was chatting to a Brazilian guy about football for I think probably like eight hours. And it makes me feel I can like still get a knot in my stomach even thinking about that conversation now. Anyway, yeah, this is like, it's kind of extraordinary, right? This is a war now that is only dragging on to like work for cocaine transshipment.

A (29:22)

And they're the only reason doing deals together. You know, it kind of reminds me of our first episode when we did Archons Tigers. You know how in the Yugoslavia and as Yugoslavian civil wars broke apart. Yeah, A lot of the really gnarly militias that were, you know, on ethnic lines and were doing deals together in sort of organized crime rackets. I mean they weren't keeping the war going for that, but they all the ones who were like sort of, you know, fomenting a lot of the hatred were actually working in tandem to make money with the rackets. Whether it was like bypassing sanctions or selling weapons or anything else.

B (30:00)

Yeah, for sure, it's. It's similar. I don't know about the quantities here, but it's like a. It's a really weird situation. Anyway, Baltus agrees to hold Suriname's first post coup election in 1987, but he remains head of the army until 1990, putting him in de facto control of the country. In 1989, he and Brunswick thrash out a ceasefire. But that pisses off Maroons who rightly accuse Brunswick of selling out. And a bunch of fights continue to break out until 1992. And that is when both sides sign a comprehensive peace deal. There's actually a really interesting group of American Indians who like break off from the Maroons and form their own like indigenous guerrilla army and. And sort of do a bunch of bombing campaigns that I couldn't fit in here. But yeah, look it up guys. It's on the reading list for patreons. It's really, really interesting. By this time, that is 1992. Daisy Baltas is for the first time in forever a civilian. He steps down from the Surinamese army in 1990, claiming the government isn't supporting them. He means him enough. And both he and Ronnie Brunswick then proceed to get wildly rich off the backs of interests in timber, gold and narco trafficking. What they also have in common is an interesting take on being family men. I mean, you just heard how Bowters was partial to a sex party or tent. He marries twice and he has three kids. Brunswick, however, well, he is something else. He's never married, has a string of high profile girlfriends, mistresses and concubines. And he's reckoned to have fathered at least 50 children. Four according to a new York Times profile. Quote, his mother has said he has so many offspring that unknown people sometimes ask to hug her, claiming to be her grandchildren. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't think he was on nappy duty much for any of those 50 kids. Both men form political parties out of the war, which are explicitly ethnic based. Bowther founds the national democratic party, which begins as a small collection of coup instigators but winds up being Suriname's leading multi ethnic political force. Remember, he's the guy who kind of brings together like almost half a dozen different minority groups and he speaks this like creole basically that sort of like everyone on the street speaks. Brunswick meanwhile, launches the General Liberation and Development party or ABOB in Dutch, which is kind of hilarious. Just general liberation please. And that aims to represent maroons. Brunswick is also a huge football fan. That is soccer. And in 1992 he founds his own club in Mwengo. That is his hometown of course. Anyway, none of this means that Baltos or Brunswick have dropped their connections to the Latin American drug trade. Baltos runs gear for Colombia's leftist FARC, for example, all the way through the 90s. That's according to a Brazilian parliamentary inquiry which uncovers plots to swap arms for drugs in the post war years. During this time, Surinamese narcos are forging closer ties with their counterparts in the Netherlands and galvanizing cocaine transshipment that usually goes from Colombia into Suriname, then out via plane or ship to Amsterdam or Rotterdam. During this time, Surinamese Marcos are forging closer ties with their counterparts in the Netherlands and galvanizing cocaine transshipment that usually goes from Colombia into Suriname and out via plane or ship to Amsterdam or Rotterdam.

A (33:31)

So Are these the guys? I mean, we talk about this a lot now how Rotterdam is such a huge port for. For drug shipments coming in, especially cocaine, whether it's the Albanians, the Brazilians organizing it, even. I think the. The where is it? Not the. The Calabrians too, and. And then also like the macro mafia and all that. Are these the guys that really started out using Rotterdam as a sort of port destination for large amounts of drugs?

B (33:56)

I think you've been going back for. For decades, but yeah, they're. They're among them. But it's not just cocaine. There's a huge, like, this is kind of like rave era, right? And like ecstasy is massive and it's coming over also from South America. There's a guy called Hank Romy that we're going to mention a bit further down and he. He is famous for bringing like millions and millions of pills of. Of ecstasy into Europe as well. Those love parades don't get like that without some.

A (34:24)

I always thought that stuff was. Was made in Europe and then transported.

B (34:27)

I think some of it is. I think some of it is, but a lot of it was made in that part of South America as well, where.

A (34:34)

No, interesting.

B (34:34)

Basically did not know that. Yeah, yeah, it's like. Yeah, I mean, Rotterdam was the big place, but as you can hear from like the cold open everything, like plenty of stuff's getting in on the planes as well. I think I remember one of the stories from the Nigerian cults was that they in the 90s were bringing tons of random drugs in on like KLM flies in Amsterdam with like Nigerian Dutch baggage handlers. But anyway, yeah, not. Not a bad place to do business anyway. The early 1990s is when the elusive Brian Blue. He begins his criminal career, for example, working under a Dutch Surinamese trafficker named Piet or Pete Vortel. Wortel. Pete Vortel or Pete Wortle, depending on how cockney you want me to go. Blue kind of comes out of nowhere and he flashes up on international law enforcement radars for the first time when surinamese cops get tipped off about a drug plane parked up on a riverbend in the village of Tibiti, deep in one of the country's Amazonian logging regions. The cops don't find the drugs, but they do discover guns, boats, fuel and satellite phones, which is not the average gear for a logger. They arrest blue and two associates over the bust, but they let them go soon afterwards, citing a lack of evidence. Blue then allegedly doubles down on his ascendant career, leading trafficking ops through Suriname for an international network that is into europe from colombia via venezuela and Brazil. But in 2005, Brazilian authorities seized two shipments of cocaine totaling 550 keys. And they arrest blue and they sentence him to 21 years in prison in absentia. He's never caught. Interpol puts him on their red lotus list, which is like the premier league of naughty steps. And by all accounts, he keeps on trucking, literally running product through suriname and out via paramaribo's port. And there's surely no way on earth that he is doing this without the express permission of daisy balturst and most likely ronnie brunswick too. Now, during this time, another surinamese guy is on the rise. This time on the other side of the criminal equation.

A (36:49)

And what time period is this? Like late 80s, early 90s. When are we talking about here?

B (36:53)

Yeah, like mid to late 90s, I think. @ this time. Yeah, was when is when a guy named chan santoki comes up in the world. He is born into an indo surinamese family in the country's second city of lelydorp, which is basically just a suburb of Paramaribo. Over 90% of Surinamese live in or near the atlantic coast. In the atlantic coast. On the atlantic coast, the country's interior, like we just said, is pretty much all just like jungle and a handful of tumbledown villages. Santoki attends police academy in the netherlands as a young man. He returns home then 1991, becomes Suriname's chief of police. He gets a rep as a fearless hunter of drug traffickers. And he makes some really high level arrests, including a complex sting that snags roger khan, who is the most powerful drug trafficker in neighboring guyana. The independent nation of guyana, not french guiana. I really wish they would have changed those names. Suriname, by the way, sits between the two. So on the west you've got guyana. To the west of that Venezuela, then you've got suriname, then you've got french guiana. It's all fun and giggles. I'm for sure gonna do a separate episode on roger khan because his story is really great. And who knows anything about guyana except it's the home of cole hooper. Am I right.

A (38:11)

Danny? I don't know who that is, but shout out to my super anand. He's also from guyana and great guy.

B (38:16)

Nice. I think cole hooper was the first ever cricket who signed my bat when I was a.

A (38:20)

Kid. I knew it was gonna be some fucking cricket.

B (38:22)

Bullshit. Of course it's cricket. Of course it's fucking cricket. Because of these busts and a no nonsense attitude. To drug policing. Santoki gets the nickname sheriff from none other than Daisy Boutus, which is high praise. Santoki is also dogged about chasing convictions for the 1982 December murders, for which Bautes and his then accomplices have never faced justice. And it's worth repeating that these killings are like ground zero for Suriname's modern history. Many public works and locations are still named after those murdered, and pretty much everything in today's show spills out of that one fateful day. But to seize the bonus show, we will get to that then, as well as the career of Henk Romy, the Dutch Surinamese ecstasy kingpin I mentioned earlier. So, yeah, you lucky people who subscribe to us, you're going to get a lot of stuff further down the line because we are in the late 1990s now. Daisy Bouteurs and Ronnie Brunswick are both doing pretty well as politicians and their side hustles in gold, timber, and, of course, narcotics, which are making them millions by employing the same logistics and connections they had during the war. In 1999, Dutch courts convict both men of running cocaine trafficking rings in absentia, for which neither serves a day behind bars, unsurprisingly, because Suriname also unsurprisingly, doesn't have an extradition treaty with its former colonial master. And so it's pretty much just business as usual for both of them. Balta thumbs his nose at prosecutors who claims he's part of one plot to bring over 450 kilos into the Netherlands, calling it almost a joke. Almost. The following year, Brunswick even racks up a secret trafficking conviction from France because of his activities smuggling stuff in and out of French Guiana. In 2002, Brunswick builds a football stadium for his team, Intermoengo, which he names naturally after himself, and makes himself naturally the team's player manager. Naturally. In 2005, he becomes a member of Suriname's national assembly, which is its parliament. But despite having enough kids to fill the full NFL roster, it's not any of Brunswick's kids, but one of Daisy Balturse's three, Dino, who starts making headlines for his involvement in international criminal conspiracy. As early as 1994, aged just 19, Dino had faced allegations of drug smuggling. And in 2002, Surinamese prosecutors charged Dino with stealing 80 guns from the state intelligence service. He's arrested the following June, trying to enter the Dutch island of Kurichao on a fake passport. But he's acquitted of the weapons charges just a few months later for an apparent lack of evidence. I don't.

A (41:05)

Know. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift. Well, mint mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now, you call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch limited time 50 off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for 3 months, $90 for 6 months or 100 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy see.

B (41:34)

Terms. In 2005, however, justice finally catches up with dino when he's convicted of trading in drugs, weapons and luxury cars. And a surinamese court. Wow. Sentences him to eight years in prison. But it lets him out three years later for good behavior. In 2007, Daisy Bouteus having been hounded by chan san toki, the sheriff accepts, quote, political responsibility for the 1982 December murders. But he denies any direct involvement. Around the same time, and perhaps not coincidentally, he begins to ponder a run for office to become surinamese president via the ballot box. His challenger, chan santoki, the sheriff, who by this point is the country's minister of.

A (42:21)

Justice. How did you hear, like, this is a great story. How did you hear about.

B (42:25)

This? I cannot remember. I think I was looking at like old DEA busts. I came across the 2013 thing as one does. Like it spills out into a bunch of stories by the BBC. New york times has done a bunch on this, but it's like, it is mad, man. It's like completely bonkers. The surinamese people at this point, right, they've got a choice between a squeaky clean former cop and pursuer of justice for those killed during the hunter years or the guy who led those murders, turned the nation into a battlefield. Then one of south america's most successful cocaine transshipment points. Of course they go with baltus, who sweeps to power in 2010 by forming a coalition with, yes, you guessed it, Ronnie brunswick, his old beer bellied drug smuggling frenemy bautes wears a che guevara shirt on the campaign trail and he dances and sings to sam cooke's a change is gonna come. Can you feel the election fever? Dale, hit.

A (43:19)

It. No, Dale, don't hit it. We'll get ding for like copyright stuff. So if you're.

B (43:22)

Listening. I wondered about.

A (43:23)

That. Play that. Play that song on a different phone or device that you have right now for a couple seconds and we'll get right back. I'm pretty sure we'll get ding for it. I don't think you can do that.

B (43:34)

Right? Is it not like fair use if you do a few seconds or something like that? I don't.

A (43:37)

Know. I don't know.

B (43:38)

Man. Or I'm not going to look up fair use and we just won't play it. Yeah, that's safer anyway. Yeah, listen to the song and then tell me if you're not suddenly in the mood for some large scale corruption, writes the New York Times. Quote Rather than playing down his past, Mr. Balteurst has defiantly celebrated it since his election last July by Parliament, he has designated Feb. 25, when he and other soldiers carried out a coup in 1980 as a national holiday, calling it the day of Liberation and renewal. And while Mr. Balter said he will not interfere in the murder case against him, here he named one of his co defendants in the trial as ambassador to France, showing little deference to the legal cloud hanging over them. Desi also named Dino, fresh from prison, his anti terrazar which I mean I found one reference to terror and it was 20 it was in 2006 and it was an article about how an Al Qaeda guy with Guyanese citizenship had lived in Suriname for a short time. But we are not talking Kandahar here. It seems like a pretty quiet role and pretty ironic given Dino was caught stealing a massive cache of firearms just a few years previously. It seems like Desi Bouteurs. It seems who could know for sure like Desi Bouteurs is trying to cement his position by putting cronies and family in charge of the exact state functions one might need to keep funneling drugs through the country. In 2011, the US State Department reports that cocaine discovered in sea cargo from Suriname has been seized in the Netherlands but also the UK and Pakistan despite preventing President Bautus saying he's against trafficking. Remember Brian Blue, the guy who's wanted over a Brazilian trafficking conviction? After Bowters election victory, the Surinamese police allegedly lose interest in hunting him down, says a former head of the country's intelligence unit. Quote Between 2010 and 2020, Blue was not on the radar of the intelligence department of the police. In 2012, Dutch cops tapped the phone of Blue's old pal Piet Wortel and catch him mentioning one of Blue's nicknames, Beppi, in relation to a to a 400 kilo coke shipment via plane, again via the logging village of Tibiti. Here is Insight Crime who wrote about blue in 2024. QUOTE Wartle also said he asked, quote, Bouter and quote, Dino for help with the shipment. Police believed water was referring to Desi Bouters, who had been convicted of cocaine trafficking in absentia in the Netherlands in 1999, and his son. Dino Baute's intervention in the 2012 incident saved the stranded cocaine, after which the LEND president received half of the load, Wortel said in the recorded conversation. Police did not receive any reports about stranded drug planes in Tabiti in that period, according to a KPS spokesperson. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to connect dots here, guys. Daisy Bouteurs is president. His son is a government insider in control of armed cops. They're still in touch with Brian Blue, who's still in touch with the Colombians and Venezuelans and Brazilians and Guyana's getting cocaine through the Amazon rainforest. And they're all working with Piet Wartel and likely a ton of other European cartel guys at this point to pull the product off ships and planes in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and sometimes alongside Latin American narcos in Miami. And now we're up to 2013 and the wild tale from today's Cold Open in Dino Bautus's Paramara boat office. And to let you guys be on the curtain a bit, I've got a bit of a confession to make because our schedules are so nuts. So ahead of Christmas, I recorded the Cold Open before I wrote the rest of the script. And I think I made a bit of a boo boo because in the court documents, Dino Bouters, his accomplice in this hare brained scheme is nicknamed Blue. But actually going through them a second time, I don't think he's actually Brian Blue. His name is actually Edmund Muntzlag. He's called Dino's right hand man in the Dutch press. And what I think has happened is that US officials think he is Brian Blue too, and have leaned into it for a big win. But to be clear, I'm pretty sure that Brian Blue isn't a part of this and Patreons can find out why in the bonus show. Does that make.

A (47:55)

Sense? Not, not really. But honestly, I'm just happy you didn't like sneak a Bonnie Blue joke in there.

B (48:00)

Somewhere. Oh, God, no. I couldn't do that a thousand times. So Dino and Munslag have been tapped up by these two alleged Mexican cartel guys just to catch you guys up on this, who are actually, because of course they are undercover DEA assets. Dino has pulled out his bazooka, which is not a euphemism, he really has done that and he's feeling a bit of a g. Getting these guys to agree on fake surinamese passports and a healthy chunk of the profits from a 450 kilo cocaine shipment to leave paramaribo's international airport. Dino and muntzlag tell the mexicans they'll do a test shipment of 10 kilos to show that the system works. By the way, in case you're confused there, he's not like, I'm going to ship 10 kilos, then I'm just going to put 450 on a flight. He's going to do them 20 kilos at a time, maximum. Which kind of makes sense. Anyway, after the February 2013 meeting, the DEA decides why not screw it, let's just tag a bunch of terror charges onto the drug bus. Word of advice to budding narcos. If a pair of mexicans speaking english asks you to provide helicopters or guns to terror groups fighting the US and then they keep saying loudly while tapping a microphone, just so you know, we want these things to blow up Americans. Yeah, it is. It's probably a bust. But dino is like the king of the nepo babies. He's not the brightest tool in the shed. So when one of the mexicans tells him they want to pay him in exchange for access to suriname for his friends in hezbollah, the lebanese shia militant group, and says, quote, I'm not talking, you know, just send in 10 people, Dino responds right away, quote, done deal. The the asset then tells Dino, while probably getting a hard on, quote, we have to get them out of lebanon. Dino tells him he thinks they can get the terrorists into suriname via Trinidad, but he wants to meet the terrorists first and suggests greece. Why not? It's a nice place to visit in july. The asset tells dino they need arms as well as safe haven, adding, quote, like that thing you showed me in your office, they need heavier stuff. Just tell me what you want, replies dino. Dino and Muntzlag ship the 10 kilos later that month via suriname, then into trinidad and all the way to new York city via Miami. In theory. He then tells the asset he wants payment via cash transported and private jets into Paramaribo. If we hire a private jet that comes in normally, he says, at the airport, we take the cash out. See, that's no problem. Dino and muntzlag then try to make the initial 10 kilo shipment, which they've accepted 60 grand to make, which of course gets intercepted in Trinidad. Incredibly, dino still doesn't connect the dots that he's being set up. And on July 31, 2013, he flies to Greece and meets three guys. A drug connection, a Hezbollah boss and a lower down Hezbollah militant. All three of them are DEA plants. Dino claims to know Hezbollah are and what they're up to. I'm not sure he's done a lot of research here. The supposed boss tells Dino, quote, I'm sure you read about the wars that we are fighting with the Americans. And from what I heard from also, there is not much love between you and the Americans. Dino tells him, quote, we have a problem with the Dutch and Americans. And the Hezbollah boss shoots back at him, quote, concerning sending our guys to your place. You agreed to help receive some of our guys to be trained. Keep there for later, later operations. Do you agree on it? I mean, Jesus Christ, Dino. Yes, I agree. He says the situation in Suriname is good to do that because we are a multicultural country. Muslims, we got a lot of Muslims. Just over 10% of Surinamese are Muslims, by the way. Anyway, Dino and his alleged Hezbollah friend agree on a quote, first batch of 30 to 60 militants for which they agree Dino will be paid $2 million. And then they discuss getting all kinds of high grade weaponry from surface to air missiles to RPGs, bombs. Dino says he's happy to provide Hezbollah a, quote, fort and a place in which they can launch attacks on the U.S. we need tough guys, he says. I mean, now I'm starting to wonder if he's actually been radicalized or if he's just mentally ill. And if to play as if to place the cherry on top of this insane cake. The supposed Hezbollah boss tells Dino, quote, we want to fuck these Americans, my friend. You'll fuck the Dutch and we'll fuck the Americans. Dino just doesn't skip a beat. And the Americans, he tells the guy, I'm totally behind you. Lapel mic drop, insane bust secured, DEA promotion, the works. What a.

A (52:42)

Bust. Yeah, I mean, Jesus Christ, this guy's a.

B (52:45)

Dumbass. He's such an idiot. The following month, Dino travels to Panama to meet the Mexicans who started this whole thing who aren't actually cartel. Do I even need to say at this point he's there to hand them their full Surinamese passports and then tell them to head to Trinidad to meet his friend Muntzlag and close the cash for cocaine, for guns, for terrorist deal. But of course none of it happens. The assets arrest Dino right there and then in Panama while another DEA tame swoops on Muntzlag in Trinidad. The pair plead guilty. In August 2014, Dino is sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, which actually is pretty a pretty tiny sentence for being caught trying to turn your country into a Hezbollah military compound. Yeah. But anyway, that's not even the end of this insane story. Join the Patreon to find out what happens next and the fate of Daisy Bouturst, Ronnie Brunswick, Brian Blue, Not Bonnie Blue, Chan Santoki, and Suriname. Although I guess if we spoke about the story of Bonnie Blue, we.

A (53:43)

Will get so much.

B (53:45)

Better. Way more subscribers.

A (53:46)

Here. We're so much.

B (53:47)

Better. Until then, Happy New Year and see you in 2026. Maybe I'll get Dale to play us out some Charlton fans singing Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank's name. Let's see if he's done it. In three, two.