← The Underworld Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript205 lines
- [00:01]
Danny Gold
Reggie, I just sold my car online. Let's go, Grandpa. Wait, you did?
- [00:06]
Sean Williams
Yep.
- [00:06]
Danny Gold
On Carvana. Just put in the license plate, answered a few questions, got an offer in minutes. Easier than setting up that new digital picture frame.
- [00:14]
Sean Williams
You don't say.
- [00:15]
Danny Gold
Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow. Talk about fast. Wow. Way to go. So, about that picture frame. Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested.
- [00:25]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. This episode is brought to you by the Farmer's Dog, a service that delivers gently cooked, freshly made pet food straight to your door. Each balanced recipe is developed by board certified nutritionists and clinically proven to support healthy aging. The Farmer's Dog, guided by science, driven by love. New customer. Get 50% off your first box at the farmersdog.com Spotify. Plus you get free shipping.
- [01:21]
Danny Gold
Welcome back, everyone, to the Underworld podcast, where we focus on international organized crime and all the fun stuff that goes with it. Bringing you a new episode every week, even on the holidays in between Christmas and New Year's. Like a. Like a sick compulsion that we have to just keep putting out content. You know, there's something wrong with us.
- [01:43]
Sean Williams
We really enjoy it. Yeah, yeah.
- [01:46]
Danny Gold
Thrilled to. To be here, but Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy New Year's. What? Is there anything else? Do people still do?
- [01:55]
Sean Williams
No, I don't know. I. I have no idea. Happy Mithras Day. I don't know. Kwanzaa?
- [02:05]
Danny Gold
No.
- [02:05]
Sean Williams
All right, cool. Yes.
- [02:06]
Danny Gold
That was going well already. All right, I'm Danny Gold. I'm joined by Sean Williams. We are two journalists that have covered these acts, these sorts of stories all over the world, and. And now we bring them to. I guess if you're tuning in, this is your first episode. Like, don't, like, turn it off, you know? Yeah, don't listen. Go back. Go to one of the real episodes. Do not listen to the holiday episode. Like, I'm begging you, do not judge this podcast based off of this episode. Go back and listen. Leaving to last week before.
- [02:33]
Sean Williams
This is for the ultras. This is for that.
- [02:35]
Danny Gold
This is cool. For the people with nothing else to do who just, like, you know, need this. Today we are going to be doing a stash house, which is where we go through some of the. The biggest crime stories of the last month or so. But, like, organized crime stories. Gangs mafia is not like, random murders of young women in, like, New England towns that, like, the sheriff messes up the DNA or whatever other podcasts are about. We wax poetic a bit we have some fun. It's kind of like our impression of like another of most other podcasts where they talk about like what they had for lunch or, or the fact that they almost had to go to the bathroom in their pants in a taxi. Things of things of that nature. So it's just, you know, our way of, of getting out content in this week where no one's paying attention. As always, bonus episodes which include extra segments, interviews and the occasional stash house like this@patreon.com podcast. Sign up on Spotify, sign up on iTunes, YouTube, all that. Underworld, pod.com for merch. Shirts, hats, hoodies. Look at you bobbing your head. Make sure that you get image of Sean just bobbing his head along to this right now.
- [03:39]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [03:40]
Danny Gold
And the underworld podcastmail.com if you're looking to advertise with us or just send us some feedback or tips. No cold open. Do you want to talk about your, your holiday plans at all?
- [03:52]
Sean Williams
I was just thinking about like how good this podcast could be if we talked about what we ate yesterday. If just how much easier I could make money if I had charisma. But I don't know what's going on. I'm going to talk about cricket and darts almost constantly for the next month. So it's best that we get this show out the way before I start boring everyone within a 10 mile radius. Yeah.
- [04:11]
Danny Gold
So, yeah, shout out to the question.
- [04:14]
Sean Williams
I just won on the darts. That was incredible. Yeah, that's all I got. That's all I got. I'm. I don't sleep. I change nappies occasionally. I get close to my pants as well over Christmas and that's about it.
- [04:27]
Danny Gold
All right, do you want to, you want to kick us off here with a story or should I, should I go?
- [04:31]
Sean Williams
I mean, I guess I'll start because I just wanted to kind of like look ahead to the new year because I've probably take this up about a billion times, but I'm actually moving to South America next year. Did you know that? Um, I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, I don't think I've mentioned it more than a thousand times, but I guess like we did that show on Venezuela and I did a couple of shows on Honduras recently. Given I'm going to be out there next year, I kind of want to like focus on a lot of this. So we could kind of, I don't know, we could take a look back and then I look forward point to the big stories of 2025. So we've got, I mean, you know, obviously Venezuela, but also the pardon of Honduras is narco President Juan Orlando Hernandez Joh in early December, which is pretty crazy. If you did listen to that recent two part on Honduras, which you should go back and do, it's really interesting. Goes from the bag snatcher to a narco matchmaker, which I didn't realize at the time, is pretty good. That's a pretty good lyric. Juan Matabe Theros and the history of coups and corporations that led to the rise of the Kachiros, which are these like crazy redneck rural cattle farmers who become the country's biggest criminal gang. They're kind of like the guys from, from Ozark, you know, the kind of like redneck baddies in Ozark who are really, really cool. You will know if you listen to that show how closely Honduran politics has been in bed with cartels just going back, like, pretty much forever in the country's history. Hernandez, by the way, if you didn't know already, is convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison in March 2024 for weapons and drug smuggling. His brother Tony, arrested in Miami in 2018, convicted the following year of drug trafficking. Plus, he was using the cash to buy off Honduran politicians and fund his brother's political party. And that bunch of cash includes a million bucks that come directly from El Chapo Usman in return for information about U.S. raids on drug planes in and out of Honduras, which is. That's like pretty up and down corrupt. So if you're da top brass right now, you've probably got steam coming out your ears. And I guess it's like sort of underestimated, I think, just because everyone's focused on the news of him getting out. But, like, just how deeply involved in the drug trade Joh was, and I guess probably still is. I mean, you don't just sort of like, give up on that. He'd also led a coup himself, let witch hunts of oppositions. He stole a vote. So he's not a cool guy, but he's been accepted by kind of regional allies and administrations up north. And then Trump has tied it directly to a Honduran presidential election that's being recounted as we record this. So it's going to be out of date as you listen into this show. But yeah, there's like kind of loads of unrest over US interference, drugs. It's going to be like a real big story. And then what does he do?
- [07:21]
Danny Gold
What do you do? If. If you are the former president of a country, you Go sent to prison for a long time, then you get pardoned. Does he go to like the south of France and hang out like former dictators used to do or is he going back to the country to like get involved in stuff? Like what's, what's his plan? Miami.
- [07:37]
Sean Williams
Miami. Yeah, Miami. It's probably Miami. Cancun. I don't know. But like all of our plans, it's. Hopefully cancel next year. I don't know. I'll go anywhere, man. Take me, take me literally anywhere. But he. I, I saw, I saw a news story the other day that was. There was one of the Honduran prosecutors is trying to form a case against him when he gets back. But isn't that kind of double trouble? Like double jeopardy? I don't know.
- [08:02]
Danny Gold
I don't know if that exists in, in Honduras.
- [08:06]
Sean Williams
Yeah. Gepardio Dobly. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. My, my Spanish is.
- [08:12]
Danny Gold
You're ready for South America, dude?
- [08:14]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I'm there, man. I've had two hours of lessons.
- [08:16]
Danny Gold
Just keep throwing things like that EO on the end of like words if you don't know them in English, they love that. Yeah.
- [08:22]
Sean Williams
I mean just reading half of these sentences that will, that will work. But yeah, like it's really interesting because you don't get yourself out of the game, right. And you don't just disappear. And his pals are running for presidency. So I don't really know what happens next. I mean, we've got a show coming out that you guys maybe will have listened to. Will have. Are about to listen to about Suriname. About a guy who just keeps failing up over about 50 years and he came in and out of politics. So I guess in that part of the world I think you can get a 45 year sentence and still do pretty well. But yeah, I mean looking ahead like this, the stuff on Venezuela is nuts. Obviously it keeps going up and up. But I think. I don't know, man. Like, it's like the thing to look out for here, right, is that the US administration is looking to form alliances or like install leaders across Latin America who share its values. So we all have an 80s throwback, don't we? And this doesn't get. It just doesn't get more 80s than what is going on right now. Right. And we're going to be getting used to narco trafficking being the vanguard for a bunch of like politics. Looking into 2026. I mean in Argentina you've got Milei and Chile, this new guy cast and they're both Pretty much the same guy, just with slightly different hair. And they're pally with the US and trying to rehabilitate the right wing hunters back in the Cold War. But in Chile's case particularly, and I'm hoping to like get out there and do some stuff on this, actually Cass won his election by calling out organized crime. Like that was the biggest thing in the election and in particular Venezuela's Treinder Agua. And in case you think I'm denying these guys exist because I get loads of people in my DM saying like, why do you love Venezuela? I've never been there. It might be nice, I think it probably sucks. But yeah, they do exist and in Santiago de Chile particularly they've been running stash houses, massive brothels, like loads of sex trafficking and politically motivated murders that I think I got into in the show about them like a year, year and a half ago as being at least helpful to Maduro if not ordered by him entirely. So yeah, I'm going to make a, I'm going to make a little prediction for 2026. I think you're going to hear a lot more noise about Colombia and I think you're going to hear a lot more about like cartels and coca production in the Andes in Colombia, because A, it hasn't got a grip on it ever, despite like, I think $30 billion from the US flying in in the late 90s and early 2000s. I mean, why would it. No one's ever found a suitable crop substitution and Bogota doesn't want a bunch of, I don't know, campesino Marxist militaries running around its interior again. And B, Gustavo Petro, Colombia's president, big Trump critic, leftist. He used to be a Marxist gorilla himself. He's a poet and he's been massively outspoken about US actions in Venezuela and there are parliamentary elections there in March. So I think once Venezuela dies down, right, and I think it will, I think you'll see Marco Rubio and others pivot to Colombia trying to send in the troops and then the fentanyl stuff.
- [11:24]
Danny Gold
Colombia, I think he's going to lose that election.
- [11:26]
Sean Williams
Do you think he's going to lose? Well, I mean if he does, then that's you.
- [11:31]
Danny Gold
I don't think it's fair also to compare the guy in Chile to Malay. I think Malay is a lot more reasonable and Malay is a lot more focused on economics with like, you know.
- [11:38]
Sean Williams
Strategies and things that he's an economics like professor. Right.
- [11:42]
Danny Gold
So yeah, yeah, you might not agree with, with like his his like, I'm not a libertarian, but I think that he is a lot more knowledgeable than Cast is when it comes to this sort of stuff. You know, like his. And his focus was strongly economic. You know, like that's what he wanted to pull Argentina out of like the downfall that's been in for decades.
- [11:59]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [12:00]
Danny Gold
Called the corruption in like the previous administration. So I think he's. I don't know that much about Cass, but I don't like from what I've seen Malay is, is, is. I would assume he's a bit more serious and like where he stands and what he's doing. Even though he has the hair and.
- [12:14]
Sean Williams
The sideburns and the chainsaw. Yeah, yeah, the chainsaw. That's kind of a good prop. Yeah, yeah.
- [12:21]
Danny Gold
Chainsaw is a solid prop. Okay. You. Yeah, you knocked me out.
- [12:26]
Sean Williams
Yeah. I don't. With your, I mean, you know, I.
- [12:29]
Danny Gold
Just want to talk about Chinese gangsters, dude. Do you hear about this? No. You know.
- [12:35]
Sean Williams
No.
- [12:35]
Danny Gold
If you're like me, you have a lot of Italian fashion items on your, your holiday wish list. But I'm sorry to tell you that Chinese crime gangs, as they call them in the headlines are all over there. So even your Dolce and Gamana right now it's probably being like Teemu level quality because it's. There's this ongoing trial that's been going on in Italy for like or case for 15. I, I didn't know anything about this for 15 years. Massive trial. It's been delayed for so long because prosecutors suspect it might be being sabotaged. Which is the maternal question that, that comes up a lot when it comes to Italy. Is it gross incompetence and laziness or organized crime related sabotage? The case actually got underway in 2010.
- [13:18]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [13:18]
Danny Gold
I don't think it went to trial until 2018, but it got underway in, in 2010 after two Chinese men were hacked to death. And apparently these gangs, these Chinese criminal gangs, I don't know if it's triads or who's tied in, but they run the logistics of Europe's multibillion dollar fashion industry out of this one city in Italy. So you had with the trial documents disappearing interpreters quitting in the middle of the trial like abruptly. This is from the article. It was in Reuters, quote, when the latest court court interpreter failed to show up at a hearing at the end of September, a quick check revealed that she had returned to China and her transcripts were incomprehensible and unusable. The translator was the second to walk off the job. And no other Chinese interpreter in Tuscany has agreed to take over. So there is wide. There's widespread suspicion that shocker Chinese authorities are also involved and the sort of stuff that's ongoing. Quote, the violence prosecutors hope to curb has only intensified as the trial flounders. With the battle for control of coat hanger production and fast fashion freight spawning a string of bomb and arson attacks in Italy, France and Spain. There have been at least 16 attacks, including cases of the destruction of property since April 2024, according to a Reuters tally of official reports. So this town in Italy, which is Europe's apparently the hub for like textile manufacturing, 7,000 or so textile and garment companies, and get this, 4,400 are Chinese owned, which is crazy. It's a temu application of quality everywhere, man. Quote, the China truck investigation closed in 2018. So it closed in 2018. Didn't start then with prosecutors alleging that the 58 suspects had formed a criminal association equipped with very significant financial means, with support and resources abroad. Seven years on, not a single defendant or witness has been called to testify. Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind, described by investigators as boss of bosses, slipped back into China in 2018 after he was released from pre trial custody. And prosecutors doubt he will ever return to Italy, which of of course. So it's, it's crazy, like these Chinese gangs essentially. And I looked into it, I couldn't find whether it was triad affiliate, but I assume it is that control, like the Italian fashion industry from Italy, like not from China, which I assume that, you know, all the fast. Fun fact, fashion companies operate in China have organized crime times as well. This is in Italy, which is kind of nuts to me. Like crazy, I guess. I assume Prado is near Milan would be my estimate. I should probably have looked that up before this, this episode. But like we said, it's the holiday week, man, give us a break. And so I guess northern Italy and obviously the criminalizations.
- [15:51]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, it is Milan. Yeah.
- [15:52]
Danny Gold
Like you know, the Calabrians, the Sicilians, everything is. And the Rangetta, everything is in the south. But you would think they would have a big presence in the north where the money is. And you know, obviously they're getting a run for their money with the, with the Nigerians in the south and trafficking. But it looks like in the north too, they're being edged out by, by these Chinese organizations that are Chinese taking control. I wonder if they work in tandem. I wonder if the Italian organized crime groups are getting paid off. But it's kind of a fascinating story that I wish we had time to look more into, but you know, gotta, gotta get this out there.
- [16:26]
Sean Williams
I mean, if you. I'm just looking at the prices here. If you pay $20,000 for a handbag, I don't, I don't mind if you get pwned off by a Chinese organized criminal.
- [16:35]
Danny Gold
I don't think it's that. I think it's more the quicker ones, you know, that are doing that. I guess there was a plot point in, in, in Gamora in the early seasons. Those sort of like sweatshops essentially that were claiming to be Italian made, but they just have like, you know, Chinese factory workers in there.
- [16:52]
Sean Williams
Huh. Yeah, I mean it kind of moves on to something that I'm gonna look into next year. I mean it's going to be a show that I'm gonna do in the next few weeks, I think. A guy that I met in, in New York when I was there, what, last month. Um, he's like an ex intelligence guy. I'm going to do a story about like Hong Kong Triads and the, the history of China. Spy masters and Xi Jinping and a, like. And a current batch of scammers, illegal gambling dons, drug smugglers. And it's like focused on Asia and the Pacific, right. Where Beijing is like all over the place, doing all kinds of stuff led by crime. Same like politics, crime crossover. And like, I think you might remember that we did a show, I think it's going to be about a year ago, like about the Philippine mayor who's a scammer and a Chinese asset. And then I did a show when I was, when I was in what's it called, Saigon with Nathan and Lindsay about Thai, Burmese, Cambodian gangsters, like causing real life wars in Southeast Asia. A lot of that is like quarterbacked by Chinese organized criminals. And then. Yeah, so I'm gonna meet this guy, we're gonna talk about a particular island in the Pacific and a giant kind of. It's like a King's Romans casino. It's been going for years and years and it's become like a downtown of Chinese money laundering. It's a really weird place. I don't want to like tear it up too much. I want it to be a bit of a.
- [18:18]
Danny Gold
We should get into that.
- [18:20]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, we should just get into it, like make money.
- [18:23]
Danny Gold
Chinese money laundering seems like so massive. Like how.
- [18:26]
Sean Williams
Yeah, it's gigantic.
- [18:28]
Danny Gold
It's a growth industry.
- [18:30]
Sean Williams
I think it's, I mean it's like hundreds of billions if not a trillion dollars. I think it is someone that trillions.
- [18:35]
Danny Gold
Find more so than cartels.
- [18:38]
Sean Williams
Yeah, for sure.
- [18:39]
Danny Gold
Green Gang. Dude. Got to get on that Green Gang and broke into.
- [18:41]
Sean Williams
I was going to say all that final. The white whale of the Green gang and like the Opium Wars. I want to do a show on the Opium Wars.
- [18:49]
Danny Gold
Opium Wars, Yeah.
- [18:50]
Sean Williams
Disappear on my own ass for great stuff.
- [18:53]
Danny Gold
Okay.
- [18:53]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [18:54]
Danny Gold
Switching up, though. I got one. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. You know, one of the perks about having four kids that you know about is actually getting a direct line to the big man up north. And this year, he wants you to know the best gift that you can give someone is the gift of Mint Mobile's unlimited wireless for $15 a month. Now you don't even need to wrap it. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
- [19:17]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Of $45 for three minutes. Plan equivalent to 15 per month. Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes if network's busy, taxes and fees extra.
- [19:25]
See mint mobile.com this podcast is supported by the RealReal. Meet Christine. She loves shopping. And this is the sound of fashion overload. Too many fabulous things, not enough space. So Christine started selling with the RealReal.
- [19:40]
I've always loved collecting designer pieces, Gucci bags, Prada heels. But my style keeps evolving. Selling with the RealReal. Game changer. I earn more. And they do everything.
- [19:51]
Seriously, just drop off your items or schedule a pickup. We handle the photos, descriptions, pricing, even shipping. You just sit back and watch your items sell fast to our 38 million members.
- [20:02]
And I get peace of mind knowing I earn more selling with the RealReal than anywhere else.
- [20:07]
Exactly this. That's the sound of your closet working for you. The real real earn more, save time, sell fast. And right now, you can get an extra 100 site credit when you sell for the first time. Go to therealreal.com to get your extra hundred dollars. Therealreal.com that's therealreal.com Chapo's kids, man.
- [20:29]
Danny Gold
Snitching out. Yeah, you know, they finally. They finally took plea deals and went into detail on what happened with El Mayo's kidnapping and capturing Generation Man. Something that we were speculating on wildly for a while and apparently speculating wrongly if what he says is true, which I imagine it might be. So Joaquin Guzman Lopez walked into court in Chicago in December, I think December 2nd. Got that orange jumpsuit on, looking good. And when the judge asked him what he did for a living, he just said, drug trafficking. You know, didn't miss a beat. I think it got some laughs in the courtroom, which, you know, good for him for, for, for displaying that forthright honesty right there. And then he basically told them what happened in his 35 page plea agreement, that he orchestrated this, like, completely bonkers operation to snatch his father's longtime partner. And, you know, I think bff, I imagine they were, they were best friends.
- [21:21]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [21:22]
Danny Gold
Ismail El Mayo Zambada, who, you know, we've talked about in many episodes. Probably one of the greatest cartel mines of all time. Been under the radar for decades and decades. Never been caught. Essentially running the Sinaloa cartel next to Chapo, but kind of maybe higher up than he was, at least, maybe more successful because he didn't have to get arrested and break out of prison like three or four times. And it's like a kind of movie thing, you know. He called El Mayo to have a meeting with some local politicians on the outskirts of Kulia Khan, which is, you know, in Sinaloa, the capital city, their stronghold, kind of normal. Before the meeting, he has his guys kind of remove the glass and the windows, these floor to ceiling windows. Mayo shows up. I don't know if he was suspecting anything. It's weird that he wasn't. Our men came in through the window, grabbed him, threw a bag over his head, zip tied him, hauled him onto a plane. They give him sedatives during the flight. So we, you know, keep him kind of docile, even though he's like 75 years old and I think suffering from a whole bunch of ailments. So probably didn't need to. To drug him, to keep him, keep him, you know, under wraps. And plane lands in New Mexico in an airport near the Texas border. Boom. They're both in U.S. custody. One of the politicians Mayo thought he was meeting with was killed, I think, or later found dead within the same week. So that kind of tells you everything you need to know about how it happened. And Guzman obviously set this up way ahead of time, probably, you know, I assume he was in cooperation with US Authorities. It wasn't just the show. Good Faith, though. Obviously that's a big part of it. He handed them like, the biggest fish in the cartel. Well, maybe Mencho is bigger at this point, but just handed it to him on a silver platter, betrayed his dad's longtime partner. But you know how it goes in that world. That's what they do to each other. And it worked. You know, his lawyer said his plea deal lets his client avoid an automatic life sentence. And they're saying the mandatory minimum is 10 years, which if he gets 10 years, if he gets anything less than 30 years, insane. And that's if he keeps cooperating and they consider reducing a sentence even further, which is insane. So the. The moral of the story is just always snitch, like, snitch. No matter how high up you are, there's somebody higher, give them up. Because he's already admitting to moving, like tens of thousands of kilograms, kilos of drugs. You know, fence, heroin, coke, meth. Yeah, everything. 90 keys of marijuana, which, I mean, who cares? 90,000 keys of marijuana, which, who cares? But like 36 offense, whatever. Most of it coming through the underground tunnels. He forfeiting 80 million as part of the deal. He's basically giving, like, giving long, like, long, intricate details of how Chapitos operate and all that, which is crazy because I think two of his brothers are still out there, right? And obviously the fallout.
- [24:07]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [24:08]
Danny Gold
The fallout from the arrest has led to, like, a brutal civil war in Caloa between Los Chapitos, his brothers, and. And Mayo's kids and loyalists and everything. I think there's been something like close to 600 murders in three or four months. And again, he's not the first one to flip. Ovidio, his brother pled guilty in July to similar charges after he was caught. So two of the four cooperating with the feds, I don't know exactly how many are, Are still there, but essentially US prosecutors are dismantling the Sinaloa cartel leadership left, left and right. El Chapo is still in a super ax prison. He's serving life. Two of the kids are. Are snitching. The other two brothers are still at large. I think one is relatively quiet and one is still involved.
- [24:54]
Sean Williams
But I guess that's the end of the cocaine industry then, right?
- [24:58]
Danny Gold
Yeah, yeah, Completely. Completely finished.
- [25:03]
Sean Williams
Yeah. That's like such interesting stuff. We gotta do a few shows on that. I also want to do some stuff on, like, Brazil, right, Because there's so much heat on a lot of these gangsters all over the rest of Latin America. And not a lot is coming down on Brazil. So there's the. What, there's the pcc, the first Capital Command in Sao Paulo.
- [25:22]
Danny Gold
We did stories on that. We did a sort of explainer on them. You know, like, the history and everything.
- [25:27]
Sean Williams
The Red Command, you've also done stuff on them. Not a lot of, like, heat going on. These guys, I mean, they're just like, operating pretty freely in the Amazon as well, running drugs through all the countries north of Brazil. Again, like Suriname Is a big place for that. It's becoming even bigger at the moment. And then there's also a group called the. The crime syndicate of Rio Grande. Do not. Do not. Oh, I don't know how to do the Portuguese, but like, that is in the northeastern country. But there's also. And I'm really going to look into this next year when I'm down there, like in Rio Grande do Sul, which is the one right down the bottom that borders Uruguay. Um, there's gangs forming between Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, which is really, really interesting. There was a, like, great story at El Pace recently about. About bitcoin mining out in, like, the Parana river in Paraguay. And they're stealing everyone's electricity. But there's no way, I swear, there's no way they're doing that without, like, cartel involvement. There's got to be someone involved in that that's running drugs, make money bitcoin. So I want to look into that. Sorry.
- [26:33]
Danny Gold
Can you still make money bitcoin mining?
- [26:35]
Sean Williams
Apparently so. You just gotta find a cheap place where you can just like tap into the local energy. I think that's why they're doing it in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay. They've like nicked a bunch of these villages, power. And so everyone's just living in shanties with no light.
- [26:50]
Danny Gold
All the big companies that were set up to do bitcoin mining, like in the US Just got bought to, I think, like AI companies that need the energy, you know. So they just turned off the bitcoin mining, I think. I haven't looked into that too much. I assume they turn off the bit because they can't. You do both. So I assume they turn off the, like, the core scientific decor weave thing, which is interesting.
- [27:08]
Sean Williams
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to look into that. I want to track down your buddy Sebastian Marcet as well. I mean, he's on the run somewhere. He might have gone too far.
- [27:16]
Danny Gold
I feel like you could hang out with him.
- [27:19]
Sean Williams
Yeah. At a game. Imagine that. Or play a match. Play a match with a match.
- [27:24]
Danny Gold
That's like the old footage of. Of Boris. Not Boris, Semian Simeon, where he's playing chess on the roof with. With the BBC reporter.
- [27:36]
Sean Williams
Yeah. You guys playing badass. Do you think we shoot ass?
- [27:40]
Danny Gold
Do you think you're better than him?
- [27:44]
Sean Williams
I. I reckon I was better than him, but I think he's better than me. Now.
- [27:48]
Danny Gold
You guys could do like.
- [27:50]
Sean Williams
Because he was playing a second division.
- [27:51]
Danny Gold
Football, to be fair, back and forth, you know.
- [27:54]
Sean Williams
Yeah, we could do little. Keepy ups. We can make it. That'd be the most viral thing that, that we ever do is me doing keeping ups in Montevideo with Sebastian Marset.
- [28:03]
Danny Gold
How hard could it be? Just show up and start asking questions. Everyone loves an English guy.
- [28:07]
Sean Williams
Just.
- [28:07]
Danny Gold
Just be as blatant as possible.
- [28:08]
Sean Williams
Yeah, they love. They love us in Argentina. We're big buddies.
- [28:12]
Danny Gold
He's not Argentina. Is he Argentinian or is he.
- [28:14]
Sean Williams
No, no, he's Uruguayan. I just kind of lumped him in. I mean, we must have pissed them off as well, right? At some point.
- [28:19]
Danny Gold
Yeah, I'm sure.
- [28:19]
Sean Williams
Pissed everyone off. Oh, I have another story actually I want to do is I want to do a thing about sport quickly because there. Sport just like, caught my eye.
- [28:27]
Danny Gold
All right, let me do an interesting one first then. Let me do an interesting one first. That you could go.
- [28:30]
Sean Williams
All right, all right, all right, all right. Go on. All right.
- [28:32]
Danny Gold
So our buddy Ryan Wedding, the Canadian snowboarder. Olympian. Turned a drug cartel in Presario. Although Olympian. We talked about this. He got like 23rd place. Like, come on, man. You know, I guess, participation trophy, right?
- [28:46]
Sean Williams
You can just fall down the hill and get that, right?
- [28:49]
Danny Gold
He's in the news again. Lots of reckless exaggerations with this one. Owen Grill actually had a substack about how the guy's not exactly El Chapo, even though he's being compared to that because, you know, headlines, headlines work. We would probably do that in the headline to get attention. So fair play to people that are doing that. But yeah, he just got, I think another massive indictment. He did some gnarly things that were just revealed in. In this indictment, including the execution style murder of a federal witness in Columbia, though I guess we knew that that happened. But, like, he was just indicted for it and his lawyer got dinged up, which is hilarious. Watching Too much Better Call Saul. So here's what went down January 20, 2025. He had to take care of the witness. And by take care, I mean have murdered. And he put a bounty on the guy's head. The guy was in Medellin, which is, you know, not the smartest place to be if you are testifying in a federal drug cartel case. You don't want to be in the city. That even though it's a lot calmer than it was, that's known for that. Like go to. Go to Switzerland. I don't know, Don't. Don't hang out in Colombia. So the details are sort of like out of. Out of a movie, right? Him and his crew, they use a Canadian website Called the Dirty News. And I'm pretty sure news is spelled with a Z at the end, which is like a, you know, one of these crime blogs which law enforcement has since seized to post photographs of the witness and his wife so they could be identified and located. Which is pretty, pretty wild, you know? Yeah, dude, on Twitter, it's all run right. It's like all around regular. I just posted on. On social media, it'll just pop up in between the Nazi post. So think about this, though. They weaponize like a gossip website, a crime gossip website, to get this idea on where this guy is and what's happening. And then there's surveillance footage that they have for the trial from the Colombian police, which shows, like, how the hit goes down. You got a guy on a bike who shows up, kind of following the guy. He's a scout. Then another guy shows up. Tall, thin white guy in blue jeans, dark hoodie, baseball cap, white shoes. Gets out of the backseat of a car, walks to an open window behind where the victim is sitting, fires five shots into the back of the guy's head with a silence handgun, kills him, hops on a different motorcycle, speeds off. And then another guy shows up who had been doing recon work. He comes back and takes photos of the crime scene to sort of prove that wedding apparently paid 500k for this. So.
- [31:11]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [31:12]
Danny Gold
So 18 other people are charged in the indictment, which is among them his lawyer, who apparently advised him to kill the witness, which is.
- [31:23]
Sean Williams
I mean, you know, maybe it's the best advice.
- [31:26]
Danny Gold
I think client attorney privilege goes out the window in that situation. They also charged the guy who co founded and operated the. The Dirty News website, who took payment from Wedding for. For not posting about him and instead posted that photo of the victim, which, you know, if you're running a crime blog, you can't get paid off to not. Although we would, you know.
- [31:46]
Sean Williams
No, no, no. It's just in that way, you were like, don't.
- [31:49]
Danny Gold
Don't do an episode on us. How much? What are we doing? I don't think we'd encourage murder, but, like, you know, we're for sale.
- [31:58]
Sean Williams
Well, wait. Okay. Okay. Yeah, we should probably end that bit there. Yeah.
- [32:03]
Danny Gold
And then apparently, then diamond says he's responsible for 60 metric tons of cocaine annually from Colombia through Mexico into the US And Canada. Billion dollars a year in profit. Caspel was talking about him, calling it one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world. He's now on the top 10 most wanted list. $15 million reward for his capture from the original 10 million. And they believe he's hiding in Mexico under protection from the Sinalo cartel, which we knew already. State department's offering up 2 million each for information leading to the arrest of the three assassins whose faces are on the surveillance footage.
- [32:41]
Sean Williams
There were raids in Aspen for this guy. Has anyone looked in up any mountains?
- [32:45]
Danny Gold
I mean, those are the hitmen who I doubt are in America. Bunch people bagged up in these November raids. So total people arrested now, I think or indicted in his organization is 35.
- [32:58]
Sean Williams
Holy shit. Yeah. Now we should do another show about that. Yeah.
- [33:02]
Danny Gold
I don't know if there's enough, but now you can do your cricket or darts, corruption stuff, whatever it is.
- [33:06]
Sean Williams
Oh, you're so close. You're so close. Have you heard of kabaddi Billiards of what? Say it again. Kabaddi.
- [33:13]
Danny Gold
Kababi.
- [33:13]
Sean Williams
It's like kabaddi. It's like.
- [33:16]
Danny Gold
Of course not, dude.
- [33:18]
Sean Williams
It's this South Asian game that's like a kind of. I guess it's like a mix between tag wrestling and then you have to say kabaddi over and over again while you're doing it. So you have to hold your.
- [33:30]
Danny Gold
And it sounds awesome. I would gamble on this.
- [33:34]
Sean Williams
So good. It look. It kind of looks like dodgeball in a bit, but there's. I'm gonna. I just want to pitch this as a story, but there's a. Last week, one of the top players got murdered in the city of Mahali, which is in Punjab. And. Yeah, it's like spilled out into this whole world of like match fixing and organized crime and like criminal syndicates, like Sikh criminal syndicates getting involved in kabaddi. It's like big business out there. I mean, everything's.
- [33:58]
Danny Gold
This is. This is up your alley, dude.
- [34:01]
Sean Williams
Yeah, this is. This is right in the wheelhouse. You know, there's these teams playing in like 15, 000 seat of stadiums now. It's like a pro league. And every time there's something like that in India, it tends to get. Well, yeah, it's just fixing all over the place. And I'm just wondering whether there's like a. There's an angle that we were talking about the other day about like Sikh nationalists and like the underworld in that part of the. In that part of the country. Because, I mean, we've done stuff about Goldie Bra, right?
- [34:29]
Danny Gold
Yeah, yeah, I talked about him. One of those episodes that guys. Great character. I just talked. We just talked about in one episode. What did I just do where we talked about Goldie Bra.
- [34:37]
Sean Williams
Or maybe we were speaking about. Oh, when you were talking about the Iranian. The Iranians and then. And then like the Indian government using gangsters to like, offer up.
- [34:47]
Danny Gold
Yeah, but even before that, I was talking about Goldie Brow for some reason. But he's in the Moose Wall episode. We talk about him and. Oh, he killed someone else recently. And it was in a recent stash house, I think in a bonus episode.
- [34:59]
Sean Williams
Yeah, this. This stuff is like super interesting with the kabaddi because so initially this shooting, which is in broad daylight in the city of Mahali, which is like this plan city next to Chandigarh. Anyway, it turns out that a lot of these people are associates of like, Goldie Bra and they've been involved, allegedly involved in like, the Musiwala killing and other stuff like that goes with it. But now the police aren't sure whether it's to do with that, whether it's just general gangland control of this sport that's coming up in the world. So I think it's like a really, really interesting case, actually. And I'm sure there'll be some shady Russian there doing something as they are want to do. But yeah, I think that's one that I would actually like to go and do because it's great. You should.
- [35:46]
Danny Gold
I think a fun thing to do if you were a bunch of homies in this region of India where they play kadati is to like, organize like a tailgate thing and be like, kebab and kadati or kadati and just like get a bunch of the bros and just eat kebabs and watch kidati. Like, that sounds awesome to me. I bet it'd be.
- [36:02]
Sean Williams
I mean, I bet it's. These teams have great names as well. There's like the. What's it? The Dabang Delhi Gujarat Giants. The Jaipur Pink Panthers. I like that.
- [36:11]
Danny Gold
That's kind of cool.
- [36:12]
Sean Williams
Telugu Titans.
- [36:13]
Danny Gold
Are there jerseys?
- [36:15]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, they have like. I don't know, I guess they just look like darts shirts. They just. It's pretty cool, man. I'm going to start watching it. I'm going to get into it. This time next month, we're going to be like, talking about pro kabaddi league bets.
- [36:30]
Danny Gold
I mean, I'll. I'm already wasting. Oh, this will air afterwards. But, you know, I put a substantial amount of money down on Anthony Joshua just to win, which is like, not even paying off.
- [36:41]
Sean Williams
He's gonna win 6 to 1.
- [36:44]
Danny Gold
It's the most insane thing ever. He, like, there are guys in my old gym who could beat Jake Paul. He is not a legitimate. I mean, he's a good, great, good amateur fighter. I think maybe he could be ranked like in the top like 300 in. In pros for a cruiserweight, but like that's like 300, you know. And he's fighting a guy who was fighting Tyson Fury two years ago, Usyk three or four years ago. Like, he's not fighting a guy who's out if this fight does not end. And he's also got 30 pounds on him if this fight doesn't end in the first three rounds. And I still, I still. There's a part of me that's like, it's too. It's too insane. It's too insane that I wanted to make that bet because it pays one to one on a knockout on the first two rounds.
- [37:27]
Sean Williams
I mean, that has to happen. That has to happen.
- [37:29]
Danny Gold
It doesn't happen in the first three rounds. It is the most rigged, corrupt thing that's ever existed.
- [37:35]
Sean Williams
I mean, Joshua, Joshua did like, Joshua like knock people out in the first round for about two or three years of his career at the beginning. And they were pro fighters.
- [37:44]
Danny Gold
So he's heavyweight. He was a heavyweight, yeah. He could seriously give him brain damage. The fact that's happening and they're allowing it to happen that sanctioned is insane. He could give him like any boxing. Anyone getting hit by Anthony Joshua got a brain damage. Jake Paul is not even if he's juiced to the gills, dude, like, it is insane to think he would last more than six minutes with a professional heavyweight, let alone one who's probably top five ranked right now in the world. It is insane.
- [38:13]
Sean Williams
Yeah, I mean, I read this year. I read the fight. Old Norman Mailer's book about the rumble in the jungle. My God, man, boxing is gotten shit since then. It's so annoying. I know. I love it as well. I love it. I watch it all the time. But.
- [38:31]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Meet the computer you can talk to with copilot on Windows, working, creating and collaborating is as easy as talking. Got writer's block. Share your screen with Copilot Vision to help spark inspiration and use copilot voice to have a conversation and brainstorm ideas. Or maybe you need some tech help, but co pilot vision. Co pilot sees what you see. Let co pilot talk you through step by step guidance so you can master new apps, games and skills faster. Try now@windows.com copilot yeah.
- [39:00]
Sean Williams
All right.
- [39:00]
Danny Gold
Crime. I just like, I just want to talk about this. The gambling. Like it's such an insane thing to Happen for anyone who even like, I'm not a, like, super intense boxing fan, but to anyone who has any knowledge of the sport whatsoever, like, this is. The fact that this is happening is insane. Anyway, last but not least, I don't know if you have any more. Memphis, Tennessee. Never been really wanted to go with walking.
- [39:26]
Sean Williams
Memphis.
- [39:26]
Danny Gold
Great song. Makes me emotional. Barbecue there. Sounds fantastic. Also one of, if not the most murderous city in the US last few years, I think last year it had 300 murders for a population of 600,000. It has eclipsed St Louis, I think, in murder rate. I think it was number one.
- [39:42]
Sean Williams
Well done, Memphis.
- [39:43]
Danny Gold
Yeah. But there's a new task force. The last few months, you know, they're going. They're going a little Bukele style. Obviously it's America, so you can't go full bukele. They've arrested 400 gang members in the past two or three months, I think taken 637 illegal guns off the street. There's something like 4, 000 arrests in September through this task force just sweeping everything up. Murders have gone down 40%, robberies down 60, car theft, 70%. You know, America's Malmo. What can. What can.
- [40:15]
Sean Williams
What can you say how much it cost to get. Why don't you go down there? I would go nuts for an episode to show about this. Yeah, it'd be amazing. I mean, we're.
- [40:25]
Danny Gold
We're making okay money now, but not enough for me to like, spend it, to go down to spend a. You know, because a flight is America, dude. A flight is going to cost you. Like, me flying to Memphis is. Is like you flying or in the uk, you're flying to like, I don't know, Lafayette, Moscow. You know, it's gonna run you like 600 bucks. Then you got five nights of a. Of a. Of a Hampton Inn, you know, and food.
- [40:48]
Sean Williams
Okay, we can make this happen. So anyone who's gonna put Danny up on the way, and then we can just greyhound him all the way from New Drive down Memphis over, like, that would be so cool.
- [40:58]
Danny Gold
I'm not at that point in my life anymore. Oh, what was I saying? Yeah, all the classics are there. Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, various blood and Crypt factions, pretty crazy action. 15 murder suspects wrapped up in this. So major task force. It is like, incredible though, to. To think, like, there are a bunch of cities with. With murder problems like this. Why are there not task force just going this hard? Like, why does it take so long? Like, St. Louis I think has cleaned up a bit, but, like, this should be A thing that happens fairly common when you have such a high murder rate in the US and there are resources for this sort of thing. So we'll see what happens there. But yeah. Anything else on your end?
- [41:42]
Sean Williams
I mean like, do people want us to go to places? Because next year I'm going to be able to go.
- [41:46]
Danny Gold
Of course they do.
- [41:47]
Sean Williams
For like the price of a packet of cigarettes. So like, I don't know, do people want me to go to a Paraguay?
- [41:54]
Danny Gold
I would want to go too. But it only makes sense if you're doing it and you have someone else paying your expenses.
- [42:00]
Sean Williams
Yeah, that's not an app.
- [42:01]
Danny Gold
You know, like if you have a magazine, like I've done episodes that were like magazine so many places, but at this point it's like I'm not going to, like we don't have the resources to, to, to do that at this moment. But yeah, you should.
- [42:12]
Sean Williams
And I'm not down the patreon's flying.
- [42:15]
Danny Gold
Patreon.Com it is, it is doing a little bit better, but yeah. Anything else you want to, you want to add in this long, rambling episode?
- [42:26]
Sean Williams
I mean, nah, I. There's just stuff coming up next year, but we can, we can tease it out in the next few episodes. So I think right now we got it.
- [42:34]
Danny Gold
Let's kill a little bit more time. What are we at? We're at like 30, 30 something minutes.
- [42:40]
Sean Williams
What we got. There's a, there's a really, really cool story that I read recently and I'm gonna interview the guy who did it, who's a very young. I mean this takes, takes a bit of guts actually. The guy is like, I think he's Czech, but he's now basing himself out of Sierra Leone. And he's, he's doing a story about how Dutch criminals are like parking themselves up in Sierra Leone and getting involved in the diamond trade. Remember Sam Walker, the like clownish Liverpool guy who was, yeah. Getting into diamond mining but also, you know, allegedly making water wells for villages and stuff.
- [43:13]
Danny Gold
He left a lot of comments about you.
- [43:16]
Sean Williams
He. He remember. Yeah. Did I say this on the show, that he sent me a picture of sexuality?
- [43:21]
Danny Gold
Yeah, yeah, he sent a picture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was like a Google image. Wasn't like a Google.
- [43:26]
Sean Williams
Google image.
- [43:27]
Danny Gold
First picture.
- [43:27]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
Yeah.
- [43:28]
Danny Gold
I mean, come on.
- [43:29]
Sean Williams
Street view of my mom.
- [43:30]
Danny Gold
At least someone sent someone out there. Yeah.
- [43:33]
Sean Williams
Ah, man. Not very nice. But yeah. He was also the one who was trying to make a video in Malaga after those two Scottish gangsters got killed. And then they just came up to him on the street and beat him nearly to death with a golf club. So I don't know how he's doing at the moment.
- [43:48]
Danny Gold
Not very nice. He didn't.
- [43:49]
Sean Williams
He did throw in my ball.
- [43:50]
Danny Gold
I'm allowed to laugh at him getting beat up, you know.
- [43:53]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, fuck him. But Sierra Leone, man. Like, it's really interesting. There's a bunch of Dutch gangsters. One of them was. One of them came up in my research for Suinam. Like, he's a really big deal. I think he's called Lydekers. He's been doing a bunch of stuff with the, with the politicians in Sierra Leone, basically trying to turn it into like a Guinea Bissau, basically for.
- [44:14]
Danny Gold
Yeah, I mean, there's gangsters, a lot of shady Hezbollah stuff in that part of West Africa.
- [44:18]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [44:20]
Danny Gold
Is getting washed, you know, drugs coming through, diamond stuff, weapons, all that sort of stuff like that. That's a hub for sure.
- [44:29]
Sean Williams
Yeah, yeah. So. Well, I'll be speaking to him in around like two or three weeks, so we might put that on the main feed. It might be good enough. I think that's a super interesting thing, but other than that, I don't know, man. Just. I'll probably do something in Argentina when I get out there.
- [44:44]
Danny Gold
Yeah, I might. I might go to Portugal for a bit in, in February.
- [44:47]
Sean Williams
Okay.
- [44:47]
Danny Gold
We'll see how that goes.
- [44:49]
Sean Williams
Good. Go for a bit.
- [44:51]
Danny Gold
Yeah, I guess that's it, man.
- [44:55]
Sean Williams
Yeah.
- [44:55]
Danny Gold
What's today?
- [44:56]
Sean Williams
That's it.
- [44:56]
Danny Gold
December 19th.
- [44:58]
Sean Williams
I mean, what are you, fitness at.
- [44:59]
Danny Gold
The end of the year, listeners, like, you guys are right now at your job. It's December 18th. Okay. 6:00pm like, you guys are at your jobs this week, really giving it your all. Come on, you know. Yeah, like no one's putting in any effort this week.
- [45:13]
Sean Williams
I mean, look, if you made it 43 minutes of the way through, I don't care what you think of the show anyway. So.
- [45:18]
Danny Gold
Yeah, we're done here. We're. Are we done here? I feel like we're done.
- [45:21]
Sean Williams
Yeah. Happy New Year.
- [45:22]
Danny Gold
Thanks for listening, guys.
- [45:24]
Sean Williams
Cheers.
- [45:25]
Danny Gold
At least it's something, you know. All right. Yeah.
- [46:41]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
VRBO helps you swap gift wrap time for quality time. Go to VRBO now and book a last minute week long stay and save over $390 this holiday season. Book your next vacation rental home on verbo average savings $396. Select homes only.