← The Underworld Podcast
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- [00:01]
A
Reggie, I just sold my car online.
- [00:03]
B
Let's go, Grandpa. Wait, you did? Yep.
- [00:06]
A
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. You don't say.
- [00:15]
C
Yeah, they're even picking it up tomorrow.
- [00:17]
A
Talk about fast.
- [00:18]
D
Wow.
- [00:18]
B
Way to go. So, about that picture frame.
- [00:21]
A
Ah, forget about it. Until Carvana makes one, I'm not interested.
- [00:25]
E
Car selling made easy on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.
- [00:31]
F
Hey, guys, it's Andrew from the Scary Mysteries podcast, where every single week we dive into insane and creepy true crime compilations, as well as cover the most terrifying and strange news stories currently happening all around the world. We go into all the topics you want to hear about. Missing persons, killers, UFOs and more. Best of all, we don't waste your time with any fluff or fillers. Just straighten all the dark details. If you like true crime, then you're gonna love us. So go check out the Scary Mysteries podcast. Right now,
- [01:06]
G
it's 2am on New Year's Day 2023, outside Scarlet, an upmarket nightclub in Freetown, Sierra Leone, part of a complex of bars, restaurants and a casino that sit within the Lagunda resort on the West African city's Atlantic coast. Since 2002, when Sierra Leone's civil war ended, violence is rare in its ramshackle capital. But as the club's crowd swells and a cue to get in snakes through the hotel lobby, that peace is about to be shattered in style. Hussain Fawaz is among those lining up for a spot at Scala. He's the nephew of one of Sierra Leone's Lebanese tycoons, one of Freetown's elites. But another man joins the action, and he's in no mood to wait, no matter who is in front. This man is lean, tanned, well built, in his 30s, and he's flanked by a giant of a bodyguard and several other members of his entourage. Nobody seems to know the man's name, though Fawaz doesn't care. He kicks up a fuss about the line. Voices are raised, so are fists. Soon there's a frakkar outside the club, which Fawaz escalates deftly by smashing a glass bottle over the bodyguard's head. The frakker becomes a brawl and it spreads. Yet the whole time, the sand stranger keeps his distance, keen not to get dragged into the melee. The violence soon ends and the revellers head inside to continue their night. But if you're glassing a 300 pound bodyguard, chances are that something's coming Back your way. And hours later, as Faraz leaves Scarlet, he's cornered once again in the parking lot. Some say by the bodyguard, others by the tanned man. Seven shots ring out into the night. Fawaz drops to the ground, writhing in agony, clutching the kneecaps that have been blown almost clean off. The club shooting quickly makes headlines all over Sierra Leone. But something's not right. Nobody can figure out the identity of the lean, tanned man. Staff at the Lagundas casino say he was a frequent high roller, tipping up to $1,000 at a time. He was a gentleman, says one of them. Soft spoken, always apologetic, following all our rules. He doesn't drink, he doesn't chase women. Stranger still, on some days he goes about claiming to be Turkish, on others, Moroccan. But witnesses are sure they've heard him speaking to his clique in Dutch, an even rarer tongue in this war torn corner of West Africa. Before long, media give the man a name, Omar Sharif. He's a mining investor. Write some of them. Others are stopped in their tracks. One investigative reporter receives a visit from a mysterious man who, refusing to give his name, tells the reporter, clearly, drop the scoop. The matter, the envoy promises, is, quote, in the president's hands. The reporter does what he's told and the shooting fades from memory. But two years later, the tale of the Turkish mining magnate with deep pockets will come crashing into view once more. Only. Well, of course, the man is no Turk. And the only thing he's interested in mining is cash from the world's most popular party, narcotic. In fact, tiny Sierra Leone has found itself the new home of one of the planet's most wanted men. And he's wrapped himself around Freetown's power structures tighter than a boa constrictor on a comatose back. This is the Underworld Podcast.
- [05:04]
A
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another thrilling edition of the weekly podcast where two seasons, some might say bitter and cynical. Investigative. I wouldn't say that personally. Take a look at organized crime around the world. I'm Sean Williams. I'm in Buenos Aires, Argentina and I am joined by Danny Gold in New York City. Thanks for listening. If you like these shows, we've got a Patreon full of bonuses, news, roundups, interviews, all kinds of interesting folks. Patreon.com the Underworld podcast merch underworldpod.com and reach out.
- [05:36]
G
We want to hear from you.
- [05:36]
A
Theunderworldpodcastmail.com Is there anything I'm missing? Some banter. I don't know. How about these sports balls, huh?
- [05:43]
B
They can also sign up on Spotify and on itunes. And I must say, hell of a cold open right there, dude. I'm intrigued as hell. Also spent some time in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis. Lovely spot. Would recommend human as hell, though.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah, I don't think I'm going to paint it in the best light right now, but it sounds like a great place, especially when there's a major outbreak of an incredibly deadly disease. So.
- [06:08]
B
Yeah, that is when I was there.
- [06:10]
A
Yeah. Yeah.
- [06:11]
B
Beaches though. They got beaches.
- [06:13]
A
Oh, cool. Okay. So you can die on the sand. But anyway, I think, I think there's a.
- [06:17]
B
There's a surf scene. Maybe the surf scenes in Liberia. Oh, well, there might be a surf scene there. Yeah.
- [06:23]
A
We like to say on this show that these are cautionary tales about cautionary tales. And today's show is a prime example. It is exhibit A of how the cocaine trade has seeped into just about every corner of the planet in the past decade or so. How if like law enforcement or the judiciary squeezes the balloon in one place, it just pops out in another.
- [06:46]
B
You know, I prefer like a whack a mole sort of comparison. Do they still have whack a mole? They still have whack a mole. And like fun time arcade centers like SportsTime USA shout out. Or do the kids just play virtual whack a mole on like Roblox?
- [06:59]
A
Hideous. I don't know. Whatever they're doing, it's not cool. And I don't like young people. But yeah, this is like a great example to show of how drug laws worm their way into positions of power, corrupting not only the cops and border guards who turn a blind eye, but entire governments of the developing world. Today, of course, being Sierra Leone, a small nation, 8.6% million people, surrounded by Guinea, Liberia and the Atlantic Ocean. A surprising location for the stronghold of a European kingpin on Europol's most wanted list. Perhaps. But if you've listened to our episodes on nearby Guinea Bissau or Nigeria, you are going to know that trafficking drugs from Latin America into Europe has been a massive part of the West African criminal underworld going back decades.
- [07:44]
B
Yeah, really shady sort of like Hezbollah and Bekah Valley talks.
- [07:47]
A
Oh yeah.
- [07:48]
B
Love to set a shop in these parts of the world of West Africa. Major, major transit routes to the contraband and like, for contraband and money. I think the Colombians have presences there, the Mexicans have presences there. And Dranghetta, I mean that's all relatively recent, but the shady sort of like valley families, I think clans have had Presence there for decades.
- [08:06]
A
Yeah. I think in the Guinea Bissau episode, there was a great article I read at the Virginia Quarterly Review where the guy was, like, hanging out with Hezbollah guys in Bissau, the capital there. It's pretty nuts. I want to do a show on Hezbollah in. In Latin America as well, because there's quite a lot of interesting stuff happening here. Anyway, you might remember Sierra Leone from our episode on Sam Walker. I can't say his name without laughing. Anyway, he's the British gangster from Liverpool who made it his home for a while. He, like, fled. Fled justice over land and sea to Sierra Leone, opening water wells for charity, while I think slipping diamonds out of the country in the other direction. He is the guy who DMed me after with a photo of my mum and dad's house, which is really lovely. And he's also spent half the past year in hospital having been stabbed, shot and beaten half to death with a golf club. So, yeah, nice bloke.
- [08:58]
B
Are you saying him setting that photo and what him being in the hospital for half a year after getting shot, stabbed and beaten is. Are they related?
- [09:07]
A
No, No, I did. I did not have a major gangster shot and stabbed and beaten nearly to death with a golf club. No, I'll say.
- [09:15]
B
Also, DMing someone, like, a Google map photo of the house is such a lame cop out, like, to be in. Like, you found a publicly available address and at least, like, at least have the criminal decency and wherewithal to send an underling to take a real photo of it. You know how much is.
- [09:31]
A
I should have brought up my Instagram account now and seen the message he sent because it was so, like, Scouse, I think, like, wait, if I could find it right now, it's really, really funny.
- [09:40]
C
I'll.
- [09:40]
B
I'll, I'll chime in with something. I think we got a comment on YouTube maybe like a couple weeks ago from someone who was like, oh, I can't believe you guys have done an episode on this guy. He's such a. I don't know, he used some English bellend or whatever, phony or whatever. And we're like. I'm like, yeah, dude, listen to the episode. Yeah, like, someone just comment. Like, listen to the actual episode and
- [09:58]
A
see what we say. Yeah, I can't find it. I'll have to, like, put it up on the, on the, on the chat at some point. But anyway, if you know Sierra Leone at all outside of those way more famous, famous things to do with me, you might know it for its civil war, which is A brutal conflict was fueled by blood diamonds, and it lasted for 11 years, 1991 to 2002. And it was marked by widespread atrocities and the use of child soldiers. Well, those child soldiers were themselves fueled by a cocktail of drugs, not least cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills, and so called brown brown, which is a mixture of cocaine or meth with gunpowder, which is interesting. Here's a short extract from the harrowing book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Bayer. Quote, when we ran out of food, drugs, ammunition and gasoline to watch war films, we raided rebel camps in towns, villages and forests. We also attacked civilian villages to capture recruits and whatever else we could find. We walked for long hours and stopped only to eat sardines and corned beef with flour, sniff cocaine, brown brown, and take some white capsules. The combination of these drugs gave us a lot of energy and made us fierce. The idea of death didn't cross my mind at all. And killing had become as easy as drinking water. My mind had not only snapped during the first, it had also stopped making remorseful records. So that was a bit of a handbrake turn from chatting about a funny Liverpool gangster. But, yeah, drugs have been a staple of Sierra Leone's war, mesmerizing all these kids into killing each other. I think Beasts of no Nation is a really great movie that's based on this stuff. But in the wake of the war, even though almost half the country's population lives in extreme poverty, violence and street crime actually take a nosedive. A major crime is confined to Sierra Leone's mining and logging industries. West African drug transshipment is usually the preserve of Guinea Bissau, which I just mentioned before, is an even smaller country, but whose geography is perfect for narcos, whether they've got boats landing in the capital, Bissau, or the small planes touching down on one of 88 islands sprinkling out from the African mainland into the Atlantic. And they're aided by the fact that it has one prison with one prison guard, a single patrol boat, cops with no radios or handcuffs and no air defense, says a DA agent to the Guardian report. Ed Valliamian, 2008. Quote, a place like Guinea Bissau is a failed state anyway. So it's like moving into an empty house. You walk in, buy the services you need from the government, army and people and take over. Definitely listen to that show. It's from way back in April 2022. And if you want to know how drugs get from nations on the West African coast through the Sahara Desert, which is an insanely like a Dangerous trip. We did an episode on the El Chapo of the sahel back in December 2023.
- [12:47]
B
I mean, at this point, you could just teach a course with all these episodes, you know, you wouldn't have to do any work.
- [12:51]
A
Yeah, or maybe sell the IP to a rich Hollywood producer who could give us money.
- [12:56]
B
Try that. Yeah, that a bunch of times.
- [12:58]
A
Yeah, the last part of that sentence never appears. Anyway, another link in this chain is Hezbollah. Danny just mentioned I really want to do a Hezbollah narco trafficking episode soon. Yeah, they are in West Africa, hence the Lebanese connection. You heard in the cold open. There is lots of crazy stuff happening in West Africa, which I probably didn't need to tell you, but not for the longest time in Sierra Leone, which makes the emergence of Joss Leidkers, AKA Bolajos, or Chubby Joss in the capital, Freetown, all the more surprising.
- [13:32]
B
It's kind of funny. They go for Chubby instead of like the usual American Mafia, like Fat Tony, Fat Sal. I mean, to say something about the Dutch that they went for Chubby instead of just fat.
- [13:42]
A
I mean, you met Dutch people before. They're. They're pretty happy. Go lucky. Charming bunch.
- [13:47]
B
A little strange.
- [13:48]
A
Yeah. A lot of the backbone for today's show comes from an excellent feature at New Lines magazine from last July. And I also interviewed one of the authors, Josef Skrdlick, around a month ago. We will hear a bit from him in a while, but first let's find out who Chubby Joss is, where he came from, and and how he came to be regarded as one of the most significant cocaine kingpins in Europe, if not the world. Lydicus is born in July 1991 in Prinsenbik, a village on the edge of Breda, which is a city close to the Dutch border with Belgium, particularly the port of Antwerp. Don't know anything about his mother, but his father owns a prominent brothel in Breda, which, you know, it's the Netherlands, so nothing illegal about that. But this is a time when Dutch mafiosi are beginning to dominate the cocaine industry across, mastering the so called rip on, rip off method of bringing product on boats, usually in shipping containers, but sometimes strapped to ships. Hulls from Latin America to the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Now many of them are pairing up with Dutch Moroccan gangsters like Riddle and Taghi, folks who've made their names ferrying hash across the harsh Rift Mountains, but also with Dutch Surinamese outlaws who are bringing great quantities of coke and ecstasy across the Atlantic with the help of both belligerents in the Surinamese civil war. Recent episode that. Check it out. Had a bunch of fun researching it. And tons of this drug money is being laundered through Dutch colonial possessions in the Caribbean, notably Aruba and Kurichal. It is a whole thing. And by the early 2010s, Joss Lydicus, this portly hustler with short spiky hair who looks like he's about to compete at a second tier darts tournament, he is getting deeply involved. In 2011, aged just 20, Lydekers gets into a bar brawl with two Moroccan brothers in Breda, supposedly over the use of a bar stool. They head outside. Lydek has pulled a pistol and he opens fire. He wings one brother and he puts the other one in intensive care. Both guys survive, but Lydekers cops a double attempted manslaughter charge and he is sentenced to six years in prison. How this will be the making of him. While inside, Lydekkers meets Pete Vortel, or Wortel, a veteran narco who's been shipping product from Suriname to the Netherlands. With the help of its president, the pair become friends. Above all, it seems like young Lydekkers has learned from Wirtle that it's more profitable to forge ties with political elites in the developing world instead of threatening them or going against them. Lessons learned. Lydekkers then gets out of prison in 2015, he marries, has kids in 2017, moves to a suburb of Antwerp, yet writes new lines. Quote the facade of middle class banality hid a more sordid truth. Here is Yosef again, who co wrote that sentence for more.
- [16:42]
C
So in 2011, he is in prison. He gets out in 2015 and very soon afterwards he very quickly rises in the hierarchy over the international cocaine trade. But I think this is not known. This only becomes known in 2019 when the Dutch. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, when the Dutch authorities and authorities of other European states hack sky ecc, which is a messaging, encrypted messaging system that criminals like Larikas were using. And it turns out that during this period he was organizing large booking shipments between Latin America and Belgium and the Netherlands, earning tens of millions of euros a year. According to the estimates. By the time this fact is established, he is already not living in the Netherlands.
- [17:35]
A
Yes folks, this is another story that comes out of sky ecc. That is an encrypted chat app that was hacked by European cops back in 2021. I mean, pretty much any major European organized crime story today, you're going to find a ton of the information came of this groundbreaking hack. 2019 is when things are really heating up over the Dutch cocaine trade. Authorities have just begun something called the Marengo trial, which is an attempt to prosecute 14 murders carried out between 2015 and 2017 and is held in a purpose built bunker courthouse similar to the one from Palermo's maxi trial of the 1980s. Witnesses, they're getting dropped left and right. Hits allegedly being ordered from Ritu and Taghi's Dubai villa. Media called the Netherlands quote Valhalla for drug criminals, while 59% of respondents to one poll say they think that their country is a narco state. Later that year, Dubai cops arrest Tagge and his right hand man, who right now have contacts all over Latin America, particularly Colombia, with the help of Mexico's Gulf cartel, other kingpins, they are dropping like flies as the sky. ECC hack bears fruit. But Lydekers, despite working in the same circles as these guys and using the same app for comms, evades justice. Why? Because he's already left the Netherlands. Now he is shacked up with his wife and kids in Istanbul, Turkey in a glass fronted villa overlooking the Bosphorus, laundering millions through fake companies and smuggling gold bullion into Dubai on private jets.
- [19:13]
B
What's going on with Taghi by the way? Is he locked up for good? Is that what's going on?
- [19:17]
A
Yeah, I think he got a massive sentence. I think he's, he's gonzo. Yeah, and like we were saying in last week's show, like Dubai cops, they actually do do stuff every 10 years or so.
- [19:29]
B
It's not what it was, man.
- [19:30]
A
No, definitely not. And it is from this literal glass tower that Lydekers begins to craft a distinct brand identity based, according to the new Lines article, quote, on the indiscriminate use of violence. Though I would argue it's pretty discriminate, actually. One of the earliest to suffer this new wrath is Naima Jalal, a 52 year old Dutch Moroc, nicknamed the Godmother of cocaine. Jalal has spent years brokering huge coke deals between cartels in Costa Rica and Ecuador and Europe from her home in Marbella, which is in southern Spain. But in 2018, Jalal is accused of getting too greedy, selling more container space on ships than there actually is, like some kind of timeshare mogul. And in 2019, whispers that she's a snitch crescendo when Dutch cops pull off a huge cocaine bust in Rotterdam, costing the Dutch underworld tens of million billions of dollars. On October 20, 2019, Jalal is seen getting into a black BMW outside her apartment in Amsterdam. She's never seen again. Two months later, in the fallout of the Sky ECC bust and Riddle and Taggy's arrest, cops make a grim discovery on Taggy's confiscated BlackBerry. I mean, people still using BlackBerry in 2019. Shocking in crypt.
- [20:48]
B
BlackBerry was known for their encryption, man. Like they were known for.
- [20:51]
A
Of course. They're like pins and stuff like this, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what they find are photos of a naked woman tied to a chair, beaten with a finger and toe amputated. They've been taken on the same night as Jalal's disappearance. Police believe it's her, that she's dead, and that three men ordered her liquidation. One of them, they say, doesn't live in the Netherlands, and his name is Joss Leidekertz. But that's not all. In June 2020, police discover a clandestine prison complex hidden in a warehouse on the Dutch police Belgium border. This cluster of soundproof shipping containers, all covered in plastic sheeting, includes six with handcuffs attached to the floor or ceilings, chemical toilets, and one with a dentist chair fitted with wrist straps. Pretty grim. They also find scalpels, saws, pliers, pruning shears and blowtorches. While each container is kitted out with a camera, they can't pin the complex directly to Jalal's death. But how many torture chambers can there be on the Dutch Belgian border? Ones that aren't affiliated with kink clubs? Maybe, I don't know, like three dozen. I'm leaving you an open goal there. You can, you can have at it.
- [22:01]
B
No, I mean, that's too grim and too easy, you know, but also, Jesus Christ, man. This is like Mexican cartel level of savagery right here.
- [22:09]
A
Yeah, it's, it's pretty awful stuff.
- [22:12]
B
All right, guys, a quick break from smugglers, kingpins and highly organized crime to tell you about a different type of underground operation. The culinary contraband of righteous felon craft jerky. You guys may have remembered a couple weeks ago on the show I was talking about how much, how much I love, like biltong, which is dried meat and beef jerky and all that. These guys reached out. I don't know how we weren't dealing with them earlier. The stuff is amazing. The stuff they've sent me. And they are criminal kindred spirits with underworld pod. This is jerky and meat sticks for people who prefer their snacks paired with a bit of rebellion. High protein, low sugar, gluten free and legendary flavor. So you can make a clean getaway While channeling your inner outlaw. We are talking 17 different flavors with a cast of outlaw characters. We got the. The anchovia biltong, which is pretty dope. There's a one named after Nelson Mandela I had before. We got the beef jerky Soul Survivor Korean barbecue inspired OG Hickory. And they got all these really great meat sticks, too. We got the OG Hickory here. There's a honey heist barbecue one right here. There's a beef and cheese one that I've been eating. That's fantastic. Their flavor lineup reads like a wanted poster of your favorite felons and criminal masterminds. Habanero, Escobar, Teriyaki, Balboa, the turkey jerky, like I said, fal, Capone. They got something for any crime junkie that's jonesing for a hit of the good stuff. And like I said, I've been. I've been eating this since they sent me a large amount after I just talked about on the show. If you want to get in on the heist, throw on your ski mask and head over to righteous felon.com to grab a sampler pack with code Underworld25 for 25 off. That's code Underworld25 for 25 off. Follow them on Instagram at Righteous Felon. Guys, let's talk about rula.com. that's r u l a dot com. You know, I had moments in my life where, you know, you're kind of freaking out about something or things aren't going well and you really could use therapy. But it's like, it's impossible to find a therapist online who takes your insurance or even in person. You know, it's hard. It's a hassle. It's just. It's not affordable. It's not accessible and affordable and accessible mental health care shouldn't be out of reach, but too often it is. That's where Rula comes in. It works with most major insurance plans. The average copay for patients is something like $15. And depending on individual benefits, copays can be as low as $0 per session. We're talking free. There's a network of more than 15,000 licensed therapists and psychiatrists across the U.S. allowing patients to search for providers based on their needs, preferences, and state. They'll help you out through the entire process, you know, from matching with a provider to scheduling things and tracking your progress. And they have, like, really high standards with their providers. You know, it also offers access to both therapy and. And medication, which is huge medication management through licensed mental health professionals. Thousands of people are already using Ruler to get affordable high quality therapy that's actually covered by Insurance. Visit rula.comworld to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's r u l a.com Underworld. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. Go to rula.com Underworld to get started today. That's R U L A.com Underworld for quality therapy that's covered by insurance.
- [25:43]
A
And Lydic has moved so much cocaine so easily because he spends a lot of his money bribing dock workers at Antwerp and Rotterdam. Which is like if you look at European drug trafficking, it's where the lion's share of stuff is coming in. In August 2020, when a security guard disrupts a half ton shipment in Antwerp, Lydicus dispatches a team of men to go after the guy, take him hostage. Lydicus tells them via Skyecc, shoot his knees if he struggles. The goons beat the guard badly and they drag him to a nearby container. Lydekus is even wanted by cops in Finland for quarterback in an armed robbery there. He's become a full blown deadly gangster by this point. Like you say, it's like Mexican stuff really. He is wanted by authorities all over the place. Some say he even orders a hit on the guy who built his torture chambers, like some medieval Indian king or something. Here's Josef Skurdlick again.
- [26:40]
C
While a lot of his associates are subject to arrests, he is living in Turkey, which at the time was and notoriously lenient towards international criminals. So this is around 2020 where he applied for a Turkish residency. And I think it took some time for the Dutch authorities to put pressure on the Turkish authorities to actually arrest him. And what happens in March 2021 is that Lydek hears his residence permit in Turkey is revoked and from then his whereabouts are unknown. His brother in law was arrested later in 2023 and also for like a very strange reason. He, he gets to give an interview to a Turkish investigative journalist and in that interview he says that when Vladikaras residence permit was revoked he traveled to Abkhazia and then to Russia, which gives rise to a lot of speculation that he could be, that he could be, he could actually be hiding in Russia because no one, no one knows where he is. And it's a big mister he's very wanted. So there are speculations he could be in Russia, he could be in Turkey, but actually during all his time he is living very good life in Sierra Leones like buying luxury properties and hanging out with ministers and actually going to nightclubs.
- [28:02]
G
Right. So, so he was one of the guys who was bringing in cocaine from Latin America to Europe via the ports
- [28:11]
A
of Rotterdam and Antwerp, which are well
- [28:14]
G
notorious at the time for being the,
- [28:16]
A
the major ports of entry for like
- [28:18]
G
so called rip on, rip off cocaine shipments. And so he then moves his operation to Sierra Leone.
- [28:28]
A
Why Sierra Leone?
- [28:29]
G
I, I assume there's, there's weak governance, there are issues with security. You describe in the story how he was sort of very easily able to bribe his way at to the very top of the country's political scene.
- [28:44]
A
Right.
- [28:45]
C
The different reasons why the choice made a lot of sense. So it's not, I was trying to, I spent a lot of time trying to establish like the exact story of like how, how he decided to come from Turkey to Sierra Leone and when it happened at some point. So we know, we know he was already living in Sierra Leone in August 2022. And it's not clear he might have come there early 2021, it might have been earlier in 2022. Not sure for what reason or based on which connection exactly, but the choice made a lot of sense. And so West Africa for decades been used as a trans shipment app for cocaine coming from Latin America to Europe. But this became even more prominent in recent years when Unwerp and Rotterdam improved their security and also as a global cocaine market grew. So I think it's doubled since 2014. So the returns, potentially the potential returns increase. So in theory, why West Africa is a transparent hub, it's the fact that it's like a probability game. So if you have a container coming from Sierra Leone is less likely to be scanned than a container coming from Colombia, for example. So doing this increases your returns and potentially maybe if he went for an obvious country like Guinea Bissau or say even Nigeria or Ghana or Ivory coast, they would have already been known and established as cooking transshipment hubs. But Sierra Leone wasn't really known and wasn't really on the scene. Another thing is that for example, in Guinea Bissau, which is equally good in terms of big law enforcement and welcoming international cocaine criminals, you already have very established cocaine gangs and cartels. This wasn't the case in Cellion. The scene was very much up for grabs. So Lydicus was able to come establish himself very quickly as a dominant player and then gradually corrupt the entire for the scene and make way for his business.
- [30:52]
A
By the time Lydekkers arrives In Sierra Leone, then it is already a pretty mouth watering prospect for an on the run narco. Over two decades after the end of civil war, drug addiction is roaring back into vogue with Kush, which is a rough synthetic cannabinoid that is killing hundreds, if not thousands of locals. Enough that in April 2024, President Julius Matabio will declare a national emergency, calling the drug a, quote, death trap. I think we got into this a bit with the Sam Walker episode. Did you also do it on a show on this way back? Was that a thing or did you do Kush?
- [31:28]
B
Yeah, I think I did like a short on it maybe for like the YouTube channel or Patreon, but I'm always skeptical of like the human bones stuff, you know. Yeah, sounds like Jenkum all over again though, you know, I mean, there are stuff like that does happen in Sub Saharan Africa sometimes. But like, the other question is how much money actually is there to be made in retail sales to like street kids in, in Sierra Leone? Like, I can't, I can't imagine there's that much.
- [31:54]
A
Now the weird thing is that it's synthetic, right? Like, if it was locally made, then maybe you could imagine a Sierra Leone making loads of money. But I don't know what this stuff is really.
- [32:04]
B
I don't, I don't think you can make that much money. Like, you know, if you're selling, if you're selling the street kids, what are you selling for, like a dollar?
- [32:11]
A
Oh, not even close. That would be like. Yeah, like a 10 cent.
- [32:14]
B
So, like, how much? Whatever the profit margin is, it can't be that. I mean, maybe like for a local, yes, but for a narco, it doesn't seem, it seems pointless to get involved.
- [32:22]
A
Nah, agreed. I mean, there's also stories about authorities placing security at cemeteries to stop acts, digging up skeletons for the bones to make this stuff.
- [32:30]
B
But I don't know, I'm skeptical. But that stuff does happen.
- [32:33]
A
Yeah, yeah, maybe. I don't know if, you know, let usknow underworld podcastmail.com. that would be a great.
- [32:39]
B
If you can get your hands on some Kush, Sean will do it on the Patreon.
- [32:43]
A
Yeah, why not? I've got nothing to lose. But Bo's declaration in 2024 will prove to be hypocritical at best. Like Josef said, we don't know exactly when Jos Lydeker swaps Turkey for Sierra Leone. Is it Jos? Is it Josh? Josh? Is it Josh? Who knows? I think I'm going to go with Jos from now on.
- [33:06]
C
It would do.
- [33:06]
A
Yeah. Yeah, that would do. But staff at the Lagunda Casino in Freetown, which you heard about in the cold open, say that he coming around the summer of 2022, which is just as well, because a year later, Turkish authorities finally act on his network there. They arrest 25 suspects, including Lydica's brother, Wilhelms. Yeah, I'm gonna get these all wrong. Wilhelmus.
- [33:29]
B
It's gotta be Villamous, right?
- [33:31]
A
I think that's Joe. I think they pronounce it W in. I just.
- [33:34]
B
I like the idea of you mispronouncing stuff for once. But also, like, it does seem like Turkey now is kind of a destination for. For organized criminals and gangsters on the run. For sure, they do eventually crack down, but a lot of folks, a lot of. I mean, a lot of the Swedish gangsters were heading there. Swedish Moroccan or Swedish Kurdish gangsters heading there. We just talked about Turkey, I think, in the last episode. Like, Turkey is definitely a destination for. For gangsters on the run now.
- [34:01]
A
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they do not extradite. So I think that's what makes it
- [34:05]
B
so they don't extra. Right. Turkish citizens. And they sell citizenship, I think, for golden citizenship. That's part of the.
- [34:14]
C
Part of the.
- [34:15]
B
Part of the hustle.
- [34:16]
A
Yeah. I mean, Freetown, however, Freetown, Sierra Leone, it is no Istanbul. It's not even a Breda.
- [34:23]
G
Right.
- [34:23]
A
It's situated on a series of hills, some of which are very well hidden from each other. Outside the city, there are a few paved streets and patchy electricity networks. The situation worsens between May and September each year when heavy rains leave much of the small nation impossible to reach. However, writes new lines quote, Sierra Leone offered ideal conditions for Lydic as enterprise. The state's presence is weak and inconsistent. It is unable to provide basic services, including security and the rule of law. Immigration and national security protocols are poorly and inconsistently applied. Anyone can move through the country as they wish, provided they are willing to hand out the occasional customary tips at police checkpoints. One police officer who attends to one of the busiest checkpoints in downtown Freetown told New Lines that her bosses would let anyone pass through, even those carrying drugs for less than $10. Remember how Lydekers had learned the art of corruption from his Surinamese pal back in 2011? Well, now he puts all of it into action under the pseudonym of Omar Sharif, forming close partnerships with some of the most important people in Sierra Leone's political scene. Point man number one, Alyson Kanner, then the National Parliament's Deputy whip. Do you have party whips in the states? I mean, these are the guys who ensure that MPs are 10 votes and vote in line with party policy, literally whipping them into shape.
- [35:51]
B
We don't. And maybe that's why we have so many dang crooks over here on talking.
- [35:56]
A
I think the whips are kind of like crook enablers anyway. Kanner has an interesting backstory. He'd become a refugee in Norway during the civil War, returned home in 2012, and then struggled to break into politics. And in 2023, gets into a scandal when a Norwegian charity is defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars while trying to open a hospital in Sierra Leone. Canna then takes part in a scheme whereby a Norwegian farmer loses $1 million trying to open a gold mine.
- [36:25]
B
I mean, he's really running like the patented classic Dom Wesner hustle. Like hustles on dumb Westerners right here. Right? The gold mine and the, and the, and the, and the charity.
- [36:35]
A
That.
- [36:35]
B
That's fake. Like, come on. Like, it's classic to the genre.
- [36:39]
C
Yeah.
- [36:40]
A
We don't offer a huge amount of advice on this show, but if, if we can, then one of them should be do not open a gold mine in West Africa if you are a Norwegian farmer. Kanna seems to be Lydekker's point man, also of entry into Freetown's political elite. And their friendship just happens to be blossom in coincidence with Canna buying three homes in Pennsylvania and Delaware in the US for just under $2 million. Why?
- [37:08]
B
Why? I mean, 2 million for three homes too. I know, I know. The European mind might have trouble comprehending this. For $2 million for three homes in like Pennsylvania and Delaware are like three basically mid range middle class homes. But like, also, why like Philadelphia? Delaware is where you, you do tax fraud. But like, you don't need to live there.
- [37:30]
A
Can a man not just Airbnb a few houses out? Like, is that.
- [37:34]
B
That's true. Maybe he is getting in the Airbnb game. Yeah, very good point. I'm completely. I take back what I said. Airbnb hustle is a great one. You know, Delaware River's sick. You know that parts of Pennsylvania where you can, you can raft on it and there's good vibes.
- [37:49]
A
Man. Pennsylvania is an extremely weird state. Huh? Like, west is basically redneck hick, crazy town. And then Philadelphia, odd Poconos too. Yeah, beautiful place. Here is Josef for more on all of this nutsy stuff.
- [38:05]
C
And this was only in the US for one point. $1.9 million. And he wasn't able to. So he, he wasn't able to explain. He wasn't like, he wasn't able to explain where the money came from. So in his responses to the media, he said, I made that money through the Norwegian gold mining venture. But a couple of months before that, he told Norwegian media that he had nothing to do with adventure. And he actually, he was a victim of it and he didn't make money out of it. So it didn't make any sense.
- [38:35]
B
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- [40:04]
E
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- [40:16]
D
When beloved family patriarch Gary Ferris went missing, his family looked everywhere on their property until they came across something horrifying. It's a homicide.
- [40:26]
B
Absolutely.
- [40:27]
D
The blame game in this family went round and round this is Blood Is Thicker, the Ferris wheel.
- [40:34]
B
I don't see how anyone can look at this story and think they were happy.
- [40:38]
D
Follow and listen to Blood is Thicker, the Ferris wheel, on the Free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:47]
A
And here's Josef's new line piece again. Quote, a leaked video from Kanna's 50th birthday showed a joyful in quotes, Omar Sharif gift him a gold Rolex watch. If you give a Sierra Leone man $100,000, he'll go crazy, said a local chauffeur familiar with Lydeker's movements during this time. Side note, if you also give Western podcasters $100,000, they would also go crazy. He came to the right place, this guy adds. You can buy anything in Freetown. Even after the New Year's 2023 shooting from the cold open, Leidicus doesn't lay low or leave Sierra Leone. I mean, why would he? By this point, just a few months after his arrival, he is ensconced in the country's politics so deeply that he's powers with President Bo. I didn't realize when I was writing this that his name is President Bo. I really hope he doesn't smell. And locals know him not only as Omar Sharif, but as a jagaban, which is a local word meaning a wealthy and influential man or king, which is also, I think, what a lot of local women call Dani, even to this day in Sierra Leone. In August 2023, President Biot reshuffles his government, appoints Kanna Chief of Immigration and another close, Lydekker's associate, Andrew Kakai, as director of Sierra Leone's National Drug Enforcement Agency. He also installs Yanguba Bio, who I'm pretty sure is a relation, as the head of the National Port Authority, who also, guess what, happens to be a close friend of Chubby Joss, by the way.
- [42:20]
B
Nice. Nicely done back there before. That's. That's some good retaliation. Yeah, you're getting them in. Get him in while you can.
- [42:25]
A
Oh, I will. I will, my friend. It's not too surprisingly that around this same time, I mean, bear in mind, guys like this guy now has the Chief of Immigration, the national drug enforcer, and the Chief of the National Ports Authority. I think he's pretty well placed now. And it's not too surprisingly that cocaine seizures with connections to Sierra leone soar. In November 2022, French naval officers intercept a Brazilian fishing vessel carrying 4.6 tons of product to Europe off the Sierra Leone coast. In April 2023, the Guinean Navy discovers 1.5 tons of cocaine on a Europe bound boat flying rather a Sierra Leone flag. And that October, Antwerp port officials bust 10 tons of cocaine hidden in Sierra Leone soybean flour. And when they do, cartel gunmen attack customs officials in Antwerp. Like, this is crazy. This is the first time a shipment anywhere near that size has made it from Sierra Leone to. And it has to be the handiwork of Joss Lydekers.
- [43:36]
B
Allegedly.
- [43:38]
A
Yeah, yeah, let's. Let's keep the lawyers in check. Usually this guy allegedly will have a shipman dropped off at wharves around Freetown to be picked up by a small boat, which is a common tactic in cocaine trafficking the world around. But he'll also mastermind air shipments. In September 2024, a private jet with fake registration and its radar disabled in lands at Freetown International Airport. This story's nuts. The crew consists of four Mexicans and a literal flying Dutchman, and they refuse to show their documents. Officials claim they find nothing. Let the group go after they pay $100,000 fine. Nothing to see here, guys, whatsoever. Just four Mexicans and a Dutchman flying into Sierra Leone airport for no reason whatsoever. It's around this time that Lydekers is seen around Freetown's most expensive restaurants and bars with Agnes Biot, the president's daughter, writes Africa Confidential. Quote, she is a particular favorite of her father's who has promoted her career in the Foreign Service after serving as an advisor in the Foreign Ministry. She is now accredited to Sierra Leone's permanent mission to the UN In New York, and as such, is immune from arrest or detention or having her bag searched on entry or exit from the United States. I mean, sometimes you really do just get lucky in love. And in November 2024, Lydicus is feeling so secure, wrapped in his Sierra Leone bubble, that he flies into megastars of the Afrobeats genre for a massive party for his new fiance. I mean, there's no word of what happened to his wife and kids, by the way.
- [45:17]
B
Okay, but do we know which two Afrobeats people it was?
- [45:21]
A
Oh, we do. I mean, you know, like, people do, but I don't.
- [45:26]
B
No, I mean, like, can you, can you tell us.
- [45:30]
A
Do you want me to look at this?
- [45:31]
B
No, that's fine.
- [45:32]
A
You know what?
- [45:32]
B
We'll just keep it. Just, just keep it going.
- [45:34]
A
I mean, it's, it's, it's not Burna Boy. So, unfortunately, that's where. That's where my understanding goes. Uh, anyway, folks, post a bunch of videos of this party Word gets out that Omar Sharif is actually Chubby Joss, who's still at large in Freetown after the 2023 shooting. But again, journalists looking into the story are threatened. Press freedom is chilled. He has got the entire country in his pocket. But the following month, a live stream captures footage of Leidekers at a Catholic ceremony being held by President Biot. He's lost weight. Now he looks like he's been hit in the gym and has quite possibly also been under the plastic surgeon's knife. Reuters picks up the footage. By January 2025, Dutch police confirm this is the guy that they had recently sentenced to 24 years in absentia for six drug trafficking shipments totaling almost eight tons. The Finnish armed robbery and a murder for hire. They will eventually confiscate $112 million in assets, having sought a record quarter billion in the Dutch courts. This guy is like, he's really big time. He's not some obscure, like drug kingpin in the middle of nowhere. In fact, by this point, Lydekkers is on Europol's most wanted list with a so called red notice, which is when a worldwide request for law enforcement to arrest an individual pending extradition goes out. This is a big deal. But surprisingly, given President Biot's commitment to fighting drug crime, Sierra Leone doesn't cough up its most famous narco resident. Dutch authorities request extradition in February 2025, but officials in Freetown delay. And then they just ignore Dutch calls altogether. The following month, last March, the footage of Lydekers giving Canna a golden Rolex watch emerges. And Bo actually sacks Canna as chief immigration. But Andrew Kakai, his other friend, remains Sierra Leone's top drug enforcer. And Yakuba Bio is still in charge of the country's ports. I mean, to illustrate just how closely wound up with drugs Sierra Leone's government has become, in January 2025, it recalls its ambassador to guinea when seven suitcases containing cocaine are found in an embassy vehicle plus a couple thousand dollars in cash. It's Guinea Bissau 2.0. And members of the press continue to be threatened. Many journalists have been silenced because the government doesn't want the story to stay in the press. A newspaper editor says Some were offered hush money in exchange for their silence. Others were subject to more forceful methods. My office was attacked in March this year by unknown people, another newspaper editor says. They were looking for me. They forced themselves into my office, scattered my belongings, looking for something, and then they left. And that's pretty much where this story ends. Incredibly, the Dutch are still after Lydekers and the Sierra Leoneans don't want to give him up. Tons of great links for this story on the reading list for Patreon members. Not least Joseph's New Line articles which he co wrote last July with Oliver Dunn. What is the latest since then? Well, here is.
- [48:43]
C
Josef Lydocus is still there. The presidential family and the establishment have faced no consequences. I think the only person who's ever been fired was Skane and he lost his job as an immigration, as the chief immigration officer. I think this is already incorporated this into the story. But this was, this was because a video was published of him receiving gifts from lydekers for his 50th birthday. And Andrew Keikai was also in that footage. But for example, Andrew Keikai who was in that footage is still the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency. And Julius Marabio who is like clearly, clearly involved in, in different ways in the meantime became the, the head of the president of, of ecovas, the Economic Community of Western West African states. And that was case in high level, high level diplomacy in the region. And Lydekers is still there. So he hasn't been seen in the public. There are no, no videos or pictures proving that he is in Sierra Leone. But there are various reports of him appearing at different properties in Freetown accompanied by multipersonal and sometimes, sometimes even appearing in restaurants or clubs.
- [50:03]
A
It's not a huge city, right?
- [50:04]
G
Freetown, I mean, I can't imagine that you'd be able to necessarily hide there, could you?
- [50:10]
C
It's over a million people and it's in the hills. So we've got a lot of, a lot of distant corners. So hypothetically, if you find a property in a more distant, quiet neighborhood and you don't go outside, you only use your car, I think it's possible. And then also. So it's quite a long peninsula, a lot of properties alongside the peninsula itself. So quite a lot of, lot of places. And he did get to buy a lot of properties and he did get to establish a lot of connections with businessmen and local politicians. So the motives of r and seems to be that he is just changing properties where he is staying all the time.
- [50:53]
A
So that is the tale of how one of Europe's most wanted men found a home and a drug smuggling haven in a small corner of West Africa. It is pretty crazy. And we'll actually put the full interview with yo as if on the Patreon for subscribers. Thanks as always for listening. I am off for an empanada and a painfully slow and difficult conversation with my doorman.
- [51:15]
B
That was. That was awesome, dude. As always. Patreon.com the Underworld podcast Spotify iTunes support us Throw Down Keep Sean reporting on super obscure organized crime stories from all over the world.
- [52:44]
E
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- [53:14]
D
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