The Underworld Podcast

Episode Title: Warlords, Narco-Pirates, & The Gangster King of Vietnam
Date: October 14, 2025
Hosts: Sean Williams & Danny Gold

Episode Overview

This episode immerses listeners in the violent evolution of Vietnam’s underworld, tracing its roots from colonial-era pirate gangs through the French and Japanese occupations, to the spectacular rise and fall of “Vietnam’s Godfather” Nam Kam (Trọng Văn Cam). The journalists dive deep into a history rarely explored in English, transporting listeners from Saigon’s shadowy alleys to high-power criminal empires and bloody underworld coups, with a cast of pirate chieftains, flamboyant mobsters, corrupt officials, heroin kingpins, and a female gangster known as Dung "the Lesbian."

The show is a true-crime tour through decades of Asian organized crime and its intertwining with Vietnam’s turbulent politics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Fall of Dong "The Lesbian" (00:29-04:31)

• Narrative: The episode opens with the assassination of Vu Hoang Dung (aka Dung Ha or Dung the Lesbian), a feared northern mob boss, outside a Saigon karaoke bar in 2000. Her flamboyant attack on Nam Kam’s empire escalated into bloodshed.
• Key Insight: The audacious nature of her gang warfare—throwing shrimp paste, dead rats, and even human waste onto a rival's dancefloor—shows a criminal culture where public humiliation and extreme violence go hand-in-hand.
• Notable Quote:
  “Dung Ha played the most dangerous game in Vietnam. She came for the king and she missed.” — Sean Williams (03:40)

2. Saigon’s Criminal Roots: Piratical Warlords & Colonial Mayhem (08:53-13:08)

• Historical Backdrop:

  • District 4, Saigon: Once infamous as a gangster stronghold, now mostly gentrified.
  • The Bin Xuyen: River pirates and warlords controlled District 4, running smuggling, brothels, and protection rackets.
  • They became both anti-colonial rebels and turncoat mercenaries, switching allegiances between Vietnamese nationalists, Japanese occupiers, and the French colonial government.

• Key Insight:

  • Saigon’s geography—waterside, port-heavy—bred a crime world dominated by those who could control the rivers.
  • After WWII, colonial chaos and the global heroin trade created an environment ripe for sprawling syndicates.

• Notable Quote:
  “Imagine Waterworld or just a wet Mad Max… The guys in charge are the guys with boats.” — Sean Williams (10:09)

• Academic Color:

  • Quote from Michael Baston on the Bin Xuyen as products of “poverty, rotten government and devolved power… colliders [sic], colonial intransigence followed by global geopolitical forces...” (12:43)

3. Heroin & The Gangster Kings: Rise of Nam Kam (15:54-22:07)

• Golden Triangle Connection:

  • Saigon erupts as a global heroin export hub after the French era, feeding both the “French Connection” route and new “Vietnam Connection” routes. Corsican, Armenian, Algerian and Chinese gangsters all flood Saigon for a cut.

• Mob Dynasty:

  • Bai Vien, the crocodile-keeping “Bond villain” kingpin, and his private army dominate until his empire fractures into warring factions—these lines produce the four underworld "kings" of Saigon.

• Nam Kam’s Origins:

  • Born in District 4 in 1947, raised amid postwar chaos, Nam Kam rises from lookout to street dealer under the protection of a powerful gangster family.
  • Early exposure to crime, coupled with stints in prison and the military, prime him for the higher echelons of Saigon’s criminal elite.

4. Building a Criminal Empire: Partnerships, Bribes, and Secret Casinos (22:18-27:24)

• Mechanics of Power:

  • Nam Kam specializes in gambling operations—casinos large and small, match-fixing, and protection rackets—fuelled by corruption at every level: police, politicians, reporters.
  • After each arrest, Nam Kam turns the authorities to his advantage, snitching on rivals' secret casinos while sparing his own—an early demonstration of playing both sides.

• Turning Point:

  • By the mid-90s and beyond, Nam Kam shifts from street-level hustler to untouchable kingpin via bribery and increasingly bold ventures, aiming beyond district borders: Macau, Hong Kong, and the USA.

• Notable Quote:
  “He’s figured out by this point that instead of fighting the authorities... he can work with them, using them to wipe out his underworld enemies.” — Sean Williams (24:55)

5. The Rise & Fall of Dung "The Lesbian": Vietnam’s Fearless Female Gangster (27:24-32:04)

• Character Spotlight:

  • Dung, born in 1965 in Haiphong, conquers the Hanoi underworld through sheer violence and audacity, eventually taking over her lover’s casino empire after his addiction-driven collapse.
  • Reputation cemented with bold public attacks (e.g., leaving a pig’s head in a rival’s club), and a dramatic (if failed) prison escape involving smuggled grenades.

• Clash with Nam Kam:

  • Dung moves south to Saigon, refusing to become Nam Kam’s subordinate. Her public humiliation of his nightclub with a “fake birthday” insult triggers her assassination, shocking the criminal world and igniting the state’s retaliation.

6. The State Strikes Back: Operation Z501 (32:05-36:00)

• Operation Z501:

  • Dung’s murder cannot be swept aside; the government launches an unprecedented anti-corruption operation.
  • Nam Kam is implicated by his own underlings, leading to one of the largest criminal trials in Vietnamese history: 154 co-defendants, including senior police and media figures.

• Trial & Execution:

  • Despite lifetimes of buying impunity, Nam Kam faces an incorruptible military general and a prosecution determined to purge officialdom.
  • In 2004, Nam Kam and four associates are executed by firing squad—the kingpin's underworld reign violently ends.

• Notable Quotes:
  “The trial's opening hours are broadcast live on national TV… a party official warns the press they should report ‘only what is good for the nation.’” — Sean Williams (35:22)

  “I could have become the king of Vietnam… $77,000 isn’t that much!” — Danny Gold (36:07)

7. Aftermath & The Modern Underworld (37:00-38:22)

• Underworld Endures:

  • Crime persists post-Nam Kam; as of 2008, Saigon is a major transit point for heroin and meth from the Golden Triangle.
  • In recent years, criminality in Vietnam is more white-collar—scam syndicates and multi-billion dollar banking corruption, epitomized by the 2023 scandal of Truong My Lan and a $44 billion fraud.

• Reflective Close:

  • The hosts reflect on how organized crime morphs: “Is that kind of progress?” muses Sean Williams, pondering if the shift from warlords to bankers is much better.

Notable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Moment | |-----------|---------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:40 | Sean Williams | “Dung Ha played the most dangerous game in Vietnam. She came for the king and she missed.” | | 10:09 | Sean Williams | “Imagine Waterworld or just a wet Mad Max… The guys in charge are the guys with boats.” | | 12:43 | M. Baston (read by Sean) | “...byproduct of poverty, of rotten government and devolved power... colonial intransigence...” | | 24:55 | Sean Williams | “He’s figured out by this point that instead of fighting the authorities... he can work with them, using them to wipe out his underworld enemies.” | | 27:27 | Danny Gold | “So his bread and butter, though, it's... it's the gambling.” | | 35:22 | Sean Williams | “...a party official warns the press they should report ‘only what is good for the nation.’” | | 36:07 | Danny Gold | “I could have become the king of Vietnam… $77,000 isn’t that much!” |

Important Segment Timestamps

• Opening assassination—Setting the scene: 00:29
• Saigon’s colonial-era pirates: 08:53
• Post-war French/communist underworld alliances: 13:08
• Rise of the heroin trade & Nam Kam’s entry: 15:54
• Nam Kam’s innovation in law enforcement manipulation: 24:55
• Portrait of Dung "the Lesbian": 27:24
• The nightclub insult and retaliatory murder: 32:05
• Operation Z501, Nam Kam trial: 35:00
• Execution and aftermath: 36:00-38:22

Tone & Style

Lightly irreverent, vivid storytelling—true crime with global political insight and dark humor. The hosts blend journalistic rigor with playful digressions and a respect for the dramatic, often referencing global crime lore, underlining both the gravity and the absurdity of criminal enterprise.

For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode is an essential primer on Vietnam's hidden criminal history, tracing a path from river pirate warlords, through Cold War corruption and narco-trafficking, to a gangster kingpin whose reign embodied the heights (and depths) of the Vietnamese underworld. Colorful characters like Nam Kam and Dung "the Lesbian" anchor a story of violence, loyalty, hubris, and—ultimately—the inescapable reach of the state. The hosts’ blend of deep-dive research and on-the-ground color—complete with field interviews from Saigon’s alleys—makes this a standout episode for both true crime and history aficionados.