Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime
42 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago -Twice shortlisted for 'Best Investigative Podcast' at the Publishers Podcast Awards.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime brings you stories and investigations from the global criminal underworld.
The topics covered by Deep Dive are far ranging, one episode could be looking at a hybrid paramilitary organized criminal cartel; the next could be the dismantling of an encrypted communications network; or the use of complex corporate structures to hide illicit activity; or the role organized crime has in the recycling industry.
This podcast series demonstrates the wide ranging investigations and research carried out by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
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Episodes
LockBit: Is this the end?
March 26, 2024 06:00 - 34 minutes - 47.5 MBLockBit, the world's largest ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) provider suffered a very public takedown by an international law enforcement task force, Operation Cronos. The ransomware behemoth quickly relaunched just days later. But in a world where trust is key, might the reputational damage be too great? This is the story of the rise of LockBit, its relationship with other infamous cybercriminal groups, its uneasy relationship with some affiliates, its curious leader LockBitsupp, the publi...
Russia, War & Organized Crime
March 04, 2024 06:00 - 46 minutes - 63.2 MBRussian organized crime has a mythology attached to it - the brutal tattooed men of the Vory v Zakone. But those days are long in the past, rapid globalisation saw a new type of organized criminal take the reins in the Russian underworld, spreading their influence as criminal facilitators across the world. But the war in Ukraine has changed that. It's changed the relationship between organized crime and the Russian state, the status quo within the established criminal order, the potential ...
What is going on in Ecuador?
February 05, 2024 06:00 - 28 minutes - 38.8 MBAt the start of the year masked gunman burst into a television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The cameras were live and the entire event was broadcast. The video shows gang members shouting at staff, pushing them to the ground, threatening them with guns and explosives. These pictures subsequently travelled around the world. But this event was just one in a series to hit Ecuador in a short space of time. Car bombs, kidnappings, murder, prison riots, prominent prisoner escapes, and another na...
Monitoring: What is going on in Ecuador?
February 05, 2024 06:00 - 28 minutes - 38.8 MBAt the start of the year masked gunman burst into a television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The cameras were live and the entire event was broadcast. The video shows gang members shouting at staff, pushing them to the ground, threatening them with guns and explosives. These pictures subsequently travelled around the world. But this event was just one in a series to hit Ecuador in a short space of time. Car bombs, kidnappings, murder, prison riots, prominent prisoner escapes, and another na...
Monitoring: Ovidio Guzmán and the Kingpin Strategy
December 04, 2023 15:00 - 20 minutes - 28.6 MB'The King is dead, long live the King!' In September 2023, Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, stood in a courtroom as a series of charges were laid out, including his alleged role as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. There is a long list of cartel and organized crime leaders over the past few decades who have been targeted through what become known as the 'Kingpin Strategy'. The strategy aims to weaken, destabilise, and destroy criminal groups through a variety of met...
Illicit Financial Flows in the Western Balkans
November 14, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutes - 56.4 MB“If you can do it without consequences, then you should do it”. What are illicit Financial Flows, or IFFs? And why do they matter? Every illicit market, from drug trafficking, people smuggling, the illegal wildlife trade, arms trafficking etc. all are connected to IFFs. IFFs are about the movement of money across borders that is illegal in some way. The money could be from a criminal act, like corruption or its money associated with the illicit markets above. Perhaps, it could be legiti...
Monitoring: A Month of Drug Seizures
October 17, 2023 12:30 - 12 minutes - 16.5 MBIn September 2023, there were four large cocaine seizures in and around the Atlantic Ocean - off the coast of Ireland, West Africa, Brazil, and Cape Verde. The flows of cocaine that traverse the Atlantic travel mainly by sea, from the huge bulk carriers to small fishing vessels or sailing boats. Much of this illicit drug ends in the cocaine markets of Europe. In this episode of Deep Dive: Monitoring, we briefly take a look at the seizures, what they mean for cocaine markets and the organi...
“They don’t ******* withdraw it” - Scam Call Centres in Ukraine
October 02, 2023 09:15 - 40 minutes - 55.6 MBScam call centres are a blight on the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to have any dealings with them. They come to you with promises of a short cut to wealth, to fix a non-existent issue with your computer, claiming to be from a charity, threatening you with arrest for unpaid taxes. There are 70 million of these phone calls worldwide every day and they generate billions of dollars each year. Organized crime is very much a part of this industry from Mexico to India and from the Philippin...
Colombia: In the face of crime and violence
August 02, 2023 06:00 - 43 minutes - 60.3 MBFor over half a century armed groups in Colombia have battled one another and the state across the country. The FARC, ELN, AUC, AGC, and the infamous drug cartels, have committed untold atrocities on everyday Colombians. These groups use violence to control the local population and to assert territorial control over illicit drug production and trafficking routes. This episode is about the people who live in those areas, those that have suffered at the hands of armed groups and organized cri...
The Rise and Fall of the Conti Ransomware Group
June 27, 2023 06:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBFor around two years the Conti ransomware group rampaged across the internet. They attacked hospitals, educational institutions, businesses, governments, and many more, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransomware payments. Business was booming for the cybercriminals. At least it was until the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Conti leadership quickly pledged their loyalty to Russia and then everything began to fall apart. This i...
“Death Can Wait”: Drugs on the Frontline in Ukraine
May 22, 2023 11:00 - 41 minutes - 56.3 MBThroughout history soldiers have used drugs, sometimes to fight better or to stay alert, or perhaps to help cope with the extreme psychological situation and trauma they are faced with. The current conflict in Ukraine is no different. Concerns around this led to the Ukrainian parliament passing a new law that authorizes random drug and alcohol tests on soldiers. Organized crime is nothing if not adaptable, even in this most extreme environment. The soldiers fighting to protect their homela...
P2 - The Murder of Ahmed Divela
May 03, 2023 09:45 - 42 minutes - 58.1 MBPart 2: "The truth will triumph". The description of Ahmed's murder showed that the killers were professionals, trained in the use of firearms. But despite the crowds that witnessed the killing, no one has ever been prosecuted for the crime. Since the assassination of Ahmed, press freedom in Ghana has suffered. He is one of a number that have been attacked, harassed and arrested over the last few years, sparking fears for the future of press freedom in the country. Much of the violence ha...
P1 - The Murder of Ahmed Divela
May 03, 2023 09:30 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBPart 1: "Ahmed was no coward". On World Press Freedom Day (3rd May) 2018, the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, took to the stage in Accra to deliver a speech on press freedom. Ghana, had long been a beacon for press freedom and was selected to host the celebrations. Just a few weeks later, TigerEye PI, the world famous undercover investigative unit led by Anas Aremeyaw Anas released their latest investigation, Number 12, which looked at corruption in professional football. Around the ...
P2 - The Wagner Group in Sudan
April 17, 2023 18:00 - 52 minutes - 71.7 MBPart 2: “It’s the worst kept secret in Sudan”. In 2019, the Dossier Centre in London, shared some leaked internal documents from the private military company, the Wagner Group. The documents showed that Wagner had identified several countries they wanted to target for future operations. What was clear is that they often targeted countries with weakened autocratic government, seeking support against an internal threat. In this episode, we navigate the illicit gold trade in Sudan and beyond ...
P1 - The Wagner Group in Sudan
April 17, 2023 17:15 - 42 minutes - 58.3 MBPart 1: “Who are these guys and what are they doing here?” In late February 2022, Airport workers in Khartoum International Airport in Sudan are stood glued to television screens, watching Russian tanks entering the outskirts of Kyiv in Ukraine. But just outside on the runway, a Russian cargo plane laden with cookies was about to take off, heading to Latakia on the coast of Syria. Earlier that day, officials had inspected the aircraft, suspicious of the cargo manifest. It turned out they w...
The Drug Markets of East and Southern Africa
January 18, 2023 06:00 - 57 minutes - 79.3 MBAfrica is often the forgotten continent for things like drug trafficking, but just look around the news, the African continent plays a critical role in the global illicit drug market – and its growing – And no more so than in East and Southern Africa. As global trade has exploded, African organized criminal networks have established relationships with other criminal organizations around the world from the PCC in Brazil to the Comancheros Bikie Gang in New Zealand. Over the course of a few ...
How to Respond to Environmental Crime
November 15, 2022 06:00 - 51 minutes - 70.6 MBWhat does the term 'Environmental Crime' mean to you? Probably something like elephant or rhino poaching. Perhaps the plight of the pangolin, the adorable little armoured mammal, often sighted as the "most trafficked animal in the world". But it is so much more than that - from the illegal wildlife trade to illicit plastic waste, and from illegal mining to timber trafficking. The spotlight on environmental crime has never been more prominent, public consciousness around climate change has s...
P4 - 'Ndrangheta - "The Cocaine Gateway"
October 19, 2022 16:00 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBP4 - 'Ndrangheta - "The Cocaine Gateway" The port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria has long been considered one of the main cocaine gateways into Europe. In this episode we're going to tell the story of the 'ndrangheta and this port. How its completion in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the 'ndrangheta, were certain clans control this important node of the international cocaine market. Our guest Anna Sergi takes us from a 'faida' ('ndrangheta feud) from her childhood in Gioia Tauro to the g...
P3 - 'Ndrangheta - Canada: "The Chamber of Control"
October 12, 2022 11:00 - 26 minutes - 36.8 MBPart 3 - "The Chamber of Control" Woodbridge, Vaughan, Greater Toronto Area, 2014. A man called Carmine Verduci was gunned down outside a sports café. Over the coming days Italian and Canadian law enforcement alleged that Verduci, born in Calabria, was a connecting bridge between 'ndrangheta clans in the Locride area of Calabria and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). He was reported to be a senior member of what is known as 'The Siderno Group'. In this third episode, Anna Sergi, author of the...
P2 - 'Ndrangheta - "'Ndrangheta Royalty Down Under"
September 26, 2022 06:00 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBPart 2 - "ndrangheta Royalty Down Under" In 2007, the Australian Federal Police received a tipoff about a container arriving at the Port of Melbourne. The container had come from Italy and was full of tins of tomatoes, inside those tins was the largest ecstasy bust in the world at that time. The AFP had discovered an international drug trafficking criminal syndicate at work. At the centre of this was one criminal dynasty, not only were they a prominent Calabrian mafia clan back in Platì, ...
P1 - 'Ndrangheta - "The Madonna of the Mountain"
September 05, 2022 06:00 - 45 minutes - 61.9 MBPart 1 - "The Madonna of the Mountain" In Calabria, southern Italy there is a mountain massif called Aspromonte, "harsh mountain". The villages that hug the mountain slopes, places like San Luca, Natile and Platì are the birthplaces of the clans that make up what is collectively known as ‘Ndrangheta – one of the most powerful organized criminal syndicates in the world. From these humble beginnings the clans have spread their tentacles around the globe and become major players in the inter...
P2 - Killing the Power of the Pen: Violence against journalists in Mexico
May 25, 2022 10:00 - 42 minutes - 57.8 MBPart 2 - "I fear for my life" In 2019, journalist Lourdes Maldonado rose from her seat to speak to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a press conference - it was during this moment she said "I fear for my life" due to a long running legal dispute. Three years later, and just days after that case had been ruled in her favour, she was gunned down outside her home. Officials blamed a local cartel group, but critics were not and still are not convinced by this version of events. There is...
P1 - Killing the Power of the Pen: Violence against journalists in Mexico
May 09, 2022 15:00 - 42 minutes - 57.8 MBPart 1 - "It’s a message of terror, to stop asking questions" Mexico is known as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist on the planet, and 2022 is on record to be the deadliest yet. José Luis Gamboa Arenas, a journalist from Veracruz became the first to be killed this year, the body of Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, a Sinaloan journalist was found in Culiacán on May 5th taking to total to nine. So how has Mexico got to the point where so many journalists and media workers are bei...
P1 - Killing the power of the pen: Violence against journalists in Mexico
May 09, 2022 14:00 - 42 minutes - 57.8 MBPart 1 - "It’s a message of terror, to stop asking questions" Mexico is known as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist on the planet, and 2022 is on record to be the deadliest yet. https://cpj.org/2022/01/mexican-journalist-jose-luis-gamboa-stabbed-to-death-in-veracruz/ (José Luis Gamboa Arenas), a journalist from Veracruz became the first to be killed this year, the body of https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-journalist-killed-luis-enrique-ramirez-ramos/ (Luis Enrique Ramírez R...
"You beat me" - Part 3: Clan del Golfo: The Fall of Otoniel
April 11, 2022 06:00 - 38 minutes - 52.2 MBAs the net begins to close on Otoniel, life on the run is hard. Deep in the jungles of Úraba, he never stays in a single place for more than two nights, he no longer communicates using phones and he stays away from urban centres for fear of capture. But he still runs the largest organized criminal group in Colombia. One by one, other senior members of Clan del Golfo are picked off. But Otoniel continues to evade law enforcement in a constant game of cat and mouse. But now, Operation Agamem...
"Don't text or call me" - Part 2: Clan del Golfo: The Fall of Otoniel
March 28, 2022 06:00 - 47 minutes - 65.3 MBAt the end of part 1, Otoniel we left him in sole charge of Clan del Golfo, the biggest organized crime group in Colombia. In part 2 "Don't text or call me", we look through the eyes of a man who goes by the alias "Messi", who was involved in cocaine trafficking and money laundering for Clan del Golfo. We'll see how he used real-estate, cars, watches, front companies and government contracts to clean the drug money...as well through football, music and livestock! And finally we'll delve in...
"He's an animal" - Part 1: Clan del Golfo: The Fall of Otoniel
February 21, 2022 06:00 - 34 minutes - 48 MBIn late 2021, the leader of Clan del Golfo (The Urabeños) Dairo Antonio Úsuga, aka "Otoniel", was captured by the Colombian police. President Iván Duque said that the arrest was only matched by the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s. Over the course of two episodes we look at the birth of Clan del Golfo out of the ashes of the right-wing paramilitary movement in Colombia. We'll explore their involvement in illicit markets such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking, sexual e...
Killing in Silence: The Global Assassination Monitor
January 10, 2022 06:00 - 33 minutes - 46.6 MBAn assassination is like a stone being dropped into the middle of a still pond – the splash is the violent act itself – the ripples are the repercussions, that spread far and wide – fear, intimidation, silencing, corruption, erosion of trust, environmental damage, illicit firearms, impunity and retaliation – after all, violence begets violence – the damage to society is far-reaching, way beyond the shock of that initial killing. In November 2021, the Global Initiative against Transnational ...
Plastics for Profit
December 07, 2021 13:00 - 56 minutes - 77 MBIn this episode we look at the criminal involvement in the plastic waste industry. The lucrative global market in plastic waste is expected to be reach over $50 billion US Dollars by 2022. From Mafia groups to poly-crime networks, the temptation for organised criminal groups and bad actors to get a slice of this market is too hard to resist - and so corners are cut, laws are ignored, and irreversible damage is done. Alongside this, some waste management companies are used as Fronts to co...
Crossing the Line: India and Myanmar
September 27, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 84.6 MBIn this episode we tell the story of a region, the "Seven Sisters", otherwise known as the Indian Northeast and one town in particular, Moreh, and the relationship with neighbouring Myanmar. Moreh sits just on the Indian side of the border and has become a hub for multiple illicit flows that pass through - timber, gold, firearms, wildlife, counterfeits, people, and illicit drugs. The Indian Northeast is undeveloped and has suffered multiple insurgencies over the decades. Often forgotten by...
Fishy Business
September 06, 2021 15:30 - 50 minutes - 69.2 MBThis is a story of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, complex corporate structures, human trafficking, arms smuggling, corruption and the capture of state institutions. In this collaborative episode with Africa and the Global Illicit Economy, we travel to the rich fishing grounds off Puntland in Somalia and a fleet of vessels known as the "Somali 7", before looking into a politically connected company that has an uncanny ability to operate either outside or just on the fring...
Guinea-Bissau Part 2: Pau de Sangue (Blood Timber)
June 24, 2021 08:00 - 25 minutes - 35.3 MBIn the wake of the 2012 'Cocaine Coup' in Guinea-Bissau the illegal logging trade exploded, largely driven by huge demand for rosewood logs in China - a species protected under international law. By 2014, such was the extent of this illicit trade, civil society pressured the new government to introduce a five-year moratorium on timber exports. Now, in 2021, as the government seems poised to lift the moratorium, there is fear that there could be a resurgence in illegal logging causing irre...
Cabo Delgado: Africa’s Forgotten Insurgency
April 28, 2021 15:30 - 49 minutes - 68.7 MBOn March 24th 2021, Islamist insurgents carried out an attack on the coastal town of Palma in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. The days of fighting, looting, massacres, private military contractors, and dramatic rescues led to thousands more people fleeing to escape the violence. The attack took place just a few kilometres from Total’s $20 billion-dollar natural gas project on the Afungi peninsula and in the same province as the huge ruby fields of Montepuez. Last year the...
Guinea-Bissau Part 1: Civil Society and Illicit Markets
April 16, 2021 16:00 - 34 minutes - 47 MBA look at how a self-interested political and military elite used profits from illicit markets to fuel their own ambitions at the expense of the wider population. This is a story of corruption, dirty money, cocaine and illegal logging. This is Part one of a two-part special on Guinea-Bissau, the small West African nation. In this episode we will chart the course of Guinea-Bissau from Independence to the present day through the eyes of civil society organisations, who step in to fill the vo...
The Fall of EncroChat
January 12, 2021 17:45 - 40 minutes - 55 MBIn June 2020, EncroChat users received a flurry of panicked messages from the company claiming its encrypted network had been hacked by "government entities". What unravelled was one of the biggest hacks by law enforcement in history, who claimed many of its users are alleged organized criminals in Europe. The hack was said to have revealed a litany of criminal behaviour - drug deals and shipments, money laundering and arms trafficking, corrupt police officers, a planning of a murder and ev...
Child Sexual Abuse Material, COVID and Technology.
November 20, 2020 18:00 - 49 minutes - 68.3 MBWith more people working from home than ever before due to the pandemic,. But another parallel pandemic is taking place, that of online child sexual abuse material which has taken a sharp rise around the world. In this podcast, we’re discussing Child Online Sexual Abuse (CSAM), COVID and technology. Presenter(s): Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo and Jack Meegan-Vickers. Speakers: Fernando Ruiz, Head of Operations at the European Cybercrime Centre, set up by Europol to co-ordinate crossbor...
Under the Shadow: Illicit Economies in Iran
November 10, 2020 17:45 - 48 minutes - 67 MBIn this podcast, Jack is looking at the latest Global Initative Against Transnational Organized Crime report called 'Under the Shadow: Illicit Economies in Iran', which looks at how the illicit economy has become intertwined within the licit economy of the Iranian State. Speakers Alexander Soderholm, an international drug policy field researcher with a focus on Iran and the Middle East. Katherine Bauer, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former US Treas...
Extortion in the Northern Triangle
September 10, 2020 16:00 - 39 minutes - 53.9 MBIn the Northern Triangle countries of Central America - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, extortion is so pervasive that it has been called “A way of life”. The growth in extortion in the region was defined by the expansion of street gangs MS13 and Barrio 18. They have a stranglehold on the countries in which they operate, extorting rich and poor and even international corporations. The revenue from extortion has provided gangs in the region with a solid economic operating base, and at ...
Transnational Tentacles
July 24, 2020 09:00 - 36 minutes - 50.2 MBTransnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime. The Western Balkans is well understood now as an important transit point for the smuggling of drugs, arms and people. But what has been less understood is how over the past few decades, criminal groups within the Western Balkans region and the global diaspora have carved out a place within the very highest echelons of the criminal world. Paper: Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime. Guests: W...
Illegal Logging & Organized Crime in Chihuahua, Mexico
June 26, 2020 19:00 - 40 minutes - 55.9 MBPeople and Forests at Risk: Organized Crime, trafficking in persons and deforestation in Chihuahua, Mexico. The highland ranges of the Sierra Madre are cool and temperate forests – with several species of Oak, conifers and a number of pines, and logging is permitted here. But excessive legal and illegal logging is contributing to rapid deforestation. Organized criminal groups have established their position within the illegal logging trade, with them comes violence, corruption, kidnapping...
Insurgency and Illicit trade in Northern Mozambique
May 25, 2020 22:45 - 25 minutes - 35.4 MBHow will the ongoing violent Islamist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region of Northern Mozambique overlap with the organized criminal networks that operate in the area. How has the corruption within the Mozambican state contributed to the growth of the insurgency? Presenter: Lindy Mtongana Guests: Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development and a leading civil society activist in Mozambique Simone Haysom, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Tran...
Destruction or Theft?
April 30, 2020 17:45 - 27 minutes - 38.3 MBDestruction or Theft? Between 2014 and 2017, the Islamic State group occupied territory in Iraq. At it's height it controlled almost a third of the country and over 4,500 historical sites. Alongside the dramatic pictures of the destruction of artefacts and irreplaceable ancient sites like Nimrud, others have claimed that this destruction was largely carried out to conceal extensive looting of valuable artefacts. Presenters: Laura Adal and Jack Meegan-Vickers Guests: Colin P. Clarke, Sen...