The Underworld Podcast
Underworld exposes the secret world of transnational criminal networks that have flourished since there were banks to bust, drugs to smuggle, and scams to run. Journalists Danny Gold and Sean Williams bring their experience reporting on dangerous people and organizations to take listeners on a global tour of mobsters, warlords and crooks - from Brooklyn to Beijing, from the streets to the boardrooms - and everywhere in between. Underworld is a show about heroes, villains, and the barely visible mafias that affect all our lives, whether we know it or not.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 49 minutes
- Episodes
- 227
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
The Knife Fighting Italian Gangster Who Built an Army while in Prison
The Camorra clans of Naples had always played second fiddle to the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian 'Ndranghetta. Until Raffaelle Cutolo started building up his Nuovo Camorra Organization while locke…
00:39:50 |
Tue 17 Oct 2023
How Russian Mobsters Masterminded a Crazy, Fake Cricket League for Betting Riches: Sean's in the Field!
This May, on assignment for _Sports Illustrated_, Sean visited Molipur, a tiny village in Gujarat, India, to dive into what seemed like a funny caper: villagers establishing a fake cricket league to …
00:52:18 |
Tue 10 Oct 2023
The Secret Rise of Female Narcos in Latin American Cartels with Deborah Bonello
Deborah Bonello is a Mexico City-based reporter who's distilled years of reporting on some of the most dangerous women on earth into her new book "Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's …
01:03:13 |
Tue 03 Oct 2023
Ex-Con Mercenaries, Wagner, Prigozhin, and the Russian Mafiosos Fighting in Ukraine with Joshua Yaffa
The Russian mercenary/state aligned outfit Wagner emerged from the early days of the war in Ukraine, led by an ex-con turned hot dog salesman turned Putin lapdog. In no time, they were operating in t…
00:47:50 |
Tue 26 Sep 2023
The Chechen Mafia Strikes Back: War Profiteering, School Sieges and a Turncoat Named Kadyrov
The Soviet Union is toast, Chechnya is at war and Grozny, its embattled capital, is being bombed to dust. Gangs of Chechen criminals are getting rich off the bloodshed, capitalizing on gun- and drug-…
00:53:59 |
Tue 19 Sep 2023
Becoming the Chechen Mafia: Ancient Outlaws, Soviet Scabs and a British KGB Plot
In this episode we track the concept of the Chechen Mafia—not an easy thing to define—from ancient invasions and the creation of the "Abrek", or "outlaw-exile," through Soviet repression, Stalin's de…
00:50:10 |
Tue 12 Sep 2023
The Camorra Clans of Naples: Italy's Most Violent Criminal Organizarion
The origins of Naples' feared criminal clans known as the Camorra go back hundreds of years to the days of rural banditry and villa owners with private armies that lived by a code. Now, having access…
00:46:26 |
Tue 05 Sep 2023
The Maltese Mobsters who Ruled London's Empire of Vice
The Messina family came from Sicily, then Malta and North Africa, before settling in 1930s London—whose underworld was about to be supercharged by wartime blackouts and love-lorn American G.I.s.
They…
00:50:19 |
Tue 29 Aug 2023
Los Zetas: The Brutal Cartel Formed By Mexican Commandos
Mexican Cartels have always had a penchant for violence, but the brutal tactics of Los Zetas plunged Mexico into never before seen levels of bloodshed. Originally formed by only a few dozen special f…
00:44:20 |
Tue 22 Aug 2023
Bootlegging All Over the World: Illegal Brews from North Korea to Pakistan
The term ‘rumrunning’ might be associated with Prohibition-era goons in the American Midwest. But bootlegging is alive and well today, and this week’s episode goes from Sean’s surprising discovery in…
00:41:36 |
Tue 15 Aug 2023
The Brutal Burmese Human Trafficking Syndicates of Southeast Asia: Classic Underworld
Hundreds of millions of dollars have been made by a vicious network of organized crime figures throughout Southeast Asia by preying on what the United Nations has called "the most persecuted people i…
00:54:37 |
Tue 18 Jul 2023
A Romanian Mob Illicit Arms Deal With a Twist - with Trevor Aaronson
Trevor Aaronson is a contributing writer at The Intercept. The second season of his show Alphabet Boys digs into the strange story of Flaviu Georgescu, a Romanian-American “fixer” who got tangled up …
00:45:21 |
Mon 10 Jul 2023
North Korea's Crypto Crimes: Special Episode from Click Here
We have a special episode swap from the good folks at the Click Here podcast.
For years, North Korea was known for making such a perfect counterfeit hundred-dollar note, the Treasury Department had t…
00:23:36 |
Tue 27 Jun 2023
Ridouan Taghi's Murderous Rampage, and the Cocaine Kings of Antwerp and Rotterdam - with Mitchell Prothero
Mitchell Prothero has been on the tail of Ridouan Taghi, the Mocro Mafia and the Marengo Trial for years—and he joins Sean to discuss "Gateway: Cocaine, Murder & Dirty Money in Europe", a podcast abo…
01:31:10 |
Tue 20 Jun 2023
Tiger Traffickers, Narco Zoos and the (Even Darker) Truth Behind Joe Exotic
In 2019 Sean spent weeks on the road between Oklahoma and Miami, investigating roadside zoo owner—and soon-to-be American icon—Joe Exotic. The truth was way, way darker than anything Netflix's Tiger …
00:44:27 |
Tue 25 Apr 2023
The World's Most Powerful Cocaine Broker: Inside the 'Ndrangheta with Antonio Talia
In recent years, another one of Italy's feared criminal groups has risen above the Sicilian Mafia to become among the most powerful organized crime groups in the world: The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta. Sta…
01:04:22 |
Tue 18 Apr 2023
The Robber Baron Mafias of the Lawless Amazon Rainforest
Last year’s murders of journalist Dom Phillips, and indigenous rights campaigner Bruno Pereira, shocked Brazil and the world. But they were just one violent conclusion to a story of mafias of all str…
00:51:26 |
Tue 11 Apr 2023
The Time Sean Went to Burma to Find A Billion Dollar Meth Lab
The biggest drug cartel in the world isn't Mexican, or Colombian. It's Asian. Buried deep in the Burmese jungle are networks of cutting edge meth labs, guarded by rebels and run by kingpins so powerf…
00:47:31 |
Tue 04 Apr 2023
The Golden Era of Clubs, Club Drugs, and Mafia Crews in NYC Nightlife to Miami and Back
In the 1990's, Manhattan's booming dance club scene was hit by two massive trends: Ecstasy and Techno. With the eye-patch wearing Canadian nightlife impresario Peter Gatien standing watch, massive cl…
00:52:31 |
Tue 28 Mar 2023
A Brazilian Murder, Narco Evangelists and Holy Warfare: The Gangsters of the Global Pentecostal Movement
Pentecostalism has exploded everywhere—and with it a whole new wave of grifters, crooks and machine gun-toting zealots.
Sean spoke to Elle Hardy, author of “Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianit…
00:56:24 |
Tue 21 Mar 2023
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