With El Chapo locked up in a supermax prison and never going home, there's been a battle to maintain the power of his feared Sinaloa cartel. Many thought his sons, groomed to take his place, would falter. Seen mostly as spoiled rich kid "narco juniors" who possessed neither the intelligence nor the strength to outmaneuver older, more experienced druglords, t ... Show More
Oct 13
Cuba’s New Synthetic Drug Wave
How Cuba is Slipping into Drug Chaos Since the beginning of the year, the US has placed Cuba under an oil embargo, crippling its public services and throwing a society that was already on its knees into chaos. Blackouts roll for days, trash piles high and locals are getting sick ... Show More
59m 52s
Oct 6
Cuba: From Lansky’s Casinos to Castro’s Guns
Sean got beaten up in Cuba! To celebrate this, we’ve thrown together a biopoly of crime in the tropics, beginning with the story of how American organized crime flocked to Havana in the 1920s as a Prohibition rum-runner’s paradise. After World War II, mobsters then executed a tak ... Show More
59m 13s
Sep 29
Stash House: Cartel Wars, Coke Boats, and Gangs Gone Global
Danny and Sean take another lap around the criminal world, where somehow everything is getting bigger, stranger, and more international. Sinaloa’s cartel war grinds on, Romanian crews allegedly drain millions from American food-benefit accounts, and South Africa confronts organiz ... Show More
1h 3m
Feb 2021
El Chapo Part 2: The Tunnel King
In the early 1980s, Chapo Guzmán is still in his mid-20s. But he’s already grabbed the attention of the Guadalajara Kingpin. Promoted to the Cartel's inner circle, he uses tunnels, ships and even submarines to transport contraband. Chapo assumes personal control of Sinaloa State ... Show More
41m 12s
Jan 2024
El Chapo: Cocaine kingpin
The story of Mexican drug lord Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, the leader of one of the world’s most prolific, violent and powerful drug cartels.BBC business editor Simon Jack and journalist Zing Tsjeng follow El Chapo from childhood in the Mexican moun ... Show More
50m 48s
Feb 2021
El Chapo Part 1: Public Enemy Number One
El Chapo: the scourge of Mexico and America’s most-wanted. Joaquín Guzmán Loera, to use his real name, escaped from custody multiple times and dodged death many more. For years, he rode roughshod over Mexican justice and evaded the long arm of the US Government. He became an A-li ... Show More
38m 39s
Jul 2020
“El Chapo” Pt. 1: Joaquín Guzmán
Before he became the most powerful drug cartel leader in the world, building tunnels to evade authorities and growing his power even from inside prison, Joaquín Guzmán Loera was a small-town marijuana farmer in Sinaloa, Mexico. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoic ... Show More
38m 40s
Mar 2021
El Chapo Part 7: The Curtain Falls?
A desperate flight through a sewage pipe is not enough to deliver El Chapo to freedom. Arrested and extradited to the United States, his story closes in a packed Brooklyn courtroom, in front of the world’s media. But even as Chapo departs the stage, Mexico remains under siege fro ... Show More
34m 6s
Mar 2021
El Chapo Part 4: The Great Escape
It’s 2001, and Mexican drug baron Joaquín Guzmán Loera has spent nearly a decade behind bars. But now he becomes a fugitive once more, as he pulls off the most daring escape his super-max prison has ever seen. DEA agents wrangle a sit-down with a new, priceless informant. Meanwhi ... Show More
47m 25s
Mar 2021
El Chapo Part 4: The Great Escape
It’s 2001, and Mexican drug baron Joaquín Guzmán Loera has spent nearly a decade behind bars. But now he becomes a fugitive once more, as he pulls off the most daring escape his super-max prison has ever seen. DEA agents wrangle a sit-down with a new, priceless informant. Meanwhi ... Show More
39m 22s