Today the ‘Ndrangheta, Calabria’s clan-based Mafia, is one of the world’s richest and most powerful drug trafficking organizations, worth an estimated $55 billion. But it wasn’t always like that. From the 1960s, as European politics went mad, the group glommed onto a new fad taking Italy by storm: kidnapping. And it got them the capital to get into property, ... Show More
Aug 19
Fidel Castro: Cuba’s Cocaine Trafficker-in-Chief?
In 1959, when Fidel Castro’s revolutionaries toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, they wasted no time booting out American business owners, casinos and drug kingpins — much to the delight of US law enforcers. But as time passed, and Castro’s socialist regime sought ever-tric ... Show More
1h 4m
Aug 12
The Dixie Mafia's Texas Millionaire Murders
When Bill Richardson, a troubled oilman and pro pigeon shooter, was gunned down on his Corpus Christi doorstep in 1971, everybody assumed it was an open-and-shut organized crime hit. But when Richardson’s supposed killers walked free from court, and another body showed up in the ... Show More
1h 5m
Aug 5
Mexico's New Ultraviolent Narco-Terrorists: The CDN
From the ashes of Los Zetas rose the Cartel del Noreste or Northeast Cartel, a brutal splinter group led by the infamous Treviño Morales family and headquartered in the blood-soaked border city of Nuevo Laredo. Known for their military tactics, narco-tanks, and paramilitary wing ... Show More
54m 56s
Nov 2024
Always Cheat & Always Win: Episode 419
Roderick McLean said it was important to 'always cheat: always win'. A larger than life character, McLean, known as 'Popeye', was sent to prisom when police and customs officers captured a gang of eight drug smugglers off the Caithness coast. During the raid customs officer Alast ... Show More
28m 29s
Dec 2024
Murder Inc. | The Secret Muscle of the New York Mafia
In the 1930s and 40s, an unassuming candy shop in Brownsville, Brooklyn, doubled as the headquarters for Murder Inc., the Mafia's secretive enforcement arm. Led by ruthless figures like Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert “Mad Hatter” Anastasia, this group of killers carried out h ... Show More
35m 22s
Mar 2021
The Beatles (Pt. 2): Kamikaze Assassins, Acid Smuggling, Suicide, Kidnapping, and the Breakup the Greatest Band of All Time
At the height of their world-changing and culture-defining popularity, the Beatles faced death threats in foreign countries, an unfair tax rate in their own country that forced them to stash heaps of undeclared cash in brown paper bags, and the sudden suicide of their manager. Bu ... Show More
44m 52s
Jan 2025
Minnesota Man Caught in Blind Mule Drug Trafficking Scam
Rodney Baldus, a retired truck driver from Minnesota, believes he is the recipient of a large inheritance belonging to his late wife. The inheritance is in Italy, but he is told he must first fly to Africa to sign papers before going on to Italy. Since his travel expenses are all ... Show More
48m 50s
Apr 2025
EP122: Korean Cannibal Clan
Join our Patreon family for exclusive access to BTS, bonus episodes, a private group chat, first dibs on ticket and merch sales, and more! www.Patreon.com/PsychopediaPod The Chijon Family was a nightmarishly savage South Korean gang that blazed a brief but blood-soaked trail of t ... Show More
1h 11m