Russia, the Wagner Group and the Fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In this episode, Mark sits down with Professor Mark Galeotti, to discuss his new book, co-authored with Anna Arutunyan, ‘Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia’.

The life of Yevgeny Prigozhin was nothing if not extraordinary. After an earlier stint in prison in Russia, he turned his hands to business, became a catering magnate, then a troll master, and finally the leader of the infamous Wagner PMC (Private Military Contractor).

The actions of the Wagner Group in places like Mali, the Central African Republic and other countries in Africa led to it being designated a transnational organized criminal group by the US in early 2023, whilst it was locked in a fierce battle with Ukrainian forces in the city of Bakhmut, Ukraine.

At the same time, Prigozhin was involved in a very public war of words with the Russia MoD, particularly with then Minister of Defence and close associate of President Putin, Sergei Shoigu. This spat eventually boiled over and led to Prigozhin’s ill-fated ‘March of Justice’ in 2023 which made it to the very edge of Moscow. This catastrophic decision ultimately led to his death, alongside several other members of the Wagner leadership, in a dramatic plane crash a few months later.

In this episode Mark Galeotti sits down with Mark Shaw to talk about Yevgeny Prigozhin, his life and career, his turbulent relationship with certain members of the Russian elite, his posthumous reinvention as the ultimate Russian patriot, where he sits in the arc of Russian history and the future of the Wagner Group without him.

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Mark Galeotti’s book ‘Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia’ is available here: https://amzn.eu/d/jiIaqS8

Audible version: https://amzn.eu/d/9Tb9MIE

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Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

====================================================

📱 YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

What role do women play in the Latin American drug cartels?

In this episode, Mark sits down with investigative journalist Deborah Bonello to discuss her book ‘Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's Cartels’.

During the trial of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman in 2018-19, there was only one woman named on the indictment, Guadalupe Fernández-Valencia, the unassuming elderly woman is the highest-ranking woman known today in the Sinaloa Cartel.

This peaked Deborah’s curiosity, who was the Bureau Chief for VICE Latin America at the time – why was so little known about Guadalupe? Was it unusual for a woman to rise to such a high level in the male-dominated world of organized?

Deborah embarked on research into the powerful cartels of Mexico and beyond, discovering that women were not always the powerless or victims, but that they were actively involved in organized crime. They were mothers and grandmothers, but they were also running criminal empires, trafficking illicit drugs and ordering murders.

Her work changes the narrative around organized crime, by understanding the agency that women have, and how to respond to it.

In this episode, Mark talks to Deborah about her book ‘Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's Cartels’.

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Deborah Bonello’s book ‘Narcas: The Secret Rise of Women in Latin America's Cartels’ is available here: https://amzn.eu/d/8Vz8iSl

Audible version: https://amzn.eu/d/8Vz8iSl

====================================================

Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

====================================================

📱 YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

What links the Italian mafia, the DEA, and Hezbollah?

In this episode, Mark sits down with investigative journalist Miles Johnson, to discuss his book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of the Mafia, Drugs and Terrorism’.

Miles discovered a DEA investigation into a money laundering network in Europe, which branched out to reveal the truly global nature of organized crime, and how it intersects with the world of terrorism.

Miles’ book reads like a cinematic thriller, a story about the globalization of organized crime. There are three central characters from three different institutions – the ‘Ndrangheta, the Italian mafia from Calabria; the terrorist organization, Hezbollah; and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in the US.

Although the characters never meet, their stories intertwine and reveal how geopolitics shapes organized crime.

Before writing this book, Miles spent a number of years as a foreign correspondent in Italy, and reveals the hundreds if not thousands of documents and legal transcripts he went through to build this fascinating story.

In this episode, Mark talks to Miles about his book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of the Mafia, Drugs and Terrorism’

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Miles Johnson's book ‘Chasing Shadows: A True Story of the Mafia, Drugs and Terrorism’ is available here: https://amzn.eu/d/bDUHTaa

Audible version: https://amzn.eu/d/3FhI2aq

====================================================

Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

====================================================

📱 YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

How did the Kinahan organized crime group rise to the top of cocaine trafficking in Europe?

In this episode, Mark sits down with investigative journalist and author Nicola Tallant to discuss her book ‘Cocaine Cowboys: The Deadly Rise of Ireland's Drug Lords’.

At the end of the 90s, Ireland was booming, the ‘Celtic Tiger’ had risen. People had more money to spend on leisure activities, and on drugs.

In steps a man from a comfortable middle-class background in Ireland, the well-educated and well-mannered, Christopher Kinahan Snr, who alongside his two sons Daniel Kinahan and Christopher Jnr, created the Kinahan Cartel.

Along with the cocaine came money, extreme violence and assassinations. The most famous of these was the Hutch-Kinahan feud, which saw criminal groups fighting one another across Europe.

Eventually, the Kinahan Cartel would join with criminal organizations from across Europe to create what Europol called the ‘European Super Cartel’, controlling the distribution of cocaine across the continent.

In 2022, the Kinahan Cartel, alongside its leading members, were sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) over alleged links to a money laundering network run by Hezbollah.

Nicola Tallant has been reporting and investigating organized crime in Ireland for three decades. She has written several books about the topic and has a successful podcast called ‘Crime World’.

In this episode, Mark talks to Nicola about her new book ‘Cocaine Cowboys: The Deadly Rise of Ireland's Drug Lords’.

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📖 Nicola Tallant's book ‘Cocaine Cowboys: The Deadly Rise of Ireland's Drug Lords’ is available here: https://amzn.eu/d/aoS98Lf

🎧 Audible version: https://amzn.eu/d/gYM6fdh

📺 Nicola also has a podcast called 'Crime World' and its available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UC8MalTYHvpmBKt5y365hDmQ

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Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

====================================================

📱 YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

Are these the twilight years of the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia?

In this episode, Mark sits down with investigative journalist and author Jake Adelstein to discuss his book ‘The Last Yakuza: A Life in the Japanese Underworld’.

The Yakuza have been part of the fabric of Japanese society for decades, they have inspired films and fanzines, invested in social network websites, provided humanitarian assistance, extorted people, meddled in politics, killed one another and politicians, as well as brought down governments. They are famed for their elaborate tattoos and chopping off pinkie fingers as a form of apology.

We hear about the unique relationship between the Yakuza and law enforcement, where once upon a time a raid on a Yakuza office was done by appointment. But that changed after a faction of the largest group, the Yamaguchi-gumi, called Kodo-kai, challenged the authority of police, which spelled the beginning of the end of the Yakuza.

Jake has been reporting on the Yakuza for decades, his first book ‘Tokyo Vice’ was adapted into an HBO series in 2022. He discusses about how to report on organized crime and how to manage relationships with Yakuza members.

In this episode, Mark talks to Jake about his book ‘The Last Yakuza: A Life in the Japanese Underworld’.

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Jake Adelstein’s book ‘The Last Yakuza: A Life in the Japanese Underworld’ is available here: https://a.co/d/2k2V0MR

Audible version: https://a.co/d/cKHMZZ2

====================================================

Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

====================================================

📱 Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

The History of the American Mafia: How the Mob Built Its Empire in the US, with Former Gambino Crime Family Associate, Louis Ferrante.

In this episode, Mark sits down with former Mob associate Louis Ferrante to discuss his book, Borgata: The Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia.

The history of the American Mafia, known as La Cosa Nostra or simply "The Mob," is well known. Prohibition in the United States during the Roaring Twenties saw the rise of characters who have since been mythologized in Hollywood: Charles "Lucky" Luciano and his close confidant Meyer Lansky, Al "Scarface" Capone, Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein, Dutch Schultz, Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, and Salvatore Maranzano.

What makes Borgata different is that it was written by someone who lived "The Life," providing a unique perspective. Lou discusses the formation of The Commission, an underworld ruling council that controlled the Five Families of New York (now known as the Gambino, Genovese, Lucchese, Bonanno, and Colombo), The Outfit in Chicago, and the Philadelphia Mafia.

Lou talks about the rules, the use of violence, and how the US government looked to tackle the growing power of organized crime, spearheaded by the likes of prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey.

We also hear about Lou's own life in La Cosa Nostra and how he and his crew committed some of the most successful heists in US history, which ultimately landed him in prison.

In prison, he began to read everything he could get his hands on, including history, philosophy, and the great classics of literature. He never turned on his former associates, but when he left prison, he also left "The Life." Now he speaks about his experiences with the Mob and has become a successful author (Unlocked: A Journey from Prison to Proust), including his new a huge three-part history of the American Mafia.

In this episode, Mark and Lou discuss the first book, Borgata: The Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia.

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Louis Ferrante's book 'Borgata: The Rise of Empire: A History of the American Mafia' is available here: https://a.co/d/cDcxOQ2

Audible version: https://a.co/d/2VHu3Ht

====================================================

📱 Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@UCP-lqJdhM-9iDKkswuVcXZA

🌎 VISIT US! Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - https://globalinitiative.net/

🎧Audio version: https://link.chtbl.com/7c27X1CM

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

===================================================

FOLLOW US

X - @gitoc

LinkedIn - @Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

IG - @gi_toc

===================================================

Welcome to Underworlds with Mark Shaw.

Organized Crime is everywhere, hidden in plain sight. The stories from this world have been mythologised by Hollywood. But the reality can be even stranger and more exciting than fiction.

From the golden age of the American mafia (La Cosa Nostra), to the modern-day cocaine empires, and from the shadowy links between organized crime and terrorism, to the twilight of the Yakuza.

In this series Mark Shaw, the Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime delves into non-fiction books about organized crime and the illicit economy with the authors themselves. He asks questions about their background and investigations, but also the challenges associated in writing about this murky world.