0:15

Pushkin. Hey

0:19

Jake here, I'm back in your feed to bring

0:21

you an episode of Hot Money The New

0:23

Narcos, a podcast from Pushkin

0:25

Industries and The Financial Times. This

0:28

season begins with a murder and a small

0:30

town and leads to the story

0:32

of a cocaine supercartel that

0:34

is revolutionizing the global drugs market.

0:37

In the show's new season, Financial

0:39

Times investigative reporter Miles

0:42

Johnson examines the drugs, money

0:44

laundering, and state sponsored assassinations

0:47

that stretch from Dublin to Dubai.

0:50

Today will be playing the podcast's first

0:52

episode. If you enjoy it, you

0:55

can listen to Hot Money the New Narcos

0:57

wherever you get your podcasts, and

0:59

to listen ad free, subscribe to

1:01

Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcasts

1:04

or by visiting Pushkin dot Fm,

1:07

Slash Plus.

1:13

I'm Myles Johnson and I'm an investigative

1:15

journalist with The Financial Times and

1:17

the story I'm going to tell you it's not a

1:19

love story, but it starts with

1:21

a wedding. It's a wedding that takes

1:23

place in Dubai in twenty seventeen.

1:27

It's a hot summer's day at the Burj

1:29

al Arab, one of the most expensive

1:31

hotels in the world. It's a skyscraper

1:34

shaped like the sale of a ship rising

1:36

up from the glittering water of the Persian Gulf.

1:40

Guests can arrive across a private bridge

1:42

in the hotel's fleet of Rolls Royce phantoms,

1:45

or flyin landing on the helipad on

1:47

the roof. The wedding party

1:50

that day has been told to keep things discreet,

1:53

no photos and no social media.

1:56

Security is tight. The

1:58

groom is a young Irish entrepreneur and

2:00

some of his most important business partners

2:02

have come to celebrate his big day. But

2:05

these aren't your average businessmen. Some

2:08

of them hang priceless stolen masterpieces

2:11

on their walls. They've got multiple

2:13

passports with multiple identities,

2:16

and they can order the assassination of

2:19

almost anyone anywhere in the

2:21

world. Because

2:23

this isn't just a wedding, this

2:25

is an international crime summit. It's

2:28

a meeting of what will come to be known as

2:30

the Doubai Supercartel, a

2:32

shadowy criminal network that controls

2:35

a multi billion dollar cocaine empire

2:37

spanning the globe. Over

2:43

the years, I've written about a lot of different

2:45

things, but more recently you could

2:47

perhaps describe my beat as the places

2:49

where crime and business collide. I've

2:52

written about Russian billionaires who

2:54

control private mercenary armies and

2:56

the Italian mafia laundering their cash

2:58

through the City of London. Have covered Vatican

3:00

financial scandals and spy rings

3:02

that smuggle microchips. Because

3:05

crime is a business, and modern

3:07

organized crime groups they're increasingly

3:09

run like multinational companies.

3:12

They have thousands of employees, complicated

3:15

logistical supply chains, and even

3:17

investment portfolios. It's

3:20

a big economic story, but you don't

3:22

usually read about it in the business pages.

3:25

Because reporting on international crime groups

3:27

in the same way we'd report on a blue chip corporation,

3:30

Well, it's hard. Crime bosses

3:32

they don't usually have pr teams you can

3:34

ring up and mafias. They

3:36

don't publish audited accounts or glossy

3:39

annual reports. But the money

3:41

generated by organized crime is vast,

3:44

and most of the time it's invisible.

3:47

It's like this ocean of shadow cash.

3:49

We know it's there, but we can't ever really

3:52

see it. It's trillions

3:54

of dollars and it fuels things like weapons

3:56

trafficking and war. It can

3:59

even topple governments and

4:01

the men celebrating in that wedding in Dubai.

4:03

They've come up with a new model of organized crime,

4:06

and it's become so successful that by

4:08

twenty seven police believed

4:10

that they control a third of Europe's cocaine

4:12

market, worth billions of dollars

4:15

a year. When

4:17

I first came across the du By Supercartel,

4:19

it seems like something from a film, something

4:22

almost ridiculous, like Specter from

4:24

James Bond. I needed to find

4:27

out more, so I started talking to people.

4:29

I met with sources in law enforcement, undercover

4:32

agents, spies. I got hold

4:34

of legal documents and investigative dossiers,

4:37

and then I realized this isn't just a

4:40

story about crime. This is a

4:42

story about a secret economic

4:44

war. It's a story about

4:46

who gets to control how money

4:48

moves around the world, and where the Western

4:50

governments can keep hold of that power

4:53

as the rules based international order breaks

4:55

apart. Because I discovered

4:58

that the due By Supercartel, they're

5:00

not just hiding from governments, they're

5:02

working alongside them.

5:05

But my first clue to understanding how this group

5:07

of criminals became so rich and

5:09

so powerful it took me somewhere

5:11

that's a million miles away from the bling

5:14

of a Dubai wedding because

5:16

one day I was speaking to a source

5:18

and they told me something I just really wasn't expecting.

5:22

They said, if you really want

5:24

to understand how all of this works,

5:27

you have to go and look at a murder in a small

5:29

town in the Netherlands. This

5:36

is Hot Money, season two, the

5:38

New Narcos, episode

5:40

one, Murder Brokers.

6:06

One of the good things about being a primary border

6:08

is that you talked to everyone

6:11

who wants to talk to you, very different

6:14

people, and I like to

6:16

do that. This is

6:18

Paul Paul Vooks. He's

6:20

a reporter in Amsterdam and for more than

6:22

twenty years he's been working the local

6:25

crime beat for Het Parole, a

6:27

daily city newspaper. Paul

6:29

wears black t shirts and a leather jacket

6:32

and has a gold hoop in one ear. He's

6:35

old school. He's not posting hot

6:37

takes on social media. When

6:40

I first met Paul, he didn't take long before

6:42

he showed me his bike. He

6:45

rides it everywhere down cobblestone streets

6:47

and squares and along beautiful canals,

6:49

going to coffee shops and bars to meet his

6:51

sources. But if that sounds

6:53

a bit quaint, there's a fast, seedy aside

6:55

to Amsterdam that keeps a crime reporter like

6:58

Paul pretty busy. Because

7:00

Amsterdam is famous for his beauty, but it's also

7:02

well known for its red light district, it's

7:04

relaxed drug laws, and a vibrant criminal

7:07

underworld. Paul

7:09

always has plenty to write about. Like

7:14

all good crime reporters, Paul works his

7:16

be He speaks to everyone.

7:18

He talks to police officers, lawyers,

7:21

the local prosecutor's office. But

7:23

Paul is also always cultivating his underworld

7:26

sources. I tried to build

7:28

my network step by step because,

7:31

as you might know, as a grime duellist, your

7:34

colleague cannot give you his or her network.

7:36

That's not possible. And

7:38

he learns early on the criminals well,

7:41

they care about journalistic standards too. A

7:44

notorious Underworld figure reaches out to Paul

7:47

about a mistake he thought he'd made in one of his articles,

7:50

because he wanted to set the record straight. But

7:53

the first time, of course, I thought where

7:55

to meet, how to meet, how

7:57

to keep it safe. I

8:00

learned quite fast that some

8:02

public space as a coffee bar

8:05

is the best place to sit, or

8:07

atn airport where everybody knows

8:10

there are lots of cameras, there's a lot of security.

8:12

Nothing will happen there. You'll know for

8:14

sure that all eyes will be focused

8:16

on you as a criminal, and I we

8:19

don't fit it. So if

8:21

something weird would happen, everybody would be

8:23

a witness and they know it as well.

8:26

Back in twenty fifteen, Paul is busy covering

8:29

crime in Amsterdam. Muggings,

8:31

rival gangsters trying to kill each other, batches

8:34

of dodgy drugs that put people's lives in danger.

8:37

These seem like the sort of things you'd imagine happen in

8:39

any big city. Then one morning

8:41

in December, he gets a call. It's

8:44

from the police department. A

8:47

man in his fifties was shot with one

8:49

bullet in the head and standing next to

8:51

his fan. Going to work from

8:54

Amsterdam, I went to Almira, which

8:57

is twenty minute, right. Is it somewhere

8:59

you expect there to be shootings,

9:02

murders? You know what sort of areas there's

9:04

There are lots of crime there. What's it like

9:07

the area? And they live in in Almraa's

9:10

just a very normal neighborhood with normal

9:12

working class people. Not

9:14

much trouble over there. When

9:17

Paul arrives, there's already red and

9:19

white tape blocking the area and police

9:21

have put up a tent to cover the body. He

9:23

gets out his notebook and starts to gather the

9:25

facts. The victim is

9:27

called Ali Mtamad. He's fifty

9:29

six years old and he's an engineer at the

9:31

state electric company. He's got a

9:34

wife, a son. He's a family

9:36

man. But there isn't much else to go on.

9:39

The electrician doesn't seem to have any connection to

9:41

crime. All the sources

9:43

I asked, nobody knew who

9:45

was this Alimodamet. To

9:48

Paul, it just seems to be a random shooting.

9:51

So he heads back to his office and files a short

9:53

story. A few

9:55

weeks later, his editor asked him to write

9:57

a roundup of the most notable crime stories

9:59

of the last year, and the murder in ol

10:01

Mayor doesn't make the cut. Paul

10:04

goes back to riding around on his bike and

10:06

meeting his sources. But

10:09

in the months after, Paul finds that

10:11

he can't get the mtamed case out of his head.

10:14

That thing when you write a story and you

10:16

have a nagging voice in your head, maybe

10:19

there's something that are missing. Paul's

10:22

covered a lot of murders, but this one

10:24

it seems weird. He can't

10:26

shake the feeling that something doesn't quite

10:29

add up. The

10:32

first thing is the style of the killing. It

10:34

wasn't a sloppy job or a wild act

10:37

of rage. The thing was

10:39

that one shut through the heads.

10:41

It's not the familiar way of

10:43

assassinating people. In other assassinations,

10:47

automatic rifles are used, many

10:50

bullets are shut. And then

10:52

there was the motive. One theory

10:54

is that Mtammed was part of some family

10:57

feud or had argued with a friend. Most

10:59

of the murders, Paul writes about that kind of

11:01

thing, or criminals killing each other of a

11:04

money or tough settling scores.

11:07

But that didn't really fit with the matomag case.

11:10

So there were other theories. Oh,

11:12

maybe electricians so him. Maybe he

11:14

was in hemp business. The

11:16

hemp people they need illegal electricity.

11:19

Hemp is another name for weed, and

11:22

some weed grows in the Netherlands steal electricity

11:24

to power their operations. Matammed

11:26

was an electrician. Maybe that was his connection

11:29

to crime. Maybe he was a wrong

11:31

person. That was an idea. This

11:34

seemed like the most plausible explanation.

11:37

A terrible case of mistaken identity.

11:40

Paul keeps thinking about it as

11:42

he drops into cafes to meet informants

11:44

about other stories. He mentions

11:46

Alimtammad's name. Criminals

11:49

didn't know him, policemen didn't

11:51

know him. I tried to do some research,

11:54

but I didn't get a clue. To be honest,

11:57

as a reporter, you can have dozens

11:59

of meetings that lead to nothing, but

12:01

once in a while, you get lucky.

12:05

And that's what happens to Paul. Out

12:07

of nowhere, he gets a tip.

12:11

I was

12:13

talking to some source

12:16

I knew very well, and this

12:18

source told me just the

12:20

second cup of coffee and he said, ball,

12:23

you remember this story of Alimodamett.

12:25

You're working on that still, Yes, you

12:28

should go on and go on and dig

12:30

and dig, because there's a very weird, big

12:32

story behind this murder. Paul

12:50

wasn't the only person thinking about what happened

12:52

in al Mayor that day. I remember

12:55

this, this shooting December

12:58

fifteenth. Your really nice

13:00

neighbor got guilt. Nobody

13:02

knows why. At the time,

13:05

you would say Eliam was involved with the local city

13:07

council. So yeah, I remember,

13:09

it was like this mystery

13:12

for people, like what happened. Ulas.

13:16

He's this intense guy who locks

13:18

you into his gaze, and he's a sharp

13:20

dresser. When we meet, he's wearing

13:23

this charcoal suit and a black unbuttoned

13:25

shirt down to his chest. When

13:28

Alimatomed is murdered, ulases

13:30

just getting into local politics. He's

13:32

a spokesperson for safety in public order in our

13:34

mayor where Alimtammad was killed. What

13:37

was strange in this case

13:39

there was nothing and

13:42

this was fueled by the

13:44

National police.

13:48

Police appealed on national television for any

13:50

information that the public could give them. Have

13:53

any tips, Do you have any suggestions. We put

13:55

out this reward, but no one came forward.

13:59

A year goes by, still nothing.

14:02

I thought, this is getting this is getting a

14:04

bit weird. So we don't have any

14:06

clues to find the shooters.

14:09

There's no information about the circumstances

14:11

of the shooting. Ulisse

14:15

is particularly interested in this case because

14:17

Alimtamed, it turns out, was

14:19

born in Iran, and Ulussey's

14:22

own family also moved to the Netherlands from

14:24

Iran around the same time that alimtamedd

14:26

did. I'm named after Odysseus,

14:29

you know, the Greek king, because

14:31

my father was he was reading Odysseus,

14:33

and my father was like, okay,

14:36

I lost my home. I don't know where my home

14:38

will be, but I'm sure this baby will find

14:40

a new home. Ulissay's

14:43

father was a critic of the hardline theocracy

14:45

imposed by the new regime in Iran after

14:47

the revolution. He knew his

14:49

life might be in danger if he

14:51

stayed. He had to go into hiding

14:54

very fast. He never had

14:56

the chance to say goodbye to his mother, for example,

14:59

because it was too dangerous. First

15:01

his father moved to Afghanistan, where Ulase

15:04

was born, and then they moved to the

15:06

Netherlands, eventually settling in al Mayor.

15:09

Ulisse grew up in the same sleepy suburb where

15:11

Alie mctomat lived and died. I've

15:13

been living there for twenty years now. And

15:16

the funny thing is, or the special thing, it also

15:18

relates to my history, you know, like

15:20

it's a new city. The province.

15:24

One of the nicknames is like new Land

15:26

because it's built from water.

15:29

Yeah, and my family came to a new

15:31

Land, it started a new life. So yeah,

15:33

it all connects really nicely. Ulisse's

15:36

father became a law professor and he

15:38

kept speaking out against the Uranian regime from

15:41

his new home. But there was a cost,

15:44

and this became a reality when the family

15:46

moved to our Mayor. His father

15:48

started getting serious threats. At

15:50

that time, my father received a massive

15:53

security protection. I

15:56

was young. You're still focused

15:58

on things

16:00

you do when you're at that age, you know, playing

16:03

football, trying to enjoy

16:05

life. But yeah, when you see your

16:08

dad being transported with

16:10

multiple bodyguards, yeah,

16:13

of course your life changes. So

16:16

decades later, when an Iranian man is

16:18

shot in his hometown, it gets Uleuss's

16:20

attention. Even more so when

16:23

police finally share what they've pieced together from

16:25

CCTV footage, it shows

16:27

that the idea the assassin's made a mistake

16:30

looks less and less plausible. This

16:33

was a meticulously planned operation. The

16:37

police report is a difficult read.

16:41

It's a chilling account of a cold, premeditated

16:44

murder planned over weeks,

16:47

and it reveals that the killers

16:49

made two failed attempts in the days

16:51

before Ali Mtammad was shot. On

16:54

December eleventh, twenty fifteen, at

16:57

around quarter past six in the morning, a

16:59

blue BMW drives slowly down

17:02

the dark suburban street. The

17:05

driver stops outside one of the houses

17:07

and turns the car's headlights. Inside

17:12

Ali Mhammed is getting started with his day.

17:15

Usually he leaves his house a quarter to

17:17

seven, but today he has

17:20

a job nearby, so he leaves

17:22

later at eight thirty am. At

17:24

about eight am, the driver of the BMW

17:27

turns the car back and leaves the street.

17:31

A few days later, Monday,

17:33

December fourteenth, the BMW

17:35

arrives again at around quarter

17:38

past six. It's a regular

17:40

work day, and Mhammed walks out of

17:42

his front door a little before seven. A

17:44

neighbors also leaving their house at the same time,

17:47

and the driver of the BMW spots him

17:50

and Muhammed and drives off. Tuesday,

17:55

December fifteenth, the BMW

17:58

appears at six o'clock. Mtummed's

18:01

wife and teenage son are asleep upstairs

18:03

as he steps out of his house and shuts the front

18:05

door. It is dark outside.

18:09

Neighbors around this morning. As

18:12

the electrician walks towards his van, a man

18:14

walks up behind him and shoots him in

18:16

the head Toomid slumps

18:18

to the ground and the shooter gets back in his BMW

18:21

and the car speeds off. They

18:27

hit him directly left

18:29

with the car. I think if I remember correctly,

18:31

BMW five. They

18:34

went to the specific

18:36

spot in another part of ol Miror burned

18:39

the car and they leave. The

18:41

BMW was found burned out a

18:43

few miles away, and witnesses

18:45

saw two men walking off. There's

18:48

all the signs of professionals

18:50

in the criminal circuit, so

18:52

that made it even more strange, like, Okay, this

18:55

is really professional, and still we

18:57

don't have any idea why

19:00

who. This

19:03

is the point that I started to see

19:05

the first flicker to

19:07

realize what a murder and a small much town

19:09

could have to do with the supercartel and

19:12

what that could mean. Because Paul

19:14

has kept on digging and he's made an

19:16

unbelievable discovery. And

19:19

I remember reading it and I

19:21

think it was on a sunny Monday morning,

19:24

and I immediately I knew. I

19:27

felt in all my body, I know, wow, this

19:29

is crazy. In

19:32

twenty eighteen, Paul breaks a big

19:34

story and it's not about the murderers,

19:37

but it's about the victim.

19:40

I found out that Ali Motamet was

19:42

not Ali Motamet the electrician. He

19:44

was an electrician, yes, but

19:47

he lived in Holland with a false eye

19:49

identity. Alimtamid

19:53

was in reality and assumed identity.

19:56

The electrician from our mayor had been living

19:58

a secret life, one so secret

20:01

that even some members of his own family didn't

20:04

know who he really was. Ali

20:06

Modamet was Mohammed Reza

20:08

colahis so mandy and when

20:10

he was twenty three years old, he plays

20:12

the bomb which blew up seventy

20:15

four people of the Islamic

20:18

Republican Party in Iran. This

20:23

happened in my city, quite

20:26

close to where I live, and

20:30

probably the regime, you know, the

20:33

whole reason I'm in Holland. They

20:36

were able to find someone who

20:39

they were looking for for like at

20:42

that time, like thirty five years,

20:45

who was like one of their prime

20:48

targets because they wanted to revenge.

20:52

My dad always wanted me. They're

20:54

dangerous, you know, they

20:57

found him. These are

20:59

not bedtime stories. This

21:01

is getting real. Sometimes

21:20

you get a glimpse of something, the

21:23

edge of what seems like it might be a much

21:25

bigger story, and it leads you

21:27

into a whole new place, a place

21:29

where you're not quite sure what's going on, and

21:32

it's hard to know even where to start. That's

21:35

where Paul finds himself after he learns

21:37

about Ali Mtummed's past. I

21:40

had no sources at all

21:42

in Iran, I had no sources

21:44

at all in geopolitical

21:46

world. This clearly

21:49

isn't a local murder case in a small town

21:51

anymore. Paul has been pulled

21:53

into what looks like a targeted assassination

21:56

plot in the heart of Europe, but

21:58

he doesn't have any proof, just a

22:00

strong theory. Wulasa

22:03

is looking for answers too. He posts

22:05

online about the case and wonders

22:07

does anyone know more about Matummed or

22:09

how the Iranian regime might have found him?

22:12

And Ulasses posts they catch

22:15

Paul's attention. Paul called

22:17

me, I saw your questions.

22:20

Let's talk. After I broke

22:22

the story, ulus Elian and I met

22:24

in our mea, had coffee and

22:27

we tried to make plans to find the

22:29

missing pieces of the puzzle. How can

22:31

we get more insight in

22:33

the backgrounds of this Aul the

22:37

man his neighbors knew as Alimtomid moved

22:39

to the Netherlands in nineteen eighty five. He

22:41

wouldn't have particularly stood out. It

22:44

was a time when many Iranians were fleeing Iran, just

22:46

like Ulysses father, but

22:48

Ali Mtommid wasn't just fleeing, he

22:51

was hiding. He was accused

22:53

of carrying out the biggest terrorist attack in

22:55

modern Iranian history.

22:58

This is a big deal, this bombing

23:00

in nineteen eighty one. It killed a senior

23:02

Iotola, four cabinet ministers,

23:05

and reportedly dozens of other top Iranian

23:07

officials. Matamid

23:09

fled Iran after the bombing, but was found guilty

23:11

in absentia and sentenced to death. We

23:15

don't know much about his years in the Netherlands, but

23:17

we do know that he adopted a new identity

23:20

and built a new life. He

23:22

married a woman who was originally from Afghanistan.

23:25

They had a son, and Matamed got a

23:27

job at the local electric company. For

23:30

years, he led a simple suburban

23:32

life. He went to work at the same

23:34

time most days. His neighbors thought

23:36

of him as punctual, trustworthy.

23:39

No one really knew much more about him,

23:42

but secretly Matamed knew that

23:44

the Iranian regime was still looking for him,

23:47

so he was incredibly careful. Reportedly,

23:50

he didn't even tell his wife his true identity

23:53

until a few years before his death,

23:56

and his son had no idea about Mtammed's

23:58

past. I

24:00

keep thinking about the loneliness and the isolation

24:03

of someone who's bearing this huge secret

24:05

from the people in their life who they're closest to, someone

24:08

who's spent almost his entire adulthood

24:11

trying to stay one step ahead of people he

24:13

knew were trying to kill him. Mtammed

24:15

was careful to avoid his photograph appearing

24:17

on social media, but not long

24:20

before his murder he seemed to have slipped

24:22

up. A single photograph of

24:24

him went up on Facebook celebrating his

24:26

teenage son's high school graduation, and

24:29

months later a BMW pulled

24:31

up outside his house early in the morning.

24:37

So this is a story I've been told to look at the

24:40

murder of a man living a secret life,

24:43

a man on the run from a powerful

24:45

regime. At

24:47

this point, I can't see the

24:49

connection between this murder and the Dubai

24:52

supercartle. But

24:54

then a few months later, something

24:56

happens that takes us one step closer

24:58

to understanding how all of this works. In

25:02

April twenty sixteen, two Irish

25:04

detectives arrive at a residential address

25:06

not far from Dublin City Center. They

25:09

have a search warren because they've heard that an apartment

25:12

in this building is being used as a safehouse

25:14

by Ireland's most powerful and dangerous criminal

25:16

organization, but inside

25:19

there are no irishmen. Instead,

25:22

the officers find a short man with a large

25:24

belly who speaks only broken English.

25:27

It's clear the man is rich. He's

25:29

wearing bright blue designer sneakers covered

25:31

in studs. When the detectives

25:34

searched the flat, they find thirteen thousand

25:36

euros in cash and two Rolex watchers.

25:40

What's less clear is his identity.

25:42

He has two different IDs, one

25:44

Dutch one Belgian, each

25:47

with a different name. I

25:49

remember the morning on which he was arrested

25:52

and I can tell you nobody knew who he was.

25:55

Shamus Boland is Detective Chief

25:57

Superintendent in the Irish Police Force.

26:00

His officers raided the apartment that day. He

26:02

was arrested for a possession

26:04

of false documents and

26:07

there was no certainty aboute as a identity

26:09

at all. The police take him

26:11

to the station and send his fingerprints and photo

26:14

of the law enforcement agencies around the world.

26:17

It's following his arrest and US

26:20

issuing an assistance

26:22

request across Europe that within

26:25

a number of errors, the Dutch

26:27

police were in touch with US and they identified

26:30

him from the photographs and fingerprints

26:32

immediately, and senior

26:34

Dutch police officers bordered the plane immediately

26:36

and flew to Dublin. The

26:39

Dutch police know who the man is, so

26:42

does Paul Vooks. He was very

26:45

well known and notorious in the Amsterdam

26:47

crime scene. His name

26:49

is now for Fassy and Paul

26:51

calls him by his nickname for

26:55

he's wanted for a string of drug related

26:57

murders. He was seen

26:59

as a guy would do anything

27:02

for money, who would be able to

27:05

do very serious crimes without blinking

27:07

his eyes. All doesn't

27:09

know it yet and ordered the police. But

27:12

the man who sent two assassins to murder Alimtamid,

27:15

it was novel. Not as

27:17

a murder broker. He can arrange

27:19

the killing of anyone anywhere

27:22

with just a couple of messages sent from his phone.

27:25

And the people hiding the murder broker

27:27

in their Dublin safe house, Seamus

27:29

knows exactly who they are. That

27:32

organized crime group has been the

27:34

primary group for the last twenty twenty

27:36

five years that built the networks

27:39

supplying drugs and firearms

27:41

of this jurisdiction without a dot, That

27:45

organized crime group, the people

27:47

who are hiding the murder Broker in their safe

27:49

house. They're at the heart of the supercartel.

27:52

They're the men who gathered that day for the

27:55

wedding in the luxury hotel in Dubai.

27:58

But if Ulas is right, this isn't

28:00

just a murder, This is a state

28:02

sponsored assassination and

28:04

it raises a big question. What

28:07

is the link between not

28:10

Full the Broker and

28:12

Iran. Why

28:14

would a hit man working with top

28:17

cocaine traffickers murder someone

28:19

apparently on behalf of a government And

28:22

if that's what happened, what does that

28:25

tell us about the transformation of international

28:27

organized crime? To

28:30

find out, We're going to Ireland

28:33

to talk to someone who's been following the family

28:35

at the heart of the Supercartel. From the

28:37

very start, you

28:40

don't know if somebody behind

28:42

that door has a gun.

28:45

The adrenaline is flowing, you know, your

28:47

heart is racing. Anything

28:50

could go wrong. Money

29:09

is a production of The Financial Times and Pushkin

29:12

Industries. It was written and reported by

29:14

me Myles Johnson and if you've got any

29:16

leads or information about this story, you can

29:18

email me at new narcost ft

29:20

dot com. The series producer

29:23

is Peggy Sutton. Edith Russello

29:25

is the associate producer. Fact Checking

29:27

is by Arthur Gompertz. Jason

29:30

Gambrell and Amanda k Wong are

29:32

the mixing engineers. Sound design

29:34

from Jake Gorsky. Jeremy Warmsley

29:36

wrote the original music. Our editor

29:38

is Sarah Nix, and the executive

29:40

producers are Jacob Goldstein and Cheryl

29:43

Brumley. Special thanks to Rilla

29:45

Klaff, Marshall Wallraven, Laura Clark,

29:48

Alistair Mackie Green, Turner, Jude

29:50

Webber and Rich Ward