KAZAKHSTAN: Misha Glenny -
There are few signs that the electoral dictatorship of President Nursultan Nazarbayev has the capacity to distribute the money equally, although with such a small population, he and his oligarchic friends have a real opportunity to do so.
The corrupt system of governance that the oil revenues has fostered also generates a permissive environment in which flourishes one of the world’s most destructive criminal industries. Misha Glenny, McMafia
The decreasing availability of caviare in the Caspian has prompted the growth of one of the most profitable mafia operations in the former Soviet Union. ibid.
KENYA: Ross Kemp on Gangs TV -
By the time we completed it several of the contributors had been brutally murdered. Ross Kemp on Gangs s4e4, Sky 2008
‘Hundreds of people including women and children have been killed in explosive riots across Kenya.’ ibid. television news
The Mungiki have a reputation for using beheadings, skinnings and dismemberment as their chosen methods of execution … The Mungiki claim to have millions of members. ibid.
When I met the leaders they were a slick outfit, they were very convincing … They are highly organised. ibid.
The poverty is just shocking. ibid.
I’ve come to meet the glue kids: these kids are addicted to solvents and they are just some of the 350,000 kids that are homeless in Kenya … That number is expected to increase dramatically … I was truly horrified. ibid.
Mothers who are heavily addicted giving the glue bottle to their toddlers. ibid.
KOSOVO: Misha Glenny -
With no wars left to fight, former paramilitaries became engaged full-time in the transit of heroin, cigarettes, labour migrants and women into Western Europe. The Keystone Cops’ regime of UN and NATO in Kosovo had consolidated Kosovo as a new centre for the distribution of heroin from Turkey to the European Union. Misha Glenny, McMafia
LEBANON: Drug Lords: The Takedown TV -
Operation Titan started like just about any other money laundering investigation. I don’t think anybody anticipated what was gonna happen. Drug Lords: The Takedown s1e3: Titan, DEA undercover officer, History 2023
The Attorney General authorizes the agency to launder the bad guys’ money to identify their networks and get into the system. ibid.
I immediately identified the language as Arabic. It was actually Lebanese Arabic. ibid.
Don Pacho offers the middle eastern businessman a deal. One he can’t refuse. ibid. captions
I portrayed myself as somebody who could move cocaine in the Middle East. Taliban was interested in that. ibid.
To further penetrate La Oficina and its links to Hazbollah he must win the trust of Don Pacho.
US prosecutors quickly issue arrest warrants for all the main targets. ibid.
MONTENEGRO: Misha Glenny -
Throughout most of the 1990s Djukanovic’s country, Montenegro, with a population of just 600,000 (regarded by the rest of the Balkans as a legendary indolent people), was the focal point of a multi-billion-dollar criminal industry that generated income from America through the Middle East, Central Asia, the Maghreb, the Balkans and Western Europe.
Week after week, several tons of illegal cigarette shipments would land at the country’s two main airports. Misha Glenny, McMafia
Montenegro's engagement with the mob was the rule, not the exception. More than in any other communist country, politics and organised crime were tightly intertwined throughout the former Yugoslavia as it descended into the most frightful fratricidal civil war at the beginning of the 1990s. Organised crime controlled dictators, opposition politicians, liberals, nationalists and democrats alike. ibid.
MOROCCO: Man From Tangier 1957 -
What do we do about this coat? Who is this fellow Collins? Man From Tangier 1957 starring Robert Hutton & Lisa Gastoni & Martin Benson & Leonard Sachs & Derek Sydney & Robert Shaw & Robert Raglan & Jack Allen et al, director Lance Comfort
The world in general seems to be in a complete mess. ibid. her to him
Passport Racketeers. ibid. Daily Star headline
NEW ZEALAND: Ross Kemp on Gangs TV -
New Zealand: Paradise on Earth … But New Zealand is also home to some of the world’s most intimidating gangs … I’ve heard terrifying stories of mayhem, depravity and almost inhuman violence. Ross Kemp on Gangs s1e3: New Zealand, Sky 2005
An ordinary high street in an ordinary town in the middle of the day. Mongrol Mob in red against their arch-foe the Black Power. ibid.
The Mongrol Mob is a national phenomenon. It is organised as a loose affiliation of independent chapters. ibid.
PAKISTAN: Drugged Up Pakistan: A Billion Dollar Narcotics Trade TV -
In Pakistan it is cheaper to buy a kilo of heroin than food. The country is infamous as a major transit point for heroin and cannabis from neighbouring Afghanistan to the rest of the world. But it is fighting its own battle with addiction. Drugged Up Pakistan: A Billion Dollar Narcotics Trade: 101 East, Al Jazeera 2014
Pakistan is in the grip of a raging drug epidemic … It’s a deadly scourge that has now infiltrated every class and every age group. Drugs are cheap and easily available and they are destroying countless lives. ibid.
Parts of Karachi have been overtaken by gang violence and narcotics abuse. Addicts are sprawled on street corners and roads across the city. ibid.
PERU: Trafficked TV - Art of the Heist TV - Jason Fox: Meet the Drug Lords TV -
My job is to deliver suitcases with counterfeit bills, fake dollars. They bring me the suitcase already packed, they call me up. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller s1e3, Counterfeiters, National Geographic 2020
Lima, Peru: Every city has its secrets. Lima is no different. Over the last decade a new criminal enterprise has taken root, and a new breed of gangsta craftsman has emerged. ibid.
Incredibly, it’s estimated that 60% of all fake US bills are produced in Peru. ibid.
In 1987 a 1,500-year-old archaeological site in the Peruvian desert was looted almost to extinction. The site is called La Mina because it is the burial place of the Lord of La Mina, the ruler of an ancient sect known as Moche. Its looting was possibly the worst desecration of a Peruvian archaeological site since the arrival of the Spanish five hundred years ago. Art of the Heist s2e7: Trail of the Moche Gold
They took priceless objects: ceramic figures and bowls; most valuable of all was a superb gold headdress. It shows the face of a sea-god. ibid.
Mocha rulers were buried in state, the mummified body surrounded by a store of artefacts. At the centre the ruler’s golden headdress. ibid.
In Peru I’ll meet the producers at the bottom of the supply chain … The Vraem now single-handedly produce over £20 billion’ worth of cocaine every year. Jason Fox, Meet the Drug Lords: Inside the Real Narcos III, Netflix 2018
PHILIPPINES: Inside the Gangster's Code TV -
Home to one of the world’s most ruthless prison gangs: The Commandos. Inside the Gangsters’ Code: The Commandos, Discovery Channel 2013
On the outskirts of Manila, Bilibid Prison spreads out across 1,400 acres; built in 1944 it’s the biggest prison in the world. There are twelve gangs here. ibid.
The authorities allow the gangs to run their own dormitories. ibid.
SERBIA: Misha Glenny -
During the 1990s, Spasojevic had established a monopoly on the heroin trade in Belgrade so that, according to the local police, ‘He was processing about 100 kilograms of hard drugs monthly – this was bringing in tens of millions of dollars.’ Misha Glenny, McMafia
Spurred by his success in moving heroin, Spasojevic wanted to expand his operations by trading in another drug: cocaine ... Spasojevic soon realised that he had hit a goldmine. Cocaine usage in Europe was rising everywhere, with significant new markets opening up in the former communist countries of the East. Spasojevic quickly understood that he was not alone in wanting to exploit the Balkans’ collapsing infrastructure. Another group of people had begun to monitor it very closely. These people lived far away in Colombia. ibid.
SIERRA LEONE: Diamonds, Gold & Guns TV -
Sierra Leone: From 1991 to 2002 the sale of over a billion dollars in rough diamonds funded a rebel army who committed horrible atrocities against civilians. These rough diamonds became known as blood diamonds. Diamonds, Gold & Guns, National Geographic 2017