The Headhunting Burmese Tribe Running the World's Biggest Cartel: The Wa w/ Patrick Winn

The Headhunting Burmese Tribe Running the World's Biggest Cartel: The Wa w/ Patrick Winn

The Wa tribe, an indigenous tribe residing in the mountainous Burma China borderlands, has long had a reputation as a people not to be trifled with. And yes, they were actually headhunters, well into the 20th century. Known as powerful warriors who weren't keen on outsiders telling them what to do, they were able to carve out their own autonomous state in Myanmar despite the ruling junta's militant authoritarianism, Long before they launched the powerful United Wa State Army in 1989, various warlords had grown opium and sold it to a shadowy group of Chinese dealers known as The Exiles. And then in the late 1980’s, there’s a man that takes the helm. He’s quiet, unassuming, basically an accountant and logistics guy. He’s half Chinese and Half Wa. Not a tough guy cowboy headhunter war lord. But even today, they still speak his name quietly, if at all. Wei Xuegang. And he sets up his heroin trafficking operation to be one of the biggest the world has ever seen. Much, much more in this episode, with Patrick Winn, Bangkok based journalist and author of the new book Narcotopia, including various CIA and DEA entanglements, battles with the infamous Khun Sa, and the move to the potent asian methamphetamine pills known as Yaba. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(269)

The Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat

The Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat

In 1992, the New York Mafia is falling apart. The Gambinos are in chaos, the Colombos are at war, the Genoveses are hiding behind Chin Gigante’s bathrobe act, and the Bonannos—the forgotten, disgraced...

7 Jul 55min

The Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER

The Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER

Born into a peasant family on the outskirts of Shanghai, Du Yuesheng grew up an inveterate gambler and opium addict. But as he forged alliances in the growing metropolis’ underworld, members of a secr...

30 Jun 54min

Chinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy

Chinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy

Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow possesses one of the best mob nicknames out there. The San Francisco Chinatown gangster went from teenage immigrant hooligan from the streets of Hong Kong to one of the most ...

23 Jun 1h 11min

Redux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha

Redux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha

Ibrahim Akasha was the kingpin of East Africa’s heroin highway, setting up a massive tracking empire that stretched from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran to Kenya, South Africa and Europe. When he was ...

16 Jun 59min

Sex, Drugs and Shinto: How the Yakuza’s Only Woman Found Redemption

Sex, Drugs and Shinto: How the Yakuza’s Only Woman Found Redemption

When Mako Nishimura, the yakuza’s only female member, fell in love with a rival gangster, it would send her on a long and painful path from drug and sex trafficking, to painkiller addiction and finall...

9 Jun 59min

Italy Clan Wars, Irish Gangster Politicians & Cartel Nigerian Breaking Bad: Stash House!

Italy Clan Wars, Irish Gangster Politicians & Cartel Nigerian Breaking Bad: Stash House!

On this week's Stash House: A fugitive Dutch cocaine kingpin dodges capture off the coast of West Africa. An Irish gang boss trades gangland warfare for electoral politics. Mexican officials accused o...

2 Jun 1h 5min

The Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child

The Rise and Fall of The Yakuza Devil's Child

Mako Nishimura graduated from high school delinquent to kamikaze biker gang, street tough and, eventually, a fully made member of a yakuza syndicate - the first (or perhaps second?) woman to do so. Ni...

26 Mai 1h 2min

The Cartel Del Noreste's Kingdom of Terror w/ Andrew Glazer

The Cartel Del Noreste's Kingdom of Terror w/ Andrew Glazer

Nuevo Laredo is one of the most feared cartel cities in Mexico, a place where disappearances, gun battles, and corruption became part of daily life as the Cartel del Noreste, or CDN, tightened its gri...

19 Mai 1h

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
konspirasjonspodden
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
alt-fortalt
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
grenselos
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
sophie-leser
synnve-og-vanessa
wolfgang-wee-uncut
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
198-land-med-einar-trnquist
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
bokmerket-2
rss-siktet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem