All Episodes

May 31, 2021 52 mins

Authorities in El Salvador are excavating a clandestine cemetery at the house of a former detective which is believed to contain as many as 40 bodies – most of them thought to be women. A fungi containing psilocybin could cause emerging cicadas to become hypersexual, spreading their infection. Convicted crime boss Sedat Peker has flung accusations of rape, drug dealing and suspicious deaths against officials close to Mr. Erdogan, shaking Turkey's government to the core.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.

(00:26):
My name is Matt, my name is Nol. They called
me Ben, and we're joined as always with our super producer,
all mission controlled decads. Most importantly, you are you. You
are here, and that makes this the stuff they don't
want you to know. While many folks maybe sunning on
the beach or spelunking in their favorite cavern system over

(00:48):
the weekends, we are hard at work in various strange
quarters of our fair metropolis of Atlanta, chasing down the
strange stories that do not make it to a lot
of mainstream news outlets. We call this strange news. We
do it every week. It runs the gamut. Today we're

(01:09):
going to run into something that fascinates me about the
natural world. We're going to run into organized crime abroad,
both in Turkey and in El Salvador. And gentlemen, if
you're okay with it, I'd like us to start with
El Salvador today. This is sort of breaking news. It's

(01:31):
an ongoing story. Yeah, definitely, let's start there. But I
do want to know from everyone out there, how many
of you actually went spelunking over the weekend, Like, seriously,
that is such a cool activity. More of us should
be doing it. I'm hoping that at least a few
of you can write to us with an experience. That's
the cave one, right, like in that movie The Descent,
only maybe minus the bloodthirsty, anibalistic underground humanoid dwellers Chud's

(01:55):
Maybe the cavern systems of the world are surprisingly unexplored
because it's pretty dangerous to go down there. In fact,
cave diving is the more extreme of those sports. But yeah, Mada,
I'm with you. I'm a big fan in cave exploration
and would uh I would love to get I would
love to get back down there soon. But you know,

(02:16):
it's always like a hole to do, especially if you
want to go the cool part. You have to wait
till the cavern closes. You gotta hide, you gotta have
all your stuff, and of course you have to be
armed because of those descendants. Uh, we're not telling you
to break into caves. That's how we should start, That's
that's what we should make clear for everyone, but also

(02:37):
to be clear, they could be ascendants. I mean, who knows, Yeah,
they could, you know it. Maybe it depends on the outlook.
Do you see yourself as an ascendant or a descendant?
Do you see the glass of your evolution half full
or half empty? Uh? Story for another day Today, folks
follow conspiracy realists. Breaking news over the weekend, A fifty

(03:01):
one year old man named Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chavez, retired
police officer in that country, was detained earlier this month
on suspicion of murdering a woman and her daughter. He
had previously been investigated for sex crimes that had not

(03:22):
stuck for any You could argue this is for any
number of reasons. Of course, the more cynical of us
in the audience will say, uh, corruption had to be involved, right.
Perhaps there was that line of blue silence and inherent
aversion to prosecuting one of their own. But he confessed

(03:44):
to killing these two people as always uh. Chaves. His
neighbors described him as, you know, a quiet person, implying
that he didn't really mess with anyone, that he generally
kept to himself. And around eleven pm on May seven,
as reported by The Washington Post and La Prince Garfica H,

(04:07):
a twenties six year old woman named Jacqueline Lima ran
out of chaves His home, pleading for help before the
policeman allegedly killed her and her mother. Me and Lima
is fifty seven and Lima had given Osario Chaves seven
grand to the US equivalent to take her brother to

(04:30):
the US. This is per the grandfather, so that's the
mother and the daughter who were killed. The boy's body
was one of two that were found inside a septic tank.
UH And so far, Chavez hasn't been charged in connection
with those two murders, but it seems to be on
the way. Forensic teams searched his house and they discovered

(04:54):
at least seven pits containing bodies, some which may have
been barre eight as long as two years ago. As
we record, the excavations are under way. Prosecutors have issued
arrest warrants for nine other suspects on the belief that
they may have acted as accomplices. UH. These suspects include

(05:17):
other former cops and traffickers, human traffickers, and former soldiers
as well. This is pretty this is pretty insane and
it's strange that it's not making the rounds more in
Western news given the breakthroughs in genetic research that allows

(05:37):
us to hunt down killers then also allow us to
bring some peace to the relatives of cold case victims.
And right now, like as we're recording this, there are
dozens and dozens of people in El Salvador who are
wondering whether they're missing relatives, could be, you know, whether

(05:59):
they're remains could be in this Charnel house. Had you
guys heard about this at all when I think it
broken the West over the weekend. They've been going on
for a few days. Yeah. I popped in my news
feed and it was a little confusing because it was
coinciding with a few other things that were happening in
Al Salvador that I just had my ear to the
ground about and I couldn't believe when I actually got

(06:21):
this full story, the one from the Guardian, I think
this is the one, at least the one that I'm
thinking about. Um, yeah, I just it. It reminds me
of some of the other instances that we've looked at
before with the iron uncaught serial killers, where where all
of a sudden, you know, in somebody's backyard like this,

(06:45):
just the bodies are found and in the connection to
police is really astounding and into terrifying. Actually, um yeah,
but think about think about suspects like Joseph James Angelo, right,
former security guard, former police officer. I believe if the results,
the problem is that you know, in the course of

(07:07):
that profession, individuals will receive training that can you know,
be reverse engineered to teach you how to not get caught.
But this guy, some of the chatter I'm hearing is
arguing that he that he was doing uh hits for
higher but then also at a personal love So a

(07:29):
couple of these were passion projects. There there are the
story gets told and kind of a reductive way. I
think part of that is because you know, people don't
hear about El Salvador all the time in the western
news right or in the US. It's a pretty small country,
the populations about six point seven million. This is being

(07:53):
tied in the media with the ongoing problem in Central
South America as well as Mexico with what's called femicide,
the intentional murder of women or people identifying as women.
And there was something else that happened. Matt that mundyed
the water is a little bit more. In Mexico this week,

(08:14):
a seventy two year old man was arrested as a
suspected serial killer. So maybe maybe that's where parts of
mine understanding got crossed as I'm like reading some of
these stories back to back. Yeah, that that story is
messed up too, from the way I understand it. Uh,
the killer in Mexico was not captured as part of

(08:36):
an investigation woman that he would later go on to
kill maybe his last victim. Cinetext to her husband saying
she was going to do a quick errand at the
house of the man who layer turned up to be
the killer, and when she didn't make it back the guy, Uh,
there's a police officer went to the house, asked for killer,

(08:57):
lied to him, said she wasn't there. He waits another day,
he comes back and he asked again. He's getting a
spidy sense. He feels like something's off, so he gets
into the house. He enters the house and he unfortunately
finds the cadaver of his wife and catching tables. Some
of her limbs have been removed. Geez jees. And this

(09:20):
is this is strange because being a police officer. Not
only is this guy in Mexico restrained the killer, he
calls for backup and that's like the only way they
would have caught him. Ever, And can you imagine I
I have a difficult time imagining the self control involved,
you know what I mean? I think many of us

(09:41):
listening now you know you have to you have to
seriously ask yourself, would you have that level of self control?
I don't know many people who would. Yeah, that's definitely
a what's in the box situation? Um, and this might
the water is back at the same time here in
El Salvador got this uh, this other guy. And it

(10:06):
looks like from sources reporting in El Salvador, it looks
like the story being told in the West is a
little bit reductive because he did allegedly get paid to
kill people. There was a high level of organization. Apparently
his passion project was involved targeting children on social media
and then murdering them. So there's a lot of this

(10:30):
is on a completely different levels sort of how the
iceman was a serial killer but also a successful professional
hit man. The the news because this guy Chavez, apparently
he attempted to kill himself, attempted to slash his wrist
before he could be taken in. But yeah, he he

(10:51):
confessed those two murders. Um At this point, prosecutors believe
the victims may include children as young as to uh.
He Chavez himself is currently alive, but Western sources couldn't
get in touch with him or his lawyer for a
comment because you know, he'll have an appointed lawyer. Uh.

(11:14):
But it looks like there's much more to this story,
you know. That's that's the thing that I think, Well,
any loss of life is a tragedy, but that's the
thing that makes this one especially abhorrent. There were people
working with him for a number of years, which means
that there is conspiracy inherent, which means that our next

(11:36):
question has to be, you know, how far up does
it go up? How far up the chain does it go? Right?
Like in True Detective One of the reasons, and that's
a work of fiction, obviously, but one of the reasons
prosecution was so unsuccessful was because of the powerful ties
that the murderers had with local and state level government.

(12:00):
It and in the Detroit affair in Belgium, one of
the reasons that thirty thousand people marched in the street
was because they were certain that it wasn't just a
single sick individual committing these crimes, was a network. There
were fingers on a hand, and there were some powerful

(12:20):
fingers on that hand. And this, you know, stories like this.
I hope it doesn't become exploited. I hope it doesn't.
I mean, it will inevitably become Some will do a
story or or there may be a documentary. But this
is something, you know, I think all three of us
can agree. This is something that we think about a

(12:42):
lot outside of our show. We've worked on a number
of true crime shows separately. And is that a consideration
that you guys have when you're working on true crime show?
Like how to tell the story without being exploitative? Sure?
I mean, how how to tell the story without being
exploitative and also how to you know, treat it like
the dramatic piece of you know, content that it needs

(13:04):
to be and also give respect to everybody and not
be too like leading people on or to false cliffhanger
a kind of. It is a delicate balance, for sure.
And so just a few more details. Again, this story
is ongoing. I would highly recommend checking out the earlier
piece on the Daily beast that needs that has allowed

(13:24):
me to give some more updates. It was originally two pits,
but ultimately they found eight separate pits, and they believe
there could be more than a dozen bodies in each
of the pits. The prosecutor leading the investigation believes the
these attacks hinged on sexual violence UH and that there

(13:45):
may have been a sex and murder ring involved. So again,
conspiracy and this is not just people talking on some
internet forum. This is UH. These come from statements of
people like the police chief, Richio Ariza Chicash, and he
also confirmed that they were finding people on social media

(14:08):
and seeking them out and luring them with what he
says was quote the American dream. As it stands now,
this crime scene investigation is not gonna be It's gonna
take at least a month. There are simply so many
people involved. So I don't want to say too much
more about it other than be safe if you or

(14:30):
loved ones reside in El Salvador. I'd love to hear
more about how people are reporting this story and what
you think is going to happen, and what what locals
think about this and what it means for the future.
This occurred in Chaochopa, which is about fifty miles away
from San Salvador. So let us know conspiracy and I

(14:53):
Heart radio dot com three std W y t K.
We're gonna pause for word from our sponsors and we'll
be back with more strange news and we're back with
some insect related news MS and wildlife we're gonna talk
about today. Um, guys, we have talked several times in

(15:15):
the past about these fruiting funguses that can infect ants,
for example. And it's essentially like a um parasitic fungus
that infects certain creatures and causes them to act against
their own best interest. Um. They're all kinds of examples
of this in nature. UM, but these fungal ones are

(15:39):
particularly grizzly because they're called fruiting bodies, right. Um. So
essentially a fungus gets inside the creature being infected and
grows out of their of them, their their heads and ants,
for example. UM. And it actually in the ants. One
of the court accepts, I believe is that one where
it causes these ants to climb up tall grass. Uh.

(16:02):
And then the fruit and bodies kind of like go
out further to essentially make them taller and make them
more easily consumed by predators UM, who are then also infected,
and it causes the propagation of these of fungi. Um.
This one has got a lot of interesting twists. UM.
So we here in Georgia are very familiar with cicadas.

(16:24):
There those little critters that leave behind these fully um
you know, formed exoskeletons on trees that are really cool.
Actually have a friend who's a metal worker who was
able to take one of those and forge it into
a piece of jewelry, which is pretty cool and managed
to not destroy it. Can make like a wax mold
out of it. But um, it turns out that cicadas, uh,

(16:44):
particularly um the genus called magic Cicada, which I think
there's actually an electronic music group out of Atlanta called
Magic Cicada. Um, it really applies, It's very appropriate in
this particular story. Um. They have a really really bizarre
our life cycle. Um. We are approaching fast. Uh. The

(17:05):
end of a life's are actually a very key moment
in the life cycle of these creatures. UM. They actually
spend about seventeen years underground, approximately like thirteen seventeen years
I believe underground um where they grow into adolescence and
then they emerge on mass like from the soil. Uh.

(17:28):
Just you know, millions and millions of these things, billions
even um, and we are about to see that. And
this is what's being described our catalog as brood X.
The X is apparently just a Roman Roman numeral ten,
but it makes it sound really cool. Um. When we
go into like the rest of the details of this
particular um kind of I guess class of cicadas. So

(17:53):
when they emerge, they are emerging specifically to spawn or
to to mate. Female cicada as rub their wings together
in a certain way that creates a certain sound. We
know that sound very well. And then male cicadas are
attracted by that and they mate um kind of willy
nilly with these female cicadas that are that are making

(18:13):
these sounds. Um. Well, this particular group of cicadas UM,
something a little different going on. There has been essentially
a fungus like I was talking about called massa spora
that is actually laced with the same chemical that you

(18:34):
find in psychedelic mushroom psilocybin, and it also produces certain
compounds found in the amphetamine Cathinone which was in the
news years ago, um because of people doing things like
eating faces and just going generally insane um on something
called bath salts that was available for a brief period

(18:56):
of time in your local you know, weed store or
like head shop or whatever you wanna call it back then.
So this, in addition to the psilocybin is present in
the soil and in these in this fun guy and
the fun guy infects the cicadas, the male cicadas, uh,
and then when they emerge, UM, a little bit of

(19:17):
time passes and essentially these fruiting bodies start to kind
of burst out of the midsection of the abdomen of
the cicadas. It also because of the psilocybin and because
of all these other things that are at play, they're
already really you know, ready to ready to mingle. You know,
they're they're super The whole purpose of their emergence is

(19:38):
to procreate. But because of these added substances, they are
essentially horny to the point of mania. They are so
ready to mate and then just absolutely ravenous with you know, desire.
I guess we're gonna anthromorphize a little bit um that
they they can just it increases their longevity. They and

(20:00):
just go and go and go like energizer bunny style. Um.
But here's the problem. That fruiting body that emerges, it
actually causes their genitals to drop off. So they're really
really into the idea of mating and they do it ravenously,
but it's to no end. It's like you know, banging

(20:21):
two sticks together or something. There's there's no purchase, doesn't
go anywhere because there's nothing there. Uh. Not only that
it gets in their heads for lack of a better
term or way to describe it, and it causes the
male cicadas to rub their wings together like female cicadas,
so they're attracting healthy male cicadas who then engage in

(20:46):
you know, coitas I guess copulation with these um mangled
uh and can very confused and highly um randy male cicadas. Uh.
And it infects them. So uh, it's it's a whole thing, man,
It certainly is a thing. I'm a little confused. I'm
reading an article on Vice, and I'm a little confused

(21:08):
about some of the reporting because I guess I don't
know enough about the anatomy of these insects. Because it's
describing how the lower part of their abdomen is the
part that ends up getting you know, removed with the
fungal fungal budding occurring in that same space, but they
are able to you know, to mate or the they

(21:32):
go through the motions of mating. I suppose the thing
that was puzzling to me is that Vice is saying
that this fungus is sexually transmitted. So I'm wondering if
it's similar to castration and that the I don't even
know how to put this in insect terms, but the
cells needed to actually procreate are gone, but the maybe

(21:53):
instrument used to the instrument used to procreate is still there.
Well essentially, I mean the fungus is placing the instrument
used to procreate. It fills up the same space. It
acts it almost like you know, it's as it's it's
a stand in for the genitals. The genitals fall off,
but then this fruited body protrudes out, so it's like,

(22:14):
you know, you can get herpies without having penetrative intercourse.
You can get it just from like shedding, like you know,
cells shedding or whatever, so you can even if it
comes in contact with the genitals you can still get
the disease and you don't necessarily have to go through
the full process of of mating, you know, if that
makes sense. Um, So that's what's happening. It's essentially going

(22:38):
to cause this you know, absolute feeding frenzy. Um. Not
to mention that they're also this is going to be
the largest group of these insects to emerge um during
one of these cycles in a long long time. We're
talking about I saw trillions, um at the very least billions,
and apparently Maryland is where it's gonna be the densest.

(23:01):
So I saw a figure it was something like one
point five million cicicadas per square mile. Yeah, so that's
gonna be a thing to behold. Um. And again, these
creatures their only purpose is to make they live underground
for the majority of their life cycle. Once they successfully mate,
I guess in the same way that a bee when
it stings you, it dies, Um, they drop dead. They

(23:24):
have fulfilled their life's mission, which just to create more
of themselves. Uh, to create more of themselves, And that's
also what this fungus wants. So I just think it's
such an interesting story because it's like it's such an
example of like the absolute ferocity of the kind of like, uh,
the goal of nature, which is to make more of itself,

(23:44):
you know, like like like like a disease, like cancer,
like anybody that if you want to boil everything down
to like the basest concerns of of life, it's to
make more of itself, even if it's something that's absolutely destructive. UM,
like this fungus is ben have you have you had
much experience with the life cycle of the cicada, and

(24:04):
and it's something that we certainly here. Uh, you can't
avoid it just being outside on a summer night in Georgia.
But I certainly was not aware of the kind of
dire uh and kind of nihilistic life cycle of these creatures.
It's interesting because the well we're talking about, I guess
the fancy name would be periodical cicadas because they come

(24:25):
out We're talking seventeen years cycle cicadas this time around. Uh,
they're also thirteen year cycle cicadas. UM. A lot of
my previous research on these sorts of mind controlling parasites,
from toxoplasmosis gandhi to UH court accepts and other things,
A lot of it centered on my fascination with their

(24:48):
specificity of evolution because they are uh. Because Massapora cicadina
uh specifically only infects those thirteen in seventeen year periodical cicadas,
which makes you wonder what else, like what it does
for those other years. We know it's we know it's

(25:11):
life cycle. Is is crazy, but it's it's like, um,
it's like those Halloween stores in a way because for
the majority of uh, you know it's life cycle. If
that's the year of a Halloween store, it's it's dormant.
It doesn't become active. It moves when the cicadas move.
And the thing is a lot of these poor cicada

(25:33):
guys are doomed before they even come out as adults.
It starts. It's like a cradle to the grave thing
for real, because they get infected by fungal spores as
they're digging into the ton the soil surface, days before
they emerge as adults. So I guess the important part

(25:53):
to put out here is it's not as if they
emerge normal and healthy and then get in fact it
immediately uh. They're they're called who was I think it was?
Angie Massiest described these as salt shakers of death once
they get infected and they're exacting their fungal spores against everybody. Yeah,

(26:14):
salt shakers of Death is fabulous. And there's a really
good quote from uh Elizabeth Barnes Um from Purdue University
in West Lafayette. Uh. And she's talking to Live Science.
As she said, fungus is in the genus Massaspora affect
many different species of cicada, but massa Spora cicadina is
specialized the periodical cicada genus magic cicada, like you were saying,

(26:36):
ben Um. So it's really fascinating. As she goes on
to say, this species of fungus is actually the only
pathogen or predator that specializes on periodical cicadas. It's life
cycle lines up pretty neatly to the cicadas. Most of
the time. In the insect world, any given species of
insect will have many organisms that specialize on eating or
infecting them. It's very unusual for a whole genus of

(26:57):
insect to have only one of these. So it's fascinating
on multiple levels. Um. Not to mention the way humans
potentially might UH engage with this situation. There's talk of
potentially eating these insects, which we know that's kind of
becoming a little bit in vogue or has been for
for many years, but sources of protein have kind of

(27:19):
been limited to things like chickens and pigs and and cows,
you know, in the West, and that's largely because of
you know, colonization stuff, whereas like a lot of indigenous
people have have eaten insects for you know, centuries, UM,
like grasshoppers, which are still popular in UH in Mexico,
for example, like as a extra filling in tacos or
even like that, being like just the staple like you

(27:41):
can get like a grasshopper taco or a grasshopper um
based dish. UM. So the idea is if you eat
one of these, you might have an altered state kind
of experience, because it is really the same thing that
is in psilocybin mushrooms UM. Of course, the expert are
warning against doing this because this, after all, is a

(28:03):
pathogen um and you don't really know what you're gonna
get UM. But it is interesting, of course to see
how industrious human species is and trying to get high.
It feels like you could, uh, if you were so
inclined build some kind of cicada mating trap to get
all of the uh, horny tripping cicadas into it. And

(28:25):
then hey, there you go. You've got a drug empire
on your hands. A fire island for cicadas. I heard
it described also as like a burning man situation for cicadas.
And uh, there's another researcher named Matt Casson who is
a sociate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West
Virginia University, and he, uh, he said that don't worry

(28:50):
too much about the cicadas themselves. They're not in any pain.
He says. Everybody's having a good time while they're infected,
So I don't imagine there's much pain. Maybe a desire
to listen to the Grateful Dead or something like that,
but no pain. Waca, waca waca. Um. Yeah. And then
the Vice article that that you mentioned, Matt goes on
to talk about this idea of eating these and then

(29:12):
there's a quote they grabbed from the Guardian Um talking
to to Casson again and he said there's always a
risk in eating cicadas. Pump filled with amphetam. He said, Uh,
that was just one of a thousand compounds we found
in the cicadas, and we don't know what those other
compounds are capable of doing to humans, So tread lightly
when when looking for foraging for psychedelic cicadas. Yes, and

(29:35):
nothing on this show should ever be taken as medical advice.
You know that, So don't eat cicadas. That's what we're
saying officially. Uh. And that Vice article also has a
link to a video that they produced about this very thing.
It was occurring in the population that emerged last year,
and it's actually got an animation of what it looks

(29:57):
like when the lower abdomen falls off in that fungal
plug kind of exists. It really does. The whole back
end really does fall off in this plug exists just
right at the top of the cicada. It's fascinating to
see it that way. I don't know how accurate it is,
but I assume that it is at least somewhat representative

(30:17):
of what occurs. Worth looking at if you have any
questions in your mind. After we talked about him, I
also saw a kind of Uh, there's a study. Um.
They're they're quite a few um called. One of them
is called behavioral betrayal. How select fungal parasites enlist living
insects to do their bidding. And one of the researchers
is named Brian Lovett, and he was also quoted in

(30:39):
several of these pieces just talking about in general how
the cicada isn't acting in its own interest, it is
acting in the interest of the fungus to propagate it um.
And there was a diagram in that study that kind
of shows the life cycle and how this process happens.
It really does happen underground, like you were saying, Ben,
and the ones that don't get infected because of the

(31:00):
soil or wherever they are, you know, brooded up. Um.
That's the whole goal is to infect as many of
them as possible, so the infected ones will then seek
out the non infected ones because they are essentially rewired
to behave like female cicadas. So keep an ear out
if you're in the Maryland area or really anywhere. Um.
It's it's around fifteen states or so, you know, up

(31:23):
the eastern seaboard. Uh, and we're gonna definitely have a
ton of them here, um. But it should be a
site to behold. I wonder if what it's gonna. I mean,
you don't really ever see them because they're in the trees.
They do all this mating stuff in the trees, so
you really just hear all that sound and that's, you know,
the sound of of basically a psychedelic orgy. And just
to speak directly to you, uh, parents who decided to

(31:44):
build a giant treehouse this year over the summer. I'm sorry,
I'm really really sorry. It just wasn't It just wasn't
the year for it. So let's keep an eye on
this and an ear out for uh, this absolute feeding
frenzy that's gonna go on. And um, we'll take a
quick break and be back with some more strange news.

(32:07):
And we're back, and we're taking a journey over to
the country of Turkey. We're gonna begin by reading a
New York Times article, or at least mentioning a New
York Times article titled claims from an organized crime boss
rock Turkey's government. Interesting. I'm gonna give you this is
what I wrote down, and I believe this comes from

(32:28):
the article. In a series of videos over two weeks,
this person that we're going to talk about, who was
found guilty in two thousand seven of organized criminal activity
and is wanted again by the Turkish police. Has flung
accusations of rape, drug dealing, and suspicious deaths against officials
close to president or a gun and that is, uh,

(32:50):
the president of Turkey, by the way, okay, President, Well,
I mean he was prime minister for a good long while,
they're in the early two thousand's, and now he's president,
and I think I think he wishes to see his
reign continue on for at least a few years so

(33:10):
they can hit that one year mark for Turkey and
he can be celebrated as that guy. But it's a
weird situation going on in Turkey right now. And this
one organized crime boss or you know, mafia boss as
he's been referred to in a lot of different places.
He's an interesting character. We're gonna talk about him, uh,

(33:32):
And I would caution anyone from making fun of his name.
His name is Sadat Pecare p e k e er.
It is in English, looks like pecker, but it is
not that. I just had a tiny little scoff. Yeah,
I'm not gonna I'm gonna leave it at that. I've
got my giggles out. Thank you for setting that up.

(33:52):
It doesn't. It doesn't have the scene, but it is.
It's still. It's still if you look at it, it's
a childishly looks that way. But we're getting that out
of our system. Not to be confused with the other
Turkish crime lord Sidet Wiener King, totally different guy. Okay, alright,

(34:18):
So I'm gonna go through this. I'm gonna read you
how this person said. Dot Pecaire is described by various
news outlets. You ready. According to al Monitor a l
Dash Monitor, uh, he is forty nine years old and
he's been at the intersection of media politics and Islamist
networks for over a decade now. And the media outlet

(34:42):
Arab News describes him as a quote ultra and nationalist
Turkish mafia leader now living in Dubai, so in the
Arab Emirates. And according to Al Monitor again, he quote
gained national fame in when he threatened to bathe in
the blood of so called old peace academics. There is
a group of people who had signed this thing called

(35:03):
the Academics for Peace Initiative, and he declared them terrorists.
And uh there was a criminal a criminal case that
was brought against him for those accusations and those threats,
but he was acquitted. And then here is my favorite one.
This is again from AL Monitor. I hope I'm saying
that right. Maybe it's a l Monitor. I think it's

(35:24):
an ALA monitor. Um. There's a professor of national security
affairs at the Naval post Graduate School in Monterey, California
named Ryan jen Jeris or Jan Garis. He he is
quoted in this al Monitor article is saying Pecaire has
made the headlines for his activities in the last decade,

(35:44):
but we really don't know what he really does, what
are his businesses, or who he is for that matter.
And it's a very interesting thing. As I'm going through
a ton of articles to try and read more about
this person, there really is almost nothing like is he
someone who's overseeing some kind of drug empire, some kind

(36:05):
of weapons running, you know, system, some like one other thing?
Is it? What organized crime? Is he the head of?
That makes him a mafia quote boss? That then makes
him such a prominent figure because he's been he's had
photographs taken with very famous people in public places, doing
public things, as though he's a prominent figure of some sort.

(36:28):
But there's a lot of mystery about him. Still it
sounds almost like could be tied up with state level actors,
like there might be some gun running money or some
intelligence agencies. But it is really weird because even if
you're a high profile enough criminal to escape to another
place like where when he fled to Romania, I believe

(36:50):
even if you're that high profile, not well off, it's
still rare for you to be visited by politicians in
that Yes, right, Yes, there's so much to get into
with this guy and the the things that he is
both alleging and like the people that he just, like
Ben said, rubs elbows with. So this is what's been happening.

(37:14):
He has been posting multiple hour long videos on his
YouTube channel, okay, and we're I think there are five
in total videos of this kind that he has posted
thus far as we're recording this. Uh, but he's been
making allegations against so many high level people in Turkey
that it's just astounding. Um, you may ask, well, what

(37:38):
is he alleging? Could it really be that bad? Yes? So,
according to The New York Times, he has accused or
he has said that the government has been involved with
the illegal seizure of a marina by a government insider,
and then they ended up using that marina that they

(37:58):
took over essentially specifically for drug trafficking, so state sponsored
drug drug trafficking. He is accused one individual and a
few other people being associated with this individual of murdering
a woman there at least blaming them for the death
of a woman who filed a sexual assault complaint against

(38:20):
a very high level lawmaker within the sitting government, so
Urgan's people. Essentially. Um, he even is talking about some
crimes that he says he did himself or his organization
carried out, but at but they were done at the
request of a high level lawmaker or politician within the

(38:44):
standing government right now. Uh And it's including like physical
like actual physical assault of people, so like hey, we
need you or your your heavies to go in and
take care of some stuff. Make sure this person isn't
going to do what they're planning on doing. It's pretty
intense stuff. Uh well, and remember that whole thing we

(39:07):
talked about in it's something that he said publicly that
he's going to bathe in the blood all these academics.
He alleges that that's one of the things that he
was asked to do or you know, compensated to do
in some way or another. I see that makes sense.
I mean Turkey is is always been in a really

(39:29):
strange and unique position. Right, even even before the rise
of the Ottoman Empire, it was seen as fairly or
unfairly the bridge between the East and the West, right
Asia and Europe and Erda. God is very very conscious
of that idea and it's something that motivates his geopolitical activities, right.

(39:51):
But also um, the issue is that for a number
of years his opponents will argue that he has been
losing in power. He made what some saw as a
bit of a devil's bargain in when he got support
from the nationalist movement, which includes some old networks of

(40:13):
people associated with organized crime, you know, in addition of
far right nationalists. He was trying to build this political coalition,
shore up domestic support. And for a guy who made
who became so well known pre for cleaning up those
networks that have been around for a long long time,

(40:35):
it seems that maybe he does not me saying it,
Maybe it's his opponents saying it. Maybe turned into the
monster he was hunting. You know, this is this is
very possible. But that's what pack Are thinks. Pecker excuse me,
Pare is uh yeah, he's got an an automatic weapon,

(40:57):
an assault rifle full of whatever these truth bombs that
sent it out. He's just let him fly. And by
the way, his videos are getting millions and millions and
millions of views. I think one of them had four
to five million when I last checked it. If you're
an English speaker and you can undunderstand us, maybe you
won't be able to understand what he's saying, but you

(41:17):
can through YouTube get the subtitles auto translated by Google.
It's clunky, like really clunky, but you should be able
to understand some of the statements, and then you can
match that up with some of the reporting that's happening,
because for each of these videos, there are stories being
written about it in English that you will be able

(41:38):
to read. And you can get the gist too from
from those automated translations. But you should. I think if
you dig in the right places you can find uh
slightly better transcription attempts. Just I would say read it
might be your friend for some of those spots I
can't remember. All would recommend Arab News Uh. The Turkish

(42:04):
Minute has some really interesting write ups. That album. A
l dash Monitor has some great stuff written in there.
And by the way, there's so many allegations we're not
gonna be able to talk about all of them right now.
But Ben Nollan, I don't know if it's worth it.
I think it would be probably to go through kind
of this saga to see the future of Turkey, like

(42:25):
what's happening right now? What do these allegations actually mean? Absolutely,
because we can look back in the nineties too. I
think it was or ninety six. I think it was
ninety six when there was a journalist that was shot
dead in there, like right in front of their house.
And there's a scandal that occurred because it appears that

(42:46):
it was done somehow in conjunction with state actors and
organized crime organized criminals. Uh. And then there's this car
crash that occurred where again like a state actor and
an organized crime member were like found in a car.
Where there's a bad car crash, and there's the links

(43:06):
between the state and these organized criminals. It's very closely knit.
It seems to be connected very closely. And if that's
one of the things that's it's driven the need and
the want for change in Turkey for a long time.
And like you said, Ben, it appears that the transformation

(43:27):
is now complete to the thing that they didn't want
to be. Yeah, and uh Turkish police not to be outdone,
I think just arrested Sadat's brother uh In in what
is clearly not retaliation. It's just that they suddenly had
a new lead on a botched mission to kill a

(43:47):
journalist and peace activists twenty five years ago. I think
that might be the thing I'm mentioning right here, right
right um Sadat makes claims that at least two investigative
journalists were targeted, right Ugar Mumtu and Kutlu a Dolly

(44:08):
and a Dolly. I believe as the person we're we're
talking about now, he was the one who was shot
dead in front of his house. But after that, it's
just interesting to me that after Sadat says all these things,
his brother gets arrested for one of the assassination attempts
that he himself described. Right, And there's this, there's this

(44:31):
whole other thing that's I think a little more tabloid
e than anything else. But there's a rivalry between some
high level officials and Pacare because because law enforcement officials
rated one of his homes I believe in Turkey, and
Pecaire didn't like how it was handled because if that's
where his wife and I believe children or child they

(44:52):
both lived there, and there were there were statements made
about his wife's underwear drawer, and it was is this
cultural taboo where male UH law enforcement officers went through
his wife's I guess underwear drawer rather than having a
female officer do that, um, and it became a big

(45:13):
point of contention. It just thought it was interesting, but
I don't know if it's even worth mentioning. But it's
almost like just an insult to him on purpose. That's
what it feels like. And it it's UH also sort
of a pr move because it makes that person appear
to be weaker right in the eyes of the public.
You could be someone who's on the fence about which

(45:35):
side you might choose, and then you'll say, well, I
would never let insert you know, spouse or daughter, female
relative here have some goons rifle through their stuff if
I can, if I would object to that. What makes
this guy so powerful he couldn't even stop it, you know, Yeah,
why would he run away to some other country and
let that happen. That's an interesting point. I want to

(45:58):
jump right back to the alaman Are really fast, just
to give you guys something to think about. This. This
made my wheels spin. Here. There was a senior bureaucrat,
according to the outlet from the security establishment, who spoke
to them anonymously. And here's the quote. Pacare does not

(46:20):
need to reveal all that he knows. All he needs
to do is signal what he knows. Right. So, like
that alone is something we've talked about on this show
a lot. When there's when they're these signals being put
out by countries, by state powers, state actors signaling something
that maybe the general population has no idea what we're
talking about, what they're talking about, but somebody somewhere that

(46:44):
also has control of some power knows exactly what they're
mentioning or talking about. UM, And that's all it needs
to do. That The whole objective is to get that
one group of people to hear those words and then
they get it. I thought that was really interesting. Yeah,
they'll step differently, right, Like that's um A trashy celebrity

(47:06):
version of that would be when disgraced actor Kevin Spacey
started putting out YouTube videos that were super cryptic, you know,
and looked like they were somehow trying to send a
signal of some sort, but to whom we do not
know because the message was not intended for us. Interesting factor, Matt,

(47:26):
You know this. Whenever I hear stories like this, my
first question is always where is this person shocking up? Now?
Who is protecting them? Right? This guy can get his
own protection. I assume he has the money, the influence,
and the means, even in the incredibly cut throat world
sometimes literally cut throat world of organized crime. But from

(47:50):
what I understand, he's currently he's making these videos from Dubai. Yeah.
So is he good with the rulers of Dubai shoot Russia?
He must be. He must be good with them. He
must be good with somebody in Turkey because his YouTube
channel is available, Oh somebody in Turkey, Yeah, because his

(48:12):
YouTube channel is available everywhere. Still, it hasn't been taken down.
He hasn't been banned, He hasn't been you know, these
videos haven't been removed or made private. Um, And like
I said, millions of they're getting millions of views. So
I don't know he's in with somebody or just nobody's
noticed somehow until all this reporting is coming through, and

(48:34):
we'll see if something occurs this week and heard, God's going,
what is YouTube? Somebody tell me about this YouTube? So
this this person that was quoted an al monitor. This
the security establishment official who's anonymous. This is the end
of that quote. When mafia leaders become visible in the
public eye, it's time for crucial reshuffling among the top.

(48:58):
Cadre Ard again will turn the tables to his own benefit.
With Pecaire's words, I see that Pacare is still serving
the state. That's an interesting statement, right, He's still serving
the state in some way because a lot of these
allegations go back to him working directly with the government
to do things that the government body would not be

(49:20):
able to do or or a law enforcement agency wouldn't
be able to do. And before anybody gets high and
mighty about it, let us point out that the US
government has done the same thing with the mob. That's
it's just true. I just think it's it's very much
a glasshouse situation. Yeah, oh, you're right. And with freedom fighters,

(49:41):
freedom fighters across countries. You're a across the world. Um, same,
same kind of deal, a weird situation, and today is
the first time I really looked into it. So I'm
I'd like to learn more with everybody else, with you,
So let's I think we should do that. And why wait,
why hold up on ceremony? Huh? Let us know what

(50:01):
you think. Let us know if you are a resident
of Turkey, if you are a resident of El Salvador,
if you live in an area like us that maybe
home to cicada invasions and or orgies. We want to
hear your thoughts about these events. And Matt, I'm with you,
I'd be especially interested to hear people, uh, people's thoughts

(50:21):
on the future of Turkey over the mid to long term.
We try to make it easy to find us on
the internet. We're all over at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all
the hits, conspiracy stuff, conspiracy stuff shows some derivative thereof.
If you do not care for social media, completely get
it and we have your back. You can also contact

(50:44):
us through our handy dandy phone number. That's right, call
one eight three three S T D W Y t K.
You'll hear Ben do his greeting. Uh, and after you
hear that, leave a message. Try to keep it around
three minutes that you get cut off if you don't
um and you know, you know, you'll still exist, but
then you'll have to leave another one, and then it
becomes a whole organizational thing on our end to keep

(51:04):
up with him. So it's super helpful to keep it
to three. And if you have something that you want
to talk about to us, it's a little more long winded,
write us an email, a good old fashioned one and fact, hey, hey,
wait a second before you do that. All I want
everybody out there to know, if you play magic the
Gathering Arena on iOS, come and find me some conspiracy
stuff on there, and I want to play magic with you.

(51:28):
Find me. But but but but but what about the email? Man? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
the email is conspiracy at i heeart radio dot com.

(51:54):
Stuff they don't want you to know. Is a production
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.

Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News

Advertise With Us

Follow Us On

Hosts And Creators

Matt Frederick

Matt Frederick

Ben Bowlin

Ben Bowlin

Noel Brown

Noel Brown

Show Links

RSSStoreAboutLive Shows

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.