June 4, 2024 • 33 mins
"If they would have a proof that you are the enemy of the country, they would usually take you to the sauna, which is banya in Russian, and then you just give you a drink with the poison. That's it. It's easy."
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
All eight episodes of The Die For are available now
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or on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Warning, the following contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual
assault that may be too intense or triggering to some listeners.
Discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
One of my friend asked me, have you ever been
in love? And I said yes, of course, every single time,
and he said no, really because of my trainings, I
feel that sometimes every single man in my life, even
(00:57):
for their romantic relationship or something, I still look at them.
That's my targets. I have different targets in my life.
It's a different period of times, and manism is the
tool to achieve your goal. I know it sounds really bad.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Sorry, that's me.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Welcome to my world.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
To enjoy you.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 6 (01:31):
I how to do that?
Speaker 7 (01:34):
I go on my.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Juty friends and my god like to you have to tre.
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Verses Episode nine, chapter nineteen. The story so far.
Speaker 8 (02:28):
So I just finished listening to the first eight episodes
that to Die For. It was the most compelling thing
I've listened to in a long time, and this is
not my genre I typically listened to because it's when
I lived, and it was just thought on fascinating.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
This is Robin Drake, the FBI agent whose voice you
heard at the beginning of this podcast. He's just finished
listening to the first eight episodes and called to share
some thoughts from his experience of twenty two years recruiting
Russian spies for American intelligence.
Speaker 9 (02:57):
It's completely conceivable and believable.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Everything she said. Your heart just breaks for the trauma
that not just she, but.
Speaker 9 (03:05):
I mean they take traffic in human beings.
Speaker 8 (03:08):
I mean, that's exactly what they're doing. They corrupt them,
they destroy these women.
Speaker 7 (03:14):
Robin is talking about Alia's experiences in the FSB, the
Russian intelligence agency formed as a successor to the KGB,
sharing her training. Aliyah was selected for a secret program
for seduction agents, taught by a female major there, who
Robin sees as a victim of the system, forced to
create new victims.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
And the other thing that struck me too is how
can ruins that behavior has been through time Courkamicans Russians
In my entire time and the FBI, never once did
I ever see a Russian female intelligence officer.
Speaker 9 (03:45):
They don't do it. Nope, it is not their culture.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
And if someone rose into ranks, it was because they
were doing.
Speaker 9 (03:52):
What her major was doing, training other females just.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
To be tools, and you know, I call them screwdrivers
and wrenches, you know, to be thrown away.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
It's totally objectified.
Speaker 7 (04:02):
I want to ask you something that I've thought about,
and talking to you is bring that thought to the surface,
which is part of me thinks, assuming this all checks out,
was this a real institutional program to train sex buys
or was this a way for the higher ups at
the academy to create a ring of abuse with these
(04:22):
women by pretending it's that.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
I'm going to say yes to both.
Speaker 8 (04:27):
And here's why I frame it like that, because from
our context in the West, it looks like it's one
or the other, but from their context, from where they
come from, it's all the same.
Speaker 7 (04:38):
We talk about the colonel who ran the academy that
Leah went to, how he abused her on the first day,
and she was put in a position where she had
to seduce him and make him think she was his
girlfriend in order to protect herself.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
There's no checks and balances whatsoever.
Speaker 8 (04:52):
Their checks and balances is I'm the colonel, I say,
what goes unless you were a colonel that's closed.
Speaker 9 (04:56):
It a booton than me. And that's exactly what this
entire programs. I mean, it looks like because that they.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Got a colonel in there that was, you know, needed
his sexual needs so filled. So I'm going to create
a program that satisfies me. And I'm glad she's getting
good counseling and therapy for it too, because they destroyed her.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
This is not about nation states.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
This is about you know, nation state making excuses for
discussing human behavior and excusing it because it's serving the
greater need of our country.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
With FBI agent Robin Dreeke's thoughts here in mind, we
return now to Leah's story. There have been some comments
questioning Leah, and as mentioned in episode two, we will
of course get to that, but for now, let's just
listen because this story takes some unpredictable turns.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Chapter twenty debate.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
In two thousand and three, President Putin signed and founded
a special Department fs KYN and that department was established
only for one reason and one mission, to stop drug
trafficking from Afghanistan.
Speaker 7 (06:25):
This was the new department that Aliyah would be working in.
Angry that Aliyah had rejected his marriage proposal, the colonel
had handed her off to his friend, a lieutenant general
in the FSKN, to start working under him and be
his next victim.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So next day I went to the new department. It
was two floors building, white walls inside, and it was
a really small department. So we had maybe around like
fifteen agents, no women, only male. So the new department
(07:08):
welcomed me and we had our morning report routine where
we had our tasks, our assignments, and.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
It was Eliah's first task in the FSCN the Federal
Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation, was to shadow
the other agents as they staked out houses where drugs
were sold.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I would need to go with my team, who would
be like two or three other agents, and we would
walk on the streets and find out places where drugs
would be would be sold throughly tough to go their back.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Among Leah's many challenges there was her new commander, the
lieutenant general, who repeated a pattern Aliyah was now tragically
familiar with. The first time, he phrased it as a question.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Less than a week I served in that new department.
The lieutenant general called me and he said to me
that all right, so how do you like your new department?
And said, yeah, it's pretty nice, thank you. And he said, well,
(08:32):
let's go for a dinner. And I said, oh my god,
I can't do it today. I have some things to do.
He noticed that I was worshitting him, and he noticed
that I was lying, but I just didn't. I just
was scared. He gave me this weird feeling, the feeling
(08:54):
that I should run away. But then he said, okay,
if not today, when is the next time you tell me?
So we go out. And then I called to the cornell.
I said, you know, he wants to go out with me,
(09:15):
and Cornel said that you have to accept his offer.
And I understood that I don't really have anywhere to
go and anyone to ask anyway. The whole week I
was trying not to be seen by my commander, even
(09:35):
every morning at the reporting like I always looked like down.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
At one of those morning meetings, Aliah received her first
actual assignment to stake out of the credit apartment building
where drugs were likely being sold and send in an
undercover informant to get evidence.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And I remember it was my first mission. I never
done anything like this. So we had like one man.
He was a addict. He used to help agents to
buy drugs and tell us what kind is it? Is
it good or bad? He was like a bait. He's
(10:12):
probably dead already. So we would organize this operation where
we would give him money which war marked previously by us.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Here's how this thing marked.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Once their informant bought the drugs, the team would then
raid the house, make arrests, and gather evidence, including the
marked money. However, when a Leah entered the house, she
saw more than drugs and weapons. She saw evidence of
the human trafficking operation that would haunt her for the
rest of her life. Listener discretion is highly advised.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That boy he bought heroin a doze. He paid and
then we were waiting and we saw that he was
giving this money. We came to the house myself, three
other agents and another agents. And when we entered the house,
(11:15):
and when we entered the houses so like killed overdoors,
like bodies of kids, like many.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And it was the whole floor was like full of.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Like this used heroin doses and kids who were like
five years old and another was just like a little baby.
And then we checked the rooms and there was like
other girls sitting in the rooms, like I guess like
they all were overdosed, and some of them they were
(12:02):
they were like metallic bats and they were they had
like bracelets on the on the wrist. They couldn't do anything,
but they couldn't even they couldn't even speak.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
They were completely high and overdose.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And they just couldn't even talk to them. And I
saw their hands. They had huge bruises in their hands
and legs. I don't know how many men these poor
girls had to had to be with. And some of
(12:41):
them after like and the embassy took them. Some of
them they they just died before they started, like they
before they went to the hospital. They died in the car.
It was awful. I I was crying then the whole evening.
(13:05):
They also was one guy who was almost like my age.
He was actually from Kazakhstan. To when I was crying,
he supported me. He said, I know what you're going through.
It's never okay to see that bodies, especially children's bodies,
(13:26):
but he said, you know what, we can change it.
Let's make it happen, and every single day. When we
find these houses, when we arrest these motherfuckers, we change
the world. And when I heard this my father's words
that I have to protect people, especially children, especially women,
(13:54):
and all this learning in the academy, I felt like
I really can do I'm saying, and I just I
just wanted to.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Change that shit.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I was so angry, so that what made me strong.
I promised myself that I'll do everything to help wherever
it takes.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
With this new sense of mission and purpose, Eli decided
that she would stop avoiding the Lieutenant general and tell
him directly that she would not be going out with him.
She was here to work and make a difference.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So I decided to speak with the general. I knocked
his door and came to his room in the office,
and I said, Sir, I cannot go with you for dinner.
I cannot even go out with you because I I'm
(15:01):
not available. I have commitments in front of a man.
And he said, no, I already spoke with him. It's
all fine. He passed you over to me, so it's okay.
So now it's my turn. And I was like, my god, what, like,
I just hated that situation. And he said you don't
(15:25):
understand how privileged you are, because I am feeling.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
To have.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Sex with you, not relationship, not commitments, not love. And
I said, you know what, I'm not doing that, like
I'm not becoming against someone's you know, like a hole
for like wherever. If like Cornell doesn't want to protect
me anymore, I'll do it myself. So no, and he
(16:03):
said to me, I just want to warn you, young lady,
if you think that you can be cleverer than me,
this is not possible. And someone may tell you the
story what really happened with the female employee his former
employee when she rejected me. And he said, so, if
(16:29):
you will reject me, it'll be that. But I thought
that moment he's trying to make it more dramatic. I
would never imagine that he really meant it.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
He did.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
After Lee left the meeting, she asked the colleague she
trusted most, the one who is also from Kazakhstan, what
had happened to the last female agent who rejected the
lieutenant general's advances.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So he said, a few years ago, in that department,
there was a female agent and she was beautiful, and
he called her a black Swan because she had this
beautiful long black hair and beautiful eyes, and she studied
in the same department where I did. He said, this
(17:29):
maltenant general approached her to have with her some sexual relationship,
and she rejected him, so he sent her to one
mission where she was shot, so she was killed. And
(17:52):
he said, like, just be careful because this dude definitely
killed so many people. He's so cruel.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Chapter twenty one the Banya.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
Shortly after her meeting with the lieutenant General, and likely
not by coincidence, Elia's missions became even more dangerous.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
My colleagues arrested one criminal, quite young boy. He was
so violent. He would just kill people around him, just
without any reason. For example, if they would loan money
from criminal gang and they wouldn't pay on time, he
would kill them and their families. He could kill living kids.
(18:55):
My colleagues arrested him. Then they didn't have any evidences.
They couldn't get any confession or whatever from him, so
they had to let him leave. And I pray to
God they wouldn't send me to seduce him or whatever, because,
like I mean, I didn't want to deal with this guy.
He was completely out of his mind and he was
(19:17):
just scary, and they asked me to set him up.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
For the first time, Aliyah was asked to use her
special training. They hoped that where their traditional police tactics,
including violence, had not worked, seduction would.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
When I received that assignment, they said, you just need
to basically make him to come to the police. It
would be sauna. You won't be alone, We will be
with you, We will follow you, so it will be fine.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
The sauna because of its all purpose use as a bathhouse,
social club and meeting place in Russia with the sight
of many intelligence operations, not all of which ended well
for the target.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
If they would have a proof that you are the
enemy of the country, they would usually like take you
to like this sauna, which is Bania Russian Banya and
this it was like, give you some drinks with the poison.
That's it, it's easy.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
With this particular mission, Aliyah would not be giving her
target poison.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
She would be slipping something else into a drink.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
We dropped to the nightclub very kind of like underground
where everybody can basically took drugs in front of everyone.
He had like a small little army with him, his
gang people, criminals, and we decided that next night, we'll
get prepared and I will come to that club and
(20:48):
I will try to make him to go with me
to sauna, where I would need to give him a drink.
It wasn't a poison, but first of all, it has
but the indigrant, which makes you talk a lot. You
can give answers to any questions. So I was supposed
(21:09):
to give it to him in the drink. Then I
had to open the door to my team to come in,
and then they would continue with him to do whatever
they needed.
Speaker 7 (21:23):
Sergei, her team leader, gave her an unnamed drug and
a small bottle with an eye dropper, and then dropped
her off at the club.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I took that bottle of which my college gave me
in the bag. I took some condoms as well with me,
and I was ready. So I arrived there by taxing,
and then I knew that my team was waiting in
the car. I came in and I saw him sitting
(21:52):
at the table with the two other guys, and they
were like two girls. They looked just perfect, you know,
just like clothes, makeup everything. So I had to attract
his attention and I started to dance.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
One of the most important techniques of sex bonage is
to never approach your target directly, because if he suspects
you're an undercover agent, it could be a fatal mistake.
So instead, once the lea caught her target's eye, she
started a conversation with his two female friends about their clothing.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I started to speak with the girl first, and I
said like, oh my god, like, where did you buy yours?
And she said, oh, I bought it, like in this shop.
So we started to talk really enthusiastically. So he looked
at me. I noticed, and I remember I did like
(22:51):
this long look into his eyes, really long, soill he
could feel it. This girl who was next to me,
she's like, oh, sit down with us.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Eliah sat there and spoke with the women, ignoring her
target except for the occasional seductive glance.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And then they were continuing partying and everything. And I
was thinking, like, how can I approach him where? I mean,
it would be just simple to say, hey, would you
like to fuck? I had to intrigue him, just like
a couple of days ago. He was in an interrogation room,
so you definitely understand that potentially he'd been watched.
Speaker 7 (23:35):
Eventually, an opportunity to learn her target to the sauna
came and one of the women she was talking to
started mentioning after parties and asking if anyone had cocaine.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So I said, oh, by the way, I have have
some good drugs and she said really like yeah, and
she told all your guys like, oh, she has like
good drugs. She's like, okay, where is it? This is
like video. I said, oh no, I can call my guy,
like he will come and bring it. He usually brings
it to like the sauna so and so, and like
(24:06):
do you know this sauna? She's like, oh, yeah, I know,
I know the sauna, like I've been there. I said like, yeah,
why don't you have a party there. So I wanted
this proposal would come from her mouth rather than mine,
because I was the new girl who like nobody knew.
So she passed this information to him and he seemed
(24:30):
like agreed to that, and so I went to the toilet.
I texted to my Sergi, to my guy and I said, listen,
so we are going to that sauna, but he wants drugs.
What about drugs which we have in the department.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
SERGEI agreed to go to the evidence locker get some
cocaine and bring it to a leah before she left
the club.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
My other colleagues stay were following us. They came to
the sauna, everybody got undressed. I took the bag of
cocaine to the table. I put it on the table.
They started to sniff it. So there were like two
girls they started to swim in the swimming pool and
(25:16):
two guys hanging out with them. So my target for
a while, he was like by himself. What I had
to do. I had to take him separately to another
room so it would be just me and him in
the room.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
Elijah wasn't sure how to get her target, this gang
enforcer and murderer, into the other room, until she remembered
something else she'd been taught in her training, something that
was very unusual to learn at a military academy.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I said like, would you like some massage? And he's
like yeah, and I started to massage his shoulders. He
drank that cocktail with vodka, but he didn't drink that
much because he was more like using drugs. I didn't
really not when and how to pour these drops into
hit glass. And I was telling him, oh my god,
(26:06):
like you're so strong, you're so like masculine and you
have so much tensions, and if you would lay down,
I can do good massage for you for the whole bag.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Leah suggested to her target that they move into a
more comfortable room, hoping that his friends would just assume
they were hooking up and not worry about him.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
He said, yeah, let's do it. So when we were
walking into the room, I pick up his glass and
I'd pick up also like my glass, but it was
same looking cocktail with cola, and coke has a quite
strong taste rate, so if you use any poison or
(26:47):
you use any type of drug, coke tastes so strong
that it's just cover it all, so you wouldn't feel
the taste of poison. So he laid down and I said, like,
let me give you the drink. And when he was
laying I just like took out the drop and put
(27:09):
like three drops into his drink. And I put my
glass like nearby, but I didn't touch it, and then
I just gave it to him. I said, like, just
drink it and I will do like message straight away.
So he drank it. He put it like on the side,
and he laid down, and then I went on top
of him, and I started to massage his shoulders. While
(27:34):
I was massaging, I felt like that his muscle was
like relaxing, relaxing, relaxing, and then he basically stopped reacting
and he was completely out. So I took his hand
and it was completely limp. So I was like, okay,
(27:55):
so he's ready. And when I stood up, I took
my glass and when I went to the main lobby,
just wash it. Basically. I didn't tell anything to his
friends and they were like still in the swimming pool.
(28:15):
I just left and when I was leaving, I texted
to Sergate, the commander of the group of this team, Okay,
it's done. He's like he passed over. That's it. And
I took a taxi and I went home.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
Eliah assumed that her first seduction mission had been a success.
That is until a few days later when the criminals
family said that he'd gone missing that night and began
accusing the police of having done something to him.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
So Aliah asked the colleague about it.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
He's like, I don't know, but I know that Sergi
was working this case and it's not good for him.
And I thought, okay, so if this criminal is missing.
I am involved in this case, perhaps in this murder,
(29:16):
and I thought, you know, it could be really bad
to me too, because I was the one who gave
him this this string who knows what liquid.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
As Leah reckoned with the possibility that she might have
killed him, she thought about how many innocent people this
criminal had killed himself, just literally because he enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And by that time I didn't feel bad about him.
He was just like a zombie who brings only a
nightmare to everyone.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
As for whether she accidentally overdosed him or something else
happened afterward, Leah would never know.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I mean, in the end of the day, I never
know if they were still straight like that or not,
because it was the job of the cleaners. We used
to have cleaners, people who like government, people who would
come and clean.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Even her colleagues from the mission that night refused to
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
The only one thing what he said to me, never
tell anyone about what happened. So I never said anything.
And day by day I would come to my office,
to my department and work and go to all these
(30:34):
operations and just do my job. And I've seen more
and more crimes on the street I would see more
and more dead bodies, and it was really dangerous and
it was risky.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
As Leah continued receiving new missions, she noticed that the
lieutenant General hadn't propositioned her again. So she thought, she
say from him.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I thought he would just leave me, you know, just okay,
it is what it is.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
But like the predator, he was lieutenant general was just
waiting for the right time to strike, and a few
weeks later he's struck it away. Elien never saw coming.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Everybody were leaving his office after the reporting, and then
he said, oh, yeah, you were staying. I have a
special assignment for you. And I was like shit, So
I stayed in his room. He closed the door and
he said, so what did you decide? And I played stupid.
(31:42):
I said, like about what, sorry, like I don't understand,
and he's like, okay, so I see, like you don't
get it right, all right, you can leave now. I
pretended that nothing happened really, that he's not peaced, like
he's okay, but in fact he was really pissed. So
(32:08):
the next morning and he had our reporting as always,
and he said, by the way, agent, you have a
chance to pay back to your country by going to
do war, make us to be proud of you. And
(32:32):
when he said it, I heard all my colleagues were like,
oh my god, she is fucked. Good luck to her,
like when you'll go to the funeral. Inside of me,
I started to shake of anger and hate. He's sending
(32:55):
me to the Chechen war for me to be killed
over there and never come back.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Eliah's story continues in episode ten, which is available now.
Continue listening for free on Apple Podcasts. For full credits,
check out our show notes. If you or someone you
know is a victim of human trafficking, please contact the
Human Trafficking Hotline at one eight eight eight three seven
(33:30):
three seven eight eight eight to get help and support.
All eight episodes of The Die For are available now
to bench absolutely free, but for ad free listening and
exclusive bonuses, subscribe to tendorfoot Plus at tenderfootplus dot com
or on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Warning, the following contains graphic descriptions of violence and sexual
assault that may be too intense or triggering to some listeners.
Discretion is advised.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
One of my friend asked me, have you ever been
in love? And I said yes, of course, every single time,
and he said no, really because of my trainings, I
feel that sometimes every single man in my life, even
(00:57):
for their romantic relationship or something, I still look at them.
That's my targets. I have different targets in my life.
It's a different period of times, and manism is the
tool to achieve your goal. I know it sounds really bad.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Sorry, that's me.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Welcome to my world.
Speaker 5 (01:26):
To enjoy you.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I'm really sorry.
Speaker 6 (01:31):
I how to do that?
Speaker 7 (01:34):
I go on my.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Juty friends and my god like to you have to tre.
Speaker 7 (01:55):
Verses Episode nine, chapter nineteen. The story so far.
Speaker 8 (02:28):
So I just finished listening to the first eight episodes
that to Die For. It was the most compelling thing
I've listened to in a long time, and this is
not my genre I typically listened to because it's when
I lived, and it was just thought on fascinating.
Speaker 7 (02:42):
This is Robin Drake, the FBI agent whose voice you
heard at the beginning of this podcast. He's just finished
listening to the first eight episodes and called to share
some thoughts from his experience of twenty two years recruiting
Russian spies for American intelligence.
Speaker 9 (02:57):
It's completely conceivable and believable.
Speaker 8 (03:00):
Everything she said. Your heart just breaks for the trauma
that not just she, but.
Speaker 9 (03:05):
I mean they take traffic in human beings.
Speaker 8 (03:08):
I mean, that's exactly what they're doing. They corrupt them,
they destroy these women.
Speaker 7 (03:14):
Robin is talking about Alia's experiences in the FSB, the
Russian intelligence agency formed as a successor to the KGB,
sharing her training. Aliyah was selected for a secret program
for seduction agents, taught by a female major there, who
Robin sees as a victim of the system, forced to
create new victims.
Speaker 8 (03:33):
And the other thing that struck me too is how
can ruins that behavior has been through time Courkamicans Russians
In my entire time and the FBI, never once did
I ever see a Russian female intelligence officer.
Speaker 9 (03:45):
They don't do it. Nope, it is not their culture.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
And if someone rose into ranks, it was because they
were doing.
Speaker 9 (03:52):
What her major was doing, training other females just.
Speaker 8 (03:55):
To be tools, and you know, I call them screwdrivers
and wrenches, you know, to be thrown away.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
It's totally objectified.
Speaker 7 (04:02):
I want to ask you something that I've thought about,
and talking to you is bring that thought to the surface,
which is part of me thinks, assuming this all checks out,
was this a real institutional program to train sex buys
or was this a way for the higher ups at
the academy to create a ring of abuse with these
(04:22):
women by pretending it's that.
Speaker 9 (04:25):
I'm going to say yes to both.
Speaker 8 (04:27):
And here's why I frame it like that, because from
our context in the West, it looks like it's one
or the other, but from their context, from where they
come from, it's all the same.
Speaker 7 (04:38):
We talk about the colonel who ran the academy that
Leah went to, how he abused her on the first day,
and she was put in a position where she had
to seduce him and make him think she was his
girlfriend in order to protect herself.
Speaker 9 (04:50):
There's no checks and balances whatsoever.
Speaker 8 (04:52):
Their checks and balances is I'm the colonel, I say,
what goes unless you were a colonel that's closed.
Speaker 9 (04:56):
It a booton than me. And that's exactly what this
entire programs. I mean, it looks like because that they.
Speaker 8 (05:00):
Got a colonel in there that was, you know, needed
his sexual needs so filled. So I'm going to create
a program that satisfies me. And I'm glad she's getting
good counseling and therapy for it too, because they destroyed her.
Speaker 9 (05:13):
This is not about nation states.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
This is about you know, nation state making excuses for
discussing human behavior and excusing it because it's serving the
greater need of our country.
Speaker 7 (05:26):
With FBI agent Robin Dreeke's thoughts here in mind, we
return now to Leah's story. There have been some comments
questioning Leah, and as mentioned in episode two, we will
of course get to that, but for now, let's just
listen because this story takes some unpredictable turns.
Speaker 6 (05:54):
Chapter twenty debate.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
In two thousand and three, President Putin signed and founded
a special Department fs KYN and that department was established
only for one reason and one mission, to stop drug
trafficking from Afghanistan.
Speaker 7 (06:25):
This was the new department that Aliyah would be working in.
Angry that Aliyah had rejected his marriage proposal, the colonel
had handed her off to his friend, a lieutenant general
in the FSKN, to start working under him and be
his next victim.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So next day I went to the new department. It
was two floors building, white walls inside, and it was
a really small department. So we had maybe around like
fifteen agents, no women, only male. So the new department
(07:08):
welcomed me and we had our morning report routine where
we had our tasks, our assignments, and.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
It was Eliah's first task in the FSCN the Federal
Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation, was to shadow
the other agents as they staked out houses where drugs
were sold.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
I would need to go with my team, who would
be like two or three other agents, and we would
walk on the streets and find out places where drugs
would be would be sold throughly tough to go their back.
Speaker 7 (07:53):
Among Leah's many challenges there was her new commander, the
lieutenant general, who repeated a pattern Aliyah was now tragically
familiar with. The first time, he phrased it as a question.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Less than a week I served in that new department.
The lieutenant general called me and he said to me
that all right, so how do you like your new department?
And said, yeah, it's pretty nice, thank you. And he said, well,
(08:32):
let's go for a dinner. And I said, oh my god,
I can't do it today. I have some things to do.
He noticed that I was worshitting him, and he noticed
that I was lying, but I just didn't. I just
was scared. He gave me this weird feeling, the feeling
(08:54):
that I should run away. But then he said, okay,
if not today, when is the next time you tell me?
So we go out. And then I called to the cornell.
I said, you know, he wants to go out with me,
(09:15):
and Cornel said that you have to accept his offer.
And I understood that I don't really have anywhere to
go and anyone to ask anyway. The whole week I
was trying not to be seen by my commander, even
(09:35):
every morning at the reporting like I always looked like down.
Speaker 7 (09:39):
At one of those morning meetings, Aliah received her first
actual assignment to stake out of the credit apartment building
where drugs were likely being sold and send in an
undercover informant to get evidence.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And I remember it was my first mission. I never
done anything like this. So we had like one man.
He was a addict. He used to help agents to
buy drugs and tell us what kind is it? Is
it good or bad? He was like a bait. He's
(10:12):
probably dead already. So we would organize this operation where
we would give him money which war marked previously by us.
Speaker 6 (10:24):
Here's how this thing marked.
Speaker 7 (10:26):
Once their informant bought the drugs, the team would then
raid the house, make arrests, and gather evidence, including the
marked money. However, when a Leah entered the house, she
saw more than drugs and weapons. She saw evidence of
the human trafficking operation that would haunt her for the
rest of her life. Listener discretion is highly advised.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
That boy he bought heroin a doze. He paid and
then we were waiting and we saw that he was
giving this money. We came to the house myself, three
other agents and another agents. And when we entered the house,
(11:15):
and when we entered the houses so like killed overdoors,
like bodies of kids, like many.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
And it was the whole floor was like full of.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Like this used heroin doses and kids who were like
five years old and another was just like a little baby.
And then we checked the rooms and there was like
other girls sitting in the rooms, like I guess like
they all were overdosed, and some of them they were
(12:02):
they were like metallic bats and they were they had
like bracelets on the on the wrist. They couldn't do anything,
but they couldn't even they couldn't even speak.
Speaker 4 (12:16):
They were completely high and overdose.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
And they just couldn't even talk to them. And I
saw their hands. They had huge bruises in their hands
and legs. I don't know how many men these poor
girls had to had to be with. And some of
(12:41):
them after like and the embassy took them. Some of
them they they just died before they started, like they
before they went to the hospital. They died in the car.
It was awful. I I was crying then the whole evening.
(13:05):
They also was one guy who was almost like my age.
He was actually from Kazakhstan. To when I was crying,
he supported me. He said, I know what you're going through.
It's never okay to see that bodies, especially children's bodies,
(13:26):
but he said, you know what, we can change it.
Let's make it happen, and every single day. When we
find these houses, when we arrest these motherfuckers, we change
the world. And when I heard this my father's words
that I have to protect people, especially children, especially women,
(13:54):
and all this learning in the academy, I felt like
I really can do I'm saying, and I just I
just wanted to.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Change that shit.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I was so angry, so that what made me strong.
I promised myself that I'll do everything to help wherever
it takes.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
With this new sense of mission and purpose, Eli decided
that she would stop avoiding the Lieutenant general and tell
him directly that she would not be going out with him.
She was here to work and make a difference.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
So I decided to speak with the general. I knocked
his door and came to his room in the office,
and I said, Sir, I cannot go with you for dinner.
I cannot even go out with you because I I'm
(15:01):
not available. I have commitments in front of a man.
And he said, no, I already spoke with him. It's
all fine. He passed you over to me, so it's okay.
So now it's my turn. And I was like, my god, what, like,
I just hated that situation. And he said you don't
(15:25):
understand how privileged you are, because I am feeling.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
To have.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Sex with you, not relationship, not commitments, not love. And
I said, you know what, I'm not doing that, like
I'm not becoming against someone's you know, like a hole
for like wherever. If like Cornell doesn't want to protect
me anymore, I'll do it myself. So no, and he
(16:03):
said to me, I just want to warn you, young lady,
if you think that you can be cleverer than me,
this is not possible. And someone may tell you the
story what really happened with the female employee his former
employee when she rejected me. And he said, so, if
(16:29):
you will reject me, it'll be that. But I thought
that moment he's trying to make it more dramatic. I
would never imagine that he really meant it.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
He did.
Speaker 7 (16:52):
After Lee left the meeting, she asked the colleague she
trusted most, the one who is also from Kazakhstan, what
had happened to the last female agent who rejected the
lieutenant general's advances.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
So he said, a few years ago, in that department,
there was a female agent and she was beautiful, and
he called her a black Swan because she had this
beautiful long black hair and beautiful eyes, and she studied
in the same department where I did. He said, this
(17:29):
maltenant general approached her to have with her some sexual relationship,
and she rejected him, so he sent her to one
mission where she was shot, so she was killed. And
(17:52):
he said, like, just be careful because this dude definitely
killed so many people. He's so cruel.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Chapter twenty one the Banya.
Speaker 7 (18:25):
Shortly after her meeting with the lieutenant General, and likely
not by coincidence, Elia's missions became even more dangerous.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
My colleagues arrested one criminal, quite young boy. He was
so violent. He would just kill people around him, just
without any reason. For example, if they would loan money
from criminal gang and they wouldn't pay on time, he
would kill them and their families. He could kill living kids.
(18:55):
My colleagues arrested him. Then they didn't have any evidences.
They couldn't get any confession or whatever from him, so
they had to let him leave. And I pray to
God they wouldn't send me to seduce him or whatever, because,
like I mean, I didn't want to deal with this guy.
He was completely out of his mind and he was
(19:17):
just scary, and they asked me to set him up.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
For the first time, Aliyah was asked to use her
special training. They hoped that where their traditional police tactics,
including violence, had not worked, seduction would.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
When I received that assignment, they said, you just need
to basically make him to come to the police. It
would be sauna. You won't be alone, We will be
with you, We will follow you, so it will be fine.
Speaker 7 (19:50):
The sauna because of its all purpose use as a bathhouse,
social club and meeting place in Russia with the sight
of many intelligence operations, not all of which ended well
for the target.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
If they would have a proof that you are the
enemy of the country, they would usually like take you
to like this sauna, which is Bania Russian Banya and
this it was like, give you some drinks with the poison.
That's it, it's easy.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
With this particular mission, Aliyah would not be giving her
target poison.
Speaker 6 (20:24):
She would be slipping something else into a drink.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
We dropped to the nightclub very kind of like underground
where everybody can basically took drugs in front of everyone.
He had like a small little army with him, his
gang people, criminals, and we decided that next night, we'll
get prepared and I will come to that club and
(20:48):
I will try to make him to go with me
to sauna, where I would need to give him a drink.
It wasn't a poison, but first of all, it has
but the indigrant, which makes you talk a lot. You
can give answers to any questions. So I was supposed
(21:09):
to give it to him in the drink. Then I
had to open the door to my team to come in,
and then they would continue with him to do whatever
they needed.
Speaker 7 (21:23):
Sergei, her team leader, gave her an unnamed drug and
a small bottle with an eye dropper, and then dropped
her off at the club.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
I took that bottle of which my college gave me
in the bag. I took some condoms as well with me,
and I was ready. So I arrived there by taxing,
and then I knew that my team was waiting in
the car. I came in and I saw him sitting
(21:52):
at the table with the two other guys, and they
were like two girls. They looked just perfect, you know,
just like clothes, makeup everything. So I had to attract
his attention and I started to dance.
Speaker 7 (22:14):
One of the most important techniques of sex bonage is
to never approach your target directly, because if he suspects
you're an undercover agent, it could be a fatal mistake.
So instead, once the lea caught her target's eye, she
started a conversation with his two female friends about their clothing.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
I started to speak with the girl first, and I
said like, oh my god, like, where did you buy yours?
And she said, oh, I bought it, like in this shop.
So we started to talk really enthusiastically. So he looked
at me. I noticed, and I remember I did like
(22:51):
this long look into his eyes, really long, soill he
could feel it. This girl who was next to me,
she's like, oh, sit down with us.
Speaker 7 (23:02):
Eliah sat there and spoke with the women, ignoring her
target except for the occasional seductive glance.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And then they were continuing partying and everything. And I
was thinking, like, how can I approach him where? I mean,
it would be just simple to say, hey, would you
like to fuck? I had to intrigue him, just like
a couple of days ago. He was in an interrogation room,
so you definitely understand that potentially he'd been watched.
Speaker 7 (23:35):
Eventually, an opportunity to learn her target to the sauna
came and one of the women she was talking to
started mentioning after parties and asking if anyone had cocaine.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
So I said, oh, by the way, I have have
some good drugs and she said really like yeah, and
she told all your guys like, oh, she has like
good drugs. She's like, okay, where is it? This is
like video. I said, oh no, I can call my guy,
like he will come and bring it. He usually brings
it to like the sauna so and so, and like
(24:06):
do you know this sauna? She's like, oh, yeah, I know,
I know the sauna, like I've been there. I said like, yeah,
why don't you have a party there. So I wanted
this proposal would come from her mouth rather than mine,
because I was the new girl who like nobody knew.
So she passed this information to him and he seemed
(24:30):
like agreed to that, and so I went to the toilet.
I texted to my Sergi, to my guy and I said, listen,
so we are going to that sauna, but he wants drugs.
What about drugs which we have in the department.
Speaker 7 (24:49):
SERGEI agreed to go to the evidence locker get some
cocaine and bring it to a leah before she left
the club.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
My other colleagues stay were following us. They came to
the sauna, everybody got undressed. I took the bag of
cocaine to the table. I put it on the table.
They started to sniff it. So there were like two
girls they started to swim in the swimming pool and
(25:16):
two guys hanging out with them. So my target for
a while, he was like by himself. What I had
to do. I had to take him separately to another
room so it would be just me and him in
the room.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
Elijah wasn't sure how to get her target, this gang
enforcer and murderer, into the other room, until she remembered
something else she'd been taught in her training, something that
was very unusual to learn at a military academy.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I said like, would you like some massage? And he's
like yeah, and I started to massage his shoulders. He
drank that cocktail with vodka, but he didn't drink that
much because he was more like using drugs. I didn't
really not when and how to pour these drops into
hit glass. And I was telling him, oh my god,
(26:06):
like you're so strong, you're so like masculine and you
have so much tensions, and if you would lay down,
I can do good massage for you for the whole bag.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
Leah suggested to her target that they move into a
more comfortable room, hoping that his friends would just assume
they were hooking up and not worry about him.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
He said, yeah, let's do it. So when we were
walking into the room, I pick up his glass and
I'd pick up also like my glass, but it was
same looking cocktail with cola, and coke has a quite
strong taste rate, so if you use any poison or
(26:47):
you use any type of drug, coke tastes so strong
that it's just cover it all, so you wouldn't feel
the taste of poison. So he laid down and I said, like,
let me give you the drink. And when he was
laying I just like took out the drop and put
(27:09):
like three drops into his drink. And I put my
glass like nearby, but I didn't touch it, and then
I just gave it to him. I said, like, just
drink it and I will do like message straight away.
So he drank it. He put it like on the side,
and he laid down, and then I went on top
of him, and I started to massage his shoulders. While
(27:34):
I was massaging, I felt like that his muscle was
like relaxing, relaxing, relaxing, and then he basically stopped reacting
and he was completely out. So I took his hand
and it was completely limp. So I was like, okay,
(27:55):
so he's ready. And when I stood up, I took
my glass and when I went to the main lobby,
just wash it. Basically. I didn't tell anything to his
friends and they were like still in the swimming pool.
(28:15):
I just left and when I was leaving, I texted
to Sergate, the commander of the group of this team, Okay,
it's done. He's like he passed over. That's it. And
I took a taxi and I went home.
Speaker 7 (28:41):
Eliah assumed that her first seduction mission had been a success.
That is until a few days later when the criminals
family said that he'd gone missing that night and began
accusing the police of having done something to him.
Speaker 6 (28:54):
So Aliah asked the colleague about it.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
He's like, I don't know, but I know that Sergi
was working this case and it's not good for him.
And I thought, okay, so if this criminal is missing.
I am involved in this case, perhaps in this murder,
(29:16):
and I thought, you know, it could be really bad
to me too, because I was the one who gave
him this this string who knows what liquid.
Speaker 7 (29:29):
As Leah reckoned with the possibility that she might have
killed him, she thought about how many innocent people this
criminal had killed himself, just literally because he enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
And by that time I didn't feel bad about him.
He was just like a zombie who brings only a
nightmare to everyone.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
As for whether she accidentally overdosed him or something else
happened afterward, Leah would never know.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
I mean, in the end of the day, I never
know if they were still straight like that or not,
because it was the job of the cleaners. We used
to have cleaners, people who like government, people who would
come and clean.
Speaker 7 (30:09):
Even her colleagues from the mission that night refused to
talk about it.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
The only one thing what he said to me, never
tell anyone about what happened. So I never said anything.
And day by day I would come to my office,
to my department and work and go to all these
(30:34):
operations and just do my job. And I've seen more
and more crimes on the street I would see more
and more dead bodies, and it was really dangerous and
it was risky.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
As Leah continued receiving new missions, she noticed that the
lieutenant General hadn't propositioned her again. So she thought, she
say from him.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I thought he would just leave me, you know, just okay,
it is what it is.
Speaker 7 (31:07):
But like the predator, he was lieutenant general was just
waiting for the right time to strike, and a few
weeks later he's struck it away. Elien never saw coming.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Everybody were leaving his office after the reporting, and then
he said, oh, yeah, you were staying. I have a
special assignment for you. And I was like shit, So
I stayed in his room. He closed the door and
he said, so what did you decide? And I played stupid.
(31:42):
I said, like about what, sorry, like I don't understand,
and he's like, okay, so I see, like you don't
get it right, all right, you can leave now. I
pretended that nothing happened really, that he's not peaced, like
he's okay, but in fact he was really pissed. So
(32:08):
the next morning and he had our reporting as always,
and he said, by the way, agent, you have a
chance to pay back to your country by going to
do war, make us to be proud of you. And
(32:32):
when he said it, I heard all my colleagues were like,
oh my god, she is fucked. Good luck to her,
like when you'll go to the funeral. Inside of me,
I started to shake of anger and hate. He's sending
(32:55):
me to the Chechen war for me to be killed
over there and never come back.
Speaker 7 (33:08):
Eliah's story continues in episode ten, which is available now.
Continue listening for free on Apple Podcasts. For full credits,
check out our show notes. If you or someone you
know is a victim of human trafficking, please contact the
Human Trafficking Hotline at one eight eight eight three seven
(33:30):
three seven eight eight eight to get help and support.
Host
Neil Strauss
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