Narco Warriors: Secrets From The Global Drug War
The true story of how the narcotics trade went global and how a secret war still shapes our world, told by the investigators who lived it. ***As featured in Radio Times***
Episodes
They were train robbers, bank raiders and drug lords. And they'd found the perfect hideout. A sun-drenched strip of southern Spain, where Britain's most wanted went to disappear.
No extradition, no questions asked.
The Costa del Sol was a sanctuary for some of the biggest villains. And this week we're going inside it.
Former UK Customs drug liaison officer "Colin" reveals a world tourists never saw. Investigative journalist P...
They locked him up, seized his millions, and dismantled his empire piece by piece. But every single time, Mickey Green walked free.
One of Britain's most wanted criminals for 30 years, Green ran cocaine and cannabis networks from Morocco to Miami. But he was always one step ahead. The investigators who spent their careers chasing him tell the incredible story.
Meanwhile, why Europe is facing a cocaine crisis unlike anything se...
Before cocaine, before cartels and before borders as we know them, there was smuggling.
Former UK Customs officer and de facto drug war historian Mike Gough Cooper takes us deep into the fascinating history of what he calls the world’s second oldest profession.
From Roman Britain and Viking protection rackets to Robin Hood, and brutal smuggling gangs, this is the story of how smuggling shaped Britain, funded wars, corrupted off...
The inside scoop on the man who helped create Britain’s heroin market, and the secret war to stop him.
Gigi Bakir was a ruthless Turkish Cypriot kingpin who built the UK’s first industrial-scale heroin operation in the 1970s.
From knife fights in North London nightclubs to secret smuggling tricks, Bakir controlled the supply lines that fed Britain’s growing heroin market, moving drugs from the Golden Crescent through Europe and...
An officer kidnapped in Afghanistan, the drug Mule carrying three kilograms of cocaine in his stomach, staying alive in Africa - and taking on the Turkish Connection.
They were invited to an arms fair. They ended up in chains. Deep inside hostile territory on the Afghan border, three western Drug Liaison Officers find themselves kidnapped by Mujahideen fighters.
Any rescue attempt risked turning into a “bloodbath.”
Our veteran ...
A major UK drug trafficking investigation exposes Colombian cocaine cartels operating in London and a heroin smuggling route running through Southall.
In this episode of Narco Warriors, former UK Customs and Excise investigators reveal how a small money bureau in Peckham became the key to uncovering one of the largest cocaine networks ever discovered in Britain.
The operation led to hundreds of arrests and massive cocaine seizu...
Most people meet Fidel Castro in history books. Alan Pamplin met him because of a drifting ship packed with cocaine.
Cuba is facing one of its worst crises in decades. Blackouts, fuel shortages, and growing unrest. And the pressure has intensified since the U.S. cut vital oil supplies from Venezuela.
But the legacy of revolutionary president Fidel Castro looms as large as ever.
In the mid-1990s, a drifting ship loaded with cocai...
From a secret partnership in Tehran, to the high-society smuggling scandals that rocked the British establishment, these are the extraordinary stories of the UK’s overseas drug enforcement officers.
Phil Matthews walks a diplomatic tightrope with Iranian police, Jim Jarvie’s young sons dive for cover as bullets fly at their school, and Mike Gough Cooper confronts a drug smuggler who turns out to be the grandson of a British pr...
Cocaine isn't just smuggled by speedboats and drug mules. For decades the cartels have built something much bigger...
In the late 1990s, the cartels changed the game, constructing a floating supply chain that crisscrossed the ocean with tonnes of cocaine.
Then came the tip-off no one believed. A young Drugs Liaison Officer uncovered intelligence so explosive his bosses thought he’d been reading too many spy novels.
They were wr...
Frankie the Strangler was one of the most feared Mafia assassins. A ruthless enforcer with alleged links to powerful crime families.
But British Customs and Excise found him hiding in plain sight in a quiet English village.
This episode reveals how UK Customs unknowingly arrested a Mafia godfather who slipped into Britain under the radar. What started as a routine operation became one of the most extraordinary organised crime s...
You thought your first week at work was bad? How about turning up unarmed to a gunfight…
It was meant to be a routine bust on a Caribbean beach. It ended with machine-gun fire and a dead body. This is Barbados in the 1980s. A tropical paradise on the surface, but part of a vast drug smuggling network.
Former UK Customs officer Graham Honey takes us inside two of the most dangerous postings of the global drug war: Barbados and ...
An embassy. A vengeful informant. A loaded pistol.
And is it ever a good idea to send your family undercover?
In the early 1990s, Thailand was the crossroads of the global drug trade. It was where power, corruption, and survival intersected.
Northern Thailand included what became known as the Golden Triangle, the lawless borderland where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet. This region was one of the world’s largest producers of h...
A dead body in a water tank. Rogue informants. Narco submarines.
Ever wonder who the government sends to the other side of the world to fight the drug trade? Meet the Drug Liaison Officers. The secret weapon in international narcotics enforcement. From embassy etiquette, to flipping reluctant mules into informants, this is the inside story of law enforcement’s most unusual diplomats.
These are the Narco Warriors.
The investigator becomes the target, the airport that became a temple of crime and how NOT to sample a cocaine stash.
Law enforcement veterans Philip Matthews and Graham Honey trace their unlikely beginnings in 1970s Britain, as UK Customs & Excise investigators quietly transformed from suitcase checks into a global drug-fighting force. From ripping drug parcels, to dismantling corruption at major travel hubs, they reveal ...
Missile strikes. Narco terrorism. A president taken in the night.
In the first episode of Narco Warriors, Lindsay Charlton sets the scene for a global conflict that has entered a dangerous new phase.
As the United States declares drug traffickers “narco terrorists” and launches missile strikes on suspected smuggling boats in the Caribbean, our insiders ask a fundamental question:
Has the war on drugs crossed a line?
...
This is the true story of how the narcotics trade went global and how a secret war, fought for more than 50 years, still shapes our world - told by the international investigators who lived it.
Episodes drop Mondays 6am GMT
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