Bootlegging All Over the World: Illegal Brews...

By the mid-1920s, Green Gang Boss Du Yuesheng had conquered almost all before him — including his own underworld mentor Huang Jinrong. Shanghai’s opium scene, torn open by British gunboats, belonged to him. But the city was about to become the crucible for a far more bloody showd ...  Show more

They call him Brazil's Pablo Escobar. Sérgio de Carvalho was an elite Brazilian police major who became one of the most wanted drug traffickers on Earth, accused of flying 45 tonnes of cocaine into Europe with his own private fleet of planes. Along the way he burned through ten f ...  Show more

Most people have heard of Prohibition, the time when America decided drinking was bad. But how much do we really know? Because it wasn’t just the speakeasies that were hidden. We’re talking about Mafia turf wars and government poisoning alcohol for years. And that’s just the star ...  Show more

On today’s episode of our series on Prohibition, we talk about two things that go hand in hand with the enforcement of dry laws: crime and cocktails. The spread of both was a direct consequence of the 18th amendment as mobsters ruled the violent industry of bootlegging and the ro ...  Show more

This week we hear tales of restless children, diapers, open air drug use, contaminated drinking water, raw sewage, a little bit of rock n roll, lame DJ’s and oh yeah - dirty hippies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

From 1920 to 1933, the U.S. government attempted to ban (recreational) alcohol throughout the nation. In a stunning -- we're being sarcastic here -- turn of events, people circumvented the law and found ways to keep drinking and organized crime blossomed in cities across the coun ...  Show more