Fidel Castro: Cuba’s Cocaine Trafficker-in-Ch...

When Mako Nishimura, the yakuza’s only female member, fell in love with a rival gangster, it would send her on a long and painful path from drug and sex trafficking, to painkiller addiction and finally a role helping ex-yakuza go straight. Her journey would mirror the downfall of ...  Show more

On this week's Stash House: A fugitive Dutch cocaine kingpin dodges capture off the coast of West Africa. An Irish gang boss trades gangland warfare for electoral politics. Mexican officials accused of working for the Sinaloa Cartel surrender to U.S. authorities. A violent mafia ...  Show more

When Fidel Castro overthrew Cuba’s dictator in 1959, the Communist leader and provocateur quickly became a threat to the U.S. government. The CIA has been proven responsible for at least eight plots against Castro’s life. Despite the creativity of their attempts—including everyth ...  Show more

It’s 1959 and the swaggering Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, has just overthrown the unpopular American backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara, the Marxist physician whose face would become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance, is at his side. But how di ...  Show more

In this episode of 80 Days: an exploration podcast,  we’ll be talking about Cuba, an island in the Caribbean Ocean, just 90 miles south of the US state of Florida (Full shownotes at: https://80dayspodcast.com/2017/06/10/cuba-1/). Cuba is home to over 11 million inhabitants, and i ...  Show more

New Year's Eve, 1958. Cuba's president, Fulgencio Batista, is throwing his annual New Year's Eve party at his home in Havana. It's usually a blowout. But this year, the vibes... aren't so great. Government officials and Cuban elites drink champagne and pick at arroz con pollo as ...  Show more