
Tiger Traffickers, Narco Zoos and the (Even Darker) Truth Behind Joe Exotic
04/25/23 • 44 min
1 Listener
In 2019 Sean spent weeks on the road between Oklahoma and Miami, investigating roadside zoo owner—and soon-to-be American icon—Joe Exotic. The truth was way, way darker than anything Netflix's Tiger King revealed.
This week's episode also dives into ancient lion hunters, tiger-wielding mafiosos, and of course Pablo Escobar's "Cocaine Hippos". Plenty to sink your claws into.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 2019 Sean spent weeks on the road between Oklahoma and Miami, investigating roadside zoo owner—and soon-to-be American icon—Joe Exotic. The truth was way, way darker than anything Netflix's Tiger King revealed.
This week's episode also dives into ancient lion hunters, tiger-wielding mafiosos, and of course Pablo Escobar's "Cocaine Hippos". Plenty to sink your claws into.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode

The World's Most Powerful Cocaine Broker: Inside the 'Ndrangheta with Antonio Talia
In recent years, another one of Italy's feared criminal groups has risen above the Sicilian Mafia to become among the most powerful organized crime groups in the world: The Calabrian 'Ndrangheta. Started as a self-defense militia centuries ago to protect against pirates and raiders, the secretive society later morphed into a powerful group of bandits who made their bones through high profile, high profit kidnappings - like snatching the grandson of one of the richest men in the world. Soon enough, though, they wanted in on the real money, which means cocaine trafficking...and that's where Rocco Morabito excelled. Dubbed the cocaine king of Milan, he eventually became one of Italy's most wanted men and went on the run in South America for decades after brokering massive cocaine deals between the cartels and Italian organized crime groups, helping the Ndrangheta control the majority of Europe's cocaine trade. Calabrian crime reporter and journalist Antonio Talia, who grew up in the same area that Morabito hails from, takes us inside the Ndrangheta and the rise and fall of one of the world's biggest cocaine brokers.
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Next Episode

Gangsters of the East India Company and Robert Clive with William Dalrymple
WE'RE BACK! And coming to you from an estate outside Delhi, where Sean met author and historian William Dalrymple to talk (finally) about the early pirates, privateers and downright gangsters of the East India Company—a band of barely-legal spice merchants that wound up being just about the richest people on the planet, and owners—yes, owners—of an entire continent.
We also dig into the life and times of Robert Clive, a brooding, violent man who would become one of the world's richest non-royals, and whose marauding exploits on the Indian subcontinent have made him a lightning rod for the cultures of Britain and modern India. War, loot, organized crime and weirdly enough, a Sliding Doors story for the mayflower.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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