I got hold of legal documents, and investigative dossiers. I met with sources in law enforcement, undercover agents, spies. Something almost ridiculous - like Spectre from James Bond. I needed to find out more. When I first came across the Dubai super cartel, it seemed like something from a film. And it’s become so successful that by 2017 police believe that they control a third of Europe’s cocaine market - worth billions of dollars a year. It’s trillions of dollars . . . and it fuels things like weapons trafficking and war . . . it can even topple governments.Īnd the men celebrating at that wedding in Dubai, they’ve come up with a new model of organised crime. We know it’s there, but we can’t ever really see it. And mafias, they don’t publish audited accounts, or glossy annual reports.īut the money generated by organised crime is vast. ![]() Crime bosses they don’t usually have PR teams you can ring up. I’ve covered Vatican financial scandals, and spy rings that smuggle microchips. Because crime is a business, and modern organised crime groups, they are increasingly run like multinational companies. They have thousands of employees, complicated logistical supply chains, and even investment portfolios. It’s a big economic story, but you don’t usually read about it in the business pages. Because reporting on international crime groups in the same way we’d report on a blue-chip corporation, well it’s hard. I’ve written about Russian billionaires who control private mercenary armies, and the Italian mafia laundering their cash through the City of London. But more recently, you could perhaps describe my beat as the places where crime and business collide. Over the years I’ve written about a lot of different things. It’s a meeting of what will come to be known as the Dubai super cartel - a shadowy criminal network that controls a multi-billion-dollar cocaine empire spanning the globe. And they can order the assassination of almost anyone, anywhere in the world.īecause this isn’t just a wedding - this is an international crime summit. Some of them hang priceless stolen masterpieces on their walls. They’ve got multiple passports with multiple identities. But these aren’t your average businessmen. The groom is a young Irish entrepreneur, and some of his most important business partners have come to celebrate his big day. The wedding party that day has been told to keep things discreet. Or fly in, landing on the helipad on the roof. Guests can arrive across a private bridge in the hotel’s fleet of Rolls-Royce Phantoms. It’s a skyscraper shaped like the sail of a ship, rising up from the glittering water of the Persian Gulf. It’s a hot summer’s day at the Burj Al Arab, one of the most expensive hotels in the world. ![]() It’s a wedding that takes place in Dubai in 2017. And the story I’m going to tell you, it’s not a love story. Miles Johnson I’m Miles Johnson, and I’m an investigative journalist with the Financial Times. This is an audio transcript of Hot Money podcast Episode 1: Murder Brokers Miles Johnson Jump to comments section Print this page
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