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Murder Brokers from Hot Money: The New Narcos · What's Your Problem?

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Pushkin.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Jacob.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I want to tell you about a new season of
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: a show that Pushkin makes with The Financial Times. The
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: show is called Hot Money.
• 0:26
  Speaker 4: The new season is called.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: The New Narcos, and it's about It's about a lot
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: of things. It's about the cocaine business in Europe, it's
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: about international sanctions, and it is about murder. It's a
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: great show. It's just coming out this week. You can
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: get it, as they say, wherever you get your podcasts,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: and we're going to play you the first episode of
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: the show right now.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I hope you like it. I'm Miles Johnson and I'm
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: an investigative journalist with the Financial Times. And the story
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you it's not a love story,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: but it starts with a wedding. It's a wedding that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: takes place in Dubai in twenty seventeen. It's a hot
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: summer's day. The Burj al Arab one of the most
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: expensive hotels in the world. It's a skyscraper shaped like
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the sail of a ship, rising up from the glittering
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: water of the Persian Gulf. Guests can arrive across a
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: private bridge in the hotel's fleet of rolls, Royce phantoms
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: or flyin landing on the helipad on the roof. The
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: wedding party that day has been told to keep things
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: discreete no photos and no social media. Security is tight.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: The groom is a young Irish entrepreneur and some of
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: his most important business partners have come to celebrate his
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: big day. But these aren't your average businessmen. Some of
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: them hang priceless stolen masterpieces on their walls. They've got
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: multiple passports with multiple identities, and they can order the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: assassination of almost anyone anywhere in the world. Because this
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: isn't just a wedding, this is an international crime summit.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It's a met of what will come to be known
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: as the Doubai Supercartel, a shadowy criminal network that controls
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a multi billion dollar cocaine empire spanning the globe. Over
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: the years, I've written about a lot of different things,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: but more recently you could perhaps describe my beat as
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the places where crime and business collide. I've written about
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Russian billionaires who control private mercenary armies and the Italian
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: mafia laundering their cash through the City of London, have
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: covered Vatican financial scandals, and spy rings that smuggle microchips.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Because crime is a business, and modern organized crime groups
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: they're increasingly run like multinational companies. They have thousands of employees,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: complicated logistical supply chains, and even investment portfolios. It's a
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: big economic story, but you don't usually read about it
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: in the business pages because reporting on international crime groups
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: in the same way we'd report on a blue chip corporation, well,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: it's hard. Crime bosses they don't usually have pr teams
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: you can bring up, and mafias. They don't publish audited
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: accounts or glossy annual reports. But the money generated by
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: organized crime is vast, and most of the time it's invisible.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: It's like this ocean of shadow cash. We know it's there,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: but we can't ever really see it. It's trillions of
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: dollars and it fuels things like weapons, trafficking and war.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: It can even topple governments. And the men celebrating in
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: that wedding in Dubai. They've come up with a new
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: model of organized crime, and it's become so successful that
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: by twenty seventeen, police believe that they control a third
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: of Europe's cocaine market worth billions of dollars a year.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: When I first came across to do By Supercartel, it
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: seems like something from a film, something almost ridiculous, like
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Specter from James Bond. I needed to find out more,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: so I started talking to people. I met with sources
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: in law enforcement, undercover agents, spies. I got hold of
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: legal documents and investigative dossiers, and then I realized, this
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: isn't just a story about crime. This is a story
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: about a secret economic war. It's a story about who
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: gets to control how money moves around the world, and
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: where the Western governments can keep hold of that power
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: as the rules based international order breaks apart. Because I
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: discovered that the Dubai Supercartel, they're not just hiding from governments,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: they're working alongside them. But my first clue to understanding
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: how this group of criminals became so rich and so
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: powerful it took me somewhere that's a million miles away
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: from the bling of a Dubai wedding, because one day
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I was speaking to a source and they told me
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: something I just really wasn't expecting. They said, if you
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: really want to understand how all of this works, you
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: have to go and look at a murder in a
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: small town in the Netherlands. This is Hot Money Season
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: two the New Narcos, episode one, Murder Brokers.
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: One of the good things about being a crime reporter
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: is that you talk to everyone who wants to talk
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: to you, very different people, and I like to do that.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: This is Paul Paul Volks. He's a reporter in Amsterdam
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and for more than twenty years he's been working the
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: local crime beat for Het Parole, a daily city newspaper.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Paul wears black t shirts and a leather jacket and
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: has a gold hoop in one ear. He's old school.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: He's not posting hot takes on social media. When I
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: first met Paul, he didn't take long before he showed
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: me his bike. He rides it everywhere down cobblestone streets
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: and squares and along beautiful canals, going to coffee shops
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: and bars to meet his sources. But if that sounds
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: a bit quaint, there's a fast, seedy aside to Amsterdam
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: that keeps a crime reporter like Paul pretty busy. Because
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Amsterdam is famous for his beauty, but it's also well
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: known for its red light district. It's relaxed drug laws
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: and a vibrant criminal underworld, and that means Paul always
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: has plenty to write about. Like all good crime reporters,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Paul works his beat. He speaks to everyone. He talks
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: to police officers, lawyers, the local prosecutor's office. But Paul
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: is also always cultivating his underworld sources.
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: I tried to build my network step by step because,
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: as you might know, as a grime juellist, your colleague
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: cannot give you his or her network. That's not possible.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: And he learns early on the criminals well, they care
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: about journalistic standards too. A notorious underworld figure reaches out
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: to Paul about a mistake he thought he'd made in
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: one of his articles because he wanted to set the
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: record straight.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: But the first time, of course, I thought where to meet,
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: how to meet, how to keep it safe. I learned
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: quite fast that some public space as a coffee bar
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: is the best place to sit. Or atn airport, where
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: everybody knows there are lots of cameras, there's a lot
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: of security. Nothing will happen there. You'll know for sure
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: that all eyes will be focused on you as a criminal.
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: And I we don't fit in, so if something weird
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: would happen, everybody would be a witness and they know
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: it as well.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Back in twenty fifteen, Paul is busy covering crime in Amsterdam. Muggings,
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: rival gangsters trying to kill each other, batches of dodgy
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: drugs that put people's lives in danger. These seem like
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the sort of things you'd imagine happen in any big city.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Then one morning in December, he gets a call. It's
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: from the police department.
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: A man in his fifties was shot with one bullet
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: in the head and standing next to his fan. Going
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: to work from Amsterdam, I went to Almira, which is
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: twenty minute rides.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Is it somewhere you expect there to be shootings, murders?
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: You know what sort of areas there's There are lots
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: of crime there. What's it like?
• 8:47
  Speaker 5: The area and they live in in Almra is just
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: a very normal neighborhood with normal working class people. Not
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: much trouble over there.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: When Paul arrives, there's already red and white tape blocking
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the area and police have put up a tent to
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: cover the body. He gets out of his notebook and
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: starts to gather the facts. The victim is called alimtam
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: He's fifty six years old and he's an engineer at
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: the State Electric Company. He's got a wife, a son.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: He's a family man. But there isn't much else to
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: go on. The electrician doesn't seem to have any connection
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: to crime.
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: All the sources I asked, nobody knew who was this alimotamet.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: To Paul, it just seems to be a random shooting.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: So he heads back to his office and files a
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: short story. A few weeks later, his editor asked him
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: to write a roundup of the most notable crime stories
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: of the last year, and the murder in our mayor
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: it doesn't make the cut. Paul goes back to riding
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: around on his bike and meeting his sources. But in
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: the months after, Paul finds that he can't get the
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: Matamid case out of his head. That thing when you
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: write a story and you have a nagging voice in
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: your head, maybe there's something that I'm missing. Paul's covered
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of murders, but this one it seems weird.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: He can't shake the feeling that something does doesn't quite
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: add up. The first thing is the style of the killing.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: It wasn't a sloppy job or a wild act of rage.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: The thing was that one shut through the heads. It's
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: not the familiar way of assassinating people. In other assassinations,
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: automatic rifles are used, many bullets are shut.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: And then there was the motive. One theory is that
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Mtammed was part of some family feud or had argued
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: with a friend. Most of the murders, Paul writes about
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: that kind of thing, or criminals killing each other over
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: money or tough settling scores. But that didn't really fit
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: with the matomic case. So there were other theories.
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: Oh, maybe electricians, So maybe he was in hemp business.
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: The hemp people they need illegal electricity.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Hemp is another name for weed, and some weed grows
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: in the Netherlands steel electricity to power their operations. Matamed
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: was an electrician. Maybe that was his connection to crime.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: Maybe he was a wrong person. That was an idea.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: This seemed like the most plausible explanation, a terrible case
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: of mistaken identity. Paul keeps thinking about it as he
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: drops into cafes to meet informants about other stories. He
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: mentions Ali Muhammad's name.
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: Criminals didn't know him policemen didn't know him. I tried
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: to do some research, but I didn't get a clue.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: To be honest, as a reporter, you can have dozens
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: of meetings that lead to nothing, but once in a while,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: you get lucky. And that's what happens to Paul. Out
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: of nowhere, he gets a tip.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: I was talking to some source I knew very well,
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: and this source told me just at the second cup
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: of coffee and he said, well, you remember this story
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: of Ali Modamett. You're working on that still, Yes, you
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: should go on and go on and dig and dick,
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: because there's a very weird, big story behind this murder.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Paul wasn't the only person thinking about what happened in
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: al Mayor that day.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I remember this, this shooting December fifteenth. Your really nice
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: neighbor got guilt. Nobody knows why.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: At the time, Ula Eliam was involved with the local
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: city council.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I remember it was like this mystery for
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: people like, well, what happened?
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Uler say, he's this intense guy who locks you into
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: his gaze, and he's a sharp dresser. When we meet,
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: he's wearing this charcoal suit and a black unbuttoned shirt
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: down to his chest. When Alimtamada murdered, Ulis is just
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: getting into local politics. He's a spokesperson for safety and
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: public order in our mayor where Ali Mttammad was killed.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: What was strange in this case there was nothing and
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: this was fueled by the National Police.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: The police appealed on national television for any information that
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the public could give them.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: You have any tips, do you have any suggestions. We
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: put out this reward.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: But no one came forward. A year goes by, still nothing.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I thought, this is getting this is getting a bit weird.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So we don't have any clues to find the shooters.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: There's no information about the circumstances of the of the shooting.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: Ulissa is particularly interested in this case because Alimtomed, it
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: turns out, was born in Iran and Ulersay's own family
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: also moved to the Netherlands from Iran around the same
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: time that Alimtammid did.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: I'm named after Odysseus, you know, the Greek king, because
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: my father he was reading Odysseus and my father was like, okay,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I lost my home. I don't know where my home
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: will be, but I'm sure this baby will find a
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: new home.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Ulissa's father was a critic of the hardline theocracy imposed
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: by the new regime in Iran after the revolution. He
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: knew his life might be in danger if he stayed.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: He had to go into hiding very fast. He never
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: had the chance to say goodbye to his mother, for example,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: because it was too dangerous.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: First his father moved to Afghanistan, where Ulisse was born,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: and then they moved to the Netherlands, eventually settling in
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Al Mayor. Ulysse grew up in the same sleepy suburb
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: where Ali Mtamad lived and died.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I've been living there for twenty years now. And the
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: funny thing is, or the special thing, it also relates
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: to my history, you know, like it's a new city.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: The province. One of the nicknames is like new Land
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: because it's built from water. Yeah, and my family came
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: to a new land. It started a new life. So yeah,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: it all connects really nicely.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Ulisses father became a law professor and he kept speaking
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: out against the Iranian regime from his new home. But
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: there was a cost, and this became a reality when
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the family moved to Our Mayor. His father started getting
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: serious threats at.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: That time, my father received a massive security protection. I
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: was young. You're still focused on things you do when
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: you're at that age, you know, playing football, trying to
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: enjoy life. But yeah, when you see your dad being
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: transported with multiple bodyguards, yeah, of course your life changes.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: So decades later, when an Iranian man is shot in
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: his hometown, it gets ulysses attention. Even more so when
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: police finally share what they've pieced together from CCTV footage,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: it shows that the idea that you Assen's made a
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: mistake looks less and less plausible. This was a meticulously
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: planned operation. The police report is a difficult read. It's
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: a chilling account of a cold, premeditated murder planned over weeks,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: and it reveals that the killers made two failed attempts
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: in the days before Alie Mtummed was shot. On December eleventh,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: twenty fifteen, at around quarter past six in the morning,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: a blue BMW drives slowly down the dark suburban street.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: The driver stops outside one of the houses and turns
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: the car's headlights off. Inside, Alie Mtammed is getting started
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: with his day. Usually he leaves his house a quarter
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: to seven, but today he has a job nearby, so
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: he leaves later at eight thirty am. At about eight am,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: the driver of the BMW turns the car back and
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: leaves the street. A few days later, Monday, December fourteenth,
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: the BMW arrives again at around quarter past six. It's
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: a regular work day, and Mohammed walks out of his
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: front door a little before seven. A neighbors also leaving
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: their house at the same time, and the driver of
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: the BMW spots him and Mhammed and drives off. Tuesday,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: December fifteenth, the BMW appears at six o'clock. Matammid's wife
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: and teenage son are asleep upstairs as he steps out
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: of his house and shuts the front door. That is
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: dark outside. No neighbors around this morning. As the electrician
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: walks towards his van, a man walks up behind him
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: and shoots him in the head. Mahammed slumps to the
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: ground and the shooter gets back in his BMW and
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: the car speeds off.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: They hit him directly left with the car, I think,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, BMW five. They went to the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: specific spot in another part of olmyr burned a car
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and they leave.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: The BMW was found burned out a few miles away,
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: and witnesses saw two men walking off.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: There's all the signs of professionals in the criminal circuit,
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: so that made it even more strange, like, okay, this
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: is really professional, and still we don't have any idea
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: why who.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: This is the point that I started to see the
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: first liquor, to realize what a murder in a small
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Dutch town could have to do with the supercartel and
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: what that could mean. Because Paul has kept on digging
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: and he's made an unbelievable discovery.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: And I remember reading it and I think it was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: on a sunny Monday morning, and I immediately I knew.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I felt in all my body, I know, wow, this
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: is crazy.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, Paul breaks a big story and it's
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: not about the murderers, but it's about the victim.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: I found out that Ali Motamet was not Ali Motamet
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: the electrician. He was an electrician, yes, but he lived
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: in Holland with a false eye identity.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Ali Matamed was, in reality and assumed identity the electrician
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: from our mayor had been living a secret life, one
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: so secret that even some members of his own family
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: didn't know who he really was.
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: Ali Motamet was Mohammed Reza colahis so many and when
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: he was twenty three years old, he plays the bomb
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: which blew up seventy four people of the Islamic Republican
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: Party in Iran.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: This happened in my city, quite close to where I live,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: and probably the regime, you know, the whole reason I'm
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: in Holland. They were able to find someone who they
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: were looking for for like at that time, like thirty
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: five years, who was like one of their prime targets
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: because they wanted to revenge My dad always wanted me.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: They're dangerous, you know, they found him. These are not
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: bedtime stories. This is getting real.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you get a glimpse of something, the edge of
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: what seems like it might be a much bigger story,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: and it leads you into a whole new place, a
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: place where you're not quite sure what's going on, and
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: it's hard to know even where to start. That's where
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Paul finds himself after he learns about Ali mctummitt's past.
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: I had no sources at all in Iran. I had
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: no sources at all in geopolitical world.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: This clearly isn't a local murder case in a small
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: town anymore. Paul has been pulled into what looks like
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: a targeted assassination plot in the heart of Europe, but
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: he doesn't have any proof, just a strong theory. Ulusa
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: is looking for answers too. He posts online about the
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: case and wonders does anyone know more about Matamad or
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: how the Iranian regime might have found him? And Ulusa's
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: posts they catch Paul's attention.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Paul called me, I saw your questions. Let's let's talk.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: After I broke the story, Ulus Elian and I met
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: in our mare, had coffee and we tried to make
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: plans to find the mystic pieces of the puzzle. How
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: can we get more insight in the backgrounds of this.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: Aul the man his neighbors knew as Alimtomid moved to
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: the Netherlands in nineteen eighty five, he wouldn't have particularly
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: stood out. It was a time when many Iranians were
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: fleeing Iran, just like Ulysses father. But Alimtomid wasn't just fleeing,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: He was hiding. He was accused of carrying out the
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: biggest terrorist attack in modern Iranian history. This is a
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: big deal this bombing in nineteen eighty one. It killed
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: a senior Ayatollah, four cabinet ministers, and reportedly dozens of
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: other top Iranian officials. Matamd fled Iran after the bombing,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: but was found guilty in absentia and sentenced to death.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: We don't know much about his years in the Netherlands,
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: but we do know that he adopted a new identity
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: and built a new life. He married a woman who
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: was originally from Afghanistan. They had a son, and Matamad
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: got a job at the local electric company. For years,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: he led a simple suburban life. He went to work
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: at the same time most days. His neighbors thought of
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: him as punctual, trustworthy. No one really knew much more
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: about him, but secretly, Mahammed knew that the Iranian regime
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: was still looking for him, so he was incredibly careful. Reportedly,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: he didn't even tell his wife his true identity until
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: a few years before his death, and his son had
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: no idea about Matummed's past. I keep thinking about the
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: loneliness and the isolation of someone who's bearing this huge
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: secret from the people in their life who they're closest to.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Someone who spent almost his entire adulthood trying to stay
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: one step ahead of people he knew were trying to
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: kill him. Mahammed was careful to avoid his photograph appearing
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: on social media, but not long before his murder he
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: seemed to have slipped up. A single photograph of him
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: went up on Facebook celebrating his teenage son's high school graduation,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: and months later a BMW pulled up outside his house
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: early in the morning. So this is a story I've
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: been told to look at the murder of a man
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: living a secret life, a man on the run from
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: a powerful regime. At this point, I can't see the
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: connection between this murder and the Dubai supercartel. But then
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: a few months later, something happens that takes us one
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: step closer to understanding how all of this works. In
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: April twenty sixteen, two Irish detectives arrive at a residential
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: address not far from Dublin City Center. They have a
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: search warren because they've heard that an apartment in this
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: building is being used as a safehouse by Ireland's most
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: powerful and dangerous criminal organization. But inside there are no irishmen. Instead,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: the officers find a short man with a large belly
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: who speaks only broken English. It's clear the man is rich.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: He's wearing bright blue designer sneakers covered in studs. When
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the detectives searched the flat, they find thirteen thousand euros
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: in cash and two Rolex watches. What's less clear is
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: his identity. He has two different IDs, one Dutch one Belgian,
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: each with a different name.
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: I remember the morning on which he was arrested, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: I can tell you nobody knew who he was.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: Shamus Boland is Detective Chief Superintendent in the Irish Police Force.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: His officers raided the apartment that day.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: He was arrested for a possession of false documents and
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: there was no certainty aboute his identity at all.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: The police take him to the station and send his
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: fingerprints and photo off to law enforcement agencies around the world.
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: It's following his arrest and US issuing an assistance request
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: across Europe that within a number of errors, the Dutch
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: police were in touch with Ustin Day identified him from
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: the photographs and fingerprints immediately, and senior Dutch police officers
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: bordered a plane immediately and flew to Dublin.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: The Dutch police know who the man is, so does
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Paul Vooks.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: He was very well known and notorious in the Amsterdam
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: crime scene.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: His name is now for Fassy and Paul calls him
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: by his nickname Noel. He's wanted for a string of
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: drug related murders.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: He was seen as a guy would do anything for money,
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: who would be able to do very serious crimes without
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: blinking his eyes.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Paul doesn't know it yet and ordered the police. But
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: the man who sent two assassins to murder, Alimtamid, it
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: was no for not as a murder broker, he can
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: arrange the killing of anyone anywhere with just a couple
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: of messages sent from his phone. And the people hiding
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: the murder broker in their Dublin safe house, Shamus knows
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: exactly who they are.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: That organized crime group has been the primary group for
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: the last twenty twenty five years that built the networks
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: supplying drugs and firearms of this jurisdiction without a dot.
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: That organized crime group, the people who are hiding the
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: murder broker in their safehouse, They're at the heart of
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: the supercartel. They're the men who gathered that day for
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: the wedding in the luxury hotel in Dubai. But if
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Ulasa is right, this isn't just a murder, This is
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: a state sponsored assassination and it raises a big question.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: What is the link between no Fall, the Broker and Irang.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Why would a hit man working with top cocaine traffickers
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: murder someone apparently on behalf of a government And if
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: that's what happened, what does that tell us about the
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: transformation of international organized crime? To find out, We're going
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: to Ireland to talk to someone who's been following the
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: family at the heart of the supercartel. From the very start, you.
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: Don't know if somebody behind that door has a gun.
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: The adrenaline is flowing, you know, your heart is racing.
• 28:30
  Speaker 6: Anything could go wrong.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Hot Money is a production of The Financial Times and
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Pushkin Industries. It was written and reported by me Miles Johnson,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: and if you've got any leads or information about this story,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: you can email me at new narcost ft dot com.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: The series producer is Peggy Sutton. Edith Russello is the
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: associate producer. Fact checking is by Arthur gom Jason Gambrell
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and Amanda k Wong are the mixing engineers. Sound designed
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: from Jake Gorsky. Jeremy Warmsley wrote the original music. Our
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: editor is Sarah Nix, and the executive producers are Jacob
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Goldstein and Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Rilla Klaff, Marshall Waroven,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Laura Clark, Alistair, Mackie Green Turner, Jude Webber, and rich
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Ward