WEBVTT - 11) Family Is Our Weakness 0:00:01.360 --> 0:00:03.920 All eight episodes of The Die For are available now 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:07.000 to bench absolutely free, but for ad free listening and 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:12.160 exclusive bonuses, subscribe to tendorfoot Plus at tendorfootplus dot com 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:13.600 or on Apple podcasts. 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:22.720 Warning, the following episode contains explicit language and sexual themes. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.320 Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:41.920 I was very sick, just fever, but very heavy virus, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.519 and I was alone and I couldn't contact anyone, like, 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.880 no one at all because I was hiding that time. 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.280 And I remember I had such a strong fever that 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:03.720 I passed over and I saw all all this goths, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:09.240 all these like souls of people whom I had to terminate. 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:15.440 They all was standing in front of me and they 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.000 told me that's your time. We're taking you with us. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:28.920 And I felt like I was lifted by them and 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.360 I went into the space. I reckon it wass a 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.880 hell or something like that, because I felt pain in 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:41.680 every single of my coorse of my body. It was 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:47.319 so painful that you cannot even handle it. And I 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.880 said like stop, stop, stop, I can't do this, and 0:01:51.920 --> 0:02:00.120 they said, well that's what you deserve. But then I 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:06.920 was another soul ghost and it said let her go, 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:14.920 and then it said to me, you you will be back, 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.840 but you have to complete your mission. You didn't finish 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:21.679 it yet, you have to go back and do it. 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.160 And then I woke up and the next day my 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:36.440 favor was gone to kill you. I'm really sorry I 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:38.079 had to do that. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:03:23.320 I go tu like to you. Episode eleven, chapter twenty four, Fearless. 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.160 And then when I opened my eyes, I wasn't that 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.760 kind of like military hospital. But it wasn't really hospital. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:48.240 It was just the big room in the building which 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.760 was half destroyed. There were many, many different injured soldiers, 0:03:53.800 --> 0:03:58.000 and some of them they wouldn't survive. 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.840 Aliyah was still on the border of Chechnya and Russia, 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.720 but further back from the front lines, recovering from her 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.840 injuries in a makeshift military hospital. 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:14.400 I had a doctor maybe like forty forty five is 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.920 years old, and she said, don't cry, everything will be good. 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.920 You would do He also very soon, no worry, And 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.880 I felt like I felt like she was like my mom, 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.680 you know, like kind of like she cared about me, 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:40.080 which it was nice that she she gave me this support, 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:42.200 that moral support. 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.800 After a few days, the doctor discharged Aliah, gave her 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.480 crutches and sent her to a hospital closer to her 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.000 hometown in Russia. As she sat on the train back home, 0:04:54.320 --> 0:04:57.320 Alah thought about her friend and fellow soldier, Rashid, who 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.000 had died in the attack on Alea's base. 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.520 I didn't even know where he lived. I didn't know 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:09.919 his address or anything. I regretted that I didn't ask, 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.560 and then at that point I felt guilty. 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:18.800 The train dropped the way off in her hometown, where 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.279 she had been cut off by her family. She was 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.240 taken directly to a hospital to recuperate. Alone, with no 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.680 friends or relatives, Her thoughts began to fixate on the 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:33.359 abusive colonel whose marriage proposal she rejected, and she wondered 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:35.599 about his involvement in sending her to Cheeshnya. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:38.520 I didn't want to believe that he would send me 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.200 there Ford. You know, I still couldn't believe. I still 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.200 was thinking that, no, he can't do it. He loves me, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.920 he can just like send me to die. It's probably 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.680 a bad luck. That's what I was telling myself, and 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:00.640 I was struggling. I wanted to hear his I was 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:07.400 so curious, but at the same time, I was so devastated. 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.560 If you would really do this to just kill me. 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.800 And I decided to call him and find out. Downstairs 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:21.000 in the hospital, they had stationary telephone, and I remember 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:26.520 I had his cell number. I even remember it now. 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.400 I remember a lot of things about him. I remember 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.880 the date of his verse every single day of the year. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:40.040 I remember that funny. So I called him and he 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:47.240 picked up and I said, hey, this is me. And 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:51.400 it was a long post and he said, so did 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:55.920 you fix your mind? Did you learn anything in the world? 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:03.960 Did you become more obedient? And I asked him, did 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.720 you know what really happened there? He said, it doesn't matter. 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:13.400 So did you become obedient? He asked me again, and 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:17.280 I said, what do you want exactly? And he said, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.880 I want you to listen to me and follow my order. 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:26.360 Whatever I say you have to do. And he said, 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:31.760 and if you didn't learn your lesson, I will give 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:38.920 you another one. And I was so angry and frustrated 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:41.200 the way he talked to me, like I was kind 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.640 of like a dog on the street. He's like, I'll 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:47.000 give you the second lesson, like you know, fuck you. 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:50.119 But I couldn't tell him fuck you. I wish I could. 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:58.280 I just said goodbye, and I hang up with the phone. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:03.960 But straight away after this telephone call, I had them 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:09.040 feeling inside it. Christopholla was right. He did send me 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.280 there to die. And second, what shall I do now? 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.560 And then the hospital gave me the paper where they stayed. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.320 Now you are recovered, and now it's time to go 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:28.840 back to work. Then they sent this referral to my department, 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:34.319 to my commander, and I came back home to my apartment. 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.960 It was really lonely and it was really empty. I 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.640 even had some thoughts that time that I wish I 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:47.319 could be dead with Rashett and other soldiers. 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:52.880 Part of that wish to no longer be here was 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:55.240 because Leah knew what was waiting for her back at 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.920 the Department of Internal Affairs, her commander, the lieutenant general 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:04.320 whose advances she'd rejected. And sure enough, as soon as 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.320 Leah was no longer on crutches, the nightmare with him resumed, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.520 but this time it would have a different ending. 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.080 By that time, I already didn't have crunches, but I 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:20.199 still walked kind of like Limpin and my lieutenant general, 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.679 my commander, he let everybody leave and he said stay 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:28.560 here for a little bit where he was sitting. It 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:33.000 was quite big room and behind on the wall where 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:37.040 he was sitting there was the president portrait and the 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:44.760 Russian flag, very patriotic. So he said, come closer. So 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.760 I took all my papers and everything and I moved 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.520 to the chair which was closer to his table. And 0:09:53.640 --> 0:10:01.160 he said, take off your blouse and I said, excuse me? 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.559 He said, take off your blouse. Like open new buttons. Oh, 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.280 don't worry, like why you like again, like a fucking vision, 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.959 just like, take some buttons. I just want to see. 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:17.719 I surprisingly for myself. I started to open some buttons, 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:23.880 and when I was opening, I was like thinking, what 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.599 exactly does he want? And I was in like this 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.520 doubt where I didn't want to go back to the war. 0:10:35.679 --> 0:10:38.600 I was so tired and exhausted. I didn't want to 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.559 have any other problems. And I asked myself that moment, 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:49.800 could I potentially potentially have sex with this man who 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.840 is so disgusting to me? I was asking my brain, 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.319 like can you do it? You know, just to save ourselves. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:07.840 But just like first two buttons, and he said, listen, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.840 I'm not the man who will ask two times. I 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:16.440 ask you one time, and I'm not the guy who 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:21.920 will run after you and trying to chase you. And 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:27.320 he said, with my position, I can destroy you or 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:34.040 I can reward you like a queen. You choose, and 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:38.839 you know what, I made my choice that moment, and 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.959 I said, inside of myself, do you know what if 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:47.079 I survived the war, I'll survive. Fuck you as whole. 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:54.360 In that moment, a Leah realized that the only power 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.520 that the lieutenant general had over her was fear. So 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.880 she did something that her experiences in Shshnya made possible. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.480 I closed my buttons, I turn around and I walked 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:07.840 out from the room. And you know what I was thinking. 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:10.640 I was thinking, it will be the day when I 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:12.600 will press the trigger and you'll be dead. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:17.040 You'll see the aliah Rosa that had left for Cheshnia 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.040 was not the same person who had returned. When you've 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.560 been the Helen back and are no longer afraid to die, threats, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.880 punishments and consequences hold no power over you, you are, 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.040 in a sense free. 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.200 Something happened with me after that war. I felt like, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.080 you know what, like, what else can you do? Send 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.120 me back? No problem? Send me back. You know you 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.400 want me to be that I kind of like I 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.800 already was there. I was almost dead. When you come 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.319 to the point when you're not scared anymore, I became 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.920 completely fearless, and it gave me so much power and 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.160 I just felt it. I felt that moment and I said, like, 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.520 I'm not I don't. I will never again in my 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.679 life allow any man to use my body like they 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.080 used to do it. I will not allow that. I 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.960 can only sacrifice my body for some big missions, if 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.280 it has to be done to save some people, but 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.319 I definitely won't do it just to please some asshole. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.080 And that moment when the lieutenant general told me, like, 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.839 take off your blouse and I said and said, no, 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:30.360 I'm not doing that. I started to respect myself. It 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:35.839 completely shifted and I was proud of myself. I said, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:42.600 I will fight. I just had that feeling and I 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:43.280 still have it. 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:56.640 After standing up to her commander, a strong sense of 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:01.720 peace overcame Aleiah. That evening, she slept without nightmares for 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:03.280 the first time in years. 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:10.840 I woke up feeling better and I woke up without 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:13.960 having nightmares like I used to have every single night. 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.160 I was in a good mood when I came to 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:22.960 the department and as always eight am we have our report. 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:28.360 Morning I looked at his face and I always tried 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:33.480 to hide my eyes, but that morning I looked straight 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:38.320 up to his fucking face, straight to his eyes, and 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:42.440 I've noticed that he was a waiting looking into my face. 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.360 That's because he was planning. The same thing is done 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.240 in the past, and someone rejects his advances, sends them 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:51.560 on a mission where the most likely outcome is a 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.840 bullet in the head. But this time it wouldn't be cheshnyah, 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:56.480 it would be another type of war. 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:02.440 In the end of the reporting, our commander Lieutenant general 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:07.800 said that he signed agents for the special mission, which 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:13.560 was to find out places where hearing was supplied and 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:19.840 sold from Afghanistan by the criminal gang, which was the biggest, 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.440 the most violent, the most dangerous, not just in the city, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:30.520 in the whole area, and they monopolized the whole market 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:36.760 of drug trafficking and human trafficking. And we're supposed to 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:43.840 work on this gang. That moment, I felt like, oh 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.440 my god, we are so fucked. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:51.000 After selecting Lea for this mission, the commander that announced 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:54.920 her support team, the four youngest least experienced agents in 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:55.560 the department. 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:01.960 So we had the tia of losers, basicly, but nobody 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:05.800 said anything. Everybody were so scared of our commander, and 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.680 there was just sitting looking at the floor and just 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.840 like doing nothing and just like sweating. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.360 Chapter twenty five. The Mafia Estate. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:34.000 The first half of the nineties was major gang wars, shootouts, explosions, 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.760 grenades being launched into buildings, people being murdered on the streets, 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:41.360 really a lot of mayhem. 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.600 This is Joe Cirio, author of several books on the 0:16:44.680 --> 0:16:47.640 Russian mafia and reportedly the only American to work in 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:51.080 the Organized Crime Control Department of the Soviet National Police. 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.000 Before we get into a Leah and her team's dangerous assignment, 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:57.760 I called him to better understand how the mafia works 0:16:57.760 --> 0:17:01.040 in Russia, because it's nothing like in the movies. It's 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:05.520 worse in an appetite for violence, a lucrative international enterprise 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.680 stretching from Moscow to Israel to Thailand to the United States. 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.280 There have no qualms about murdering people. 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.520 If they have to kill you, they'll kill you. Absolutely. 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.679 Here's Joe Sirio again, explaining how the breakup of the 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.800 Soviet Union created a power vacuum that the Russian mafia 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.440 then stepped into. As Russian suddenly cut loose from state 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.679 support looked for new sources of income. This network of 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.840 gangs grew in size and influence. 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.520 You had these athletes who no longer had the support 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:40.280 of the state. You had military that was being demobilized 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:45.719 from Afghanistan. You had security services that knew where all 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.040 the bodies are buried. And toward the end of the 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:52.320 nineties and into the two thousands, it started becoming consolidated, 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:57.119 especially around the oligarchs and the security services. 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.239 So when the government was ready to reassert itself, not 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.280 only did it have to work with the mafia, but 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.240 there was no telling who is government and who was 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.119 mafia anymore. Everybody wanted money and power. 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.359 The one critical thing to understand in Putin is that 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.600 he's not really running country. He's running a massive mafia state, 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.760 and it's often, if not always, about money. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:23.800 One thing that people have to understand is that organized 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:28.720 crime mafia in a way that we think about it traditionally, 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.320 was not an outside invading force. The gangs were part 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:38.159 of the landscape. They worked hand in hand with the state. 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:44.120 So some gangs were actually made up of prosecutors and cops. 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:50.000 Some gangs were former state officials. Some gangs were the 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.960 typical criminal gangs that came out of the quote unquote underworld. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:59.320 You could have one guy who was a gangster and 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.399 a bureau at end a politician all in the same person. 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.040 But if you think about organized crime in mafia as 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.560 a separate entity, you'll totally come to the wrong conclusions 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.200 about Russia. So you're operating all the time in this 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:17.320 environment of smoke and mirrors. 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:20.639 So, as Aliah tells this next part of her story 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.480 through her experience, it may be helpful to zoom out 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:26.120 and consider what her commander's real agenda might have been, 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.960 perhaps not just for her death, but for his enrichment. 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:38.640 Russia is about survival period, end of story. The mentality 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:44.280 is a thousand year old mentality, and the mentality among gangs, gangsters, 0:19:44.480 --> 0:19:49.080 organized crime groups, politicians, people in power is I will 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:53.879 take until you're strong enough to stop me. And the 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:57.200 difficult part of all this is that you have this 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:02.120 mafia mentality in the state, and you have this mafia 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:09.040 muscle in terms of gangsters, in terms of firepower, So 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:09.920 what do you do with that? 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.560 Leah was in her early twenties at this time, and 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.159 had lived a very insular life, first in her strict 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.360 home and then in the military, so she was unaware 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.080 of this complicated game of chess being played around her. 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:26.640 But those walls were slowly coming down. 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:34.040 A few times, my agents, my colleagues, we were chasing 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.200 some drug dealers, and eventually when we would like get 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:42.360 into the house or like apartment where they would sell drugs, 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.159 our commander would call us and say, get out of 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.480 their like you can't touch them, and we would like understand, 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.320 how like fuck again, like we couldn't touch them because 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:55.800 they would give money to our commander because he was bribed. 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.639 But yet our commander wanted us to complete five cases 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:02.480 a week. How the fuck was supposed to do that? 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:05.240 And of course, like agents, like what they're supposed to do. 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:08.240 We take like prostitute or drug dealer, put in the 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:10.800 back or like in the pocket, like these drugs and 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.760 then pretend like there is the whole criminal case and 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.439 send them to the prison and say, like okay, if 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:17.760 we did five cases, so what. 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.840 Despite getting pulled in by this corrupt culture, Eliah still 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.840 wasn't aware that the problems in Russian intelligence went far 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:29.880 beyond bribery and abuse. She was still inspired or brainwashed 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:31.919 by the belief that there were bad people and good 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.560 people out there, and her job, her assignment was to 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:38.920 fight the evil, at least when the evil wasn't paying 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:39.520 a cake back. 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:45.400 By that time, my motivation was to I don't know, 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:50.760 I just I still have Nightmarcy cannot forget these faces 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:55.400 of these twelve ten years old girls being like overdosed 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.280 and being literally like dad, laying on the floor of 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:03.840 different labs and on the street. So for me that time, 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:11.239 I thought, I don't want to leave anyway, but at 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:15.680 least my life can be for good. You know, when 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.439 you don't have fear to be killed, you don't have 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:25.160 fear of death, you can do crazy things. 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:28.520 The Leah and her team decided to do their best 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:31.320 with the mission they'd been given to bring down one 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.000 of the biggest drug and human trafficking gangs in the city. 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:38.240 They were then assigned a slightly more experienced team leader 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.640 who had been undercovering the gang for the last few 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.119 months as a small time drug dealer, providing them with escorts. 0:22:44.640 --> 0:22:47.960 Under his direction, they began a surveillance operation on a gang. 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:52.440 So we divided and the first team that would patrol 0:22:53.080 --> 0:22:57.240 the house the criminals would hang out, They would check 0:22:57.560 --> 0:23:01.480 restaurants where they go and basically everyone who is involved. 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:06.879 Then the second team would be doing exactly the same 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:10.680 but with another members of the gang. So we were 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:16.159 just collecting information. The gang was really big, and it 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:21.119 took for us like quite a long time because we 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.560 had to find out all details. And then every single 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.719 day in the morning, like at eight am, during the report, 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:30.760 my commander he would scream at us and say, like 0:23:31.200 --> 0:23:33.840 give me more information, like what did you do? Like 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:35.040 do you do any. 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:39.240 Shat Their main target was the leader of this gang, Vladimir. 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:45.440 My colleague brought the photo and he said, well, this 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:46.200 is our guy. 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:53.320 This is the leader, a great danger to themselves. Aliyah 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:55.960 and her fellow agents again staking out Vladimir at the 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:57.320 boxing gym hewned. 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:02.280 So we basically earn his daily routine. He would wake 0:24:02.359 --> 0:24:06.879 up early morning. He lived in the house together with 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:13.000 his other guys in the gang. Then they would drive 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:17.760 black trunk and they would drive to the boxing court 0:24:19.640 --> 0:24:23.880 and then they would have meetings like meetings with the brothers. 0:24:25.200 --> 0:24:28.560 And one day, remember we were following the car and 0:24:28.600 --> 0:24:33.000 we went maybe like twenty kilometers from the city and 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:38.840 it was closer to the forest. The meeting was between 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:45.880 two criminal leaders. For like maybe ten minutes, maybe twenty 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:50.520 people was standing in front of each other and there 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:54.320 was some tension going on. But then at one moment, 0:24:55.160 --> 0:24:58.000 everybody took the gun and started to shoot each other. 0:25:00.080 --> 0:25:05.639 So the few brothers were killed from both sides. So 0:25:05.680 --> 0:25:08.320 I thought like, yeah, this is pretty scary and it's 0:25:08.359 --> 0:25:09.040 pretty wild. 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:12.800 And it was about to get scarier for Leah because 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:15.080 her team leader, who was undercovering the game as a 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:18.160 sort of pimp, soon gave her a specific assignment. 0:25:19.480 --> 0:25:22.920 So he told me, I will bring you introduced you 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.520 to the Vladhimer and you need to use all your 0:25:25.520 --> 0:25:28.520 seduction techniques because you need to establish connection with Vladhimer. 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:31.280 And I couldn't say no because he's the boss of 0:25:31.320 --> 0:25:32.080 our team, you know. 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:36.639 In other words, he would be introducing Leah to their 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:39.760 target as an escort, and her job was to somehow, 0:25:39.960 --> 0:25:43.480 while playing that uncomfortable role, seduce Vladimir into wanting to 0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:46.879 see her more. Leah thought back to her training in 0:25:46.960 --> 0:25:48.440 order to figure out her first. 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:52.360 Moves in the academy. They told us, and they taught us. 0:25:52.359 --> 0:25:54.520 First of all, the most important if you want to 0:25:56.160 --> 0:26:00.239 have a power of anyone, any of your target, the 0:26:00.240 --> 0:26:05.200 most important thing is to find his weaknesses through his childhood, 0:26:05.240 --> 0:26:11.040 mostly could be parents than former partners, the first lave 0:26:12.880 --> 0:26:20.800 and knowing this weakness, you can manipulate your target motives, emotions, dreams, desires. 0:26:39.200 --> 0:26:41.480 Leah and her team went through one of Vladimir's high 0:26:41.480 --> 0:26:44.320 school yearbooks and look for former classmates who they could 0:26:44.320 --> 0:26:48.400 reach out to. Eventually they found someone willing to talk. 0:26:49.880 --> 0:26:54.800 His former classmates said that Vladimir was coming from a 0:26:54.800 --> 0:27:01.120 good family and he graduated his school and eighteen years 0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:05.000 old he was sent to the army. And this is 0:27:05.160 --> 0:27:10.359 very important information. Now he had a sweetheart, a girl 0:27:10.560 --> 0:27:15.439 from Uzbekistan, and for a few years they had this 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:21.720 boyfriend girlfriend relationship and it was his first love. Everybody 0:27:21.800 --> 0:27:24.520 knew that one day they would get married and have 0:27:24.760 --> 0:27:30.480 children and nice family, but it didn't happen. When Vladimir 0:27:30.520 --> 0:27:35.240 went to the army, she didn't wait for him, so 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:38.920 she started to date someone else. She started to date 0:27:38.960 --> 0:27:44.240 one criminal, and then he came back from the army 0:27:44.800 --> 0:27:50.280 and she was already pregnant from that criminal guy. So 0:27:50.880 --> 0:28:00.000 Vladimir was heartbroken and he went first to the police, 0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:03.359 then he quit and he went to the criminal gang. 0:28:05.800 --> 0:28:11.360 And when we heard that story together, we have exactly 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:14.400 the same idea. It's the same strategy of each really 0:28:14.440 --> 0:28:19.639 learned in the academy. I will explain. It's a little 0:28:19.640 --> 0:28:24.120 bit veered, but that's exactly what government does. For example, 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:26.320 users are what they used to do when they try 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:28.320 to manipulate the whole population. 0:28:30.880 --> 0:28:34.560 Although this had begun as a suicide mission, Eliah felt 0:28:34.600 --> 0:28:37.560 that through this weakness she now had a possible way 0:28:37.680 --> 0:28:40.800 into the gang. She just needed to use one of 0:28:40.840 --> 0:28:44.000 the key techniques she'd learned in her training. What psychologist 0:28:44.040 --> 0:28:47.960 and marketing expert Robert Chaldini explains here as pre suasion. 0:28:48.400 --> 0:28:52.680 Pre Suasion is the practice of gaining agreement with a 0:28:52.760 --> 0:28:57.160 message before you deliver it. The choices that we make 0:28:57.760 --> 0:29:01.800 are more related to what is top of mind just 0:29:01.960 --> 0:29:03.000 before the choice. 0:29:04.640 --> 0:29:09.320 That's exactly what we decided to do for Vladimir. His 0:29:09.520 --> 0:29:13.600 first love was Asian from Central Asia. I have the 0:29:13.600 --> 0:29:20.280 same look, and we created that plan. What if we 0:29:20.360 --> 0:29:25.360 will program his unconsciousness that there is a happy end, 0:29:26.160 --> 0:29:31.160 potentially somewhere in another world, in another life with another woman, 0:29:31.320 --> 0:29:35.440 but same as her, but just better version. This is 0:29:35.720 --> 0:29:41.960 the manipulation technique, where you create a virtual reality for 0:29:42.320 --> 0:29:43.320 the target brain. 0:29:47.400 --> 0:29:50.800 I found it interesting and terrifying that these love traps 0:29:50.840 --> 0:29:53.840 are often set and planted in the target's unconscious mind 0:29:54.200 --> 0:29:56.240 long before the target has even met the agent. 0:29:58.280 --> 0:30:01.560 So I ask some of my friends girlfriends who looked 0:30:01.720 --> 0:30:06.760 more or less Asian, and we created three couples, kind 0:30:06.800 --> 0:30:11.320 of couples. Every morning, Vladimir would have his breakfast with 0:30:11.440 --> 0:30:16.440 his brothers, so this one couple would go to the 0:30:16.440 --> 0:30:20.080 same cafe and they would sit just in front of 0:30:20.200 --> 0:30:24.640 him in the next table. They would kiss each other 0:30:24.880 --> 0:30:28.640