Speaker 1: Kami, Ready Chi.
Speaker 2: This is Massimo Romagnoli, an Italian Politicianino Right now, Massimo
Speaker 2: is barreling down a European motorway inside a luxury sedan
Speaker 2: with a brown leather interior. He's driving through Switzerland wearing
Speaker 2: a sport coat and sunglasses. Massimo thanks this Taylor as
Speaker 2: he shows off his bespoke button down shirt. It's white
Speaker 2: with red pinstripes. It's nice. Everyone tells me that I
Speaker 2: look very fine, Massimo says, an Italian I was complimented
Speaker 2: throughout Switzerland for this beautiful shirt. Massimo Romannoli lives the
Speaker 2: good life. I know this because Massimo wants me to
Speaker 2: know it, and he wants you to know it too.
Speaker 2: Massimo promotes himself in videos on social media. He projects
Speaker 2: an image of success. In one video, Massimo is standing
Speaker 2: on a train station platform in Paris wearing a top hat,
Speaker 2: a black coat and a suit. He's on his way
Speaker 2: to Brussels for business with the European Union. Massimo Romagnoli,
Speaker 2: He's the perfect man to help Flavio complete his arms deal.
Speaker 2: I'm Trevor Aronson from Western Sound and iHeart Podcast. This
Speaker 2: is Alphabet Boys, Episode eight. Welcome to the shit show.
Speaker 3: I don't want any expose Anty. Is now my business
Speaker 3: to expose Anty is to present the evidence. And you
Speaker 3: ask the government to protect lives or to do whatever
Speaker 3: you have to do, just do it. I do not
Speaker 3: even want to know.
Speaker 2: I've asked Flavio George Escu about his meeting at the
Speaker 2: Marriott in Romania with Christian Juan and One's College Diego,
Speaker 2: the meeting you heard about in the last episode. Flavio
Speaker 2: says he isn't the guy on those recordings. That was
Speaker 2: an act, Flavio playing the part of an arms dealer
Speaker 2: so that he could collect information for the CIA.
Speaker 3: I'm not a journalist like you. You expose myself. I'm
Speaker 3: not a journalist. I was thinking of and have the
Speaker 3: feeling I'm gonna do something for the country, something like amazing.
Speaker 3: You are a journalist. Okay, I take you right now
Speaker 3: in Bronx. We live together. We go in Bronx and
Speaker 3: I put you some drug dealers to make a deal
Speaker 3: on some drugs and let them know you're gonna buy
Speaker 3: three hundred kilo of cocaine. Play that role. I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: if you have the courage, come with me tonight. We're
Speaker 3: gonna find some people on the street and let them
Speaker 3: know what you want to buy. With your face, with
Speaker 3: your attitude, with your voice, with your words. I'm telling
Speaker 3: you just say goodbye, because you're not gonna come back.
Speaker 3: This is what's happened myself. I educate so much and
Speaker 3: I prepare so much. Everybody saw those videos. They were
Speaker 3: so proudub on me. They said, man, you are an
Speaker 3: arm dealer.
Speaker 2: Flavio, according to his story, is trying to map out
Speaker 2: an entire network, the people running the arms factory, the
Speaker 2: people who give them fake documents, everybody. Once he has
Speaker 2: all the information, he'll contact the CIA and hand over everything,
Speaker 2: just like he used to do when he assisted FBI
Speaker 2: agents in Las Vegas. At the end of the meeting
Speaker 2: in Romania, Flavio and Christian tell the Colombians that they
Speaker 2: will secure a document needed to ship the weapons, the
Speaker 2: end user certificate, and they have a guy for that.
Speaker 4: I'll be voicing the part of Massimo Romagnoli.
Speaker 2: That's Elio Pagano, a voice actor. I had communicated with
Speaker 2: Massimo over email, and at one point we had made
Speaker 2: tentative plans for an interview in Brussels, but Massimo backed out.
Speaker 2: Of those plans without much explanation. Here's what he wrote
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 4: I'm not interested to talk about my past anymore. I'm
Speaker 4: focused only to my future.
Speaker 2: So Massimo, like Christian.
Speaker 5: Remember I'm an actor and I'm voicing Christian.
Speaker 2: We'll be voiced by an actor. Massimo's words are his
Speaker 2: and Christian's words are his. Everything you'll hear comes verbatim
Speaker 2: from court testimony. Anyway, with that explained, let's get back
Speaker 2: to the story.
Speaker 6: I was friends with mister Massimo Romanioli and at his
Speaker 6: level he was not involved in any arm deills, but
Speaker 6: he was having a lot of knowledge and a lot
Speaker 6: of co nations.
Speaker 2: Flavio had met Massimo through a mutual friend because that
Speaker 2: friend thought they might want to do business together. Massimo
Speaker 2: began his career running a transport company and working as
Speaker 2: a lobbyist and salesman for defense companies. He was eventually
Speaker 2: elected to Italy's parliament, and Massimo became a high ranking
Speaker 2: official in the Forza Italian political party after the party
Speaker 2: leader became Italy's Prime Minister. That leader was Silvio Berlusconi
Speaker 2: com Vitaro Bungo. In twenty eleven, Massimo's political career took
Speaker 2: a big hit after Berlusconi resigned following a sweeping scandal
Speaker 2: over the so called Bunga Bunga parties, which made international news.
Speaker 5: The details of this case are tawdry to put a mildly.
Speaker 7: Ah, that's correct. They point to basically call girls being
Speaker 7: hired to perform at these after dinner parties in the
Speaker 7: so called Bunga Bunga room, where some of them, for instance,
Speaker 7: dressed up as Obama and engaged in sort of semi
Speaker 7: erotic fondling of one another for the pleasure of it.
Speaker 2: To be clear, I've not found any information to suggest
Speaker 2: Massimo was involved in these sex parties, but the controversy
Speaker 2: upended his political ambitions. Massimo then pushed forward in a
Speaker 2: career that kept one foot in the halls of government
Speaker 2: and the other in the corporate boardroom. He worked in
Speaker 2: the defense industry, specifically an Italian company manufacturing military aircraft.
Speaker 2: That's how Massimo came to know Flavio over a potential
Speaker 2: interest in selling ankle monitoring bracelets to European governments. They
Speaker 2: sat down together in Romania in June twenty fourteen.
Speaker 4: I was with mister Flavio Georgesco at meeting about the
Speaker 4: elettronic bracelet project in his office in Bucharest, and I
Speaker 4: asked him whether he could introduce me to someone from
Speaker 4: the Ministry of Defense, and mister Flavio Georgescu kindly introduced
Speaker 4: me to mister Kristen Vintila.
Speaker 2: On September twenty sixth, twenty fourteen, three days after the
Speaker 2: Marriot meeting with the Colombians, Flavio meets Massimo in Bucharest
Speaker 2: for dinner at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Joseph Hadad.
Speaker 2: As far as Massimo is concerned, this dinner was a
Speaker 2: thank you Flavio. Ever, the connected guy had helped the
Speaker 2: daughter of one of Massimo's friends get into a Romanian university,
Speaker 2: but Flavio had something else on his agenda.
Speaker 6: Then I said, you know, I can't use him to
Speaker 6: give his.
Speaker 2: Here's Massimo.
Speaker 4: After dinner we went in the car, and in the
Speaker 4: car we discussed this deal.
Speaker 2: Flavio tells Massimo about the armsteal that he and Christian
Speaker 2: are negotiating with the Colombians. Massimo knows arms dealers in Europe,
Speaker 2: so Flavio asks him, can you help us obtain an
Speaker 2: end user certificate. Massimo agrees to look into it, and
Speaker 2: then he pulls his phone from his pocket. He wants
Speaker 2: to show Flavio something.
Speaker 4: I showed him, the picture of a pistol that I
Speaker 4: received a few days earlier. I received it from a
Speaker 4: Greek arms dealer.
Speaker 2: If you're an American, this might not seem like a
Speaker 2: big deal. Massimo has a handgun, so what. But keep
Speaker 2: in mind it's exceedingly rare to have a gun in Europe.
Speaker 2: Most European Union nations prohibit the possession of handguns. So
Speaker 2: by showing Flavio this picture, Massimo is proving he has connections. Later,
Speaker 2: Masimo gets back to Flavia with good news. Massimo says
Speaker 2: that he has a contact in Germany who could arrange
Speaker 2: for an end users certificate from Ethiopia. Here's what Massimo
Speaker 2: says to Flavio.
Speaker 4: But as German contact, he's telling me that the attached
Speaker 4: end users certification is an end user certification which is
Speaker 4: accepted all over the Balkans, and that the direction of
Speaker 4: transport of the goods must be from the country of
Speaker 4: a region to Ethiopia, and then from Ethiopia it can
Speaker 4: go to other countries.
Speaker 2: To other countries. Massimo means the weapons could then be
Speaker 2: rerouted from Ethiopia to Colombia or wherever. Massimo also has
Speaker 2: a price you can quote.
Speaker 4: The end user would cost between thirty and sixty thousand euros.
Speaker 2: The next day, Flavio calls one with an update.
Speaker 3: You have to come through Montenegos to discuss with your friends,
Speaker 3: because I have everything right.
Speaker 8: Now in my head.
Speaker 2: I have everything in my hand right now, meaning the
Speaker 2: end user certificate.
Speaker 3: I have everything ready to go.
Speaker 8: How about transformation everything? You have to come over there?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 8: Well, I really appreciate that you called me that this
Speaker 8: sounds it's good news. Let me tell you something.
Speaker 3: You know, if you if you come right now with
Speaker 3: your friend, it's your friend. If you come right now,
Speaker 3: we shut up the final details.
Speaker 2: Two weeks later, everyone will meet to set up the
Speaker 2: final details in Montenegro. More after the break, outside the
Speaker 2: door of Juan's condo in Colorado, the place where I
Speaker 2: left a note for him was a Matt welcome to
Speaker 2: the shit show. It read one the DEA's informant has
Speaker 2: never responded to my efforts to contact him, so really,
Speaker 2: the only quote from him that I have is this one.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the shit show. And it's really the perfect quote,
Speaker 2: because that's what Flavio's arms deal is. A shit show.
Speaker 2: So One and his fellow DEA informant, Diego, fly to
Speaker 2: Montenegro to finalize the deal with Flavio. But apparently they
Speaker 2: didn't specify which city in Montenegro, so One assume they'd
Speaker 2: meet in the capitol.
Speaker 3: Which city you are right now?
Speaker 8: City? Yeah, because I am warned, n.
Speaker 1: One no, and on the.
Speaker 8: On the capitol of this place.
Speaker 5: What Monica?
Speaker 8: What the name is?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 2: One is in Paga Riza, the capital of Montenegro. Flavio, Massimo,
Speaker 2: and Christian are in Tivat, a coastal town near the
Speaker 2: Adriatic Sea, a two hour drive from Pagarza.
Speaker 6: Okay, what the people the.
Speaker 7: Region?
Speaker 8: No, listen, listen the Ramada, I mean Ramada already I
Speaker 8: told you your name, okay, Uh, I like, I already
Speaker 8: have a set up to meet with you, have a
Speaker 8: room and all that so we can meet. Don't make
Speaker 8: me go nowhere.
Speaker 2: Because this Flavio tells One that he needs him to
Speaker 2: drive to Tivat, but One isn't having it in all.
Speaker 8: Honestly, you know, I always I always kind of follow.
Speaker 8: What did you say just this point. I don't wanna
Speaker 8: move from here. First of all, it's three freaking uh
Speaker 8: Columbias over here on a on a weird town. You
Speaker 8: guys need to come over here. I flew all the
Speaker 8: way here from South America. We haven't slept for two
Speaker 8: and thirty hours, so you need so yes, we're going
Speaker 8: to sleep.
Speaker 2: And we meet here something the next day. One acquiesces
Speaker 2: once again to Flavio shit show. One doesn't want to
Speaker 2: jeopardize the thing.
Speaker 8: Don't scare my people, That's what I'm saying. Okay, we're
Speaker 8: gonna talk. We're gonna talk the way when you're supposed
Speaker 8: to talk.
Speaker 3: I go to the lowy.
Speaker 8: We talked, and we went to the navy, agreed, and
Speaker 8: we went to the bottom of the business and we
Speaker 8: get it done over with, so we can go to
Speaker 8: the next step. That's very important. It's not enough time to.
Speaker 6: Be right.
Speaker 3: Happy.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, Flavia says, Okay, be happy. So a Dea
Speaker 2: agent one and two colleagues drive out to a waterfront
Speaker 2: hotel in Tea. There they can see a sweeping view
Speaker 2: of love Chen Mountain, a national park in Montenegro. The
Speaker 2: Dea agent starts the recording device as they pull up
Speaker 2: to the hotel. He refers to one and two other
Speaker 2: informants by the acronym CS for confidential source.
Speaker 1: The time is twelve forty two pm local Montenegro time.
Speaker 1: Data's October eight, twenty fourteen is his meeting between CS one,
Speaker 1: two and three in Flavio, Georgescu, christ John in two
Speaker 1: unknown males.
Speaker 2: Happening leaving the agent behind. One and his two colleagues
Speaker 2: walk into the hotel. Diego, the informant from the previous meeting,
Speaker 2: is with one again. The third man is named Jorge.
Speaker 2: Flavio meets them in the lobby.
Speaker 3: He's going, yeah, Alice.
Speaker 4: His.
Speaker 2: Oops. Diego and Jorge refer to Wan as Alex. Remember
Speaker 2: Wuan's real name is Alex Diaz, but Flavio, Christian and
Speaker 2: Massimo don't notice a slip.
Speaker 3: Up than you. YEA one morning, Alex is going to hear.
Speaker 2: The men head to the conference room. There are six
Speaker 2: of them, Flavio, Christian, Massimo, Juan, and Juan's colleagues Diego
Speaker 2: and Jorge. They all sit down at a conference table.
Speaker 2: There are bottles of sparkling water and crafts of coffee.
Speaker 3: US okay, which find did the end user? The gentlemen
Speaker 3: provided us the ford, the impmentation.
Speaker 2: This gentleman provided us with all the documentation. Flavio is
Speaker 2: referring to Massimo when we hit we have that's Massim know.
Speaker 2: Speaking in its rough English, he says the end user
Speaker 2: certificate can be ready as early as tomorrow. Flabo explains
Speaker 2: that the document must be issued along with a list
Speaker 2: of the weapons being shipped, so it cannot be produced
Speaker 2: until the final order is made to the arms factory.
Speaker 3: As the list the goods which you needed, we produce
Speaker 3: the document. The document cannot be.
Speaker 8: Produced before I understand that how can you produce documents
Speaker 8: which we didn't know your.
Speaker 2: The conversation then transitions from the end user certificate to
Speaker 2: the list the weapons and quantities the Colombians want to buy.
Speaker 2: One is translating for Diego.
Speaker 8: Most important is to know is when can we get started?
Speaker 8: When can we get going?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 3: No, okay, can you see that? What do you need?
Speaker 8: The list?
Speaker 3: Quit?
Speaker 2: The Colombians say that they want to purchase Soviet designed
Speaker 2: anti aircraft cannons that mount on a trailer, a system
Speaker 2: known as a ZU twenty three. Diego wants as many
Speaker 2: as fifty of.
Speaker 3: Them, just veniente fifty is good fifty.
Speaker 2: And Diego also wants AK forty seven assault rifles, a
Speaker 2: type of rifle produced all over the world and in
Speaker 2: many variations. Diego says he doesn't care what variation, he
Speaker 2: just wants AK forty Seven's the other informant, Porge translates
Speaker 2: for him, he was saying for.
Speaker 3: Him, it doesn't matter really what exactly the numeration is,
Speaker 3: what the model really is.
Speaker 5: What matters swamis really is the eight K models.
Speaker 2: Then one refers Flavio to the list of weapons he's
Speaker 2: put together, which also includes rocket propelled grenade launchers, sniper rifles, pistols,
Speaker 2: and ammunition on.
Speaker 8: That list, can you produce the whole list?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 3: Yes, here's a thing mhm.
Speaker 2: Flavio tells the Colombians that they can ship the weapons
Speaker 2: within two weeks.
Speaker 3: So sad.
Speaker 8: How much money we're talking about. The sooner the better,
Speaker 8: So we kind of judge the money's here, all.
Speaker 2: The weapons the Colombians want, it's millions of dollars worth. Flavio,
Speaker 2: Christian and Massimo explained that they'll have to return to
Speaker 2: them with an exact price once they have the order.
Speaker 2: Form from the factory. That's the next and final step.
Speaker 2: But there's something they haven't told the Colombians. They don't
Speaker 2: actually have a factory lined up. In other words, the
Speaker 2: ship shows still in effect. That's after the break.
Speaker 3: The factory was closed twenty five years ago. Was nothing.
Speaker 3: There was just a damage. You ruin something looks like
Speaker 3: twenty five years ago. Crossed.
Speaker 2: This is Flavio and here's the other Romanian present for
Speaker 2: the deal, Christian Ventilla, who's being voiced by an actor.
Speaker 5: We crossed the factory which was almost abandoned, so basically
Speaker 5: we couldn't see anything but old machines which were not
Speaker 5: working anymore, and we didn't see any stock of anything.
Speaker 2: Flavio and Christian are describing a weapons factory in Albania.
Speaker 2: Massimo's contact from Germany, a guy named Gerardo Tanga, suggested
Speaker 2: that they travel here to inspect the weapons. So Flavio, Christian,
Speaker 2: Massimo and Gerardo flu the Toronto, the Albanian capital, and
Speaker 2: then drove three hours to this arms factory. Remember their
Speaker 2: time is limited. They promised the Colombians they'd have a
Speaker 2: contract in hand within two weeks. Gerardo told the men
Speaker 2: that he represents the Albanian factory, and this factory should
Speaker 2: be able to supply everything on the Colombians list. But
Speaker 2: when they get there, it's not exactly as described. The
Speaker 2: shelves are nearly empty. The only weapons the factory has
Speaker 2: available are some rifles, which aren't even the kind the
Speaker 2: Colombians want to buy. Flavio is stunned. He approaches Massimo
Speaker 2: on the weapons factory floor.
Speaker 4: He was a bit upset because we didn't see anything
Speaker 4: of those weapons. Mister Giorgesco himself told me, what did
Speaker 4: you make me come to Albani for just to see
Speaker 4: one rifle.
Speaker 2: Masimo is enraged that Gerardo had misled them about the
Speaker 2: weapons factory. He walks up to Gerardo and slaps them
Speaker 2: across the face.
Speaker 5: Everybody was nervous and anxious because we basically didn't see anything.
Speaker 2: For decades following the fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern
Speaker 2: Europe was the world's supermarket for black market arms, a
Speaker 2: place where military, great hardware and high level corruption could
Speaker 2: be found in abundance. But that changed in February twenty
Speaker 2: fourteen when Russia invaded Crimea in Ukraine.
Speaker 7: To what America is officially calling a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker 7: Russian troops spreading out throughout the strategic Crimean peninsula.
Speaker 2: The arms market in Eastern Europe suddenly faced a demand shock.
Speaker 2: Russian and Ukrainian weapons factories were only producing weapons for
Speaker 2: their own forces as a result of the widening war,
Speaker 2: and other nearby countries ordered their factories to stockpile weapons
Speaker 2: for a possible Russian invasion. So Flavio, Christian and Massimo,
Speaker 2: having promised the Colombians that they could deliver weapons, discover
Speaker 2: that their options are limited. Gerardo, the slapped Albanian factory representative,
Speaker 2: suggests that the three men travel to Serbia to go
Speaker 2: to another factory. He claims to represent that factory will
Speaker 2: have what they need. He claims again, Christian.
Speaker 5: It was decided that we are not going to travel
Speaker 5: to Serbia because Gerardo Tanga could not assure us that
Speaker 5: is not going to happen again what happened in Albania.
Speaker 2: The four dejected men drive back to Albania's capital. Flavio
Speaker 2: and Christian decide to follow up on a lead Massimo
Speaker 2: receives he hears that a weapons factory in Bulgaria could
Speaker 2: fill their order. So Flavio and Christian make the grueling
Speaker 2: eight hour drive from Sophia, the Bulgarian capital, in a
Speaker 2: rented Mercedes SUV. Flavio's feeling the pressure, Flavio had arranged
Speaker 2: another meeting with Juan and the other Colombians in less
Speaker 2: than a week.
Speaker 5: He was feeling very bad because the meeting with the
Speaker 5: Colombians was supposed to be it was set up for
Speaker 5: five days later, and he wouldn't have anything in hand
Speaker 5: at the time.
Speaker 2: This factory in Bulgaria is their last chance. The company
Speaker 2: is called Bulgarian Industrial Engineering and Management, more commonly known
Speaker 2: by the acronym BEAM b EM. The factory is run
Speaker 2: by a man named Peter Manchukov, a former Communist era
Speaker 2: security official turned oligarch with business interests in media, finance, wine,
Speaker 2: and yeah weapons. Manchukov and his company BEAM were were
Speaker 2: both mentioned in US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in
Speaker 2: twenty ten. American diplomats describe BEAM as being connected to quote,
Speaker 2: organized crime and gray arms trafficking. In twenty fifteen and
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, for example, Beam shipped more than two hundred
Speaker 2: Serbian made machine guns to Saudi Arabia. Two investigative journalism
Speaker 2: organizations in Europe later discovered that those weapons were diverted
Speaker 2: to Syria, where the Saudi supported rebels and a bloody
Speaker 2: civil war. So Flavio and Christian get a meeting with
Speaker 2: Peter Manchukov, and Flavio's impressed by him.
Speaker 3: He was really proficient and really nice person.
Speaker 2: And Manchukov agrees to sell them twenty ZU twenty three
Speaker 2: anti aircraft cannons with three hundred thousand rounds of ammunition,
Speaker 2: grenade launchers, rifles, and pistols, a deal worth more than
Speaker 2: fourteen million dollars. But Manchukov has a condition, they must
Speaker 2: the deal within a couple of weeks because of the
Speaker 2: war in Ukraine. Man Chukov has leverage. Here's Christian.
Speaker 5: They have all the products in stock, but they were
Speaker 5: pressuring us from the point of view of timing. At
Speaker 5: that time on the weapons market, it was very big
Speaker 5: demand on very little supply. So basically the Bulgarians were
Speaker 5: making us a favor letting us buy those weapons.
Speaker 2: Flavio and Christian agreed to man Chukov's demand for a
Speaker 2: quick sale. After all, it doesn't seem like that should
Speaker 2: be a problem. They have a meeting with Juan in
Speaker 2: Montenegro in just a few days to sign the contract
Speaker 2: and transfer the money. At this point, if you're inclined
Speaker 2: to believe Flavio's story, He's close to mapping out the
Speaker 2: entire supply chain for how the Colombians could obtain their
Speaker 2: weapons the information he promised to deliver to the CIA,
Speaker 2: and I think it's worth pointing out that up to
Speaker 2: this point, Flavio hasn't received any money from one. In fact,
Speaker 2: Flavio is paying out of pocket all of his and
Speaker 2: Christians travel expenses around Europe. But Flavio apparently does talk money.
Speaker 2: At some point, he and Masimo devise a plan, which
Speaker 2: Manchukov reportedly agrees to, in which they'll mark up the
Speaker 2: prices of the weapons and the contract. Manchukov's company would
Speaker 2: then pay the difference between his price and the marked
Speaker 2: up price to Flavio, Christian and Massimo as a consulting fee.
Speaker 2: Here's Massimo.
Speaker 4: For example, if a weapons price was ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 4: we would ask him to indicate the price as being
Speaker 4: fifteen thousand, and then when the money would come in
Speaker 4: for him at fifteen thousand, he was supposed to give
Speaker 4: us back the difference between the fifteen thousand he got
Speaker 4: in the original ten thousand, that is five thousand.
Speaker 2: That profit would be millions of dollars split among them.
Speaker 2: So how are we supposed to interpret what Flavio does here.
Speaker 2: Does he devise this scheme because he hopes to make
Speaker 2: that money and the CIA call is just a cover
Speaker 2: in case he gets caught. Or does Flavio come up
Speaker 2: with this for appearance's sake so that Christian and Massimo
Speaker 2: would understand how they would get paid and as a
Speaker 2: result not get suspicious that Flavio might be up to
Speaker 2: something else, like say, working for the US government. Flavio,
Speaker 2: of course, maintains the latter that he was creating the
Speaker 2: trappings of a real deal to protect his secret operation.
Speaker 2: It's impossible to prove or disprove this because in the end,
Speaker 2: the arms deal doesn't actually happen. On a cold evening
Speaker 2: in December twenty fourteen, Flavio and Christian are a hotel
Speaker 2: room in Montenegro's capital, Pa Garza. One's there as scheduled.
Speaker 2: Flavio has in his hands the contract from the Bulgarian
Speaker 2: arms manufacturer.
Speaker 5: We showed them the contract, this is what Christian says,
Speaker 5: and then I show them the catalog from the memoristic
Speaker 5: on my laptop.
Speaker 2: Flavio believes that has worked here is nearly finished.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I show him the contract. I was pushing to
Speaker 3: sign the contract. Christiano wis try to show him things
Speaker 3: on his laptop, some specification, anything, but for me is
Speaker 3: just to put his signature and just leave me alone
Speaker 3: because I want to get out and that's it. I'm done.
Speaker 2: But one doesn't sign the contract. He says he has
Speaker 2: to call Columbia to obtain final approval from his posses.
Speaker 3: He said, I have to talk with my people.
Speaker 2: One walks out of the hotel room. Minutes later, DEA
Speaker 2: agents storm it. They arrest Flavio and Christian on the spot.
Speaker 2: Flavio motions to a DEA agent and says he needs
Speaker 2: to use the bathroom. Standing in the bathroom with the agent,
Speaker 2: Flavio tells him I work for the CIA.
Speaker 3: Said, I call it this center for CIA. Just called
Speaker 3: them in. They were going to confirm you.
Speaker 2: But there in that hotel bathroom, the DEA agent isn't
Speaker 2: buying any of this spy story spun by a handcuffed
Speaker 2: Romanian standing next to a toilet in Montenegro. He thinks
Speaker 2: it's a desperate story from an international arms dealer who's
Speaker 2: just been caught and is about to do years in prison.
Speaker 2: What would a guy like you, trying to sell millions
Speaker 2: of dollars in weapons to terrorists be doing with the
Speaker 2: Central Intelligence Agency?
Speaker 3: So we don't care about it. You are too many
Speaker 3: movies with James Bond. This is not true. This is you.
Speaker 3: We know about you. And I said, you're wrong. I said,
Speaker 3: you know what, make some fonk course, this is who
Speaker 3: I am. Now if you tell us you make this
Speaker 3: whole game by yourself and you are not another dealer,
Speaker 3: and you don't know what should do what's going on,
Speaker 3: you're crazy. It's no such a way, you know what
Speaker 3: you'd do. I said, okay, whatever, And they said, call
Speaker 3: call Massimo because we want that one.
Speaker 2: Massimo. Massimo hadn't come to Montenegro for the meeting, and
Speaker 2: the DEA wants to lure him to the country so
Speaker 2: that federal agents can arrest him.
Speaker 5: There.
Speaker 2: Agents were apparently concerned about trying to extradate Massimo from Italy,
Speaker 2: where he has political influence. Flavio agrees to help with
Speaker 2: Massimo's arrest, no strings attached. According to his story, Lavio
Speaker 2: believes he's playing on the same team as the DEA agents,
Speaker 2: so why would he ask for strings. So Flavio calls
Speaker 2: Massimo and he tells him that there's been a change
Speaker 2: in plans. The money is here in hand, Massimo. You
Speaker 2: need to come to Montenegro right away to pick up
Speaker 2: your share. Massimo says he'll fly in the next day.
Speaker 2: Flavio looks over at the DEA agent.
Speaker 3: And on the end, when I finished the conversation, I
Speaker 3: hang up the phone with him and I said, fuck him.
Speaker 2: That's in the next episode. This is up in arms,
Speaker 2: season two of Alphabet Boys. Alphabet Boys is a production
Speaker 2: of Western Sound n iHeart Podcasts. The show is reported,
Speaker 2: written and hosted by me Trevor Aronson. For more information
Speaker 2: about this series where to drop us a head to
Speaker 2: our website Alphabet Boys dot xyz. You can contact me
Speaker 2: on Twitter or Instagram at Trevor Aronson. The show's instagram
Speaker 2: is alphabet Boys dot pod. If you're enjoying Alphabet Boys,
Speaker 2: tell your friends about the show. Personal recommendations are the
Speaker 2: best recommendations. And if you want to see an illegal
Speaker 2: armsteel from the inside again, it's Alphabetboys dot xyz. You'll
Speaker 2: find undercover recordings and documents related to Flavio's case. Finally,
Speaker 2: you can help us ride the algorithms by leaving a
Speaker 2: rating or review on your favorite podcast app that helps
Speaker 2: other people find us and thanks for listening.