WEBVTT - Episode 8 - The Red Notebook 0:00:15.607 --> 0:00:16.127 Pushkin. 0:00:18.607 --> 0:00:20.727 If you're enjoying this podcast and you want to hear 0:00:20.767 --> 0:00:23.327 more from the Ft, the Ft Edit app gives you 0:00:23.367 --> 0:00:26.247 eight of the Financial Times is best stories, hand picked 0:00:26.327 --> 0:00:29.047 daily by our editors. You'll get the perfect daily dose 0:00:29.047 --> 0:00:34.127 of expert opinion, surprising stories and fresh perspectives from across politics, culture, 0:00:34.407 --> 0:00:37.607 business and more. Start your free one month trial today, 0:00:37.767 --> 0:00:40.127 then get your first six months for just ninety nine 0:00:40.167 --> 0:00:43.727 p per month. Currently only available on iOS. There's a 0:00:43.767 --> 0:00:50.727 link in the show notes. Previously on Hot Money, the 0:00:50.767 --> 0:00:54.207 pressure on Daniel Kinahan is rising. His partners in the 0:00:54.287 --> 0:00:58.367 Dubai supercartel are starting to fall, and police around the 0:00:58.407 --> 0:01:01.247 world are working on a secret plan to take him 0:01:01.247 --> 0:01:07.127 down for good. It's the morning of April twelfth, twenty 0:01:07.247 --> 0:01:10.887 twenty two, and reporters and crews arrive at a press 0:01:10.887 --> 0:01:15.287 conference in Dublin that's been called by the Irish Police. Officially, 0:01:15.527 --> 0:01:18.287 there'll be an update on how law enforcement agencies are 0:01:18.327 --> 0:01:22.287 working together to collaborate against international organized crime, but it's 0:01:22.327 --> 0:01:27.047 a bit vague, perhaps suspiciously vague, and journalists they're starting 0:01:27.087 --> 0:01:30.247 to speculate about what this press conference is really about. 0:01:31.447 --> 0:01:36.127 Behind the scenes. John O'Driscoll is getting nervous. John's assistant 0:01:36.127 --> 0:01:39.967 Commissioner in charge of Serious organized crime. Ever since his 0:01:40.087 --> 0:01:43.087 meeting with US officials three years before, he's been working 0:01:43.087 --> 0:01:46.487 on a single objective. And the press conference this morning 0:01:46.487 --> 0:01:49.127 in Dublin it's going to be the moment he finally 0:01:49.167 --> 0:01:52.607 gets to announce it to the world. But John knows 0:01:52.687 --> 0:01:55.447 that if work gets out, it could all fall apart. 0:01:56.567 --> 0:01:58.447 He's chosen the venue carefully. 0:01:59.527 --> 0:02:03.167 I said that, beyond any doubt, it was not going 0:02:03.207 --> 0:02:07.007 to take place in those rooms that we may have 0:02:07.127 --> 0:02:10.927 had press conferences relate to the ken Hens previously. 0:02:11.807 --> 0:02:15.047 Instead, it would take place in Dublin City Hall. It's 0:02:15.087 --> 0:02:19.127 the right sort of setting for a historic announcement. Marble flows, 0:02:19.407 --> 0:02:23.367 huge classical pillars and statues on ancient Roman style plints. 0:02:23.927 --> 0:02:26.767 The holding of the event in City Hall was important, 0:02:27.167 --> 0:02:30.207 first of all because it is that one for building 0:02:30.367 --> 0:02:33.887 that it is, but also it is situated in south 0:02:34.127 --> 0:02:39.807 inner city Dublin, which is where the Kenhn organization emerged from. 0:02:40.127 --> 0:02:44.407 Quietly, senior officials from various foreign police forces have been 0:02:44.447 --> 0:02:48.807 flying into Dublin. People from the US Treasury, DA and 0:02:48.847 --> 0:02:53.047 Customs and Border protection officials from Europole and the UK's 0:02:53.167 --> 0:02:58.047 National Crime Agency, including Deputy Director of Investigations Matt Horn. 0:02:58.727 --> 0:03:01.527 We derived the day before from the UK and had 0:03:01.567 --> 0:03:04.487 been extremely well looked after by the GUARDA from the airport, 0:03:05.607 --> 0:03:07.687 and you know they were keeping a very close eye 0:03:07.727 --> 0:03:09.407 on ask to make sure that all the all of 0:03:09.487 --> 0:03:12.807 us representatives of the international law enforcement community were sort 0:03:12.887 --> 0:03:14.927 well looks after and well protected. 0:03:15.687 --> 0:03:18.847 And despite all these high profile police officers arriving in 0:03:18.927 --> 0:03:22.007 Dublin at exactly the same time, John's been able to 0:03:22.087 --> 0:03:26.727 keep things under wraps. Everyone's now seated, The whole falls 0:03:26.807 --> 0:03:30.407 quiet in anticipation, and John walks out onto the stage. 0:03:31.287 --> 0:03:34.087 Within minutes, the kinner Hands will become some of the 0:03:34.087 --> 0:03:43.407 most wanted men on the planet. I'm Miles Johnson and 0:03:43.447 --> 0:03:46.887 from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries. This is hot 0:03:46.927 --> 0:04:12.767 money The New Narcos, Episode eight, The Red Notebook. Back 0:04:12.767 --> 0:04:15.367 when I started at the FT as a trainee reporter 0:04:15.487 --> 0:04:18.647 fifteen years ago, I never expected I'd end up writing 0:04:18.687 --> 0:04:22.847 about organized crime. We covered things like the stock market 0:04:22.967 --> 0:04:27.247 and mergers and acquisitions. There was this very clear boundary 0:04:27.287 --> 0:04:30.167 back then between the world. We wrote about the world 0:04:30.247 --> 0:04:35.767 of business, CEOs and politicians and the underworld, but something's 0:04:35.887 --> 0:04:39.887 changed since then. The line between criminal activity and state 0:04:39.967 --> 0:04:45.207 backed enterprise, between big business and gangsters has become fuzzier. 0:04:46.447 --> 0:04:48.767 We live in a time where some heads of state 0:04:48.887 --> 0:04:52.327 increasingly act like crime bosses, and the crime bosses they 0:04:52.367 --> 0:04:55.727 act like the heads of multinational companies. It could be 0:04:55.767 --> 0:04:59.687 a world leader investing billions into startups and tech companies, 0:05:00.087 --> 0:05:03.287 but at the same time ordering the murder of dissidents abroad. 0:05:03.887 --> 0:05:07.367 It could be North Korean state hackers stealing bitcoins to 0:05:07.607 --> 0:05:12.127 fun missile programs, or Emmeinin backed tycoons using mercenary armies 0:05:12.167 --> 0:05:15.567 to mine for gold in Africa. Or it could be 0:05:15.607 --> 0:05:19.247 a cocaine cartel hiding out in Dubai while carrying out 0:05:19.287 --> 0:05:23.767 contract killings in Europe for a sanctioned regime. It's all 0:05:23.807 --> 0:05:26.887 part of the rise of a new type of criminal boss, 0:05:27.367 --> 0:05:32.447 one backed by authoritarian governments. I called them state backed gangsters, 0:05:32.847 --> 0:05:35.287 and they're thriving at a time when the world is 0:05:35.327 --> 0:05:41.367 becoming more fragmented and more chaotic. Reporting on the Dubai supercartel, 0:05:41.607 --> 0:05:45.127 I've discovered that European drug traffickers have been taking advantage 0:05:45.127 --> 0:05:48.127 of the same money laundering channels that Iran uses to 0:05:48.167 --> 0:05:52.167 evade Western sanctions. That seems to be the reason why 0:05:52.207 --> 0:05:56.647 international criminals have become unlikely bedfellows with a theocratic regime. 0:05:57.727 --> 0:06:01.127 That press conference that John's arranged, he knows it could 0:06:01.207 --> 0:06:05.007 be the beginning of the end for the supercartel. But 0:06:05.087 --> 0:06:07.127 before we get to that, I want to take a 0:06:07.167 --> 0:06:11.647 little detour because there's an important question from the start 0:06:11.687 --> 0:06:14.167 of this series that we still don't have an answer to. 0:06:14.967 --> 0:06:19.527 The murder Broker was convicted for arranging the assassination of Alimtamed, 0:06:19.727 --> 0:06:23.447 the electrician who was on the runt from Iran, but 0:06:23.487 --> 0:06:25.767 no one has ever been able to find out who 0:06:25.847 --> 0:06:29.727 in Iran gave the murder broker his orders. And enjoying 0:06:29.727 --> 0:06:32.487 the reporting of this series, I came across something that 0:06:32.567 --> 0:06:35.767 might help us get one step closer. It was a 0:06:35.767 --> 0:06:38.687 case that revealed a ton of new information about the 0:06:38.687 --> 0:06:42.767 way that Iran secretly pursues its enemies in Europe, people 0:06:42.807 --> 0:06:47.447 like Alim Tamed. And there's someone I want to talk 0:06:47.487 --> 0:06:50.887 to because he was directly involved in that case, someone 0:06:50.887 --> 0:06:53.727 who has first hand experience of the long history of 0:06:53.807 --> 0:06:57.447 violence against enemies of the Iranian regime wherever they are 0:06:57.447 --> 0:07:01.007 in the world. Husseyin Aberdini was born in Iran, but 0:07:01.047 --> 0:07:03.687 he now lives in London. He's in his late fifties 0:07:03.727 --> 0:07:07.127 and he's quietly spoken that he's been fighting for most 0:07:07.167 --> 0:07:07.687 of his life. 0:07:08.767 --> 0:07:12.847 I have been with the resistance over three decades now, 0:07:13.167 --> 0:07:14.207 nearly four decades. 0:07:15.047 --> 0:07:17.687 In the spring of nineteen ninety, Hussein was a young 0:07:17.727 --> 0:07:21.247 activist and he was in Turkey. He says he traveled 0:07:21.247 --> 0:07:24.007 there to try and stop the deportation of Iranian refugees 0:07:24.007 --> 0:07:28.567 who'd crossed the border illegally. One day in Istanbul, he's 0:07:28.607 --> 0:07:31.687 in a car with two colleagues. They're on the motorway 0:07:32.087 --> 0:07:34.607 when suddenly something blocks the road ahead. 0:07:35.047 --> 0:07:38.527 The traffic slows down. Hussein's up front, sitting next to 0:07:38.527 --> 0:07:40.207 the driver, and all. 0:07:40.047 --> 0:07:43.487 Of a sudden we heard, you know, the sound of bullets. 0:07:44.287 --> 0:07:46.167 They riddled our car from the bag. 0:07:47.247 --> 0:07:49.727 Hussein barely has time to take in that someone is 0:07:49.727 --> 0:07:52.447 shooting at them when a car smashes into the front 0:07:52.447 --> 0:07:53.127 of their vehicle. 0:07:53.527 --> 0:07:55.927 They can't drive away and. 0:07:55.767 --> 0:08:00.687 Another car pinned us from behind. It was then which 0:08:00.767 --> 0:08:04.247 I realized, you know, this was this was an assassination 0:08:04.687 --> 0:08:05.567 or kidnapping. 0:08:06.327 --> 0:08:08.487 A man jumps out of the vehicle in front, the 0:08:08.527 --> 0:08:09.967 one that's just plowed into their car. 0:08:10.407 --> 0:08:11.967 He's holding a revolver. 0:08:12.207 --> 0:08:14.367 And it was only I think a couple of meters 0:08:14.407 --> 0:08:18.327 before he reached our car. I tried to do something. 0:08:18.847 --> 0:08:22.287 There was a briefcase belonging to my female colleague and 0:08:22.327 --> 0:08:26.207 sitting the back of the car, so I just took dad, 0:08:26.407 --> 0:08:28.847 opened the door and went to stop him. 0:08:29.607 --> 0:08:32.487 He's clutching the briefcase like a shield as the man 0:08:32.527 --> 0:08:33.247 starts shooting. 0:08:33.887 --> 0:08:37.207 First bullet hit my chest and I didn't know how 0:08:37.207 --> 0:08:42.207 many bullets, you know, I received then, and I just 0:08:43.087 --> 0:08:45.807 fell down, fell down in the street. 0:08:47.087 --> 0:08:50.127 Saint's lying on the ground, bleeding, and he can see 0:08:50.127 --> 0:08:52.847 the man walk up to him. He's preparing to take 0:08:53.007 --> 0:08:57.607 a final shot, but nothing happens. 0:08:59.087 --> 0:09:02.447 The bullet jammed and the muzzle of the gun. 0:09:04.327 --> 0:09:07.967 That's a Saint's first lucky break. The traffic starts to 0:09:07.967 --> 0:09:11.887 move again, and the assassin take off. Hussein desperately needs 0:09:11.927 --> 0:09:13.887 to get to the hospital, but the car he was 0:09:13.887 --> 0:09:16.887 in is smashed up, and everyone else on the motorway 0:09:17.007 --> 0:09:18.927 they seemed to be trying to run away as quickly 0:09:18.967 --> 0:09:19.527 as they can. 0:09:20.407 --> 0:09:24.167 I remember very vaguely that my colleague threw herself, you know, 0:09:24.247 --> 0:09:27.127 in front of one of the cars, and there was 0:09:27.167 --> 0:09:30.447 a taxi which has stopped and I was put at 0:09:30.447 --> 0:09:36.407 the back of the taxi and I just got unconscious. 0:09:37.007 --> 0:09:39.767 The hospital was only three minutes away. If it was 0:09:39.927 --> 0:09:41.927 further than that, I wouldn't make it. 0:09:43.127 --> 0:09:46.127 Hussein fell into a coma. It would be fifty days 0:09:46.167 --> 0:09:48.927 before he woke up. He was told that one bullet 0:09:48.967 --> 0:09:51.567 had passed very close to his heart and another had 0:09:51.607 --> 0:09:55.647 destroyed his liver. But even at the hospital he's not safe. 0:09:56.167 --> 0:10:00.167 The killers they come back, and this time they're posing 0:10:00.167 --> 0:10:00.927 as his friends. 0:10:01.647 --> 0:10:05.767 But my true friends arrived and they were told, you 0:10:05.807 --> 0:10:07.527 know that there are other people who wanted to come 0:10:07.567 --> 0:10:12.327 and see me. And then those people escaped from the 0:10:12.407 --> 0:10:15.047 scene when they realized, you know, there were people, my 0:10:15.167 --> 0:10:16.367 true friends, you know, we're there. 0:10:17.207 --> 0:10:19.687 That's the same second stroke of luck, and there'll be 0:10:19.687 --> 0:10:21.967 a third one as well. When the killers call up, 0:10:22.127 --> 0:10:25.447 pretending to be the police, they tell the hospital staff 0:10:25.567 --> 0:10:27.927 that they know Hussein is now conscious and they want 0:10:27.967 --> 0:10:29.407 to interview him about what happened. 0:10:30.127 --> 0:10:33.367 But the president of Turkey in those days was Tolgodozol 0:10:33.527 --> 0:10:35.567 and his mother, you know, was in the same hospital. 0:10:36.047 --> 0:10:40.887 The president wanted to come and visit his mother, and 0:10:41.007 --> 0:10:46.167 they sailed off the whole area hospital and they realized 0:10:46.167 --> 0:10:48.407 there was another branch of police who wanted to come 0:10:48.407 --> 0:10:51.407 and see me, and they found out there was a 0:10:51.407 --> 0:10:54.847 Bogos call. It was the Ranian regime who wanted to 0:10:54.887 --> 0:10:57.927 get rid of me because they didn't want me to speak. 0:10:58.407 --> 0:10:59.687 That was very pure luck. 0:11:01.247 --> 0:11:04.487 That was more than thirty years ago. Hussein tells me 0:11:04.647 --> 0:11:07.127 he's still affected every day by the damaged onto his 0:11:07.207 --> 0:11:10.847 liver in that attack. He's one of the rare survivors 0:11:10.887 --> 0:11:14.927 of an assassination attempt by the Iranian regime. Several of 0:11:14.927 --> 0:11:20.287 his friends and colleagues have been murdered since then. Today, 0:11:20.487 --> 0:11:23.927 Hussain is a senior member of Iran's main foreign opposition group, 0:11:24.207 --> 0:11:27.367 the National Council of Resistance of Iran or the NCRI. 0:11:28.647 --> 0:11:31.447 SO the main objective of the National Council of Resistance 0:11:31.447 --> 0:11:35.487 of Iran is to establish a democratic and the secular 0:11:35.567 --> 0:11:39.287 government in Iran. Its main principle, of course, has been 0:11:39.327 --> 0:11:43.887 against any dictatorship, whether there's the formula dictatorship of the 0:11:43.927 --> 0:11:48.287 Shah or the present medieval dictatorship of the Mullahs. 0:11:49.487 --> 0:11:52.687 The NCRI, it's an umbrella organization, and one of the 0:11:52.767 --> 0:11:56.287 largest groups within it is called the People's Mojahdeen Organization 0:11:56.567 --> 0:11:59.807 of Iran, known by its Farsi initials me e K 0:12:01.047 --> 0:12:04.367 now the MEK, it hasn't always had the West's approval. 0:12:05.087 --> 0:12:09.087 It was implicated in several terrorist attacks against Iran, including 0:12:09.287 --> 0:12:12.327 the nineteen eighty one bombing that Tehran claimed was carried 0:12:12.367 --> 0:12:15.047 out by Ali matamed the Quiet Electrician. 0:12:15.247 --> 0:12:16.247 In the Netherlands. 0:12:17.127 --> 0:12:20.207 From nineteen ninety seven to twenty twelve, the mk was 0:12:20.207 --> 0:12:23.447 designated as a terror organization by the US government, But 0:12:23.527 --> 0:12:26.647 over the past decade it's refashioned itself and now it's 0:12:26.687 --> 0:12:30.367 a pretty influential opposition voice on Iran. But for all 0:12:30.407 --> 0:12:34.287 its acceptance by Western powers, the NCRI remains a top 0:12:34.367 --> 0:12:39.127 target of the Iranian regime. In June twenty eighteen, Hussain 0:12:39.207 --> 0:12:42.447 and his colleagues are in Paris. They're holding a huge meeting, 0:12:42.807 --> 0:12:45.727 a rally called the Free Iran World Summit. 0:12:46.007 --> 0:12:49.407 Tens of thousands of Iranians with many non Iranian supporters 0:12:49.407 --> 0:12:54.607 of the resistance who came from sixty seven different countries 0:12:54.727 --> 0:12:55.367 throughout the ward. 0:12:56.127 --> 0:12:59.287 Dozens of foreign politicians are invited as well, and everyone 0:12:59.327 --> 0:13:03.687 convenes in a vast conference center. It's only afterwards the 0:13:03.767 --> 0:13:06.327 Hussain finds out what very nearly happened. 0:13:06.727 --> 0:13:08.207 I think it was on the first of July. The 0:13:08.247 --> 0:13:11.127 next day that was told by a friend that the 0:13:11.287 --> 0:13:17.927 Belgian Featheral police, you know, they had arrested two Iranians 0:13:17.927 --> 0:13:19.487 who are trying, you know, to bring a bomb. 0:13:21.127 --> 0:13:23.967 Belgian police had arrested two Iranians who were on their 0:13:23.967 --> 0:13:27.647 way to the Paris conference center with a bomb. It's 0:13:27.687 --> 0:13:30.687 another lucky escape for Hussein and hundreds of other people. 0:13:31.807 --> 0:13:34.727 And as police investigate the failed bomb plot, they're going 0:13:34.727 --> 0:13:37.847 to discover something that I believe could shed new light 0:13:37.967 --> 0:13:41.207 on the murder of Alimtomed. It's the most important discovery 0:13:41.287 --> 0:13:45.527 in decades about how Iran targets its enemies abroad. And 0:13:45.607 --> 0:13:50.407 this time the clues aren't just glimpses, hints or encryptied messages. 0:13:50.887 --> 0:13:54.367 They're in a battered, red notebook filled with handwritten notes, 0:13:54.607 --> 0:14:13.287 sitting in the back of a car. So Hussein and 0:14:13.327 --> 0:14:16.247 his colleagues they discover that someone had tried to plant 0:14:16.287 --> 0:14:18.647 a bomb at the rally in Paris, and at the 0:14:18.687 --> 0:14:22.287 same time, police in Germany arrest an Iranian man on 0:14:22.327 --> 0:14:26.767 a highway in Bavaria. His name is Assa Dolla Asadi 0:14:27.887 --> 0:14:31.367 and officially he's the third councilor of the Iranian Embassy 0:14:31.407 --> 0:14:35.487 in Vienna. He arrived in Europe in twenty fourteen, but 0:14:35.567 --> 0:14:39.127 in reality he's a top spy for Iran's Ministry of 0:14:39.167 --> 0:14:43.007 Intelligence and Security. It's Iran's equivalent of the CIA or 0:14:43.127 --> 0:14:47.727 MI six. Assadi is running a network of agents across Europe, 0:14:48.047 --> 0:14:51.367 meeting them in cafes in small medieval towns and handing 0:14:51.367 --> 0:14:55.407 over secret instructions or bundles of cash. And months before 0:14:55.447 --> 0:14:59.327 the Paris rally, he traveled to Tehran, returning to Europe 0:14:59.367 --> 0:15:04.247 with a sophisticated bomb hidden in his diplomatic luggage. The 0:15:04.287 --> 0:15:07.887 bombs made from an explosive known as Tatp or Mother 0:15:08.007 --> 0:15:12.847 of Satan, extremely volatile. Asardi carries it on too Luxembourg 0:15:13.007 --> 0:15:15.767 and hands it over to his agents. In this part 0:15:15.847 --> 0:15:17.927 of the story, it's a bit less like a Lacarian 0:15:18.007 --> 0:15:21.447 novel because the venue he chooses it's a pizza hut. 0:15:22.247 --> 0:15:24.727 He gives them the bomb with instructions for planting it 0:15:24.767 --> 0:15:27.327 at the Paris rally, and the code word he uses 0:15:27.527 --> 0:15:31.527 is PlayStation. But what Asardi doesn't know is that European 0:15:31.527 --> 0:15:34.447 intelligence agencies have been watching his every move and know 0:15:34.527 --> 0:15:37.807 exactly what he's been planning. They even disabled the airport 0:15:37.847 --> 0:15:42.807 security scanner so he could get through. The two agents 0:15:42.887 --> 0:15:46.487 are arrested as they travel from Brussels to Paris. Assardi 0:15:46.767 --> 0:15:49.447 is pulled over by the police on a motorway in Germany, 0:15:49.847 --> 0:15:52.327 and in the back of his car they find a battered, 0:15:52.447 --> 0:15:57.167 red notebook filled with handwritten notes, notes that reveal that 0:15:57.247 --> 0:16:00.727 Asardi was involved in way more than one bomb plot. 0:16:01.927 --> 0:16:05.567 Assadi has listed hundreds of different meetings with agents across Europe. 0:16:06.007 --> 0:16:08.687 He's itemized cash payments he's made to spies, and he's 0:16:08.687 --> 0:16:11.527 listed more than two hundred places he's visited as part 0:16:11.527 --> 0:16:15.647 of his work in eleven different countries. Because as Sardi, 0:16:15.967 --> 0:16:18.647 according to the findings of a Belgian criminal court, is 0:16:18.687 --> 0:16:22.087 part of a secret unit of Iranian foreign intelligence, a 0:16:22.167 --> 0:16:26.287 sort of murder squad in Europe. It's called Department three 0:16:26.447 --> 0:16:30.367 one two and its role is to kill opponents of 0:16:30.407 --> 0:16:35.727 the regime abroad. There's not much public information about Department 0:16:35.767 --> 0:16:39.047 three one two, but what we do know it's pretty terrifying. 0:16:40.087 --> 0:16:42.967 It's thought to be a top secret unit that specializes 0:16:43.087 --> 0:16:46.887 in spying on human rights activists, journalists and others who 0:16:46.887 --> 0:16:50.287 the Iranian regime believed to be a threat, but was 0:16:50.327 --> 0:16:55.207 Ali Mtummed one of their targets. We know that Assardi 0:16:55.527 --> 0:16:58.727 arrived in his new job in June twenty fourteen, a 0:16:58.727 --> 0:17:01.367 little over a year before Alie Mtummd was killed outside 0:17:01.407 --> 0:17:04.327 his house in ol Mayor. It was the first successful 0:17:04.407 --> 0:17:07.807 targeted assassination carried out by Iran in Western Europe in 0:17:07.847 --> 0:17:11.687 over twenty three years. And then two years later, in 0:17:11.727 --> 0:17:16.607 twenty seventeen, while Assardi was still free, another Iranian opposition. 0:17:16.247 --> 0:17:18.127 Member was gunned down in the Netherlands. 0:17:19.687 --> 0:17:22.527 So we can say that Assadi arrives in Vienna in 0:17:22.607 --> 0:17:26.887 late twenty fourteen and then suddenly Iran is linked to 0:17:26.967 --> 0:17:32.647 several assassinations in Europe. This isn't conclusive evidence, but according 0:17:32.647 --> 0:17:36.967 to the Belgian criminal court documents targeting dissidents, that was 0:17:36.967 --> 0:17:40.167 Assadi's job, so it makes sense that he would at 0:17:40.247 --> 0:17:43.487 least be a suspect in the Matamad murder. And we 0:17:43.527 --> 0:17:46.567 also know that Assadi he was reporting into really top 0:17:46.647 --> 0:17:51.327 people in Iran, including the Deputy Minister of Intelligence After 0:17:51.367 --> 0:17:53.807 his arrest for the bomb plot, Assardi's put on trial 0:17:53.847 --> 0:17:56.367 in Belgium and he gets prison visits from some of 0:17:56.407 --> 0:17:59.847 Iran's most senior spies and other officials from its foreign ministry. 0:18:00.367 --> 0:18:05.207 They clearly cared a lot about this case. The criminal 0:18:05.247 --> 0:18:08.207 case against Assadi was brought by the Belgian government, but 0:18:08.247 --> 0:18:10.367 there were also twenty five five others who joined as 0:18:10.407 --> 0:18:13.687 private plaintiffs. They were all at the Paris rally, and 0:18:13.767 --> 0:18:16.007 Hussein was one of them, and it gave him access 0:18:16.007 --> 0:18:19.407 to all the prosecution's evidence. He sent me the files. 0:18:20.207 --> 0:18:23.887 This is hundreds of pages of documents in several European languages, 0:18:23.967 --> 0:18:27.567 and there's also extracts from Asardi's red notebook. And there's 0:18:27.607 --> 0:18:31.487 something else, something that I think could be important. Assardi's 0:18:31.527 --> 0:18:33.847 job meant that he had to travel a lot on 0:18:33.967 --> 0:18:36.887 work trips across Europe to meet with his various agents. 0:18:37.847 --> 0:18:41.007 And it turns out that even spies used booking dot Com, 0:18:41.047 --> 0:18:43.927 the huge online travel agent, to book their hotels, or 0:18:43.927 --> 0:18:46.607 at least Assadi did, and the details of all those 0:18:46.607 --> 0:18:51.207 bookings they're in the files. So I'm sat here in 0:18:51.247 --> 0:18:53.647 the offices of the Financial Times looking. 0:18:53.407 --> 0:18:54.687 At these records. 0:18:54.727 --> 0:18:58.087 Every hotel Assadi stayed in over his four years operating 0:18:58.127 --> 0:19:01.447 in Europe. For some of the bookings he used his 0:19:01.527 --> 0:19:05.647 official Iranian Foreign Ministry email address. For others it was 0:19:05.727 --> 0:19:09.687 burner accounts from Yahoo and Gmail. I should have met 0:19:09.727 --> 0:19:12.367 his agents in some pretty low key locations, and he 0:19:12.407 --> 0:19:15.527 often seemed to book two hotels in different places for 0:19:15.567 --> 0:19:18.367 the same night, maybe thinking it would throw off anyone 0:19:18.407 --> 0:19:22.127 who was following him. In the records, they do show 0:19:22.167 --> 0:19:24.727 that he traveled to the Netherlands on the sixth of 0:19:24.767 --> 0:19:28.927 September twenty sixteen, less than a year after Mtammad was murdered. 0:19:29.207 --> 0:19:31.367 He stayed at the Best Western in the Hague for 0:19:31.407 --> 0:19:35.767 one night. The next evening, Assadi booked two hotel rooms, 0:19:36.127 --> 0:19:38.487 one in the Dutch town of Meppel and another in 0:19:38.607 --> 0:19:43.407 swart Sluice, both really small towns. And in April twenty seventeen, 0:19:43.567 --> 0:19:46.247 Assardi booked a room at the Savoy Amsterdam for one 0:19:46.247 --> 0:19:49.087 of his agents. So we know he was working in 0:19:49.127 --> 0:19:51.767 the Netherlands and around the same time that Ali Mctammad 0:19:51.887 --> 0:19:56.967 was murdered. It's far from a smoking gun, but it's 0:19:57.127 --> 0:20:00.647 enough enough for me to ask Kasain does he think 0:20:00.767 --> 0:20:03.087 that Asardi could have been connected to the murder of 0:20:03.207 --> 0:20:08.287 Mohammed Reza Kalahi, also known as Alimtammad. I lay out 0:20:08.287 --> 0:20:10.647 what we know, so he. 0:20:10.687 --> 0:20:14.487 Arrives, Assadi arrives in Austria in twenty fourteen, and then 0:20:14.567 --> 0:20:21.287 in twenty fifteen, a man called Mohammed Reza Kolahi, who 0:20:21.407 --> 0:20:24.247 was living in a town and al Mayor, was shot 0:20:24.527 --> 0:20:29.207 and killed outside his house. The murder has never been solved. 0:20:29.487 --> 0:20:33.527 They know who shot him, they know who told those 0:20:33.567 --> 0:20:37.687 people to shoot him. The Dutch government then said we 0:20:37.807 --> 0:20:40.967 believe the Iranian regime was behind this murder, and they 0:20:40.967 --> 0:20:45.287 expelled to diplomat. But there's never been any any further 0:20:45.327 --> 0:20:49.007 information about who could have coordinated a plot like that. 0:20:49.607 --> 0:20:53.487 Do you think it's reasonable to assume that Asadi could 0:20:53.487 --> 0:20:55.127 have been behind something like that. 0:20:56.407 --> 0:21:00.367 Well, I don't have a precise information about this case, 0:21:00.527 --> 0:21:04.567 but it I think makes sense to believe that. Of course, 0:21:05.407 --> 0:21:07.807 I mean, then Asadi was the you know, the head 0:21:07.847 --> 0:21:15.447 of this intelligence section in mainly the Western Europe. I 0:21:15.487 --> 0:21:18.767 think that is this could very well be I mean 0:21:18.767 --> 0:21:20.367 I said, it could very well be behind that. 0:21:20.687 --> 0:21:23.167 So it's reasonable to assume, you know, we have a 0:21:23.247 --> 0:21:27.207 spy working under diplomatic cover who is in charge of 0:21:27.247 --> 0:21:33.247 all of Western Europe, and his focus is effectively organizing 0:21:34.687 --> 0:21:40.447 assassination attempts against opposition figures. So it's a reasonable assumption 0:21:41.127 --> 0:21:45.487 to think that of the assassinations or attempted assassinations that 0:21:45.527 --> 0:21:50.207 occurred in Western Europe after twenty fourteen, he presumably would 0:21:50.207 --> 0:21:51.127 have had to have some. 0:21:51.447 --> 0:21:52.887 He's had a hand in his hand in it. 0:21:53.327 --> 0:21:56.887 Absolutely what he say says. 0:21:57.007 --> 0:21:59.807 Of course, it doesn't prove anything, but at the very 0:21:59.927 --> 0:22:03.687 least Assadi has to be considered a suspect. There's this 0:22:03.767 --> 0:22:06.927 new wave of assassinations in Europe, all connected to the 0:22:06.927 --> 0:22:11.007 Iranian state, and they begin after Assards posted to Vienna 0:22:11.127 --> 0:22:15.127 in twenty fourteen, and the first is the murder of 0:22:15.127 --> 0:22:18.087 an electrician in a small Dutch town. A year later, 0:22:19.647 --> 0:22:22.767 Assadi is convicted for the attempted bombing in Paris and 0:22:22.807 --> 0:22:26.207 he's sentenced to twenty years for attempted murder and plotting 0:22:26.207 --> 0:22:30.087 a terrorist attack. Iran denies any involvement, but will never 0:22:30.247 --> 0:22:33.767 know if he was involved in Ali Mahommed's death because 0:22:33.767 --> 0:22:37.087 after Asadi is convicted, a Belgian aid worker is arrested 0:22:37.087 --> 0:22:39.887 in Iran on these trumped up charges of espionage and 0:22:40.007 --> 0:22:42.927 sentenced to forty years in prison and seventy four lashes. 0:22:43.847 --> 0:22:47.087 Then in May twenty twenty three, the Belgian government agrees 0:22:47.127 --> 0:22:51.047 to exchange Assadi for the aid worker, So Assardi he's 0:22:51.087 --> 0:22:54.287 now back in Iran and his notebook aside. He's taken 0:22:54.287 --> 0:23:08.887 his secrets with him. It's the twelfth of April twenty 0:23:08.927 --> 0:23:13.127 twenty and we're back in Dublin City Hall. The entire time, 0:23:13.207 --> 0:23:15.567 John O'Driscoll has been working on a plan to sanction 0:23:15.647 --> 0:23:18.687 the Kinahans. He's been worried about it leaking because he 0:23:18.807 --> 0:23:21.607 knows if the news gets out, they'll quickly be able 0:23:21.647 --> 0:23:23.527 to hide their assets before they're frozen. 0:23:23.887 --> 0:23:25.247 Today's a landmark day. 0:23:25.327 --> 0:23:27.287 But now the Kinahans have run out of. 0:23:27.207 --> 0:23:31.487 Time and in particular against the Kenahan organized crime gang. 0:23:31.887 --> 0:23:35.487 John's boss, Drew Harris, Commissioner of the Irish Police, steps 0:23:35.567 --> 0:23:36.327 up to the podium. 0:23:36.567 --> 0:23:40.167 This organized crime gang started life as a sopha inner 0:23:40.167 --> 0:23:43.687 city Dublin drug dealers, but has grown over the decades 0:23:43.727 --> 0:23:48.047 to become a transnational crime cartel that is estimated to 0:23:48.087 --> 0:23:51.087 have generated over one billion euro for them. 0:23:51.247 --> 0:23:54.447 Then a senior official from the US Treasury announces the 0:23:54.487 --> 0:23:56.727 news that will make headlines around the world. 0:23:57.087 --> 0:24:01.647 So, as of today, the Kinahan transnational criminal Organization joins 0:24:01.687 --> 0:24:08.047 the ranks of Italy's Camorra, Mexico's Los Zetas, Japan's Yakuza, 0:24:09.287 --> 0:24:12.767 in Russia's Thieves in Law. Also, as of today, the 0:24:12.847 --> 0:24:16.847 result of of these sanctions, these individuals are immediately served 0:24:16.847 --> 0:24:20.887 from the US financial system and in the assets brought 0:24:20.927 --> 0:24:23.687 property under US jurisdiction are immediate blocked. 0:24:23.727 --> 0:24:26.047 At this moment, we have to stop here for a 0:24:26.047 --> 0:24:29.007 minute just to take this all in. It's utterly remarkable. 0:24:31.047 --> 0:24:33.767 A criminal family that began in a Dublin flat in 0:24:33.807 --> 0:24:36.887 the nineteen eighties is now being compared to the Yakuza 0:24:36.967 --> 0:24:40.607 and Camorra crime groups whose origins date back hundreds of years. 0:24:41.607 --> 0:24:44.847 They've been sanctioned by the US government, one of a 0:24:44.847 --> 0:24:47.447 handful of organized crime groups to ever face that kind 0:24:47.447 --> 0:24:51.087 of penalty, and the US also puts a five million 0:24:51.167 --> 0:24:54.087 dollar bounty on the heads of Christy Daniel and his 0:24:54.127 --> 0:24:58.407 brother Christopher Jr. Calling their organization a threat to the 0:24:58.567 --> 0:25:01.807 entire Lizard economy through its role in international money laundering. 0:25:03.527 --> 0:25:07.607