Speaker 1: Sometimes, when federal law enforcement agencies investigate crimes, they unwittingly
Speaker 1: target the informants or undercover agents of other agencies. This
Speaker 1: season is one of those stories, a simmering alphabet soup
Speaker 1: with the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI all mixed
Speaker 1: up in the same case. Also as a warning, this
Speaker 1: show includes uncensored undercover recordings that contain explicit language. It
Speaker 1: is intended for adult audiences.
Speaker 2: It took a long time to meetium. How are you good?
Speaker 2: Thank you for coming.
Speaker 3: How you.
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 2: This is for you. I think I know you were coming.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 1: This may sound like small talk, but what you're hearing
Speaker 1: is an illegal arms deal.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: It's December twenty fourteen, and two Romanian men are in
Speaker 1: a hotel room in the country of Montenegro. They're meeting
Speaker 1: with three Colombians. The Romanians are named Flavio georg Escu
Speaker 1: and Christian Ventilla, and they've arranged for the Colombians to
Speaker 1: buy millions of dollars in weapons and ammunition anti aircraft cannons,
Speaker 1: rocket propelled grenades, and assault rifles.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I show him the contract. I was pushing to
Speaker 4: sign the contract.
Speaker 1: This is Flavio and yeah, even illegal arms deeals use contracts. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Flavio's got his paperwork together, but he's stressed.
Speaker 4: Christiano has tried to show him things on his laptop,
Speaker 4: some specifications, anything, but for me is just to put
Speaker 4: his signature and just leave me alone because I want
Speaker 4: to get out. That's it. I'm done.
Speaker 1: Flavio is at the finish line. He'd brokered the whole deal.
Speaker 1: All he needs now is to close with a signature
Speaker 1: from one of the Colombians. But the Colombians they're stalling.
Speaker 1: They've told Flavio they represent the FARC, the Colombian paramilitary
Speaker 1: group that, as this is happening, is a US designated
Speaker 1: foreign terrorist organization. That's a big deal. It's what makes
Speaker 1: this an illegal arms deal also a big deal. The
Speaker 1: Romanians were explicitly told that the weapons would be used
Speaker 1: to shoot down American helicopters. The lead Colombian is a
Speaker 1: wide bellied, brash man with a bellowing voice, and he
Speaker 1: says he's not signing, not yet.
Speaker 4: No, before he signed it, he said, I have to
Speaker 4: talk with my people.
Speaker 1: The Colombian says he needs final approval from his superiors,
Speaker 1: and he and his two associates step out of the
Speaker 1: hotel room. Then agents with the United States Drug Enforcement
Speaker 1: Administration burst through the door, guns drawn.
Speaker 4: You're on the wrist and the v handcuffs me and
Speaker 4: I said, let me talk with you. Let me use
Speaker 4: the bathroom.
Speaker 1: And this is where things get interesting. Flavio, handcuffed motions
Speaker 1: with his head to one of the DEA agents. The
Speaker 1: agent walks with Flavio into the bathroom. They're crowded together
Speaker 1: in the small room. Flavio looks directly at the agent
Speaker 1: and motions for him to step closer. In a soft voice,
Speaker 1: Flavio tells him, I work for the CIA.
Speaker 4: When I said, I call it this center for CIA,
Speaker 4: just call them.
Speaker 1: I'm Trevor Aronson from Western Sound and iHeart Podcasts. This
Speaker 1: is Alphabet Boys. Each season of Alphabet Boys, we bring
Speaker 1: you into the world of America's alphabet agencies, including the FBI, CIA, DEA,
Speaker 1: and ATF. Using secret undercover recordings, we take you deep
Speaker 1: inside a federal investigation. We dive into cases that raise
Speaker 1: a common question. Are federal agents and their informants catching
Speaker 1: bad guys or creating them? In season one, we went
Speaker 1: to Denver, where FBI agents investigated racial justice activists during
Speaker 1: the summer of twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: If you're trying to implicate that I'm a fucking snitch,
Speaker 5: check this out.
Speaker 6: Three things.
Speaker 5: I ain't a punk, I ain't a bitch, and I
Speaker 5: had a fucking snitch.
Speaker 1: In that case, the FBI's informant, Mickey Windecker, tried desperately
Speaker 1: to preserve his cover after he was accused of being
Speaker 1: an informant.
Speaker 5: You should ask who the real fucking punker bitches or
Speaker 5: who the real fucking snitches.
Speaker 1: But now we have a very different story with some
Speaker 1: very different federal agents in this season. The guy working
Speaker 1: with the FEDS isn't trying to hold on to his cover.
Speaker 1: He's trying to expose it, to reveal himself as a
Speaker 1: government agent in order to save himself.
Speaker 7: In my mind that time was okay, as soon as
Speaker 7: I'm going to reach United States CIA, they were going
Speaker 7: to give me all the documents. It shows everything what
Speaker 7: I did.
Speaker 1: Flavio Georgescu, Romanian American businessman, is arrested by the DEA
Speaker 1: and tells those agents that he's collecting intelligence for the CIA.
Speaker 7: Step by step, not even one one step aside of
Speaker 7: the line I didn't took money, I didn't jeopardize nobody
Speaker 7: likes and I delivered everything, which I promise.
Speaker 6: But who is this guy Flavio? Who is he really?
Speaker 8: When I land, there's Flavio in a suit, It's like,
Speaker 8: follow me?
Speaker 6: Is he CIA operative?
Speaker 8: And he slams down his badge in my passport and
Speaker 8: they just stamp it and we walk to the next window,
Speaker 8: and I'm like, something's going on here?
Speaker 1: Is he an international arms dealer?
Speaker 9: Then Romanian government on my as right now because they.
Speaker 1: Think I'm bullshitting or maybe Flavio is something entirely different.
Speaker 4: I see movies with arm dealers on TV. But hold on,
Speaker 4: I have to learn. I have to create a mindset. Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm going there for c B. I'm gonna die.
Speaker 1: This is Alphabet Boys Season two, up and Arms, episode one.
Speaker 1: I work for the CIA.
Speaker 3: No have a prepaid call.
Speaker 7: You will not be charged for this call.
Speaker 3: This car is from just an inmate at I said
Speaker 3: with prison Hi.
Speaker 10: Flave you, Hello, good morning, mister Arson.
Speaker 6: Hey, thanks so much for calling.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry I didn't realize that this two oh
Speaker 1: two number was you this whole time.
Speaker 6: Sorry about that.
Speaker 10: It is not a problem it's not a problem.
Speaker 1: It's August twenty twenty and Flavio and I are talking
Speaker 1: for the first time. He'd been trying to call me,
Speaker 1: and I had mistakenly ignored his calls.
Speaker 10: Normally, when I tried to make new friends or to
Speaker 10: meet somebody in my life, I don't call them from prison.
Speaker 10: I wait for this call for probably the last or
Speaker 10: Mosboro six.
Speaker 1: In case you haven't figured it out yet, let me
Speaker 1: tell you Flavio was arrested, convicted, and imprisoned for what
Speaker 1: happened in Montenegro, even though he told US officials that
Speaker 1: he was working for the CIA. I get a lot
Speaker 1: of calls, emails, and texts from people claiming to have
Speaker 1: been railroaded by the government. They read my articles or
Speaker 1: hear my podcasts about how federal law enforcement runs very
Speaker 1: questionable sting operations, and they hope I'll cover their very
Speaker 1: questionable cases. Most of the time, there's no there there,
Speaker 1: but Flavio's different. I first heard of Flavio Georgescu in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen. His arrest for allegedly brokering a seventeen million
Speaker 1: dollar arms deal for the FARC in Colombia stood out
Speaker 1: to me. The deal included some serious weapons anti aircraft, cannons, RPGs,
Speaker 1: assault rifles, the kind that caused misery and destruction in
Speaker 1: the worlds more desperate corners. I wrote about Flavio's case
Speaker 1: during his trial and after being set to prison, Flavio
Speaker 1: started reading my previous work.
Speaker 10: What I was trying to talk with you. You study all
Speaker 10: those cases, and I realized that, and I know how
Speaker 10: much work you put and how much time.
Speaker 7: What I see, what's college?
Speaker 11: So a real prison what I see right now?
Speaker 10: After that much work, you didn't achieve anything because you
Speaker 10: didn't make a change out.
Speaker 1: Okay, Flavio, go on, but my case.
Speaker 10: Is the same like everybody else, because the government use
Speaker 10: a template and the way they approach people based on trust,
Speaker 10: based on temptations, based on different ingredients. Everybody on all
Speaker 10: the cases which you study, they buy the bait, they
Speaker 10: get temptated, whatever they get played or whatever was the situation.
Speaker 1: He's not wrong. In many of these federal cases involving stings,
Speaker 1: the target of the sting moves forward and tries to
Speaker 1: or does commit the crime. Think of Post nine eleven
Speaker 1: terrorism stings. A government agent gives a bomb to the
Speaker 1: target and the target tries to detonate it, not knowing
Speaker 1: the weapon is fake. Or here's another example. In twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: FBI undercover agents helped the White supremacists build a radiological
Speaker 1: device that's the technical term for what he thought. He
Speaker 1: was building a homemade death ray.
Speaker 4: Eighty four thousands, so.
Speaker 12: All four thousand, this machine, right of four thousand with
Speaker 12: that machine that doesn't.
Speaker 6: Translated the chiefs from.
Speaker 1: And then once the supposed death ray was built, federal
Speaker 1: agents rushed in guns drong. Flavio is trying to tell
Speaker 1: me that his case started like that, but he didn't
Speaker 1: fall into the trap myself.
Speaker 10: I didn't let myself to be played. I didn't lend
Speaker 10: myself to touch the bait. My case is so unique
Speaker 10: based on the facts and based on the evidence.
Speaker 1: Flavio says he wasn't an arms dealer.
Speaker 6: He never was.
Speaker 1: He was the CIA's guy, and he got tangled in
Speaker 1: a web of federal agencies, each with its own agenda.
Speaker 1: None of those agendas included him.
Speaker 10: I was convicted for no reason, and having my case
Speaker 10: compared with the thousand cases which you review them, all
Speaker 10: of my case is the one. But you're gonna clear
Speaker 10: your work and We're gonna put you in this country,
Speaker 10: in the place which you deserve to be. You are
Speaker 10: the only one. That's why I'm so impressed about your
Speaker 10: work and everything, because you are the only one to
Speaker 10: address the cause. You are the only one to point
Speaker 10: the finger on the confidational sources and confinational informant.
Speaker 1: He's the good guy in all this, Flavia says, and
Speaker 1: he insists there's no ambiguity about any of it. He
Speaker 1: was working with the CIA the whole time, but in
Speaker 1: the end he was hung out to dry. Flavio maintains
Speaker 1: that he's innocent, completely innocent.
Speaker 10: First, I want to clear my name because as Romanians,
Speaker 10: we are very proud people and I don't deserve to
Speaker 10: be labeled as a false terrorist for the rest of
Speaker 10: my life. I cannot do that.
Speaker 7: Said to die.
Speaker 10: Just put me to sleep, and that's it.
Speaker 1: Flavia wants me to tell a story, and if I agree,
Speaker 1: he promises to tell me everything.
Speaker 10: Thanks so much to talking. We need probably I don't
Speaker 10: know hours and hours the way you write. I want
Speaker 10: to be with you and start to choose the journey
Speaker 10: which I start in this life. I want to start
Speaker 10: to choose from two thousand that beep sound.
Speaker 1: It means the call is about to end. Federal inmates
Speaker 1: can only talk on the phone for fifteen minutes at
Speaker 1: a time.
Speaker 10: When I was arrested from Montenegro and take you with
Speaker 10: me everywhere and you document everything, and yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 10: be a change. Right now, we're gonna get I have
Speaker 10: only fifteen minutes. I can pull it back in forty minutes.
Speaker 10: Then you tell me your your opinions and we start
Speaker 10: from death.
Speaker 6: Okay, great, I'll be here. I'll look for your call, transistent.
Speaker 10: Thank you.
Speaker 1: This would be the first of men he calls between
Speaker 1: us more after the break.
Speaker 3: This college from an inmate at a set of a prison.
Speaker 1: This may seem pretty obvious to say now, but when
Speaker 1: Flavio calls me back forty minutes later, I tell Flavio
Speaker 1: that I'll do a story. I tell him that I
Speaker 1: want to figure out the truth. But I also tell
Speaker 1: him that I'm a journalist. I'll investigate a story and
Speaker 1: I'll report what I find out. And he may not
Speaker 1: like everything I discover. So where do I start to
Speaker 1: understand Flavo and why he might have done the things
Speaker 1: he says he did. It's important to understand the world.
Speaker 1: He grew up in communist Romania. During the Cold War,
Speaker 1: Romania was unique. It was part of the Eastern Bloc
Speaker 1: but never officially part of the Soviet Union. Cold War
Speaker 1: era Romania was dominated not by Moscow but by a
Speaker 1: single man, Nikolai Chalceska, Doyeska.
Speaker 2: And Prime Movent.
Speaker 1: Chalcescu was a dictator who held on the power for
Speaker 1: a quarter of a century through a massive police state,
Speaker 1: brutal repression and mass surveillance. He used the assets of
Speaker 1: the state to fund an opulent lifestyle. His bathrooms were
Speaker 1: adorned in real gold. Even as many Romanians lived in poverty.
Speaker 11: Teochesku and his family extended their to every facet of
Speaker 11: Romanian life. The secret police have terrified people for years.
Speaker 11: Dissidents have been exiled or simply killed.
Speaker 1: Chiscu's secret police, known as a Securitate, were all powerful.
Speaker 1: Those who spoke out against the government could be pulled
Speaker 1: from their beds in the middle of the night and
Speaker 1: thrown in horrible prisons, never to be heard.
Speaker 9: From villaged positions.
Speaker 4: He held power through the ruthless.
Speaker 10: Depression of the people by means of his security forces,
Speaker 10: a network of police and spies said to number one
Speaker 10: in ten of the population.
Speaker 4: Amongst them was.
Speaker 1: One very Flavio's parents were both geologists, and his father
Speaker 1: worked for the state mining company.
Speaker 6: Flavio was their only child.
Speaker 4: And he was in charge to They'd make a drill
Speaker 4: in the ground, they put dynamite inside, and when they
Speaker 4: detonate that thing, they record the seesmic movement and if
Speaker 4: they sees like X ray, they see if he's oil
Speaker 4: inside or gas or whatever.
Speaker 1: Flavio's father worked with explosives, so the secret police kept
Speaker 1: a particularly close eye on him.
Speaker 4: That means we were so search in our house by
Speaker 4: the secret police and caps and everything, and we were
Speaker 4: terrified all the time because my father did never do
Speaker 4: anything wrong.
Speaker 1: Flavio's dad would even have to watch how much he
Speaker 1: drank during meals on the weekend.
Speaker 4: In Romania, we drink when you start to eat the.
Speaker 7: Main course.
Speaker 4: You drink homemade plums like a brandy okay or a
Speaker 4: little glass while you were stopping Saturday, because Monday he
Speaker 4: was going back to work, and if anything happened wrong
Speaker 4: and they find alcohol in his blood, he was going
Speaker 4: to jail for his life.
Speaker 1: The secure tat was an all consuming concern for Flavio
Speaker 1: and his parents. It affected every part of their lives.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you something else.
Speaker 3: You know, I was growing up.
Speaker 4: If you go to in the summer, were having a
Speaker 4: vacation and we go to the Black Sea. If you
Speaker 4: having a long hair, the cops they will stop you.
Speaker 1: Chilchescu's agents who keep hair clippers on hand, they'd shave
Speaker 1: an X in the back of any long haired man's head.
Speaker 4: If you have any jeans, okay, the cops there was
Speaker 4: having scissors in the packet. Then those cutting your jeans
Speaker 4: and your jacket because the jeens comes from the West,
Speaker 4: from cowboys. And if you don't have cows, why do
Speaker 4: you have to wear jeans?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Actually, so many, so many crazy, crazy things.
Speaker 1: Throughout all this, Flavio says he dreamed of another place.
Speaker 6: As a child.
Speaker 1: In the nineteen eighties, he was completely enamored with the
Speaker 1: idea of the United States. A few friends showed him
Speaker 1: how he could illegally listen to American broadcasts on his radio.
Speaker 1: Networks like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America were
Speaker 1: then and continue to be US government funded projects, a
Speaker 1: form of propaganda intended to seduce listeners with American and
Speaker 1: Western ideas, things like open societies, a free press, unrestricted expression,
Speaker 1: and rock and roll.
Speaker 4: Which gives you their music the insights with the politics
Speaker 4: and everything.
Speaker 1: And Flavio fell for it. He'd tune in as often
Speaker 1: as he could. But one night Flavio's dad discovered him
Speaker 1: listening to the American broadcast. He was horrified.
Speaker 4: He catched me one time, listened down one huh. He
Speaker 4: didn't beat me up because they never hit me one time.
Speaker 4: My mom over my dad. But I got so much
Speaker 4: theory and explained to me the risk and everything to
Speaker 4: listen to radio. I you Bob, listened radio for the
Speaker 4: rest of my life.
Speaker 6: But then everything changed.
Speaker 8: Mister Gorbachev teared down this wall.
Speaker 1: In the late eighties, the Iron Curtain fell, revolutions erupted
Speaker 1: in Eastern Europe. In Romania's was the bloodiest. Thousands of
Speaker 1: people were killed. Chelchescu finally fell when the military turned
Speaker 1: against him. Thousands poured into the streets of the capitol Bucharest,
Speaker 1: chanting the national anthem as it had been written before
Speaker 1: Chelchescu took power. Chelchescu and his wife were suddenly stripped
Speaker 1: of power and arrested just before Christmas nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: they were both executed.
Speaker 12: The deposed Romanian leader, President Chowcescu and his wife have
Speaker 12: been executed. State television tonight announced a military tribunal found
Speaker 12: them guilty of genocide and undermining.
Speaker 1: The national Following the revolution, Romania began a decades long
Speaker 1: process of political and economic reforms. Flavio is a natural talker.
Speaker 1: It can be hard to get them to stop talking.
Speaker 6: Honestly.
Speaker 4: Read flag for me A boy was the respect was
Speaker 4: put with some bitter taste in my mind. You don't
Speaker 4: see me who I am? His father, and he grew
Speaker 4: up everything like his friendly Right now there are multi
Speaker 4: billionaires and everything. And he was staying in my house
Speaker 4: for a few days.
Speaker 1: And he excelled at building relationships in Romania. As Romania
Speaker 1: started changing, he went to work at an exclusive hotel
Speaker 1: in Bucharest. He became known as a guy who could
Speaker 1: get things done, who could get guests whatever they desired
Speaker 1: in the city. Acting that's a kind of fixer. But
Speaker 1: Romania wasn't changing as quickly as Flavia would have liked,
Speaker 1: and he still dreamed of living in America. Flavio had
Speaker 1: a cousin in Las Vegas who was running a gym
Speaker 1: so he applied for a visa and arrived in the
Speaker 1: United States in the late nineteen nineties. Flavia went to
Speaker 1: Vegas initially to work for his cousin.
Speaker 4: Myself, I was fascinated about the shows. I was so
Speaker 4: excited about the Hoover dam ranted those jet ski all
Speaker 4: day long was beautiful. And what I loved so much
Speaker 4: was the people. You see Vegas, it is a place
Speaker 4: which everybody's happy. Nobody cries, nobody said. Even they lose money,
Speaker 4: they win money, they are happy.
Speaker 1: Flavio had several odd jobs during those initial years in
Speaker 1: the United States, but Flavio built relationships all around, just
Speaker 1: as he had done in Bucharest years earlier, and Flavio
Speaker 1: established a transnational reputation too. If a wealthy Romanian was
Speaker 1: flying into Las Vegas for a good time, Flavio was
Speaker 1: to go to contact. He would arrange just about anything,
Speaker 1: shopping trips, exclusive access to casinos and restaurants, whatever could
Speaker 1: be bought with money in Las Vegas, which is well everything.
Speaker 1: Flavio's clients would fly to Las Vegas, find an obscenely
Speaker 1: expensive car, take it for a test drive, and then
Speaker 1: buy it. Flavio was responsible for finding a way to
Speaker 1: get the car from Las Vegas to Romania.
Speaker 4: I was shipping things cars to Europe all the time,
Speaker 4: and somebody said, it is a Romanian guy in la.
Speaker 1: And that's how Flavio would make a connection that would
Speaker 1: prove life changing. Andy Georgescu ran a sho shipping company
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles that prided itself on discretion. Andy didn't
Speaker 1: ask a whole lot of questions about his cargo.
Speaker 4: Then I met him and I said, he's Romanian. We
Speaker 4: have the same last name.
Speaker 1: Flavio and Andy aren't related. George Escu is the most
Speaker 1: common surname in Romania. It'd be like two unrelated Smiths
Speaker 1: being friends. In the United States, Flavio was initially skeptical
Speaker 1: of Andy and a shipping company, but over the years
Speaker 1: he shipped a lot of cars with Andy.
Speaker 4: First of all, I don't want to get affiliated with
Speaker 4: people which I don't know what they do. Those cars
Speaker 4: expensive cars and has to be take care of in
Speaker 4: a specific way, and with the insurance, with everything. With
Speaker 4: more companies, they cannot offer those things. So no, give
Speaker 4: him my chance. I was, okay, give you my chance.
Speaker 1: The two george Escus made a lot of money together.
Speaker 1: They were both hustlers, Romanian immigrants who had made it
Speaker 1: the United States. Their common heritage created such a strong
Speaker 1: bond that they'd met each other's parents back in the
Speaker 1: home country. Flavio had even visited Andy's ill father when
Speaker 1: he was in the hospital in Romania. And one day
Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, Andy has an idea, a new way
Speaker 1: for them to make money, a lot of money. He
Speaker 1: tells Flavio he knows a Colombian looking for a way
Speaker 1: to buy millions of dollars in weapons. Just a cut
Speaker 1: of that a commission would mean a big payday. So
Speaker 1: Andy tells the Colombian that he knows a guy, a
Speaker 1: guy who can make stuff happen, maybe even an arms deal.
Speaker 6: That's after the break.
Speaker 4: This is this is my plan.
Speaker 9: We have called a lot.
Speaker 2: We have tried to go this here. I'm there at
Speaker 2: this point. I do want to see you. Let's see.
Speaker 2: We got a regroup a little bit. I want to go.
Speaker 1: This is one the brash Colombian with the bellowing voice,
Speaker 1: the guy who was in the hotel room with Flavio
Speaker 1: just before he was arrested by the DEA. And if
Speaker 1: there's a turning point in Flavio's story the place where
Speaker 1: if this were a movie, the dramatic music starts low
Speaker 1: and slow. It's probably this phone call. The call happens
Speaker 1: on February nineteenth, twenty fourteen.
Speaker 2: I want to come to La maybe next week, Okay,
Speaker 2: all right?
Speaker 6: Like a plan for at least two years.
Speaker 1: This guy, Juan has been talking to Andy georg Escu,
Speaker 1: Flavio's friend in Los Angeles who runs the shipping company.
Speaker 6: Juan and Andy have talked about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: They talked about a potential drug deal for cocaine, using
Speaker 1: the code word pink stuff. They've talked about a money
Speaker 1: laundering contact in Hong Kong, and they've talked about their
Speaker 1: romantic relationships.
Speaker 6: But now Wan is.
Speaker 1: Asking Andy to put together something much bigger, a deal
Speaker 1: to sell military grade weapons to the FARC, the Colombian
Speaker 1: paramilitary group.
Speaker 6: At the time.
Speaker 1: FARC is officially a terrorist organization according to the US government.
Speaker 1: Wan tells Andy he's a representative of the FARC. This
Speaker 1: didn't come out of the blue. Juan first brought up
Speaker 1: the possibility of a weapons deal to Andy in twenty twelve,
Speaker 1: and Andy told Wan that he knows people who make
Speaker 1: things happen. But by the time of this call in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, nothing has materialized. It's all just a bunch
Speaker 1: of talk. And Wan is frustrated, really straighted, so frustrated.
Speaker 1: He's going to visit Andy in Los Angeles to get
Speaker 1: things going.
Speaker 2: And maybe we can go to launch. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: and see what we can put together. Is especially back
Speaker 2: in your home country or on that area for that matter.
Speaker 1: By home country one means Romania. He thinks Andy can
Speaker 1: put together a weapons deal in Romania.
Speaker 2: All right, bro, I called you next week and we're
Speaker 2: talking in person. All right, all right, I see that bye, Okay.
Speaker 2: Preceding phone call, I mean the nine fifteen pm east
Speaker 2: of the time in the US and the nineteenth of
Speaker 2: February twenty fourteen be a sky to and your jesuis.
Speaker 1: What Andy doesn't know is Ons recording their phone calls,
Speaker 1: and the next month, on March fourth, twenty fourteen, Ons
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. He's made arrangements for Andy to pick
Speaker 1: him up near the airport.
Speaker 2: Well, hey there, hey, hey, I'm here at the budget
Speaker 2: run a car of century like a like behind the
Speaker 2: cross from the Mario Hotel. Can you marry here?
Speaker 9: Okay, oh yeah, I'll wait you here in about half
Speaker 9: an hour because I'm.
Speaker 2: So started to have an argus I'm need to check
Speaker 2: him out. The I called to Andy at eleven am
Speaker 2: March four, twenty fourteen, and the youre adjustment.
Speaker 1: Andy picks up one and they meet to discuss a
Speaker 1: possible arm steel. The global arms market is enormous, worth
Speaker 1: more than one hundred billion dollars annually. Much of this
Speaker 1: trade is legitimate and perfectly legal weapons sales to government
Speaker 1: entities all done in accordance with international regulations, but illegal sales,
Speaker 1: also known as arms trafficking, are estimated to be worth
Speaker 1: one billion dollars annually. Brokers or middlemen are commonly involved
Speaker 1: in weapons deals of all kinds. They connect the buyers,
Speaker 1: usually foreign governments, with the sellers, usually arms manufacturers, and
Speaker 1: collect a big commission. But some of these brokers and
Speaker 1: manufacturers will sell both legally and illegally. Illegal sales are
Speaker 1: often conducted with of veneer of legitimacy. An illegal buyer,
Speaker 1: with the help of a broker, obtains documents that specify
Speaker 1: a different destination for the weapons than the intended destination.
Speaker 1: That's often how black market arms deals work. They end
Speaker 1: up looking kind of gray, making it difficult to hold
Speaker 1: arms traffickers and their enablers accountable.
Speaker 9: Anyway.
Speaker 6: Back to Indian One.
Speaker 1: By Maria Magdalena, Juan Is referring to Andy's girlfriend.
Speaker 3: We need to we lean that, we lean.
Speaker 2: That what's going on. We got hey, I never got
Speaker 2: your heart, you.
Speaker 9: Know, No, I didn't send I didn't send it because
Speaker 9: I'm waiting for the They didn't get back to me
Speaker 9: on the one paper you.
Speaker 12: Got back to me for.
Speaker 1: Andy assures Wan that he has contacts who can broke
Speaker 1: her an arms deel. He just needs a list of
Speaker 1: the weapons that Wan wants to buy.
Speaker 9: So I just need to reconfie some things with him
Speaker 9: and so I can put it down.
Speaker 2: Okay, find out when we can meet at the place
Speaker 2: that I told you. We can meet at the end place. Okay,
Speaker 2: you on whoever you have on myself, you know, so
Speaker 2: I can plan and and do that that go shopping.
Speaker 9: Definitely on that sage. Yeah, we need to know. I
Speaker 9: mean we need to know. I mean I need to
Speaker 9: explain exactly how the payment is gonna work and stuff
Speaker 9: like that.
Speaker 3: No, well, this is it.
Speaker 2: We want to meet there and once we agree that
Speaker 2: you can have two of these two d and two
Speaker 2: of the other ones, you know whatever. Okay, then uh
Speaker 2: I bring the money. I give you the money, right there,
Speaker 2: No good, That's what I'm think.
Speaker 9: I can explain to them, and you know, we'll sit
Speaker 9: down and discus. I don't want them to see too
Speaker 9: many faces and you know stuff like that.
Speaker 4: That's fine.
Speaker 2: Whatever you call you call the shots.
Speaker 9: You just you, I mean nothing, you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Oh no, just me, just me? Oh yeah yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah yeah yeah. But I got the people on the standby,
Speaker 2: and they will make the phones available for the for
Speaker 2: the you know, for the stuff, our peace and all that. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's right, all right, all right, okay, So I went
Speaker 2: on not to hear from you.
Speaker 9: Will finalize that this this week, this weekend, this.
Speaker 10: Should be done.
Speaker 2: Brother, all right, thank you, say hello, say hello to
Speaker 2: Maria Mondalina. I will, okay, okay, I will all right.
Speaker 2: Uh hold on eleven six pm Eastern seventh time in
Speaker 2: the US to uh Todays Days throws in March six,
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: What Wan doesn't know is that Andy is talking to Flavio,
Speaker 1: and Flavio is the one Andy believes is going to
Speaker 1: put together the arms deal for Wan. Andy expects to
Speaker 1: get a cut of whatever deal comes from this. When
Speaker 1: Andy says.
Speaker 9: You can't get back to me on the one paper
Speaker 9: he got back to me for.
Speaker 1: A belief, he's referring to Flavio. Andy had called Flavio
Speaker 1: in April twenty twelve and asked him if he could
Speaker 1: put together the arms deal. Flavio said maybe he could,
Speaker 1: but there's something that neither Wan nor Andy knows about.
Speaker 1: Right after Andy first called Flavio about the arms deal,
Speaker 1: Flavio called someone else, the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA,
Speaker 1: AH and the CIA. They were recording their calls too
Speaker 1: good afternoon.
Speaker 3: How can I help you, Hi? Her mind is Flavio,
Speaker 3: and I have an information for you, and I want
Speaker 3: to be in touchly one of your agency overkill in
Speaker 3: many order. I know you have an office now with Tria.
Speaker 6: That's in the next episode.
Speaker 1: This is up in arms, Season two.
Speaker 6: Of Alphabet Boys.
Speaker 1: Alphabet Boys is a production of Western Sound and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is reported, written and hosted by me Trevor Aaronson.
Speaker 1: For more information about this series, we're going to drop
Speaker 1: us a tip. Head to our website Alphabet Boys dot xyz.
Speaker 1: You can contact me on Twitter or Instagram at Trevor Aaronson.
Speaker 1: The show's instagram is Alphabetboys dot pod. If you're enjoying
Speaker 1: Alphabet Boys, tell your friends about the show. Personal recommendations
Speaker 1: are the best recommendations. And if you want to see
Speaker 1: an illegal armstel from the inside again, it's Alphabet Boys
Speaker 1: dot xyz. You'll find undercover recordings and documents related to
Speaker 1: Flavio's case. Finally, you can help us ride the algorithms
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Speaker 6: And thanks for listening.