Speaker 1: So let's say you want to call the CIA, the
Speaker 1: Central Intelligence Agency. How would you do it? Back in
Speaker 1: twenty twelve, it was easy.
Speaker 2: It was a whole number on the website.
Speaker 1: You just typed CIA dot gov. Back then, the agency
Speaker 1: had a number listed. That's no longer the case today.
Speaker 1: You have to fill out an online form. But in
Speaker 1: April twenty twelve, Flavio Georgescu finds the number and he
Speaker 1: calls it. Ah, this is a recording of that actual call.
Speaker 3: Good afternoon, how can I help you?
Speaker 2: Hi? Flavio? And I was born in Romania, but right
Speaker 2: now I'm I'm a USPP.
Speaker 1: Then, just a few minutes earlier, Flavio's friend Andy called him,
Speaker 1: asking him if he could arrange a weapons deal for
Speaker 1: some Colombians. There'd be a lot of money in it
Speaker 1: for both of them.
Speaker 4: Andy tells Flavio, and right now, I'm in Romania and
Speaker 4: I have an information for you, and I want to
Speaker 4: be in touch with one of your agency over here
Speaker 4: in Romania order.
Speaker 2: I know you have an office in Austria. Okay, right
Speaker 2: over there.
Speaker 3: What's your social Security number?
Speaker 1: Flavio, a naturalized US citizen, says the matter at hand
Speaker 1: is urgent, he needs to speak in person with a
Speaker 1: CIA official in Europe. The agent on the phone sounds skeptical.
Speaker 2: I need to talk with someone personally over.
Speaker 3: Here or in Okay, then you need to go to
Speaker 3: Then you need to go to the embassy then, because
Speaker 3: if you don't want to tell me over the phone,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to send somebody out to meet you, Okay.
Speaker 3: If you only need if you need to talk in
Speaker 3: person only, then you need to go to the embassy.
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going there because you know I was
Speaker 2: born here and I know I'm not trusting people over
Speaker 2: killing in Romania. That's what I try to keep personally.
Speaker 1: It is something about what Flavia is saying here is
Speaker 1: that he doesn't want to just walk into the US
Speaker 1: embassy in Romania to make a report. You have to
Speaker 1: remember the secret police that dominated Romania during Flavia's childhood.
Speaker 1: They still have him a little paranoid. He doesn't want
Speaker 1: to risk being seen.
Speaker 2: Okay, So one.
Speaker 3: Quality you can tell me over the phone. You can
Speaker 3: write an email on the public website. If you go
Speaker 3: to CIA dot DOV and go to contact us, you
Speaker 3: can write it all out, or you can go to
Speaker 3: the embassy. Those are your three options, because I'm not
Speaker 3: sending anybody out to meet you.
Speaker 1: Now, think of this interaction from the agent's point of view.
Speaker 1: Some random guy in Romania calling in to say, Hey,
Speaker 1: I got a hot tip. Can you send out an agent?
Speaker 2: Okay, let me talk with you.
Speaker 1: So Flavio starts to talk. He explains that one of
Speaker 1: his contacts has a client from Colombia who's asking if
Speaker 1: Flavio can help him find weapons.
Speaker 3: Okay, and how do you know this person? Why would
Speaker 3: they go? Now?
Speaker 2: They are not really big. They they're looking. They want
Speaker 2: to poin me for it because I'm really really connected.
Speaker 3: All right, How are you really really connected?
Speaker 2: Because everyone knows me.
Speaker 3: You know, I go because everyone knows you to get
Speaker 3: them weapons. You just told me they contacted you to
Speaker 3: get grenades and stuff. So what kind of connections do
Speaker 3: you have? Because of its criminal connections? Then the CIA
Speaker 3: doesn't want to have anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: He's not any criminal connections.
Speaker 1: This CIA agent is very skeptical. But and this is important,
Speaker 1: here's Flavio in this very first call, telling the CIA
Speaker 1: everything about the very crime the Justice Department will later
Speaker 1: accuse him of committee. I'm Trevor Aronson from West and
Speaker 1: Sound and iHeart Podcasts. This is Alphabet Boys, Episode two
Speaker 1: the Calls. In the early two thousands, after establishing a
Speaker 1: reputation as an all around fixer for wealthy Eastern Europeans
Speaker 1: visiting Las Vegas, Flavio branched out. He started dividing his
Speaker 1: time between the United States and Romania, and he started
Speaker 1: some businesses. Among Flavio's early ventures was one in Bucharest
Speaker 1: that provided it infrastructure for Romanians operating channels on I Friends,
Speaker 1: one of the Internet's earliest video chat services.
Speaker 5: Up company I Friends was having a lot of a
Speaker 5: lot of employees in Europe. There will set up some locations,
Speaker 5: for example in Romania, there was ning up place and
Speaker 5: the people was coming to work over there, and I
Speaker 5: was doing the fiber optic, the computers, the webcam and everything.
Speaker 1: I Friends has now shut down, but you can still
Speaker 1: view the website on the Internet Archive. It warn't users
Speaker 1: that it's community contained what I Friends termed red light zones.
Speaker 5: There was having sections by different categories like adults, socializing
Speaker 5: of friends, all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: I Friends wasn't exclusively adult oriented, but it provided one
Speaker 1: of the earliest platforms for so called camgirls, think only
Speaker 1: fans or chatterbait, both small, grainy, stuttering videos. I Friends
Speaker 1: helped pioneer the adult oriented internet we know today. In
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine, a couple living in Florida became the
Speaker 1: first to be prosecuted for obscenity for sexual acts performed
Speaker 1: at home. They were charged with promoting obscene material for
Speaker 1: live streaming themselves having sex on I Friends. At the time,
Speaker 1: I Friends had one and a half million customers and
Speaker 1: ten thousand cam operators. The Florida couple earned three dollars
Speaker 1: per minute for their cam work. Three dollars a minute
Speaker 1: was a lot of money, then one hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: dollars an hour, and in Eastern Europe that was a
Speaker 1: ton of money, attracting people in Bucharest to start cam
Speaker 1: channels on I Friends. Flavio assisted with the infrastructure, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't responsible for the content.
Speaker 5: It's true I was providing the fiber optic I was
Speaker 5: providing hardware like computers with comes a die key part.
Speaker 1: But Flavio says he discouraged adult oriented operators as much
Speaker 1: as he could. He didn't like the idea that a
Speaker 1: major global export of his native Romania was naked ladies.
Speaker 1: There's a reason I mentioned Flavio's pearl clutching at pornography.
Speaker 1: Flavio's actions often seem to be rooted in a strong
Speaker 1: sense of morality, and if you're inclined to believe Flavio's story,
Speaker 1: his moral compass is ultimately what gets him on a
Speaker 1: lot of trouble. By twenty twelve, Flavio had become a
Speaker 1: world traveling businessman, leveraging his relationships in both the United
Speaker 1: States and Europe. For example, one of Flavio's companies purchased
Speaker 1: US made ankle monitoring devices, the kind criminals wear during probation,
Speaker 1: and resold them to law enforcement agencies in Romania. Another
Speaker 1: of Flavio's ventures partnered with a company in Utah that
Speaker 1: sold emergency food packages, the kind you keep for years
Speaker 1: on a shelf and mixed with water when you know
Speaker 1: the end of the world happens. Flavia was out there hustling,
Speaker 1: constantly doing stuff. Some months he'd be in Las Vegas,
Speaker 1: other months London or Bucharest. So this is Flavia's life.
Speaker 1: When his old friend from Los Angeles, any Georgescu, calls
Speaker 1: him and says he knows a Colombian who's looking to
Speaker 1: buy some serious weapons.
Speaker 5: He calls me and he said, I'm I have a
Speaker 5: Columbian partner or I need some guns to fight with
Speaker 5: the American government in Colombia. I said, you know, I
Speaker 5: mean I don't do any guns. I don't have no connections.
Speaker 5: I'm to keep insisting, saying in the conversation, I mat
Speaker 5: me give you all his bone. He said, at least pretend,
Speaker 5: just pretend you're gonna sell him the guns, because I
Speaker 5: have some deals with him.
Speaker 1: Flavio tells Andy that he'll look into it, and he
Speaker 1: tells Andy maybe he could make something happen. He says
Speaker 1: he could probably find the right people.
Speaker 5: I hang up the phone. Five ten minutes later, I
Speaker 5: call CIA.
Speaker 6: I let them know, Ah, good afternoon.
Speaker 3: How can I help you.
Speaker 7: More?
Speaker 1: After the break, Flavio's called the CIA asking to meet
Speaker 1: with an agent.
Speaker 5: The first lady she didn't want to talk with me.
Speaker 5: She was keep sending me to the US embassy.
Speaker 1: And the CIA agent is very skeptical.
Speaker 3: If you don't want to tell me over the phone,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to send somebody out to meet you, Okay,
Speaker 3: if you only need if you need to talk in
Speaker 3: person only. Then you need to go to the embassy.
Speaker 5: People knows me in the embassy, I have I used
Speaker 5: to have friends over there working over there. I'm don
Speaker 5: Alue Delusion talking about some nonsense things, and I said, no,
Speaker 5: send me to Vienna. You have a center to collect
Speaker 5: intelligence in Vienna. Send you over there in Austria, and
Speaker 5: I'm going to talk over there with somebody and we
Speaker 5: see what's going on from there, and we're going to
Speaker 5: do a strategy.
Speaker 1: The CIA agent Flavio is talking to you. She doesn't
Speaker 1: appear to think Flavio is for real.
Speaker 3: Okay, So you do personal security all over the world.
Speaker 3: You're connected to all these different people, and you had
Speaker 3: somebody call you and say, can you get grenades and
Speaker 3: guns for this guy in Columbia.
Speaker 2: Not specified grades. A lot of ammunitions, ammunition AK forty seven,
Speaker 2: A lot of them.
Speaker 3: Okay. So what I'm telling you, as a US set
Speaker 3: ofcent go to the US, the American Embassy, and tell
Speaker 3: them you need to speak with someone.
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, this is the easy way for you, but
Speaker 8: you know a lot of Okay, well, no, it's not
Speaker 8: the easy way for me. You're being very difficult. You
Speaker 8: run a business, but you don't have a name for
Speaker 8: your business. It's just you're telling me that you're very,
Speaker 8: very connected, but people are calling you to get ammunition
Speaker 8: and AK forty sevens. So it really doesn't sound like
Speaker 8: anything that we can discuss.
Speaker 3: Over the phone. So I'm telling you, for your safety,
Speaker 3: you need to go to the US embassy. Okay, well
Speaker 3: we can't help you. Thank you, goodbye, And she ain't
Speaker 3: got the phone.
Speaker 5: And after that I got a call back saying that person,
Speaker 5: the second one, oh, my name is such an inside
Speaker 5: of one, and we start to talk.
Speaker 1: In other words, Despite all the skepticism and well attitude
Speaker 1: of that CIA agent, Flavio's tip got escalated to another
Speaker 1: CIA agent.
Speaker 6: Okay, well, as I understand it, I don't. I don't
Speaker 6: think there was anything that the agency could do to
Speaker 6: assister facilitate what you're trying to accomplish.
Speaker 1: This is that second agent.
Speaker 6: We didn't have anyone that can commute with you. And
Speaker 6: I was just like, see determination.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was always just try to be useful to
Speaker 2: the US government because I love that country and you know,
Speaker 2: I'm so proud to be a Yes Cities and that orders.
Speaker 2: You know, if it is not anything interesting for you.
Speaker 2: I don't care because I'm not doing any deal. I'm
Speaker 2: not going to to help these people. But I was
Speaker 2: thinking you have any interesting in this situation because it's
Speaker 2: easy to follow up these people, you know, which maybe
Speaker 2: through case for you or you know, you have to
Speaker 2: know everything which has happened.
Speaker 1: Flavio is again saying directly to the CIA, Hey, American
Speaker 1: Intelligence Agency, these guys seem like illegal arms traffickers. You
Speaker 1: want to maybe do something about it. If so, great,
Speaker 1: but if not, no worries. If you don't want this
Speaker 1: CIA all good, I'll drop it.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 6: I mean, if you were forcefright with all the details,
Speaker 6: then we could verify your story. That's something we might
Speaker 6: look into and pass to the right authorities.
Speaker 1: This is the moment when this whole story could have stopped.
Speaker 1: But suddenly, with Flavio acting all cooi, the agent now
Speaker 1: seems a little more interested and he starts asking Flavio questions.
Speaker 6: You said you have a company, a personal security No.
Speaker 2: No, I work for some prime with people like I'm
Speaker 2: of security advisor.
Speaker 1: I throw up the theme for you on Flavio is
Speaker 1: basically saying he's a fixer, a guy who has relationships
Speaker 1: and can make things happen, expensive things harder, ring services.
Speaker 1: He's vague, but then again, fixers are supposed to be discreet.
Speaker 2: A guy from Los Angeles, he said, you know, I
Speaker 2: have some clients. They want to do it. The first
Speaker 2: deal for ten million dollars, which is not that big,
Speaker 2: but they want to see everything goes smoothly and everything
Speaker 2: is perfect. And I says, okay, what they needed. And
Speaker 2: they send it two different lists with the merchandises they need.
Speaker 2: And they said, I asked for the first time, I
Speaker 2: ask for the end user certificate. You know what the
Speaker 2: end user certificate? It is.
Speaker 6: No, I'm not famliy wather.
Speaker 2: Oh and here's a certificate. It is a paper which
Speaker 2: has to prove to the factor which is the end
Speaker 2: user for this kind of ammunition, for this kind of guns,
Speaker 2: for everything. You know.
Speaker 1: Flavio mentioned something there called an end user certificate. This
Speaker 1: is something that people who have experienced doing weapons deals
Speaker 1: know all about. Legitimate international weapons deals require an official
Speaker 1: piece of paper certifying the final destination for the weapons.
Speaker 1: In other words, the end user certificate certifies that a
Speaker 1: the buyer is a legitimate weapons purchaser. B the buyer
Speaker 1: is going to be the one actually using the weapons,
Speaker 1: and c the buyer doesn't intend to transfer these weapons
Speaker 1: to someone else. A weapons deal without an end user certificate,
Speaker 1: that's a red flag, a tell tale sign of arms trafficking.
Speaker 2: And when I must for that, when I ask for
Speaker 2: this paper, they says, no, we don't have one, and
Speaker 2: maybe if we increase the price, can use a middle
Speaker 2: man in the STANSA. Can I say, you know, our
Speaker 2: conversation has to end right now because I'm not getting
Speaker 2: involved in anything like that. And they says, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe you think about blah blah blah, good money.
Speaker 1: You know, Flavio is saying that Andy told him that
Speaker 1: the Colombian buyer doesn't have an end user certificate. But
Speaker 1: if Flavio can arrange for an end user certificate, there'd
Speaker 1: be some big money in that.
Speaker 2: Believe me or not, you don't know me. But when
Speaker 2: I have the chance to help US government and help
Speaker 2: that country, I consider my country too. I help them.
Speaker 2: Every time on FBA needs me for Russians Romanians, which
Speaker 2: they do a lot of it things in the United States,
Speaker 2: I help them. And with my help, a lot of
Speaker 2: government confiscate a lot of cash, a lot of houses,
Speaker 2: a lot of cash, you know, I bring someoney to
Speaker 2: their Uncle Sam. All the time.
Speaker 1: Flavio speaks fast with a thick Romanian accent, and it's
Speaker 1: unclear how closely the CIA agent on the phone is
Speaker 1: paying attention. For all I know, he could be doodling
Speaker 1: in a notepad while Flavio is spilling his guts. It
Speaker 1: might have been easy for him to miss what Flavio
Speaker 1: just said. Maybe you even missed it. Flavio said, every
Speaker 1: time when the FBI needs me for Russians Romanians, I
Speaker 1: help them, and with my help, the government has confiscated
Speaker 1: a lot of cash, a lot of houses, a lot
Speaker 1: of cars. I bring money to Uncle Sam. All the time,
Speaker 1: Flavio is telling the CIA that he's not just some
Speaker 1: random crank calling in claiming to have information about arms traffickers.
Speaker 1: Flavio is telling him that he's worked with the government before,
Speaker 1: specifically with the FBI. He's saying, you can trust me.
Speaker 1: I've done this sort of thing, and I'm really good
Speaker 1: at it.
Speaker 2: Because I'm not sure. With all my respect for you,
Speaker 2: uh and for your time with you, stay with me
Speaker 2: on the phone. I'm not that kind of person to
Speaker 2: come to the United States and take the cash to
Speaker 2: bring it outside. I'm the kind I'm the kind of
Speaker 2: guy to bring the cash to the United States, you know,
Speaker 2: I you know, I considered da country in mine. You know,
Speaker 2: I live over there, and I'm so happy.
Speaker 1: But the CIA guy, he's not exactly sold.
Speaker 6: And we you have to understand from our respects that
Speaker 6: we have to be able to that and confirm the
Speaker 6: things that you're you're telling us because a lot of
Speaker 6: people call I know what with all this information and context,
Speaker 6: So when we ask these questions, that's we're simply I know.
Speaker 2: I know that. I know that because it was the
Speaker 2: same dreer with the FBI. Okay, you know that means
Speaker 2: I know the procedures, I know the The only thing
Speaker 2: which I was involved all the times, my my begging
Speaker 2: it is my quis series who don't be HII.
Speaker 1: So this whole thing is getting more complicated.
Speaker 5: Again.
Speaker 1: Flavio is claiming to the CIA agent that he's worked
Speaker 1: as a trusted source for the FBI. He says he's
Speaker 1: willing to provide information everything he knows, but he's also
Speaker 1: saying right here in this introductory conversation that he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to be called as a witness in court and
Speaker 1: the CIA guy he sounds tired. He appears to be
Speaker 1: just going through the motions.
Speaker 6: Or I can take this further. Let me get your
Speaker 6: your spelling of your first name, because I was told
Speaker 6: is it Slavio.
Speaker 1: Flavio spells his first name, which has an unusual spelling.
Speaker 2: A Z I.
Speaker 6: You are you as in uniform?
Speaker 2: He is in uniform?
Speaker 1: Sorry it is Finally the CIA guy appears ready to engage.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this armstel that's after the break.
Speaker 6: Okay, do you have specific contact information on these people
Speaker 6: that are you know, attempting to buy the ammunitions.
Speaker 1: The CIA agent on the phone with Flavio has finally
Speaker 1: come around. He wants to know specifics about this supposed
Speaker 1: weapons steal.
Speaker 2: Okay, the thing it is like that the guy, the
Speaker 2: guy in Los Angeles is Romanian. He owns the big
Speaker 2: shipping company. You know, these kind of people they don't
Speaker 2: accept in this kind of deals middlemen. When they heard
Speaker 2: about middle men, they get in crazy. They're around so
Speaker 2: so fat, you know they are not They don't like
Speaker 2: it the middleman, because you know, middle man can be
Speaker 2: your agency. Middle nan can be anyone. The only thing
Speaker 2: which my the guy in La approached them, was like,
Speaker 2: do the logistics, you know, do the transaction, do the
Speaker 2: shipping stuff like that. This is the only way to
Speaker 2: approach this kind of guys. And they said for the
Speaker 2: first time, for the first time, they want to do
Speaker 2: a deal for ten million dollars. It's not that much,
Speaker 2: but they want to see if it's the bill goes
Speaker 2: so smoothly, and if it goes so smoothly, it's doing
Speaker 2: more and more and more. When the s from like exchange, yeah,
Speaker 2: they said, you know they yeah, let me see I.
Speaker 7: Adad him on my phone for a second.
Speaker 2: Please, I let you.
Speaker 7: Know why you war.
Speaker 1: Earlier that day, Andy had emailed Flavio a list of
Speaker 1: weapons that won the Colombian wants to purchase. Flavio reads
Speaker 1: it to the CIA agent.
Speaker 7: Okay, the first one it is a K forty seven
Speaker 7: seven point six two millimeasures and five point forty five
Speaker 7: million measures lp G seven.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 7: Second one it's M for carabine. Okay. The man that
Speaker 7: one okay's on the email. On the paper, there's anti
Speaker 7: personal mind.
Speaker 2: Whatever you have in stuck. Uh. The world to start
Speaker 2: will be one thousand, one thousand.
Speaker 7: Pieces of each item. Please advise the price and availability.
Speaker 6: One thousand pieces of AARs. So you're looking for a
Speaker 6: thousand A k's a thousand and four A thousand anti
Speaker 6: personnel minds, is what you understood.
Speaker 2: Yeah? And also this is the first SLEEP and I
Speaker 2: have another one with similar products.
Speaker 6: Okay, so what is your role specifically telling me?
Speaker 2: They were telling me something like that, which I know
Speaker 2: from the guy from Los Angeles, which is the you know,
Speaker 2: the logistic company. They offered the money in cash or
Speaker 2: you know, in powders, in drugs, whatever is more convenient whatever.
Speaker 1: Flavia's accent makes it easy to miss, but he says
Speaker 1: powder as in cocaine. Flavia was telling the CIA that
Speaker 1: the Colombians have offered to buy weapons with either cash
Speaker 1: or cocaine or both.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this guy from Miami, they are call Indian citizens
Speaker 2: and they have they have the guerilla and stuff like
Speaker 2: that over there.
Speaker 6: Okay, so they're trying to purchase weapons. I mean, where
Speaker 6: is the end location for the weapons.
Speaker 2: Backs? And what is the end uh the end user?
Speaker 2: And they said it's it's Columbia. But they asked me
Speaker 2: if I can provide the middle country in this transaction,
Speaker 2: you know, like let's let's we do the shipping in Africa,
Speaker 2: in you know, in Jeya and from there to Columbia.
Speaker 1: You know, Flavio again tells the agent that he asked
Speaker 1: about the end user certificate and the response was basically,
Speaker 1: we don't have one, so we can pay you more.
Speaker 1: Wink wink. This is illegal, And I.
Speaker 2: Said, you know, let me think about. It's not a
Speaker 2: deal which I dream every day. You know, I tried
Speaker 2: to buy the time, you know, I.
Speaker 1: Tried to buy time, Flavia says, appearing to suggest that
Speaker 1: he's stalling so he can have this conversation with the
Speaker 1: CIA before proceeding with anything else.
Speaker 2: If you want to find more, you have to allow
Speaker 2: me to continue the deal and the thing it is
Speaker 2: which I would try to provide this information to you.
Speaker 2: You know, you have a lot of headache in Columbia
Speaker 2: all the time, and a lot of agents were killed
Speaker 2: over there, and you know I'm not happy with that.
Speaker 1: Flavio tels the agent, these weapons will ultimately go to Colombia,
Speaker 1: a place where American service members can get killed.
Speaker 2: That's why why I would, you know, try to provide
Speaker 2: this information to you, because I know it's not it's
Speaker 2: not any any problem for United States because it's not
Speaker 2: these guns. They don't go in Unite the State. They
Speaker 2: go to Columbia.
Speaker 7: But it is now you know you want need.
Speaker 2: The Toba fund.
Speaker 6: I understand what you're go ahead, passenger us and I
Speaker 6: do appreciate why you're telling us. It's definitely something that
Speaker 6: if we can verify, would be of interest to the
Speaker 6: agency to be aware of. You know again particulars guns
Speaker 6: are going to.
Speaker 9: Yeah, because you know when you go to interest something, Yeah,
Speaker 9: when you go to in this again, something in Colombia. Anything,
Speaker 9: you know, it's something someone's traveler twa rock to you.
Speaker 9: It's one thing when someone comes with take me forty seven,
Speaker 9: you are not really happy.
Speaker 2: You know, you have family, you have stamilies all over
Speaker 2: every age agent has family in United States. Keeps stuff
Speaker 2: like that. We have to go take each other, which
Speaker 2: is the way we have to work together.
Speaker 1: Flavio is appealing to the agent's patriotism. I'm an American too.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to protect American.
Speaker 2: Lives because the thing is deprecating each other about us.
Speaker 2: We are okay if we are not thinking like that.
Speaker 2: You know, if you say, oh, why by myself selfish
Speaker 2: I don't care what's happened, but in your back, that's
Speaker 2: why we have had of all the time.
Speaker 6: No, I certain understand that. How how when I get
Speaker 6: back in touch with you with any questions?
Speaker 1: Flavio gives him his phone number.
Speaker 6: I want to send this information to an internal desk
Speaker 6: here for inside purposes only, so they can look at
Speaker 6: it for interest and begin to investigate.
Speaker 1: The CIA guy assures Flavia that the agency will look
Speaker 1: into his information, but Flavio wants more than that. Let
Speaker 1: me work for you, Flavio tells the CIA agent, we
Speaker 1: have to.
Speaker 2: Find out the way we does go from here today.
Speaker 2: You know this is my idea, but we have to
Speaker 2: go forward for forward, to see everything how they work,
Speaker 2: because if they do this deal, for sure, he is
Speaker 2: not the first one one percent, I guarantee you.
Speaker 1: Flavio then assures the agent that he's not looking for anything.
Speaker 1: He doesn't need money, He's done in trouble. He just
Speaker 1: wants to help. He says, he wants to be a
Speaker 1: good American.
Speaker 2: I'm not coming with you like a lot of people
Speaker 2: comes to you, and maybe this is you know, I
Speaker 2: give you something and I need some feedback, you know,
Speaker 2: because you get this kind of deals every day, for sure.
Speaker 1: The agent tells Flavia again that the CIA will look
Speaker 1: into what he's reporting.
Speaker 6: Before I can move forward with this, And again, I
Speaker 6: appreciate you bringing this information to our attention, and I'll
Speaker 6: certainly tread carefully as we say, as far as how
Speaker 6: we rediscuss this issuear here at the agency.
Speaker 1: The agent takes down all of Flavia's contact information and
Speaker 1: suggests the CIA might be in touch with them soon.
Speaker 6: Well, sir, I have enough information. I get started on it.
Speaker 6: Thank you again. I will pass it on and hopefully
Speaker 6: they'll be in touch with you.
Speaker 2: Nope, okay, okay, call God live you and hopefully we'll
Speaker 2: start from here.
Speaker 6: Yes. Likewise, best of luck to.
Speaker 3: You right.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: If you were on the phone here, what would you think?
Speaker 1: What would you do? According to Flavio, this rambling call
Speaker 1: was an agreement. Flavio says it was an oral contract.
Speaker 1: He told the CIA about the deal. The CIA said,
Speaker 1: thank you, we'll look into it. Flavio says he thinks
Speaker 1: at this point he's working for the CIA to collect
Speaker 1: information about how weapons are being shipped to Colombian rebels.
Speaker 5: I was so excited, that's it. I'm going to right now,
Speaker 5: I'm going to prove myself why I am. I'm going
Speaker 5: to take you to a different level. A FBI was nothing.
Speaker 1: FBI was nothing, Flavio says. What he means is that
Speaker 1: the case he was planning to build for the CIA,
Speaker 1: it would make whatever he was doing before with the
Speaker 1: FBI look like child's play. Here's what I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the CIA ever actually looked into Flavio.
Speaker 1: Flavio told the agents on the phone that he had
Speaker 1: worked for the FBI, But did CIA agents contact their
Speaker 1: counterparts at the FBI. I don't know. I also don't
Speaker 1: know if the CIA ever looked into any of the
Speaker 1: information Flavio told them, Did that agent even pass it
Speaker 1: up the chain? Did anyone do any sort of investigation?
Speaker 1: I don't know. But what I do know is that
Speaker 1: Flavio never got another call from the CIA. There was
Speaker 1: no callback, no follow up, no indication that the agency
Speaker 1: ever wanted anything to do with him or his illegal
Speaker 1: arms deal. What Flavio's told me was that he modeled
Speaker 1: his arrangement with the CIA on what he did for
Speaker 1: the FBI, and Flavio was a registered FBI informant even
Speaker 1: though Flavio hated the term informant as a result of
Speaker 1: growing up in the Romanian police state, he still chafes
Speaker 1: at being referred to as an informant.
Speaker 10: He's a little bit of a strange guy.
Speaker 1: Flavio had asked FBI agents to refer to him as
Speaker 1: a friend, not an informant, and I found Flavio's friend
Speaker 1: the FBI handler.
Speaker 10: Flavio was not involved in criminal activity at all. In
Speaker 10: what he would do is he would just talk to
Speaker 10: people in the Romaining community and hear their concerns and
Speaker 10: provide that information. The main reason he did that is
Speaker 10: because he knew that if anyone else provided that information,
Speaker 10: they would be in danger. And that's unusual. You usually
Speaker 10: don't run across people like that.
Speaker 1: That's in the next episode. This is up in Arms,
Speaker 1: season two of Alphabet Boys. Alphabet Boys is a production
Speaker 1: of Western Sound and iHeart Podcasts. The show is reported,
Speaker 1: written and hosted by me Trevor Aaronson. For more information
Speaker 1: about this series or to drop us a tip, head
Speaker 1: to our website Alphabet Boys dot xyz. You can contact
Speaker 1: me on Twitter or Instagram at Trevor Aaronson. The show's
Speaker 1: Instagram is Alphabet Boys dot pod. If you're enjoying Alphabet Boys,
Speaker 1: tell your friends about the show. Personal recommendations are the
Speaker 1: best recommendations. And if you want to see an illegal
Speaker 1: armsteel from the inside again, it's Alphabet Boys dot xyz.
Speaker 1: You'll find undercover recordings and documents related to flavious case. Finally,
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