Journalist and author Melissa Del Bosque joins host Mark Shaw on Underworlds to discuss her book Bloodlines: How the FBI Took on Mexico's Most Violent Drug Cartel — a gripping account of how Los Zetas laundered cartel money through the Quarter Horse racing industry in Texas.

Melissa breaks down how a group of Mexican special forces, became bodyguards for the Gulf Cartel, before splintering off to form Los Zetas, the brutal cartel that rose to dominate Mexico's drug war through systematic terror, why the Quarter Horse industry was uniquely vulnerable to money laundering, and how the FBI's landmark 2013 trial of José Treviño pulled back the curtain on one of the most dangerous criminal organisations in North American history.

Melissa is co-founder of The Border Chronicle and has been reporting on the US-Mexico border since 1998. Her book Bloodlines was published in 2017.

📖 Bloodlines by Melissa Del Bosque: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Bloodlines-by-Melissa-Del-Bosque/9781786069528

🌐 The Border Chronicle: https://www.theborderchronicle.com/

Underworlds is a podcast exploring organised crime, corruption, and illicit economies around the world, hosted by Mark Shaw.

🔔 Subscribe for more interviews with journalists, researchers, and investigators working on the frontlines of organised crime.

In the early years of South Africa's democracy, a small unit of police intelligence officers was fighting a war most people didn't know was happening — and that their own government didn't want to believe was real.

Mark Shaw speaks with David Africa, former ANC underground operative turned police intelligence officer, about his book Lives on the Line — an unusually candid account of the covert campaign against PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs), a front for the militant Islamist organisation Qibla that carried out hundreds of bombings and at least 150 killings in Cape Town in the late 1990s.

They also discuss what happened to the generation of capable officers who ran that operation — and the challenges faced by South Africa's crime intelligence apparatus today.

Lives on the Line is available now.

Subscribe for new episodes of Underworlds with Mark Shaw, where GI-TOC's Director of Research explores the global underworld of organised crime with the authors, analysts, and insiders who know it best.

🌐 GI-TOC: globalinitiative.net

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction — David Africa & Lives on the Line

2:00 From ANC underground to police intelligence

6:00 What was PAGAD?

12:00 Why the threat was ignored

18:00 The ideology behind PAGAD's campaign

22:18 Building the intelligence response

29:51 Inside the operations

32:50 South Africa's policing crisis today

39:22 Closing reflections

Ransomware is a growing threat in our digital world, changing how cybercrime works. In this podcast, Mark talks to Max Smeets, an academic and author, about the rise of ransomware as detailed in his book Ransom War. The book zooms in on the infamous Conti ransomware group, which disbanded in 2022, to show how these cybercriminal organizations operate.

The discussion covers the clever tactics ransomware groups use—how they trick their targets but also need to build trust to get paid. It also looks at how these criminal operations have grown from small groups into well-organized businesses focused on making money.

Toward the end, Mark and Max talk about what this means for cybersecurity and the global fight against ransomware. This episode gives you a clear look at one of today’s biggest digital security challenges, including cyberattacks, data breaches, and how to protect yourself online.

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Max Smeets’ book ‘Ransom War’ is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ransom-War-Became-National-Security/dp/191172391X

An audiobook is also available here: https://amzn.eu/d/1b1PMlX

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Underworlds with Mark Shaw Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0ss7EEqXOflp3d-lZw4LfIe

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🎧Audio version: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/18f9e732-a770-4e43-a109-c44c9291e581/

🎧WHY NOT TRY OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

🎧Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0spSX0QUq7j0NmIZOqyDTZQ

🎧The Index - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXSX1Xu1kM0uc_4CftGl8PrwHA3IK5WeI

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