About this episode

The episode explores the life of Sérgio de Carvalho, a Brazilian police major turned drug trafficker, and his criminal empire.

They call him Brazil's Pablo Escobar. Sérgio de Carvalho was an elite Brazilian police major who became one of the most wanted drug traffickers on Earth, accused of flying 45 tonnes of cocaine into Europe with his own private fleet of planes. Along the way he burned through ten fake identities, ran his empire from a prison cell, collected a police pension the entire time, and faked his own death from COVID. Then one morning in Budapest, it all ended over breakfast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Topics covered

• drug trafficking
• crime
• police
• identity
• Europe
• history

Keywords

• Sérgio de Carvalho
• drug trafficking
• cocaine
• police
• fake identities
• COVID
• Budapest

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Brazil's Pablo Escobar

Places: Europe, Budapest

More episodes of The Underworld Podcast

• China’s Mob King Prepares for War · July 21, 2026 · 52 min
• The Last Don: The Godfather Who Turned Rat · July 7, 2026 · 56 min
• The Rise of China’s Biggest Mob Boss EVER · June 30, 2026 · 55 min
• Chinatown’s Gangster Prince: Shrimp Boy · June 23, 2026 · 1h 12m
• Redux: Africa's Pablo Escobar: Ibrahim Akasha · June 16, 2026 · 59 min

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