How a Nazi French Mobster Made Paraguay a Smugglers’ Paradise
About this episode
The episode explores how a French mobster's escape to Paraguay led to the establishment of a smuggling haven intertwined with historical crime and political figures.
The French Connection and Paraguay In 1968, a gang of smartly-dressed gangsters robbed a bank in Buenos Aires. The fallout from the raid would lead authorities in all kinds of crazy directions — from French paramilitary hitmen to mobsters belonging to the feared Union Corse, Corsican dope traffickers who’d perfected “French Connection” routes from Southeast Asia and Turkey into Marseille, then onto New York to feed a ballooning American addiction crisis. Amid the chaos, one Frenchman fled Argentina to neighboring Paraguay. There he discovered a smuggler’s paradise, full of Nazis and narcos, whose reliance on drugs and contraband would grow so huge that US drug squads would refer not only to the French Connection, but to one named for Paraguay’s repressive, half-German dictator: The Stroessner Connection. He and the fugitive French mafioso would form a bond that, in many ways, has outlived both of them to today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Topics covered
- smuggling
- organized crime
- drug trafficking
- history
- Nazi influence
- Paraguay
- French mafia
Keywords
- Nazi
- mobster
- Paraguay
- smugglers
- French Connection
- drug trade
- Union Corse
- Stroessner
- history
- true crime
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Union Corse, US drug squads
Places: Paraguay, Argentina, Buenos Aires, Marseille, New York
More episodes of The Underworld Podcast
- The Triple Frontier: Triads, Hezbollah and Narco Heavies
- Boston's Irish Mob Gang War: The Winter Hill Gang
- The Trillion Dollar Scam King Gangster Taking Over
- Daniel Kinahan's Iran Oil Games, The King of the South & Trump's War on Narcos: Stashhouse!
- The Iraqi-Aussie Gangster Lighting up Melbourne: Kaz Hamad
- The Narco Fugitive who Took Over an African Country
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Underworld Podcast podcast page.