Narco Warriors: Secrets From The Global Drug War

Frankie the Strangler was one of the most feared Mafia assassins. A ruthless enforcer with alleged links to powerful crime families.
But British Customs and Excise found him hiding in plain sight in a quiet English village.
This episode reveals how UK Customs unknowingly arrested a Mafia godfather who slipped into Britain under the radar. What started as a routine operation became one of the most extraordinary organised crime stories in law enforcement history.
And if you ever find a dead blackbird under your doormat, you’re in trouble…
These are the Narco Warriors.
Host: Lindsay Charlton
Insiders: Jim "Trapper" Jarvie & Phil Matthews
Narco Warriors is a true crime podcast featuring real stories from law enforcement veterans who fought international drug trafficking, organised crime, and global criminal networks.
New episodes every Monday at 6 a.m. GMT.

You thought your first week at work was bad? How about turning up unarmed to a gunfight…
It was meant to be a routine bust on a Caribbean beach. It ended with machine-gun fire and a dead body. This is Barbados in the 1980s. A tropical paradise on the surface, but part of a vast drug smuggling network. 
Former UK Customs officer Graham Honey takes us inside two of the most dangerous postings of the global drug war: Barbados and Miami.
From a gunfight on his second day, to tracking cocaine routes stretching from Venezuela to London, we reveal how quickly operations can spiral and how international drug enforcement really works when the shooting starts.
These are the Narco Warriors.
New episodes every Monday.
Get involved: NarcoWarriors.com
Host: Lindsay Charlton
Insiders: Graham Honey & Phil Matthews

An embassy. A vengeful informant. A loaded pistol.
And is it ever a good idea to send your family undercover?
In the early 1990s, Thailand was the crossroads of the global drug trade. It was where power, corruption, and survival intersected. 
Northern Thailand included what became known as the Golden Triangle, the lawless borderland where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet. This region was one of the world’s largest producers of heroin, feeding Western and Asian markets.
Opium poppies grew in territory controlled not by governments, but by warlords, militias, and ethnic armies. Narco Warriors expert guest Phil Matthews who worked in Bangkok, reveals how the risks weren’t just out in the opium fields, and why the region remains at the centre of a deadly trade that never really ended.
These are the Narco Warriors.
New episodes every Monday.
Join the fight: NarcoWarriors.com
Host: Lindsay Charlton
Insider: Phil Matthews

A dead body in a water tank. Rogue informants. Narco submarines.
Ever wonder who the government sends to the other side of the world to fight the drug trade? Meet the Drug Liaison Officers. The secret weapon in international narcotics enforcement. From embassy etiquette, to flipping reluctant mules into informants, this is the inside story of law enforcement’s most unusual diplomats.
These are the Narco Warriors.
New episodes every Monday.
Join the fight: NarcoWarriors.com
Host: Lindsay Charlton
Insiders: Phil Matthews & Graham Honey

The investigator becomes the target, the airport that became a temple of crime and how NOT to sample a cocaine stash.
Law enforcement veterans Philip Matthews and Graham Honey trace their unlikely beginnings in 1970s Britain, as UK Customs & Excise investigators quietly transformed from suitcase checks into a global drug-fighting force. From ripping drug parcels, to dismantling corruption at major travel hubs, they reveal how smuggling really worked, and how deeply insider crime penetrated docks and airports.
Our insiders also expose the hidden realities behind the myths: why intelligence matters more than arrests, how informants can be both vital and dangerous, and what it’s like to take drugs to the criminal rather than chase them.
This is the true story of how the narcotics trade went global and how a secret war, fought for more than 50 years, still shapes our world - told by the people who were actually there.
These are the Narco Warriors.
Join the fight: NarcoWarriors.com
New episodes every Monday.
Host: Lindsay Charlton
Insiders: Phil Matthews & Graham Honey