Noiser Launches Flagship Podcast Series “Real Narcos”
Noiser are proud to announce the launch of our début series! Real Narcos is the new podcast that meets the real American agents who were tasked with catching history’s most infamous drug lords.
As a young British network, we’re aiming for premium, set piece content. Real Narcos fuses history with drama and features unprecedented contributor access.
Setting the Scene
In the 1980s, smuggling cocaine from Latin America into the United States became big business. The US Coast Guard was inundated with speedboats, propeller planes, helicopters and even submarines – all loaded with ton upon ton of high-grade narcotics.
Behind this tidal wave of white powder, a set of sinister individuals – each with their own signature traits. These were no comic book villains. They were narco-terrorists whose criminal regimes transformed the world as we know it. As far as the US government was concerned, they needed to be brought to justice.
Crack teams were dispatched to Latin America to bring them down. Real Narcos features interviews with a raft of DEA heavyweights, government insiders and seasoned reporters to provide extraordinary, first-hand insight into the war on drugs.
The show features Mike Vigil – an undercover agent in Colombia and Mexico who later became Head of International Operations for the DEA; Joe Toft – Special Agent in Charge at the DEA’s Bogotá office; Nelson Andreu – a rookie cop on the streets of Miami who became Chief of Police with the West Miami Police Dept.; Stephen Schlessinger – an Assistant US Attorney who prosecuted drug trafficking cases; and James Kuykendall – head of the DEA office in Guadalajara, Mexico who oversaw the hunt for a kidnapped agent during a case that made front-page news around the world.
The Kingpins
Pablo Escobar – “El Patrón”
The rise and fall of Colombian cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, spans the first five episodes. He built a vast personal fortune at an insane, unconscionable price. He blew up commercial airplanes, bombed civilians, murdered government officials and – when he finally was captured – was allowed to build his own luxury jail.
Much has been said about Pablo in the media in recent years, ever since his death in fact. But rarely does this insight come straight from the horse’s mouth – from the individuals who were actually there, hot on Escobar’s tail. Real Narcos sets out to rectify that. We explore the world Escobar emerged from before commencing a criminal career in which he killed or sanctioned the deaths of thousands of people.
Barry Seal – “El Gordo”
We’ve seen how cocaine was produced, but how did it travel from South America all the way to US soil? Episodes six, seven and eight tell the story of Barry Seal. He was a larger-than-life American airline pilot from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Tom Cruise portrayed Seal on screen, but the truth is even more extraordinary than the fiction. Barry Seal went from transporting American tourists and travellers, to becoming Pablo Escobar’s most trusted smuggler. Then he did the unthinkable and flipped, becoming American law enforcement’s most valuable informant on the Cartel.
Griselda Blanco – “The Godmother”
Griselda Blanco was the first female narco-terrorist. Blanco out-hustled and outwitted the men in her orbit to rise from desperate poverty on the streets to fabulous wealth on the beachfront. She transformed Miami from a relatively quiet southern resort into the front line of the war on drugs. Griselda busted gender stereotypes left, right and centre. Known as the Black Widow, she deployed seduction and charm alongside brutal violence. She revolutionised smuggling methods and ruled Miami with an iron fist. In the end, she was taken out by her own signature assassination method.
More stories, and more drug lords, will follow. Keep an eye on our RSS feed.
The Launch
Behind the launch of Real Narcos is Noiser’s founder and CEO, Pascal Hughes – a TV director turned podcaster. “The agents in the show talk candidly about the drug lords they were tracking. Unpicking the cult of personality around figures like Pablo Escobar is vital in understanding the sheer horror and criminality of their regimes”, Hughes says.
“These agents were on Escobar’s tail before he became truly infamous. They watched him become a narco-terrorist, and their perspectives do a lot to puncture the legendary status Escobar has achieved over the years.”
“Lots of people have heard of Escobar”, says Pascal. “But he had some crazy accomplices across Latin America and the United States, and after he fell others stepped into the breach. Our upcoming episodes on Griselda Blanco especially, show how remarkable individuals like her were able to transcend their gender and social background to become figureheads in the drugs trade.”
Distributed by Megaphone, episodes are between 30-45 minutes long and will be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Castbox and other platforms. New episodes of Real Narcos will be available every Monday, beginning with the April 20th premiere.
About Noiser
Noiser is a podcast production company and network based in Bristol, UK. We specialise in history and drama storytelling. Real Narcos is the first Noiser production, with further shows to follow in the coming months. These include Real Dictators – a behind-the-scenes look at history’s tyrants; Hoaxed – which tells the stories of the world’s greatest conmen and women; and Real Heroines – an examination of influential and unheralded women in history.