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Spotify Studios

Undeniable power. Unbelievable stories. Unlikely origins. Kingpins follows the rise and fall of rulers of the underworld. Every Friday, we examine the leaders of organized crime rings, and how money and power corrupted and changed their communities. What makes a kingpin or queenpin, and how can we stop them? Kingpins is a Spotify Original from Parcast.

Kingpins

Violence. Corruption. Decadence. Kingpins and Queenpins live heightened lives. This new podcast tells their unbelievable stories. Kingpins tracks the rise and fall of the notorious, presenting bizarre and captivating tales from the underworld. Along the way, the hosts profile the insane people, skewed relationships, and pressure-cooker environments behind organized crime. What's it really like to live like a Kingpin? Tune in to Kingpins every Friday. Kingpins is part of the Parcast Network and is a Cutler Media Production.
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Welcome Trailer!

In the early years of the Mexican drug world, there were no cartels - there were only kingpins. The border region was a lawless desert governed by bloody shootouts, crooked cops, and folk-hero bandits. And to rule an old-fashioned frontier, it takes an old-fashioned outlaw. 
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"The Ojinaga Fox" Pt. 1: Pablo Acosta Villarreal

He repaired schools, paid medical bills for the poor and elderly, in exchange for one thing: control. The whole town protected him. But who was the man that brought him down?
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"The Ojinaga Fox" Pt. 2: Pablo Acosta Villarreal

This vicious leader had very little regard for human life as if it stood in the way of his business. Pablo Acosta Villarreal commanded a 500 person operation on both sides of the border before his downfall and death in 1987. 
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"The Ojinaga Fox" Pt. 3: Pablo Acosta Villarreal

Moving from North Carolina to New York City, Frank Lucas engaged in petty crime and pool hustling before he began smuggling drugs using coffins of dead American servicemen in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He cut out the middleman and bought heroin directly from the source. 
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"American Gangster" Pt. 1: Frank Lucas

After the death of his boss, Bumpy Johnson in 1968, Frank Lucas is ready to capitalize on the open market. Originally a small-time dealer on the streets of Harlem, he becomes one of the most successful heroin dealers of all time.
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"American Gangster" Pt. 2: Frank Lucas

How did Manuel Noriega rise from nothing to become the drug-smuggling, secret-selling, military dictator of Panama? He had a great deal of help from the American CIA.
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"Cara de Piña" Pt. 1: Manuel Noriega

He rose from nothing to become the drug-smuggling, secret-selling, military dictator of Panama throughout the 1980s. However, it turns out he had a great deal of help from the American CIA.
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“Cara de Piña” Pt. 2: Manuel Noriega

For years, this queenpin watched from the shadows while her husband built a drug empire. After tragedy struck in 1986, Thelma was thrust into the center of the action navigating a bi-coastal drug trade between Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 
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“Gangster Queen of Philadelphia” Pt. 1: Thelma Wright

After her husband's murder in 1986, Thelma stepped in and took over a nationwide drug operation, moving cocaine and heroin from LA to Philadelphia. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. Wright enjoyed the lavish lifestyle the drug trade afforded, but would soon learn the consequences of engaging with the criminal underworld.
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“Gangster Queen of Philadelphia” Pt. 2: Thelma Wright

In the 1980s, John Alite grew up in Queens with a promising career in baseball. But when that career was shattered in college, he returned to his neighborhood and started selling drugs to make money. In no time at all, he was running cocaine and doling out beatings for the Gambino Family.
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“The Mob’s Enforcer” Pt. 1: John Alite

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