Uncategorized – Declan Hill – Investigative Journalist & Academic

21NovNovember 21, 2023

The Ghost Army: the Inside Story of the ‘Super-Cartel’

It was a silent criminal corporation.It was worth tens of billions of dollars.They killed and tortured their opponents without giving any signals or clues to their existence.They were the Super Cartel.One of the world's largest drug traffickers and virtually no one knew anything about them.Welcome to CrimeWaves. ** It was a war.In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia, began a military onslaught against the very state of Colombia. It began...

08NovNovember 8, 2023

The Fixers War

It was the greatest case of match-fixing in sports. At the heart of the investigation was one obsessive cop. A man who would stop at nothing to bring down the fixers. This is his story. The Fixers War This is the transcript of the podcast episode/interview with Michael Bahrs, one of Europe's top undercover cops on the fight against a ferocious match-fixing gang. If you want to listen -...

12OctOctober 12, 2023

The Nightmare: The FightBack

Mike Ware - Innocence Project An interview transcript from www.CrimewavesPodcast.com with the deeply insightful Mike Ware, head of the Texas Innocence Project on the fight for the wrongfully convicted, the fallibility of eye-witnesses, police investigations and jailhouse informants. And how Ware and his group saved an innocent man... Declan Hill: You're in prison. The system has labeled you guilty of murder. They've convicted you. The thing is you are innocent. You didn't kill anyone, yet you are facing the...

08AprApril 8, 2021

The Mafia Capo, How to Catch a Killer & Red-Flagging the Leagues

MAFIO CAPO PRESENTATION "And a lot of these basketball players would go to the same clubs...and we got our eye on one or two of the guys. And I'd say, "Listen, you are a smart guy. I'm your good friend. Let me tell you how you are going to make some money." Michael Franzese, the former Mafia Capo for the Colombo Crime Family, is the keynote speaker for the second annual Sports Integrity presentation at the University of...

21JanJanuary 21, 2021

The Return to the Dangerous Normal

During Joe Biden’s Presidential Inauguration, we saw him join three former presidents - George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, to stand in front of the grave of the unknown soldier in the Arlington National Ceremony. It was a sombre break from the near-Hollywood blitz of the rest of the celebrations that featured stars like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez. The message of much of the day was that America had just got through a four-year...

18NovNovember 18, 2020

The NBA Gamble

If you are a sports fan, you are probably slightly obsessed with the Tim Donaghy case. Donaghy was one of the highest ranked referees in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was also a gambling addict. For four years, he worked with illegal gamblers and bookmakers betting on his own games. The betting industry either never caught him or the few that did notice the strange odds movements, like the Gambino-connected bookmakers in New York, bet on his games for their...

30OctOctober 30, 2020

The Launch of ‘Crime Waves’ Podcast

“Its just very sad that because you speak out about these issues [Human rights] you have to live with a panic button besides your bed…” Enes Kanter is a star player for the Boston Celtics. He is also an international fugitive. His passport has been revoked. He has not spoken to his family in over four years. He lives with constant death threats and under police protection.His crime? Speaking about the arbitrary detention of tens-of-thousands of people - many of them...

09OctOctober 9, 2020

Joe Biden is Going to Break Your Heart

She has the same lunacy that inspired hundreds-of-thousands of our spiritual sisters to put mock vaginas on their heads. It is the same lunacy that makes many of my journalist colleagues claim that a vote for Trump will overturn American Democracy or bring about another civil war. It is the same lunacy, on the other side of the political fence, that convinces people to think about kidnapping their politicians.

29SepSeptember 29, 2020

It was the best of trials. It was the worst of conferences.

It was the best of trials. It was the worst of conferences. Lets start with the best. In Paris, last week, a proverbial rocket hit the world of sport. The former head of the International Athletic Association Federations (IAAF) - Lamine Diack - was convicted of collecting millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.The actual scheme was shocking. Diack, along with many of his top aides - including his ‘thug’ son (his words) - was running a racket where athletes,...

04JulJuly 4, 2020

They are protesting the wrong war. The real story of July 4th, 1776 & slavery

They are protesting the wrong war. In this time of historical flux, when protestors pull down Confederate statues and the U.S. President Donald Trump speaks of ‘mob rule’. its time to tell the facts of the first, real, civil war of American history. The results of which are celebrated on this July 4th weekend. For, If we do not have a proper conversation about the war of 1776, the same myths that get...