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Buried cash. DEA moles. Sibling rivalries. Skydiving planes. Fast cars. And an exploding hash lab. A group of college friends took advantage of Colorado’s medical marijuana laws to create one of the longest, most lucrative smuggling runs in U.S. history. But when a drug mule flipped, the whole enterprise came crashing down— and revealed how the marijuana black market is not just evolving in the era of legal weed, but thriving.New episodes publish Tuesday mornings.
Cash turns up in the drawers; your next question is how it passed for rent.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Elizabeth Taylor's early voice, MGM childhood, and love of animals trace a young star taking shape inside a studio system.
Elizabeth Taylor's childhood sits at the center of this episode, framing her later stardom through early talent, family influence, animals, and MGM's machinery.
Emily Dufton explains why marijuana reform movements from the 1970s and 1980s took very different paths.
The Syndicate's "A Potted Plant History" frames Emily Dufton's account of marijuana in the United States as a longer story about how legalization became thinkable.
A focused bonus episode on how tax records and cash flow helped build a sprawling drug case.
The Syndicate's first bonus episode follows the case through its money trail, centering Special Agent Steve Bratton's financial investigation at the Colorado Department of Revenue.
Alicia Rainey's arrest opens onto Colorado's persistent black market and the syndicate's lingering shadow.
The episode follows Alicia Rainey's arrest outside a Los Angeles store, turning a walk back to her parking spot into a reminder that her Colorado past may not be finished with her.
Joe's bid for protection opens a paper trail that shows how the syndicate kept its profits out of sight.
A roadside arrest turns into a tense bargain for survival. Joe is caught with 66 pounds of marijuana, 374 grand in cash, and a gun, then tries to trade what he knows for a place inside the DEA's protection.
ABC Audio's Theranos fraud series that also introduces its other true-crime podcasts.
LA Times reporter Christopher Goffard traces con man John Meehan's fraud, abuse, and its Bravo TV adaptation.
["The Syndicate's preview for Elizabeth the First frames Elizabeth Taylor as 'the very first influencer' and follows her early years from England to MGM.", "Mara Davis introduces the preview, and Tim Mendelsohn, Mitch Erzinger, and Jill Sherry Robinson add estate, archive, and family context.", "The episode leans on concrete artifacts, including Taylor's earliest known recording of 'Chitty Bitty Bim,' childhood letters, and a 1948 school essay about her parents, horses, and animals.", "It also shows how MGM controlled her at age 11, then turns to the $25 brooch, the $75,000 Christie's sale, and National Velvet as proof of how early she learned business and screen value."]
["Emily Dufton says 1800s Americans could buy cannabis tinctures, cocaine, heroin, and morphine at corner pharmacies with almost no oversight.", "She traces the shift to Harry Anslinger, Reefer Madness, the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, and Nixon's push to keep marijuana in Schedule 1.", "The 1970s decriminalization wave widened after Oregon's 1973 law and 11 more states by 1978, but by 1977 the paraphernalia market was worth $250 million and one in nine high school seniors was using marijuana every day by the late 1970s.", "Brownie Mary Rathbun, Dennis Perron, HIV/AIDS care in San Francisco's Castro district, and the 1996 Compassionate Use Act show how cannabis won sympathy before the current federal rescheduling fight."]
Steve Bratton says local police were seeing “the tree rather than the forest” in Colorado grow cases.
Alicia Rainey is arrested on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles on a Colorado fugitive warrant after leaving the syndicate and moving in with family.
Joe Johnson is caught in Kansas with 66 pounds of marijuana, $374,000 in cash, and a gun, then tells officers he wants to work for the DEA.
A journalist investigates a marijuana smuggling ring run by college friends in Colorado.
A group of college friends build a massive marijuana smuggling operation in Colorado, but it unravels when a drug mule cooperates with authorities.
A narrative documentary about a group of college friends who built a massive marijuana smuggling operation from Colorado to Minnesota, exploiting legal loopholes and price differences.
The episode details how a group of college friends built a massive marijuana smuggling operation in Colorado and how it eventually collapsed after a drug mule cooperated with authorities.
A former marijuana grower is interrogated by prosecutors about a large-scale drug smuggling operation in Colorado.
A narrative documentary about a group of college friends who ran a massive marijuana smuggling operation from Colorado, and how it unraveled when a drug mule cooperated with authorities.