8. Welcome to the Sh*tshow

Kami, Ready Chi.

This is Massimo Romagnoli, an Italian Politicianino Right now, Massimo is barreling down a European motorway inside a luxury sedan with a brown leather interior. He's driving through Switzerland wearing a sport coat and sunglasses. Massimo thanks this Taylor as he shows off his bespoke button down shirt. It's white with red pinstripes. It's nice. Everyone tells me that I look very fine, Massimo says, an Italian I was complimented

I don't want any expose Anty. Is now my business to expose Anty is to present the evidence. And you ask the government to protect lives or to do whatever you have to do, just do it. I do not even want to know.

I've asked Flavio George Escu about his meeting at the Marriott in Romania with Christian Juan and One's College Diego, the meeting you heard about in the last episode. Flavio says he isn't the guy on those recordings. That was an act, Flavio playing the part of an arms dealer so that he could collect information for the CIA.

I'm not a journalist like you. You expose myself. I'm not a journalist. I was thinking of and have the feeling I'm gonna do something for the country, something like amazing. You are a journalist. Okay, I take you right now in Bronx. We live together. We go in Bronx and I put you some drug dealers to make a deal on some drugs and let them know you're gonna buy three hundred kilo of cocaine. Play that role. I'm telling you,

Flavio, according to his story, is trying to map out an entire network, the people running the arms factory, the people who give them fake documents, everybody. Once he has all the information, he'll contact the CIA and hand over everything, just like he used to do when he assisted FBI

I'll be voicing the part of Massimo Romagnoli.

That's Elio Pagano, a voice actor. I had communicated with Massimo over email, and at one point we had made tentative plans for an interview in Brussels, but Massimo backed out. Of those plans without much explanation. Here's what he wrote to me.

I'm not interested to talk about my past anymore. I'm focused only to my future.

So Massimo, like Christian.

Remember I'm an actor and I'm voicing Christian.

We'll be voiced by an actor. Massimo's words are his and Christian's words are his. Everything you'll hear comes verbatim from court testimony. Anyway, with that explained, let's get back to the story.

I was friends with mister Massimo Romanioli and at his level he was not involved in any arm deills, but he was having a lot of knowledge and a lot of co nations.

Flavio had met Massimo through a mutual friend because that friend thought they might want to do business together. Massimo began his career running a transport company and working as a lobbyist and salesman for defense companies. He was eventually elected to Italy's parliament, and Massimo became a high ranking official in the Forza Italian political party after the party leader became Italy's Prime Minister. That leader was Silvio Berlusconi

The details of this case are tawdry to put a mildly.

Ah, that's correct. They point to basically call girls being hired to perform at these after dinner parties in the so called Bunga Bunga room, where some of them, for instance, dressed up as Obama and engaged in sort of semi erotic fondling of one another for the pleasure of it.

To be clear, I've not found any information to suggest Massimo was involved in these sex parties, but the controversy upended his political ambitions. Massimo then pushed forward in a career that kept one foot in the halls of government and the other in the corporate boardroom. He worked in the defense industry, specifically an Italian company manufacturing military aircraft. That's how Massimo came to know Flavio over a potential

I was with mister Flavio Georgesco at meeting about the elettronic bracelet project in his office in Bucharest, and I asked him whether he could introduce me to someone from the Ministry of Defense, and mister Flavio Georgescu kindly introduced me to mister Kristen Vintila.

On September twenty sixth, twenty fourteen, three days after the Marriot meeting with the Colombians, Flavio meets Massimo in Bucharest for dinner at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Joseph Hadad. As far as Massimo is concerned, this dinner was a thank you Flavio. Ever, the connected guy had helped the daughter of one of Massimo's friends get into a Romanian university, but Flavio had something else on his agenda.

Then I said, you know, I can't use him to give his.

Here's Massimo.

After dinner we went in the car, and in the car we discussed this deal.

Flavio tells Massimo about the armsteal that he and Christian are negotiating with the Colombians. Massimo knows arms dealers in Europe, so Flavio asks him, can you help us obtain an end user certificate. Massimo agrees to look into it, and then he pulls his phone from his pocket. He wants to show Flavio something.

I showed him, the picture of a pistol that I received a few days earlier. I received it from a Greek arms dealer.

If you're an American, this might not seem like a big deal. Massimo has a handgun, so what. But keep in mind it's exceedingly rare to have a gun in Europe. Most European Union nations prohibit the possession of handguns. So by showing Flavio this picture, Massimo is proving he has connections. Later, Masimo gets back to Flavia with good news. Massimo says that he has a contact in Germany who could arrange for an end users certificate from Ethiopia. Here's what Massimo says to Flavio.

But as German contact, he's telling me that the attached end users certification is an end user certification which is accepted all over the Balkans, and that the direction of transport of the goods must be from the country of a region to Ethiopia, and then from Ethiopia it can go to other countries.

To other countries. Massimo means the weapons could then be rerouted from Ethiopia to Colombia or wherever. Massimo also has a price you can quote.

The end user would cost between thirty and sixty thousand euros.

The next day, Flavio calls one with an update.

You have to come through Montenegos to discuss with your friends, because I have everything right.

Now in my head.

I have everything in my hand right now, meaning the end user certificate.

I have everything ready to go.

How about transformation everything? You have to come over there?

All right?

Well, I really appreciate that you called me that this sounds it's good news. Let me tell you something.

You know, if you if you come right now with your friend, it's your friend. If you come right now, we shut up the final details.

Two weeks later, everyone will meet to set up the final details in Montenegro. More after the break, outside the door of Juan's condo in Colorado, the place where I left a note for him was a Matt welcome to the shit show. It read one the DEA's informant has never responded to my efforts to contact him, so really, the only quote from him that I have is this one. Welcome to the shit show. And it's really the perfect quote, because that's what Flavio's arms deal is. A shit show.

Which city you are right now?

City? Yeah, because I am warned, n.

One no, and on the.

On the capitol of this place.

What Monica?

What the name is?

Uh?

One is in Paga Riza, the capital of Montenegro. Flavio, Massimo, and Christian are in Tivat, a coastal town near the Adriatic Sea, a two hour drive from Pagarza.

Okay, what the people the.

Region?

No, listen, listen the Ramada, I mean Ramada already I told you your name, okay, Uh, I like, I already have a set up to meet with you, have a room and all that so we can meet. Don't make me go nowhere.

Because this Flavio tells One that he needs him to drive to Tivat, but One isn't having it in all.

Honestly, you know, I always I always kind of follow. What did you say just this point. I don't wanna move from here. First of all, it's three freaking uh Columbias over here on a on a weird town. You guys need to come over here. I flew all the way here from South America. We haven't slept for two and thirty hours, so you need so yes, we're going to sleep.

And we meet here something the next day. One acquiesces once again to Flavio shit show. One doesn't want to jeopardize the thing.

Don't scare my people, That's what I'm saying. Okay, we're gonna talk. We're gonna talk the way when you're supposed to talk.

I go to the lowy.

We talked, and we went to the navy, agreed, and we went to the bottom of the business and we get it done over with, so we can go to the next step. That's very important. It's not enough time to.

Be right.

Happy.

Don't worry, Flavia says, Okay, be happy. So a Dea agent one and two colleagues drive out to a waterfront hotel in Tea. There they can see a sweeping view of love Chen Mountain, a national park in Montenegro. The Dea agent starts the recording device as they pull up to the hotel. He refers to one and two other informants by the acronym CS for confidential source.

The time is twelve forty two pm local Montenegro time. Data's October eight, twenty fourteen is his meeting between CS one, two and three in Flavio, Georgescu, christ John in two unknown males.

Happening leaving the agent behind. One and his two colleagues walk into the hotel. Diego, the informant from the previous meeting, is with one again. The third man is named Jorge. Flavio meets them in the lobby.

He's going, yeah, Alice.

His.

Oops. Diego and Jorge refer to Wan as Alex. Remember Wuan's real name is Alex Diaz, but Flavio, Christian and Massimo don't notice a slip.

Up than you. YEA one morning, Alex is going to hear.

The men head to the conference room. There are six of them, Flavio, Christian, Massimo, Juan, and Juan's colleagues Diego and Jorge. They all sit down at a conference table. There are bottles of sparkling water and crafts of coffee.

US okay, which find did the end user? The gentlemen provided us the ford, the impmentation.

This gentleman provided us with all the documentation. Flavio is referring to Massimo when we hit we have that's Massim know. Speaking in its rough English, he says the end user certificate can be ready as early as tomorrow. Flabo explains that the document must be issued along with a list of the weapons being shipped, so it cannot be produced until the final order is made to the arms factory.

As the list the goods which you needed, we produce the document. The document cannot be.

Produced before I understand that how can you produce documents which we didn't know your.

The conversation then transitions from the end user certificate to the list the weapons and quantities the Colombians want to buy. One is translating for Diego.

Most important is to know is when can we get started? When can we get going?

No?

No, okay, can you see that? What do you need?

The list?

Quit?

The Colombians say that they want to purchase Soviet designed anti aircraft cannons that mount on a trailer, a system known as a ZU twenty three. Diego wants as many as fifty of.

Them, just veniente fifty is good fifty.

And Diego also wants AK forty seven assault rifles, a type of rifle produced all over the world and in many variations. Diego says he doesn't care what variation, he just wants AK forty Seven's the other informant, Porge translates for him, he was saying for.

Him, it doesn't matter really what exactly the numeration is, what the model really is.

What matters swamis really is the eight K models.

Then one refers Flavio to the list of weapons he's put together, which also includes rocket propelled grenade launchers, sniper rifles, pistols, and ammunition on.

That list, can you produce the whole list?

There?

Yes, here's a thing mhm.

Flavio tells the Colombians that they can ship the weapons within two weeks.

So sad.

How much money we're talking about. The sooner the better, So we kind of judge the money's here, all.

The weapons the Colombians want, it's millions of dollars worth. Flavio, Christian and Massimo explained that they'll have to return to them with an exact price once they have the order. Form from the factory. That's the next and final step. But there's something they haven't told the Colombians. They don't actually have a factory lined up. In other words, the ship shows still in effect. That's after the break.

The factory was closed twenty five years ago. Was nothing. There was just a damage. You ruin something looks like twenty five years ago. Crossed.

This is Flavio and here's the other Romanian present for the deal, Christian Ventilla, who's being voiced by an actor.

We crossed the factory which was almost abandoned, so basically we couldn't see anything but old machines which were not working anymore, and we didn't see any stock of anything.

Flavio and Christian are describing a weapons factory in Albania. Massimo's contact from Germany, a guy named Gerardo Tanga, suggested that they travel here to inspect the weapons. So Flavio, Christian, Massimo and Gerardo flu the Toronto, the Albanian capital, and then drove three hours to this arms factory. Remember their time is limited. They promised the Colombians they'd have a

He was a bit upset because we didn't see anything of those weapons. Mister Giorgesco himself told me, what did you make me come to Albani for just to see one rifle.

Masimo is enraged that Gerardo had misled them about the weapons factory. He walks up to Gerardo and slaps them across the face.

Everybody was nervous and anxious because we basically didn't see anything.

For decades following the fall of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe was the world's supermarket for black market arms, a place where military, great hardware and high level corruption could be found in abundance. But that changed in February twenty fourteen when Russia invaded Crimea in Ukraine.

To what America is officially calling a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops spreading out throughout the strategic Crimean peninsula.

The arms market in Eastern Europe suddenly faced a demand shock. Russian and Ukrainian weapons factories were only producing weapons for their own forces as a result of the widening war, and other nearby countries ordered their factories to stockpile weapons for a possible Russian invasion. So Flavio, Christian and Massimo, having promised the Colombians that they could deliver weapons, discover

It was decided that we are not going to travel to Serbia because Gerardo Tanga could not assure us that is not going to happen again what happened in Albania.

The four dejected men drive back to Albania's capital. Flavio and Christian decide to follow up on a lead Massimo receives he hears that a weapons factory in Bulgaria could fill their order. So Flavio and Christian make the grueling eight hour drive from Sophia, the Bulgarian capital, in a rented Mercedes SUV. Flavio's feeling the pressure, Flavio had arranged another meeting with Juan and the other Colombians in less than a week.

He was feeling very bad because the meeting with the Colombians was supposed to be it was set up for five days later, and he wouldn't have anything in hand at the time.

This factory in Bulgaria is their last chance. The company is called Bulgarian Industrial Engineering and Management, more commonly known by the acronym BEAM b EM. The factory is run by a man named Peter Manchukov, a former Communist era security official turned oligarch with business interests in media, finance, wine, and yeah weapons. Manchukov and his company BEAM were were both mentioned in US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in

He was really proficient and really nice person.

And Manchukov agrees to sell them twenty ZU twenty three anti aircraft cannons with three hundred thousand rounds of ammunition, grenade launchers, rifles, and pistols, a deal worth more than fourteen million dollars. But Manchukov has a condition, they must the deal within a couple of weeks because of the war in Ukraine. Man Chukov has leverage. Here's Christian.

They have all the products in stock, but they were pressuring us from the point of view of timing. At that time on the weapons market, it was very big demand on very little supply. So basically the Bulgarians were making us a favor letting us buy those weapons.

Flavio and Christian agreed to man Chukov's demand for a quick sale. After all, it doesn't seem like that should be a problem. They have a meeting with Juan in Montenegro in just a few days to sign the contract and transfer the money. At this point, if you're inclined to believe Flavio's story, He's close to mapping out the entire supply chain for how the Colombians could obtain their weapons the information he promised to deliver to the CIA, and I think it's worth pointing out that up to

For example, if a weapons price was ten thousand dollars, we would ask him to indicate the price as being fifteen thousand, and then when the money would come in for him at fifteen thousand, he was supposed to give us back the difference between the fifteen thousand he got in the original ten thousand, that is five thousand.

That profit would be millions of dollars split among them. So how are we supposed to interpret what Flavio does here. Does he devise this scheme because he hopes to make that money and the CIA call is just a cover in case he gets caught. Or does Flavio come up with this for appearance's sake so that Christian and Massimo would understand how they would get paid and as a result not get suspicious that Flavio might be up to

We showed them the contract, this is what Christian says, and then I show them the catalog from the memoristic on my laptop.

Flavio believes that has worked here is nearly finished.

Yeah, I show him the contract. I was pushing to sign the contract. Christiano wis try to show him things on his laptop, some specification, anything, but for me is just to put his signature and just leave me alone because I want to get out and that's it. I'm done.

But one doesn't sign the contract. He says he has to call Columbia to obtain final approval from his posses.

He said, I have to talk with my people.

One walks out of the hotel room. Minutes later, DEA agents storm it. They arrest Flavio and Christian on the spot. Flavio motions to a DEA agent and says he needs to use the bathroom. Standing in the bathroom with the agent, Flavio tells him I work for the CIA.

Said, I call it this center for CIA. Just called them in. They were going to confirm you.

But there in that hotel bathroom, the DEA agent isn't buying any of this spy story spun by a handcuffed Romanian standing next to a toilet in Montenegro. He thinks it's a desperate story from an international arms dealer who's just been caught and is about to do years in prison. What would a guy like you, trying to sell millions of dollars in weapons to terrorists be doing with the Central Intelligence Agency?

So we don't care about it. You are too many movies with James Bond. This is not true. This is you. We know about you. And I said, you're wrong. I said, you know what, make some fonk course, this is who I am. Now if you tell us you make this whole game by yourself and you are not another dealer, and you don't know what should do what's going on, you're crazy. It's no such a way, you know what you'd do. I said, okay, whatever, And they said, call call Massimo because we want that one.

Massimo. Massimo hadn't come to Montenegro for the meeting, and the DEA wants to lure him to the country so that federal agents can arrest him.

There.

Agents were apparently concerned about trying to extradate Massimo from Italy, where he has political influence. Flavio agrees to help with Massimo's arrest, no strings attached. According to his story, Lavio believes he's playing on the same team as the DEA agents, so why would he ask for strings. So Flavio calls Massimo and he tells him that there's been a change in plans. The money is here in hand, Massimo. You need to come to Montenegro right away to pick up

And on the end, when I finished the conversation, I hang up the phone with him and I said, fuck him.

That's in the next episode. This is up in arms, season two of Alphabet Boys. Alphabet Boys is a production of Western Sound n iHeart Podcasts. The show is reported, written and hosted by me Trevor Aronson. For more information about this series where to drop us a head to our website Alphabet Boys dot xyz. You can contact me on Twitter or Instagram at Trevor Aronson. The show's instagram is alphabet Boys dot pod. If you're enjoying Alphabet Boys,