60 Minutes Australia TV - Misha Glenny - Gold Mafia 2023
Welcome to Dubai: the new crime capital of Australia. Why our worst crooks and suspected crims love this glitzy gansters’ paradise. 60 Minutes Australia: Gangsters’ Paradise, How Dubai Became a Haven for Criminals From Around the World, 2024
Home to nearly all of our crime bosses. ibid.
The perfect place to do dirty business. ibid.
Burj Dubai is one of several pinnacles in the novel architectural movement that I call Emirates futurism, and which expats call The Master Plan of Sheikh Mo (a cheeky, if endearing, reference to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Dubai’s enlightened despot. Misha Glenny, McMafia
The new Dubai hosts glitzy visitors from all over the world ... Construction projects that are multiplying like a rampant virus down the coast and into the desert. ibid.
Dubai’s discreet attitude to cash has enabled the city to attract leading figures from industries beyond sports and showbiz ... Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, renowned as the Merchant of Death, used to park his planes in Sharjah ... The largest cigarette customer in the Balkans established his offices in the Burj al-Arab ... ibid.
And although Dawood was unable to travel to Bombay, he succeeded from his base in the Gulf in consolidating and expanding the biggest criminal network Bombay had ever seen. ibid.
At the end of the Second World War it was barely more than a coastal village that had survived largely on its wits since its only indigenous industry, pearl fishing, had been wiped out by the war and by the Japanese development of cultured pearls. ibid.
This goes back to Rashid, the legendary founder of modern Dubai, who reinvigorated Dubai’s role as a trading hub ... or smuggling as the rest of us called it. ibid.
The al-Nahyans of Abu Dhabi. The discovery of huge oil reserves on Abu Dhabi territory proved a godsend to Dubai and the other five emirates that formed the new state of United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 1973 after the British decided to withdraw all its forces east of Suez. At present extraction, Abu Dhabi's oil will last for another 200 years. The al-Nahyans’ cash ... is estimated to stand at $500 billion – half a trillion. ibid.
Iranian and Afghan traders moved to Dubai, bringing with them their businesses, thereby bolstering the local economy. With neither income nor sales tax, Dubai steadily developed a reputation for being a safe place in the Middle East to stash your money. Since then Dubai has always boomed during a regional crisis. ibid.
For Dawood Ibrahim, Dubai was the perfect retreat ... to make his core business activity – gold smuggling. ibid.
It did not take Dawood long to choose a new product ... and started trafficking in drugs, chiefly in heroin bound for the European market and Mandrax for South Africa. And in Dawood’s part of the world, if you want to guarantee the success of a narcotics business, there is only one organisation you need to cosy up to – the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s secret service. ibid.
With no tax, a beautiful coastline, sunshine all year round, no bombs or assassinations ... and enough shopping malls to satisfy a small planet, it did not take long before money was pouring in from every part of Europe. ibid.
Eleven of the sixteen 9/11 hijackers had received their cash from Dubai. And it wasn’t long before a multi-agency posse from Washington had saddled up and ridden into the desert kingdom. ibid.
In many of the building zones, foreigners would be permitted to purchase property, and hold the freehold. The frenzy began. ibid.
One-third of the world’s cranes were working in Dubai ... The overpowering sense of science fiction is further enhanced by the armies of robotic workers, crawling all over the construction sites. ibid.
Dubai may be a huge undemocratic money-laundering centre in the Middle East, but the country embraces free trade and globalisation; it is stable in a region renowned for violence; it has not relied on oil for its wealth, but invented itself as a novel force in the Arab world. ibid.
They are then packed back to their barracks in Ahman, where they are expected to provide and cook their own food. The conditions are subhuman. About sixty men are required to share one stinking toilet ... Eight to fifteen men live in one room. ibid.
Mumbai’s gang warfare was now being played out in the exclusive areas of Dubai and the authorities decided upon drastic measures. ibid.
It is Dubai where the money from the two economic systems converges and where one can begin to perceive just how symbiotic relations are between the black and the white economies. ibid.
Al Jazeera’s Investigations Unit infiltrates the rival gangs that control Africa’s gold. Gold Mafia I: The Laundry Service, Al Jazeera 2023
Organised crime groups use gold to launder money. ibid.
Zimbabwe’s gold exports are worth up to $2 billion a year. It’s a cash business. ibid.
Macmillan and his rival gold dealer Pattni work for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s central bank. ibid.
The gold is delivered to a company owned by Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank. In return for their services Pattni and Macmillan are given licences to sell the gold abroad. The competing Mafia fly the gold to Dubai and sell it there. They bring the proceeds bank to Zimbabwe in US dollars cash. ibid.
‘The Gold Mafia is bigger than the government, bigger than the authorities.’ Gold Mafia II: Smoke & Mirrors
A money launderer corrupts Africa’s banks. ibid.
The Diplomatic Mafia has already offered Mr Stanley a laundry service. Henrietta Rushwaya (Zimbabwe Miners Federation) plays a central role in the money laundering plan. She is related to the president (niece). ibid.
Simon Radland runs his own Mafia from money earned through his cigarette company. ibid.
‘The biggest challenge Zimbabwe now faces is the Gold Mafia.’ Gold Mafia III: El Dorado
A Gold Mafia in Dubai helps the team launder money. ibid.
Ambassador Uebert Angel, Diplomatic Mafia, he’s also a self-proclaimed prophet. ibid.
Rikki Doolan, Diplomatic Mafia, is from the north-east of England; he’s rated to Ambassador Angel through marriage; he’s known as Pastor Rikki. ibid.
Aleck Yasini is part of a network of private couriers who smuggle cash and gold in and out of Dubai. ibid.
Alistair Mathias, gold trader, he’s a financial architect for corrupt politicians. ibid.
‘When you work you must always have the king with you, the president.’ Gold Mafia IV: Have the King With You, Pattni
Mohamed Khan, one of South Africa’s most successful money launderers. He’s also known as Mo Dollars. ibid.
Scott Sakupwanya, pro-Mnangagwa activist, the new Mr Gold. ibid.