Introducing Season 2 of Alphabet Boys

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Hey, Southern Fried listeners. This
week we're sharing something special. It's an

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episode of an incredible podcast I've been
binging. It's called Alphabet Boys. Alphabet

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Boys takes you inside secret investigations that
the FBI, DA, CIA and other

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alphabet agents He's never wanted the public
to know about. These cases are both

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dangerous and absurd, and they raise
a troubling question, are America's top cops

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catching criminals or creating them? Season
two of Alphabet Boys is out. Now.

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I'm going to play you an excerpt
with host Trevor Aaronson. It's a

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real life spy story where nothing is
at all what it seems. In this

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episode, you'll hear real audio from
an illegal armsteal and meet our central character,

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who, despite being arrested, claims
he works for the CIA. But

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does he It will make you wonder
who are the good guys and who are

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the bad guy? Okay, here
comes the episode. Search Alphabet Boys wherever

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you get your podcasts. Sometimes when
federal law enforcement agencies investigate crimes, they

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unwittingly target the informants or undercover agents
of other agencies. This season is one

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of those stories. A simmering alphabet
soup with a d EA, the CIA

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and the FBI all mixed up in
the same case. It took a long

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time to meet you. How are
you good? Good? Thank you for

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coming. How you been? How
are you okay? This is for you.

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I think I know your work coming. Thank you very much. Thank

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you. Give somewhere with how are
you? This may sound like small talk,

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but what you're hearing is in a
legal arms deal. It's December twenty

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fourteen, and two Romanian men are
in a hotel room in the country of

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Montenegro their meeting with three Columbians.
The Romanians are named Flavio Georgescu and Christian

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Ventilla, and they've arranged for the
Columbians to buy millions of dollars in weapons

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and ammunition anti aircraft cannons, rocket
propelled grenades, and assault rifles. Yeah,

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I show him the contract. I
was pushing to sign the contract.

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This is Flavio and yeah, even
illegal armsteels use contracts. Anyway, Flavio's

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got his paperwork together, but he's
stressed. Christino's trying to show him things.

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He's leaptop some specifications anything, but
for me is just to put his

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signature and just leave me alone because
I want to get out and that's it.

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I'm done. Flavio is at the
finish line. He'd broke a heard

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the whole deal. All he needs
now is to close with a signature from

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one of the Colombians. But the
Colombians they're stalling. They've told Flavio they

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represent the FARC, the Colombian paramilitary
group that, as this is happening,

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is a US designated foreign terrorist organization. That's a big deal. It's what

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makes this an illegal arms deal,
also a big deal. The Romanians were

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explicitly told that the weapons would be
used to shoot down American helicopters. The

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lead Colombian is a wide bellied,
brash man with a bellowing voice, and

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he says he's not signing, not
yet. No, before he signed it,

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he said, I have to talk
with my people. The Colombian says

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he needs final app roval from his
superiors, and he and his two associates

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step out of the hotel room.
Then agents with the United States Drug Enforcement

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Administration burst through the door, guns
drawn. You're on the wrist and to

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be handcuffs me and I sell let
me talk. Lem use the bathroom,

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and this is where things get interesting. Flavio handcuffed motions with his head to

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one of the d EA agents.
The agent walks with Flavio into the bathroom.

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They're crowded together in the small room. Flavio looks directly at the agent

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and motions for him to step closer. In a soft voice, Flavio tells

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him, I work for the CIA. I said, I call it this

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sin four CIA just told him I'm
Trevor Aaronson from Western Sound and iHeart podcasts.

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This is Alphabet Boys season two,
up in arms. Oh No has

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a prepaid call. You will not
be charged for this call. This call

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is from an innate sort a prison
I Flavio. Hello, good morning,

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mister Hey, thanks so much for
calling. I'm so sorry. I didn't

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realize that this two or two number
was you this whole time. Sorry about

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that. He's not a problem.
He's not a problem. In case you

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haven't figured it out yet, let
me tell you Flavio was arrested, convicted,

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and imprisoned for what happened in Montenegro, even though he told US officials

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that he is working for the CIA. I get a lot of calls,

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emails and texts from people claiming to
have been railroaded by the government if they

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read my articles or hear my podcasts
about how federal law enforcement runs very questionable

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sting operations, and they hope I'll
cover their very questionable cases. Most of

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the time, there's no there there, but Flavio's different. I first heard

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of Flavio Georgescu in twenty fifteen.
His arrest for allegedly brokering a seventeen million

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dollar arms deal for the FARC in
Colombia stood out to me. The deal

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included some serious weapons anti aircraft,
cannons, RPGs, assault rifles, the

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kind that caused misery and destruction in
the world's more desperate corners. I wrote

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about Flavio's case during a trial,
and after being set to prison, Flavio

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started reading my previous work. What
I was trying to talk with you,

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You study all those cases. What
I see with college from a start of

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way present what I see right now
after that much work, you didn't achieve

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anything because you didn't make a change
out. Okay, Flavio, go on,

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But my case is the same like
everybody else. Because the government use

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a template and the way they approach
people based on trust, based on temptations

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based on different ingredients. Everybody,
on all the cases which you study,

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they bite the bait. Myself,
I didn't let myself to be played.

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I didn't let myself to touch the
bait. My case is so unique based

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on the fact and based on the
evidence. Flavia says he wasn't an armstealer.

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He never was. He was the
CIA's guy, and he got tangled

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in a web of federal agencies,
each with its own agenda. None of

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those agendas included him. I was
convicted for no reason. And having my

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case compared with a thousand case which
you review them, all of them,

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my case is the one which you
gonna clear your work, and we're gonna

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put you in this country in the
place which you deserve to be. You

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was the only one. That's why
I'm so impressed about your work and everything,

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because you was the only one to
address the cause. You was the

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only one to put a point a
finger on the confidational sources and confidation in

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fourmants. He's the good guy in
all this, Flavia says, and he

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insists there's no ambiguity about any of
it. He was working with the CIA

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the all time, but in the
end. He was hung out to dry.

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I don't deserve to be labeled as
a false terrorist for the rest of

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my life. I cannot do that. I decided to die. Just put

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me to sleep, and that's it. Flavia wants me to tell a story,

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and if I agree, he promises
to tell me everything. Thank you

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so much to talking. Don't we
need probably, I don't know, hours

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and hours the way. You're right. I want to be with you and

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start to choot the journey which I
start in this life. I want to

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start to choose from two thousands.
That beats down. It means the calls

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about to end. Federal inmates can
only talk on the phone for fifteen minutes

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at a time. When I was
arrested from Montenegro, and take you with

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me everywhere and you document everything,
and yeah, we're gonna be a change.

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Right now, we're gonna get I
have only fifteen minutes. I can

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pull it back in forty minutes.
Then you tell me your your opinions and

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we start from this. Okay,
great, I'll be here. I'll look

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for your call. That's just thank
you. This would be the first of

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many calls between us over the last
few years. I recorded hours and hours

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with Flavio. He's walked me through
what happened to him, step by step,

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over and over. I've also listened
to hours of undercover recordings of Flavio

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and talked with federal agents who worked
with him in the past, all in

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trying to solve a mystery. Is
Flavio a government agent? Is he a

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double agent? Or is he something
else? Altogether, I can say one

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thing with certainty. Okay, and
how do you know this person? Why

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would they go? They are not
really big, they're looking. They want

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put twy me for it because I'm
really really connected. He was talking to

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the CIA. Okay, how are
you really really connected? Because everyone knows

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you, you know, because everyone
knows you to get them weapons. You

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just told me they contacted you to
get grenades and stuff. So what kind

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of connections do you have because of
its criminal connections? So then the CIA

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doesn't want to have anything to do
with it. He's not any criminal connections.

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That was a clip from Alphabet Boys
season two. Up in Arms.

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Search Alphabet Boys and follow all the
episodes wherever you get your podcasts.