Fake Sheikh: the king of the sting UNMASKED (part two)

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1:23This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again, now streaming only on Disney+. Welcome back to the Upshot where we are exploring the grubby world of the fake sheikh Mazar Namoud. We've been getting up to all sorts of capers in part one. We would have got away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids. My name's Jack. Zach's still here. Hello, Jack. Roche's still here. I'm still here. Hello. And when we left off, Maz had just been caught out using the claims of a serial fantasist to flog an absolutely bollocks story about Posh Spice and Brooklyn Beckham being kidnapped. It all fallen apart when people had probed these claims even lightly and the police had dropped this whole criminal investigation, which meant that Mazah Mahmood's reputation was in tatters.

2:11It's the first time he'd been caught out basically making stuff up. Yeah. Making stuff up. He flew too close to the sun. Yeah. I think you can probably, do you know what it is? It's like you can get away with making stuff up about normal people. because it's because i i also think that like the newspapers in this area were like kind of wanted to believe that people were like evil and bad and were always scheming but it's like once you get to like that celebrity level there's just a bit more scrutiny yeah that's a good point you can't like lie about posh advice yeah he went went too big yeah yeah it was too good of a story to turn down for him right yeah yeah i guess when he heard he was like i've got to make this work yeah whether or not it's true it does it obviously makes you question all of his stories or indeed all of the news of the world stories but funnily enough despite that scandal his employers of the news of the world stick by him so the news of the world say that despite the obvious facts that have emerged it is perplexed at the decision to drop the Posh Spice kidnap case and it stands by its original story they kind of have to though it's like the equivalent of your friend who breaks up with their boyfriend and complains a lot about him and then gets back with him, it's like you've got to stay with him forever now because you told me all the bad stuff about him.

3:23They've got to stay with him because if they drop him now, then it's like all of the stories are boxed. The whole house of cards just comes down. Yeah, you're right. And he knows where the bodies are buried. Yeah. There's so many times in the book as well. I think in this story, this Posh by story, where it's like Posh then got in her car and called a friend. And it's like, how did you know that? You can't just put that in. Called a friend. She cried on the phone to her friend. It's like, dude, you can't say this shit. There's literally only one way we would know about that. She left a voicemail.

3:54It was panicked. It's like, yeah, I bet. There are a lot of phone-based stories around this era. Or like, then the friend, like when he does Britney Spears, like Britney's friend told me a lot of that stuff. Because they still use the friend device now. And I always thought it was just like, it's obviously them making up a quote. I think it's the celebrity. Yeah. Or it's the person feeding the story. yeah like because it's so it's always so specific it was such a perfect quote as well but yeah back then it could also mean we intercepted a voicemail that's like the first thing um anyway news the world sticking with him and maz continues doing his stings undeterred so next up he goes for a slightly different target he uncovers an illegal quail fighting ring in bradford it's back to basics this actually kind of won me over about him yeah well as an animal lover yeah because i'm i listened to the Patreon episode about Ozzy Osbourne, it made me despise him.

4:52Like, and I thought he was quite cool before. I was shocked as a vegetarian. Yeah. I was... But although Petter, the wildlife charity, did a biture to him and saluted him as an animal lover. I think he saw the error of his ways. They are kind of his weebs. They are. Not militant enough. They're corny. So actually, you prefer, out of the two Brummies, you prefer Mazza Mahmood to Ozzy Osbourne because he's an animal lover. In the context of animal abuse, so basically there's this quail fighting ring in Bradford I can't believe people are getting quails to fight it's quite a big thing apparently it's like a nationwide thing that people would like take their birds to different you know fighting rings living rooms around the country it was literally people's living rooms with a bed sheet on the floor so grim it's genuinely really sad they shaved down their wee beaks really with like razor blades to make it like so they can pack each other why quails are they particularly good for it I think they're quite small yeah they are or they the guy like pulls out the quail's feathers in front of him and he's like you've got to starve them and pull out their feathers so they're just raging and then they just go it's really hard before the fight they scream in the bird's ear as well to make it really like dazed and confused and angry it's proper scum they're horrible it's the type the type of fake shake scoop we can all get on board yeah you really won me over was he and his fake we were like would a shake be going to like someone's living room in Bradford I'm thinking of launching a quail fighting ring in the Middle East yeah there are several stories where it's like why did you need to dress up?

6:17I don't know if he is the fake. Yeah, I think he doesn't always do that. He's just a quail fighting enthusiast. Anyway, so he eventually, he does the story about them, but he also buys three of the birds off them to rescue the birds, which is very noble. And he's planning to drop them off at an RSPCA shelter, but he's in a hurry getting to his next seedy hotel suite. So he gives them to his aunt to look after. And then he goes back a couple of weeks later to pick up the birds. And they're talking. She's like, have you been mad? They're just chatting. And then he goes, yeah but how are the quails and she goes oh they were delicious she's bloody eating them those poor quails I mean they could have been worse for the quails I was going to say they're in a better place now it really bummed me out I mean at least get a few eggs out that's the best bit I've never eaten a quail so yeah his aunt's eating his quails quite impressive from her that she's able to sort of slaughter and eat three birds he then goes back up the glamour scale quite a lot when his next target is none other the Mick Jagger, which is, you know, it's about as glamorous as it gets after a quail fighting room.

7:20Although I don't think the sting is necessarily the massive, mind-blowing scoop that he thinks it is, because he catches Mick shagging a 23-year-old model. Yes. Sort of priced into Mick Jagger. Likely placed for him to be. Yeah. He is behind his wife's back. So, yeah, presumably he's doing the whole like, Mick Jagger portrays himself as a family man. Which I'm not sure is true. Yeah. It does kind of feel like this happens where he either gets a really good scoop that's quite low down or he goes so high up that it's either completely made up or it's like just not that interesting. Yeah, it's like famous person.

7:52Well, yeah, this one is particularly good. So basically, Maz can't prove that Mick Jagger even had sex with this model. So instead, he goes with the headline Top of the Flops and describes how Mick was in his hotel room with her all night but couldn't get it up. Is that because Mick Jagger was like, I didn't have sex with her? And he was like, right, okay. Oh, you didn't have sex with her so you must have. what's wrong with you it feels like quite a lot filling into the blanks there yeah yeah yeah it's just made it's just completely made up it's just bollocks it's just like basically he doesn't have the evidence to do the story that he wants so he just does another made up show yeah there's always an angle which apparently apparently Mick Jagger was even more fuming about this he would be he'd actually prefer that there was a story about him you're being a Lothario and he's emotionally cheated anyway so that was just done but I like that is a thing in newspapers where like so much energy is invested in a story that you're just like just find a fucking angle yeah it makes sense and they've but they've spent so much money as well like i think it wouldn't happen now because you've only spent like 20 quid in your transfer it's like just leave it but i do think they're like having worked in like celebrity kind of journalism before it's like sometimes you get a really really famous person and they're just so boring obviously you don't do this but you have to publish the headline it's just like why i love my you know gua sha or something it's like boring when i was at the evening standings was happening all the time they'd be like you just have to have something.

9:10Yeah. You go and stand outside a film premiere for hours, get nothing. And then they just be like, well, and you're like, oh, she was really nice to the autograph hunters. And they're like, great. Yeah. It's just like manufacturing stories. You have to. But that's why like all the interviews and I are just like, can you split the G? Which is worse. Where's the best place to get us in London? I prefer the unfair exposes. Yes. Anyway, he's got more sporting stings up his sleeve. soon after that he exposes John Barnes for having a string of affairs this is a family podcast so I won't be describing and then in 2003 he reprises the fake shake routine to expose John Fashnu I was going to say friend of the shop just scared of him terrified of him if you haven't listened to our crazy gang episode he's up there with Conor McGregor I think in the most scary people that we talk about I think it's scary it's more cold blooded he's sort of anti-hero of our crazy gang episode which one of my favorite episodes we've done actually and he's he's Hannibal Lecter basically but back 2003 I'd say John Fashion who's sort of star has waned a bit anyway he's he done gladiators moved on but the fake shake gets wind of the fact that John Fashion is open to a bit of match fixing and so he according to Mazat Mahmoud's book Fashion agrees to organize a charity match between a world 11 and an unspecified Arab national side but here's the twist Fash agrees to fix the result by paying three players up to 70 grand each I don't think it's true this is a charity match who's betting on a charity match people bet on a lot of sea quail fighting that's true the whole thing is basically set up so that Lee Mack will score every time you can't don't know who's putting a grand on that you're saying it's rigged already it's like giving 20 quid like Gunnersaurus yeah like let that kid score yeah yeah people will bet on it so so Fashionu's payment was going to be 40 grand at a new Mercedes it's quite tasty and before the story runs he accepts a deposit of 5 ,000 pounds I also think John Fashionu was head of the Nigerian Football Association at this point oh really I think yeah so that's so it's pretty it's quite a big scoop but did he fix the matches well he agreed to when he took the£5 ,000.

11:31He also admitted, according to Mazal Mahmood, to fixing a Premier League match in 1994, to having some of the world's top players on his payroll and less bigger deal, but using his charity to avoid paying in-countdown. That's like fork, find and draw. It's like he's a celebrity that doesn't pay taxes. It's not... That's not a story. ...dicreasing interest there. Anyway, so they run this expose, but Jean Fashionu has the perfect defence. He claims that he knew about the Sting all along and was only appearing to be corrupt so he could gather evidence for the police. Interesting. Was he working? I was exposing him.

12:08Which, yeah, taking the£5 ,000 bribe doesn't look right. It's a bit like that Spider-Man meme, you know, where they're pointing at each other. It reminds me a bit of the Mark Bosnich story where Mark Bosnich fails the coke test and then for the next three years is basically just doing coke, hanging out with all these coke guys and he claims that it's because he was gathering evidence of who'd spiked him and that's why he'd failed the coke test and he was undercover. And then he said, like, I'd bump into frenzy years later and they'd be like, have you caught them yet? And I'd be like, still undercover.

12:40Yeah. Close. Definitely undercover. Three-year bender though. Yeah, I think that story sounds valid to me. Did the police say that John Fashion was working with them? No. No, I think... At what point was John Fashion going to go to the police with the evidence that he'd gathered? possibly after he'd collected the 40 grand. I don't think the police let you like pitch crimes to them. Yeah. I don't think you can go in and be like, I've got a great story. From the man on the inside. Yeah. They'll be like, right. Just been doing crimes for the past. That's admitting to crime. I've been working as a hitman for the past 10 years.

13:18For you. Yeah. All these people hired me to do this. I'll have my medals, please. Yeah. that's basically what amateur sleuthing is though isn't it yeah it's a bit like do you ever see those guys who hang out outside like police stations and they're like I'm an auditor I'm auditing you or they like go up to random they just follow people around and say they're auditing them following the police I don't actually know they always come up on my TikTok because I have quite a crazy person algorithm yeah they sound that and people who don't believe in 5G don't believe it exists or they don't like it I don't really know yeah they think yeah we had a babysitter on holiday and she my son wasn't sleeping and she was like it's because of the 5G masks I was like we'll be back in five hours please don't eat him you fucking nutter I think she's on to something you don't know oh god yeah my wife was like oh maybe that's so brilliant like Kourtney Kardashian doesn't have wifi in her house for the same reason really I remember when we were young mobile phones were a thing they were like don't keep it in your pocket yeah yeah because you make yourself infertile yeah yeah pop that in my Faraday box this is by the way so the John Fashney things happen he's done a lot of stings by this point how are they not just photos of him circulating I guess the internet was quite creaky and you know what I mean yeah but you had like rotten.com why didn't you have pictures of him flashbacks now you could watch people be beheaded on the internet but you couldn't get a photo of this guy like I guess it's just the press not that I did yeah And does he, does he, he has sort of different outfits as well for each character that he's going undercover as well.

14:57Yeah. So maybe. But just his face. Yeah. Because he's not covering his face. That's the thing. It's not like he's, there's one story where he makes his friend wear a hijab. Or like, no, he makes him wear a burqa. But like, he's not covering his face. But when he gets, there's a court appearance where he covers his face going in. Yeah. Because he was also, yeah, he's going to court like quite a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So it doesn't mean. I guess he's also doing such a variety of cases. like are the Taliban talking to Sophie Anderton and like the people running a coil fighting ring in Bradford. Well, they should.

15:30Spread your net widely. If only they teamed up. Well, I think the police and the press are protecting him a lot because there's like a thing of like, oh, undercover reporter, you don't expose them. Are the police? Police and the tabloids at this point are in bed. Yeah, that's true. They obviously came out phone hacking. Yeah, that's true. Which is why a lot, again, why we don't get as many good stories now because the police aren't selling them to the press as much. Well, he's about to get possibly his biggest story of all in 2006 when Maz is responsible for Svengård Eriksson losing the England job.

16:02So he decides to dust off his old shake outfit and poses as this rich Arab businessman who wants to buy a Premier League club and arranges these meetings with Sven. They end up meeting twice, including once at the Burj Al Arab luxury hotel in Dubai, where they have this plush dinner, they're necking champagne, dining on lobster. They drink£900 bottles of wine. And of course, all the while, Maz is hooked up to a tape recorder. And this is what he splashes on the front page of the News of the World. Scheming, Sven-Goran Eriksson is secretly preparing to dump England immediately after the World Cup, the News of the World can reveal.

16:49At a time when the Swede should be totally focused on vital team preparations, he tried to get our undercover News of the World investigator to buy Premiership club Aston Villa and give him the manager's job on a massive£5 million a year. Ericsson, 57, bragged he could tap up superstar David Beckham and prize him away from Real Madrid to Villa. it's a juicy story it's a great story I do miss the style of journalism where they would just put random words just kept verbs wasks denied sometimes they'd have a list of bullet points and each bullet point would begin with one it did make it very easy to read bragged I think is one of the most common ones bonked romped romped oh yeah he romps with two beauties yeah this is a family newspaper but sometimes like after the romp they would then run out of dirty details so they would be like whispered yeah admitted yeah they always get weaker yeah i can i just say something so controversial yet so grave i don't think spangoran erickson did anything wrong i guess he was just lining up his next job yeah talking to a recruiter yeah he just like took a he just went on linkedin yeah but like in a fancy way i think he did wrong well i don't really also don't really care about england whatever but he'd been he'd been manager for like a long time was his contract yeah yeah he was coming to the end of his contract and he was just like yeah i might just do aston villanuex and they're acting like he like tried to kill the queen yeah obviously not on a par with some of the other yeah it's hard but it's it's juicy because it's such a big deal again big celebrity not that big i guess that his his focus should be all on england right now as well but like i don't know i'm kind of with you on that yeah yeah i guess going for a job interview isn't a crime no which is what he did yeah it does it does feel like a crime though when you're like i'm i i have felt like this if we're going for interviews while i'm at a different company you're like panicking yeah what when you're not the dentist appointment yeah yeah yeah i think part of the way part of the reason that they make it out to be such a big deal is because they frame that as these, you know, because his meetings with them are so, like, decadent.

19:10It's disgusting. The lifestyle this man lives while he's leading our country, a Swede in charge of our national team, drinking champagne. Which he paid for. Yeah, which he bought us. But there was also a thing that he's like, Sven had poor judgment of people. Oh, right, yeah. A bit like Peter Mandelson was a bit, his weakness was like sort of rich, rich people, women in Sven's case. And so I think there was a bit of a thing of just like, this guy is just not focused on the prize. This was also post Ferrier Lam and Ulrika and everything, all his other affairs. He was already painted by the tabloids as quite a scandalous character.

19:47This was just another juicy thing and another way he's gone behind England's back. Let's have some gory details. So they go into the decadent details of their meetings. So the article continues, the next day, Erickson joined R.Arab and his associates. R.Arab. I hate that. That's what they... That's out of Tintin. That's some colonial fucking talk. That reminds me of when Rupert Murdoch tweeted about Muslims and he spelled it Moslem. Yeah. M-O-S-L-E-M. Sorry, no one's done that since. That's some Belgian Congo shit. R-Arab. R-Arab. The next day, Ericsson joined R-Arab and his associates aboard a luxury 72-foot yacht in Dubai Marina.

20:31Together with his agent, they downed bottle after bottle of Dom Perignon champagne. Ericsson claimed some of his FA bosses didn't like foreigners. He's not English. He's earning too much money. He had too many scandals, he mimicked. That was funny. That's funny for his friend and it's funny to catch him doing it. Also, really like the news in the world being like, yeah, they said that he didn't like foreigners. It's like you've literally just said our Arab in the previous paragraph. The next sentence is, then the sneaky Swede got down to money. They were like, bit xenophobic. Anyway. Back to us.

21:09Yeah. Johnny Foreigner. I mean, I think it was the Daily Mail, the article that they ran when Sven was appointed England manager. I can't remember exactly. It was like, what was it? They wanted Terry Venables and they would have settled for Billy Anybody but instead the FA sold us down the fjord for Johnny Foreigner. Yeah. It's like to a nation of five million skiers who, something about Ikea or something as well. I thought it was quite funny. You still get really annoyed about having foreign managers. I don't think Ireland really has the same problem. No. Apart from Mick McCarthy. Oh, yeah. You know, the Irish manager.

21:50But I remember like, Trapatoni didn't even speak English, I think. Yeah. Capello didn't read so much English. Yeah. Never bothered. Yeah. I've got Thomas Tuchel now. I think I've been over it. and everyone's been normal I just think they're sneaky that's all I think so the way the sneaky Swede got down to business was basically suggesting that this fake shake, this Arab businessman as he thinks he is, should buy Aston Villa particularly Aston Villa because their chairman, Doug Ellis is ill and quite elderly so they portray him as this callous vulture waiting to Yeah, waiting to swoop on the next business opportunity.

22:33They say, Sven basically says that if this takeover goes through, that he will quit England and become Aston Villa manager. And not only that, he will sign them David Beckham from Real Madrid. In exchange, he wants a£5 million a year salary, which will match Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, who's the big dog at that point. Obviously, whether rightly or wrongly, this does cause a huge storm at the FA and a few weeks later it announces that Sven will be stepping down as England manager after the World Cup. No one ever does well once that's happened. In advance of the tournament they're going to be leaving.

23:12That's true. Kiss of death. Did they do that with Saizky or no? No, he kept it quiet. Oh yeah, he did keep it quiet. I mean, I kind of agree that he basically went to a job interview on a super yacht. Yeah, and also David Beckham was at Real Madrid he's just saying I will bring David Beckham back to England and the English press are like I fucking dare he do this so stupid he will be David Beckham will be kidnapped by a sneaky today joins a ring of potential kidnappers he'll be held at a house in Brixton while five million in salary swipper spend is paid out by a fake shake and a jeweled turban is placed on his head.

23:59It is really tinted. Yeah, it's tinted Scooby-Doo, yeah. Also, like, all of his stories are like, and there was a ring. It's like, not everything needs to be a ring. Yeah. Sometimes you can have a singular nonce, and that's fine. The ring just makes it sound like, sort of, yeah, they're among you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Singular nonce is a bit depressing, isn't it? Yeah, it's not very powerful. Whereas a ring of nonces. Whereas a ring of quail fighters. Anyway, despite that massive story, 2006 is actually quite a mixed bag for our hero, for Maz. So he gets caught out finally. This is when he's actually unmasked, really.

24:33So he tries to sting George Galloway, the hero of the hour. So George Galloway at the time is the leader of the newly formed Respect Party. He's always got a new party on the go, hasn't he? And according to Galloway, Maz poses as an Indian businessman and tries to get him to make anti-Semitic comments and take illegal payments. And I guess neither of those things were. yeah none of them happened he was like no so basically galloway meets with him and then straight after calls a press conference and is like i knew he was an imposter before the story came out yeah i think he basically meets him because i reckon quite often in these stories mazumam is like and we we hate jews don't we like it's quite laid on thick yeah like he's just got unsuspecting targets whereas galloway's say what you like about him but he's very shrewd yeah i didn't realize that it was before the story came out i thought that the story had come out and then George Galloway had done the fashion thing where he was like, I knew all along.

25:27No, he literally meets with him and then he's like, some guy just tried to stitch me up. I don't know if he knows it's Mazum Mahmood at that point. But he knows he's trying to... I mean, George Galloway famously sat down with Saddam Hussein and saluted him for his... What did he say? Your courage and your indefatigability. Yeah. Like he's not always the best judge of these situations. This is such a George Galloway word to the night. You can hear it. I salute you, sir. It's actually quite a good video. We'll do a Galloway episode at some point. probably won't come back for that one. You can find someone else.

25:56Anyway, so Galloway basically does this press conference. He's like, you sir are an imposter. And then he releases photos of Mazah Mahmood to stop him being able to operate undercover. And that's how we get this picture we're looking at. How did Galloway have this photo? Because I assumed that Galloway had then like just like snapped a photo of him. But this is a... This looks like a mugshot. I reckon probably, that to me looks like a shot for like a security pass or something. You have to do a quick mugshot for something. So I don't know. he's got hold of it George Galloway is this the only picture we've got of yeah otherwise he's sort of yeah yeah he hides obscuring his own face but we're looking at it he's done very well considering how long he's been working undercover to keep his identity as Ro said you do that now I don't think you don't get it but what is yeah anyway I'm sure you'll come on to it but like what is the opportunity we'll come on to that we'll come on to that but yeah he looks quite sort of ordinary there anyway after this press conference the News of the World beg all the other newspapers not to publish the picture of Mahmood but and a lot of them go along with it, I think.

26:54I don't think it's published by newspapers. Just because it's like, do you think other newspapers had their own versions of this? I think there's just this thing, there's, again, like you said, there's this like code among thieves. It's like an immersive thing of like, we can't reveal our undercover people. It's a bit of a taboo in journalism, isn't it? To reveal undercover people. Yeah, it's a massive taboo, actually. It's like revealing sources. You're putting other people in danger is the idea. anyway the year gets worse for Maz when in July another of his very high profile cases collapses in court so back in 2004 the news of the world had run another slightly hard to believe story headlined dirty bomb horror our man Mazza smashes terror plot so obviously like people are fucking terrified about terrorism at this at this point and they say this is the chilling moment anti-terror police swooped on a gang suspected of trying to buy radioactive material for a dirty bomb that could have slaughtered thousands of britons three men were arrested at london hotel after a joint operation between the news of the world and scotland yard's elite anti-terror branch we were also there in what universe is an elite anti-terror branch doing joint operations covert ops the news of the world the bond movie that you never saw i think the story falls apart at that point yeah yeah i think the news of the world are calling it a joint operation yeah it's crazy that people believe this the black ops team just like tell you we should bring along a photographer just hanging around us at westminster pubs being like come on guys paul mcmullen

28:35yeah i think the whole dirty bomb thing always felt a bit so it's like there's going to be a nuclear terrorist attack or a radioactive one. They go on actually, they say, we infiltrated a sinister underworld network believed to be acting for a Mr. Big in Saudi Arabia, a known Al-Qaeda hotbed. The Saudi was willing to pay 300 grand for a kilo of red mercury, a deadly substance developed by Cold War Russian scientists for making briefcase nuclear bombs. Again, it's tinted, isn't it? It's James Bond now, isn't it? It's invisible cars. It's post-Scooby-Doo. It's almost quite Harry Potter. I think it's Bond.

29:09The blast from just one could kill everyone from several streets around, causing unimaginable mayhem if exploded in a city. You should not be allowed to write in a newspaper, the blast could kill everyone. Yeah. That's crazy. You can't just say that. I think. Could kill everyone. If they hadn't already lost me, the Cold War Soviet scientists, the evil geniuses. The commies. In fact, it fits in a briefcase. It's just so James Bond. It's in a pen. MI5 expert Q commented. Now pay attention, Mr. Bond. It's literally invisible cars and exploding watches, isn't it? So good, so good, so good New markdowns up to 70 % off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now Stock up and stay big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories And more must-haves for summer Join the Nordiclub to unlock exclusive discounts Shop new arrivals first and more Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free Great brands, great prices That's why you rack

30:14This episode is brought to you by Fox One. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA World Cup live in 4K for just$19.99 a month with three days free. Build your own multi-view, choose up to three streams, and follow player spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights, and instant replays. The FIFA World Cup, streaming live on Fox One. Offers a subject to change. Go to see fox.com for complete terms and conditions. Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end DJ, a road dog, or a trail mixer?

30:56Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. but people ate it up and it went to court and then it turned out to be utter bollocks so for starters there is no such thing as red mercury it is a fictional substance invented by Soviet intelligence just as like an idea so they were saying do you think it was sort of a fear-mongering type thing that they wanted to say that their scientists had developed this thing yeah I think it was just like loads of bollocks were spread deliberately by intelligence like to fuck with the West yeah just to fuck with people yeah yeah and secondly the man trying to buy it who the News of the World described as the gang leader of a sinister underground network turned out to be a random Somali businessman described by the Guardian as a wheeler dealer.

31:48It's another, it's like that other guy the Florian Gashier. It's like this random bloke you meet in the pub. Yeah. I'm going to make a dirty bomb. Of course you are mate. Basically it's called Red Mercury and it makes a briefcase explode. These like guys here are just like yeah it's 100 % pure cocaine and you're like yeah yeah right cool. It's actually more Alex Ryder than James Bond. It's like children's stuff. It's like these random people that you'd meet outside on the street during COVID. They'd tell you about like shape-shifting lizards and stuff. Open your eyes. Basically, all it is, is the Soviets built these nukes.

32:26Anyway, this guy didn't even want it for terror purposes. So he wanted it for two reasons, which are both bollocks and possibly conflicting. So firstly, he wanted to wash black dollars. so black dollars is an urban myth in parts of africa which says that pieces of black paper which are dipped in the right chemicals can turn into u.s bank notes it's worth a go for the sake of argument yeah if you get any red mercury you would try that yeah if someone says you're like i could get you red mercury for 50 quid i'd be like oh should we just try yeah have you got any black paper sunday night we're not doing it exactly isn't it if not if it doesn't work out i'll make a dirty bomb it's fine yeah yeah and if that fails we can always do a dirty bomb wiping out entire streets.

33:08Secondly, he also thought that red mercury was the Middle Eastern equivalent of Viagra. Again, kind of believable. It's like in the vending machines in men's toilets, they always have like black ant. Yeah. Like angry blue. And it's like herbal Viagra. Or the way like methadone was like plant food. Yeah. Everything's everything. I actually now think he's met a bloke in a pub who has bought some herbal Viagra at the vending machine and it's called Red Mercury And just work backwards From there Or like poppers Aren't poppers often called Like this kind of thing Yeah Yeah they've got to have like Stupid It's a legal high name Yeah Like you know Those like head shops That you go into When you're like 15 And you buy incense And they're just like Oh you could buy Like this opium pill Yeah or like Liquid euphoria Yeah yeah And somehow that's morphed Into a dirty bomb Yeah It's proper bollocks That's one isn't it But anyway They took this Somali businessman All the way to court On terror charges Accusing him of trying to do A nuclear terror attack which would have been the worst terror attack ever yeah killed everyone just trying to buy some Viagra and I ended up in the Old Bailey I'm trying to do a children's alchemy game he was cleared at the Old Bailey walked free ready to pursue another plot and among the witnesses for the defence was none other than Florian Gashin who you might remember was the kidnap informant in Mahmoud's posh wise kidnap plot story so he's the fantasist who was in the nightclub with the two Romanian guys.

34:35But at this point he's flipped. He's turned on Maz and Mahmood. Possibly because there was an incentive for him to do so. He tells the jury that he and Maz concocted the Victoria Beckham kidnap plot together. The plot that he said they recruited a gang of petty criminals and then persuaded them to discuss an abduction attempt. Yeah. So it's literally it's theatre. It goes right to the top. It does. It's immersive. So not only is the dirty bomb thing bollocks but we're back at the Victoria back in one being complete bollocks and not only is the victoria back in one bollocks but it's basically like a staged yeah yeah it's very immersive guys i can't make this clear all the stories are bollocks do you think the quail fighting uh no actually yeah i mean the prostitution ring running out of birmingham exhibition center yeah i guess things like because a lot of these stories he's the only one who has the evidence like when he's going undercover with the taliban he just went you could just go to afghanistan and be like yeah i was undercover with the taliban for the last two months that one i think is just easy and sounds scary yeah it's very like of its time because you can imagine even when these people the court cases were thrown out that then there would be stories being like look who walks free and free in our courts and you have all like if it was today you would get like those twitter eggs being like this is disgusting but actually they're just innocent people like the old billy doesn't work it's like yeah because they didn't doing i think some of it is some like the sven story clearly happened whether you think it's a valid story or not but yeah a lot of them are made up yeah and he does sleep with the escorts when the cameras start rolling and even the birmingham exhibition center one is like a car show is that not just like hot models i think there were escorts but like we're all aware that some hotels allow but some some journalists do copywriting does it make them copywriters maybe what do you mean I mean you could be an escort and a car model oh right yeah yeah I see what you mean you can do both yeah yeah I think he's just saying you can sleep with these models for money if you want yeah it's not a massive scoop yeah do you think his uncle wasn't selling pirate DVDs no I think he was but then it's weird that he gives the quail to the aunt and then screws her over by telling everyone about it well she ate the quails oh they sell pirate DVDs and they eat quails it's like leave them alone do you think it's the same family could be that would be great if the pirate DVD one turned out to be fake that he'd planted he'd planted pirate DVDs on their side a copy of Rush Hour 2 on his dad's mate Florim Gashim said in court he said Maz said I would get 10 grand another 5 grand if these guys got prosecuted he also claimed him and Mahmood had set up dozens of other stories over the years yeah so no fake no drug dealing traffic wardens that's a shame I could believe that I mean that one obviously I could believe that one That wasn't legit.

37:21They are wrong ones. Anyway, still the news of the world stand by him, even when it's clear that he's just selling absolute snake oil. And he carries on doing stings for the next few years. And actually this time gives a rare interview laying in to the people who bash him and his family newspaper. He says, people forget the good work that goes on here. My colleagues and I put our lives at risk on a daily basis. He points out that he's been beaten up, had guns pointed at his head and had a Russian mafia boss put a 30 grand price on his head, possibly in his dream. Yeah. He did expose the nonces in Manila.