The Mystery of the $200 Million Drug Bust | The War on Drugs

This is the story of how the biggest cash bust in the history of the War on Drugs never uncovered any actual drugs.

In 2007, federal police raided the Mexico city mansion of the high-flying businessman Zhenli Ye Gon. Inside they found $207 million dollars – over two tonnes of $100 dollar bills – along with luxury cars and automatic weapons.

But who was Zhenli? How did a Chinese-Mexican businessman go from photo-ops with world leaders to allegedly supplying the Sinaloa Cartel? And how did he supposedly blow $157 million gambling in Las Vegas?

In this episode we uncover one of the outright weirdest, least-known stories of the entire War on Drugs.