Forthe past year reporters from The Times, The Sunday Times and News Corp Australia have been unlocking the secrets of the global cocaine industry for a new podcast, Cocaine Inc. This is the inside story of the British beauticians recruited as cash mules by a criminal mastermind.

In Dubai’s gold souk two British drug dealers browse the labyrinth of alleyways. The air is humid and the streets are packed with cars and motorbikes beeping at one another to move as private security guards patrol the area. Shop windows display gold necklaces in the shape of olive leaves, gold bracelets with names written in Arabic calligraphy, 24-carat-gold bangles studded with rubies, sapphires and emeralds, and pure gold bars sold by the half-kilogram or kilogram.

This marketplace has existed in the Deira district of Dubai since the early 1900s, but boomed considerably in the 1940s when merchants from Iran and India arrived to set up shop. At any one time it holds about ten tonnes — £600 million worth — of gold, according to local tourist guides.

Read more: thetimes.com

Photo: thetimes.com