Investigative reporter Sam Cooper describes the waves of drugs and laundered money from China crashing on Canada&rsquos shores. Sam's new book is "Wilful Blindness: How a Network of Narcos, Tycoons, and CCP Agents Infiltrated the West."

Tom Burgis, investigations correspondent at the Financial Times and author of "Kleptopia", discusses the increasingly disturbing influence that kleptocrats exert internationally, who enables them and the flaws in our efforts to contain them.

The golden passports and visas industry boomed during the pandemic and attracted the attention of policymakers. This week, we&rsquore reposting our interview with Oliver Bullough, author of &ldquoMoneyland&rdquo, on this shady industry and how it operates. (This episode was originally published in May 2019.)

John Heathershaw of the University of Exeter discusses the working paper he co-authored for the National Endowment for Democracy: &ldquoPaying for a World Class Affiliation: Reputation Laundering in the University Sector of Open Societies.&rdquo He shows how vulnerable universities are to abuse by kleptocrats seeking to shape the conversation, often quite subtly, about their governments and their legacies. This research was undertaken for NED and under the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence project.

Omar Alshogre, refugee, political activist with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and Georgetown University alumni, shares the wrenching story of his three years as a political prisoner in the worst of Syria&rsquos prisons. He discusses the role that extortion plays there, simultaneously delegitimizing the regime further and propping it up financially.Episode resources:

• Mentioned at (00:33): The Syrian Emergency Task Force
• Mentioned at (00:45): Omar's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 11 March 2020