March 1, 2020
SHARE
CANADALAND
#315 The Cocaine Smuggling Ring At VICE
A behind-the-scenes look at our new investigative podcast
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Jordan Cornish
Producer
Kevin Sexton
Producer

In 2015, five young people were arrested for smuggling cocaine into Australia. They had a common connection: Slava P, a music editor at VICE Canada. At the time of the bust, Slava was silent. But years later, he decided to sit down and tell us everything. CANADALAND senior producer Kasia Mychajlowycz has turned those conversations, and subsequent reporting, into our new investigative series, Cool Mules. Kasia talks with Jesse about how the story came together, the ethics of giving Slava a platform and what it all says about the media.

Subscribe to Cool Mules right now or get all six episodes ad-free for $5/month by clicking here.

This episode is brought to you by Dispatch CoffeeWealthBar, and Article.

More from this series
“ It was hot girls having a blast. There's nothing wrong with that. I thought it was aspirational. I did not yet realize that we were in fact shooting porn and that that was actually happening in the back room of the bus that we were living on.” - Courtney Kocak, former Girls Gone Wild “Merch Girl”
May 19, 2025
“ My brother, first and foremost, was a good person. He was very bright, he was educated, and he was autistic. And I think had he not met the creeper hunter, I think he would still be alive today.” -Brother of “John Doe #1”
May 12, 2025
“We need to start dis-entangling from the United States as quickly as possible, economically, politically, socially, militarily, and culturally.” -Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War
May 5, 2025
Jesse Brown is an ideological slut. Well, so he says. His past votes have jumped, in no particular order, from the Conservatives to the NDP “....maybe there was a fringe party or Parti Québécois vote in there somewhere, I can’t even remember who I’ve thrown in with over the years — I have no loyalty, I’m politically promiscuous.”
April 28, 2025
“I'm just watching the great powers in between me and down there and over there and it's almost like a bad nightmare.” - Larry Audlaluk
April 21, 2025
“ Here is what I would've done if I was Mark Carney, right? Just let it be out there. If you really have nothing to hide, don't hide.” - Professor Partha Mohanram
April 14, 2025
“...the tentacles of party discipline and party control have completely grabbed a hold of everybody and they have a really hard time breaking free. We just no longer have politicians who can speak their minds, politicians who can stand up on behalf of their constituents.” -Alex Marland, author of Whipped: Party Discipline in Canada
April 7, 2025
“   …the City of Pickering has witnessed a growing infiltration of alt right individuals, ideologies, and influences that have created an atmosphere of uncertainty, fear, and intimidation over our Council, our staff, our residents, and indeed the broader community.” - Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe
March 31, 2025
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND