In this episode, Alex and Sinead crack open the glittering facade of the diamond smuggling world.
From mine to market, diamonds are sold as symbols of eternal love and ethical sourcing. But behind the velvet-lined counters lies a murky underworld of off-the-books deals, ghost shipments, and blood-soaked bling.
They follow the secret paths diamonds take to dodge regulations, inflate value, and quietly change hands. Along the way, they interrogate the so-called “Kimberley Process” (spoiler: it’s about as effective as a paper umbrella in a monsoon) and explore the economic and human costs of keeping the diamond dream alive. It’s shiny. It’s sketchy. It’s capitalism with carats.
Takeaways:
Diamonds are not rare; they are abundant and artificially scarce.
The diamond industry is heavily influenced by marketing and manipulation.
Smuggling diamonds is a highly profitable and rational activity.
The Kimberley Process is ineffective in preventing conflict diamonds.
A significant percentage of diamonds in the market are illicit in origin.
The economic benefits of diamond smuggling are concentrated among brokers and traders.
Artisanal miners often work under dangerous conditions for minimal pay.
The diamond supply chain is complex and obscures the origins of the stones.
The industry operates on a system of plausible deniability.
The human cost of diamond mining and smuggling is often ignored.
Chapters:
00:00: Introduction to the Diamond Underworld
02:23: The Illusion of Scarcity
05:11: The Smuggling Process Explained
07:13: The Role of Artisanal Miners
10:06: The Smuggler's Journey
12:41 : The Brokers and Laundering Diamonds
15:24: The Flaws of the Kimberley Process
18:04: The Economics of the Diamond Trade
20:42: Who Profits from Diamonds?
23:24: The Human Cost of Diamond Smuggling
