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Transcript

🎧 Hangar 51 Files – Episode Companion High Flyers: The Daredevils Who Turned Extreme Sports into a Smuggling Empire ✈️💰🪂

Adrenaline. Altitude. Outlaws. The Sky Was Their Playground – And Their Getaway Route.

What happens when elite skydivers, backcountry pilots, and record-holding thrill-seekers swap gold medals for black-market payloads? In this episode, we jump headfirst into the little-known world of airborne smuggling—where extreme sports and organised crime collide at 10,000 feet.

These aren’t cartel enforcers or faceless syndicates. These are world-class athletes—skydiving champions, daredevil bush pilots, and former military jumpmasters—who used their unique skills to outmanoeuvre law enforcement, drop illicit cargo mid-air, and rewrite the playbook on international drug trafficking.

From Roger Nelson’s legendary “Sugar Alpha” missions to the rise of The Reefer Men and their cannabis-fuelled empire in the skies, we explore the truth behind smuggling operations so daring, they make Point Break look like a PSA.

🔹 How did they rig their planes for covert drops across borders?
🔹 Why did top athletes trade their podiums for prison sentences?
🔹 And what does this strange intersection between extreme sports and crime tell us about risk, thrill, and moral drift?

This isn’t just a crime story. It’s a high-stakes tale of passion, precision, and the dark flipside of the adrenaline economy. Strap in, and prepare to descend into the world of aerial outlaws.

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