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Introducing: Catching The Codfather
About The Episode
A fishing tycoon is arrested in an elaborate sting operation, but claims he’s the real hero fighting back against an overbearing state. So who is Carlos “The Codfather” Rafael really – a folk hero, a crook, a righteous rebel, a selfish conman?
In Season 3 of The Big Dig podcast, “Catching The Codfather,” we go down to the docks. It’s a place where food, work, nature, money and politics all meet – where dreams are born, fortunes ruined, and where the watchful eye of the government is always present. The series traces the rise of Carlos Rafael and his escalating conflict with the government, because to judge the crimes of the Codfather, you also have to judge the whole system that he chose to break.
Ian Coss: Can you tell me about how you did ultimately get arrested?
Carlos Rafael: This all started a few years back when I wanted to sell my business.
MUSIC: Enter
NARRATION: Carlos Rafael was once in the fishing business. He owned the biggest fish plant and the biggest fleet of boats, in the most valuable fishing port in America: New Bedford, Massachusetts. And he had built it all himself. Around the docks, people called him the Codfather.
Carlos Rafael: the name of the game is sharpen your knife.
NARRATION: For decades, Carlos seemed unstoppable, unbeatable. And no one was quite sure how he was able to keep it up.
ARCH: Never has there been a ban this long
NARRATION: Even as the fishing industry struggled all around him.
ARCH: A dramatic 77% cut in the cod catch.
NARRATION: Carlos kept on growing. But underneath that juggernaut of a business, there was a secret.
Ron Mullett: Some agencies thought he was involved in human trafficking or smuggling. Some people thought it was drugs.
NARRATION: A secret that Carlos guarded very carefully…until he slipped up
ARCH: [Inaudible conversation]
MUSIC: Out
Carlos Rafael: I'll regret that for the rest of my life, you son of a bitch. They would have never, never got me. But hey, it's over.
NARRATION: I knew all this when I sat down to talk with Carlos Rafael. What I wanted to know was why he did it...why he risked everything. Why he broke the law?
Carlos Rafael: It was not for the money.
NARRATION: And the deeper I looked, the more complicated that question became. Because Carlos Rafael is a complicated man.
MUSIC: Enter
Bill Blount: When you first met him, you'd say, oh, this guy's a mafioso. But actually he had a heart
NARRATION: In the fishing industry, he remains a deeply divisive figure.
David Goethel: If he wasn't born crooked, he must have learned it before he could talk.
NARRATION: Someone who inspires jealousy, fury.
John Bullard: He is a product of his own moral depravity.
NARRATION: And someone who despite all his crimes, all his deceptions, a lot of people continue to root for.
Ian Coss: Do you blame him for what he did? Do you think what he did is wrong?
Paul Valente: No, I don't.
Bill Blount: No, I don't.
NARRATION: So who is the Codfather really? A folk hero, a crook, a righteous rebel, a selfish conman? I believe in order to judge the crimes of Carlos Rafael, you have to understand the business he was in, and the entire system he set out to break.
MUSIC: Post
NARRATION: So in Season Three of The Big Dig, we go down to the docks, to a place where food, work, nature, money and politics all meet. A place where dreams are born, fortunes are ruined, and the watchful eye of the government is always present. It's called "Catching The Codfather."
Episode 1 drops February 11th, right here on The Big Dig.
