2024-12-17
26 分钟This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.
This is the documentary from the BBC World Service.
I'm Charlotte Pritchard on assignment this week in Argentina.
It's 11:30am and Franco has just left a glassy skyscraper in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He's holding a bottle of rum and is carrying a black backpack.
It's one he usually uses for work, but today it's filled with US$500,000 cash.
This is the scariest day of his life.
He walks down some steps to cross the road and get into his car.
He checks left and right and then again and again just to make sure no one is watching him.
It was terrible, he tells me.
Early that morning, he arrived at the skyscraper alone.
He met two men who handed him the cash.
And between them, in a tiny nondescript room, they spent two hours counting it.
They were counting the $500,000 by hand.
The market is very particular when dollars are not Argentina's actual currency.
Then they use a counting machine to confirm the total.
And Franco puts the wadges of money into his backpack.
Now he has to drive 10 blocks to another office.
It's a 20 minute drive.
His backpack is on the passenger seat to his right.