Conville & Walsh

As Soviet Air Force pilots, navigators and gunners, Yuri and his crew flew countless missions over Afghanistan in their vast Ilyushin superplanes. When the USSR crumbled, they spotted their opportunity. They acquired a plane, flew it down to Kazakhstan and ‘rebranded’. Goodbye red star and CCCP livery; hello anonymous, no-logo grey. They were in business.

Now, they operate as private transport for whatever you’ve got – a no-questions mercenary aviation service determined to stay one step ahead of the law. For disaster-zones, the aid these men carry is the only hope of survival. But there’s a dark side. Because if you’re determined enough to fill them – and foolhardy enough to fly – these planes can carry up to fifteen extra tonnes of ‘phantom’ cargo for which men are willing to die, and ready to kill. And it’s turned these airmen into the biggest, most impenetrable trafficking network for illicit contraband the world has ever seen.

Greed, overloaded planes, bad luck, booze and enemy fire exact a terrible toll. But for these men, it’s the only way to live. They are the last survivors of a bygone age – of mercenaries and adventurers; the last of the independents. Matt Potter has travelled with them, and entered the shadowy world of the crews, the clients and the planes. From the Russian Mafia to the deserts of Sudan, and from rogue states to black markets, this is the story of the men, and their deadly cargo.