Crime Weekly - Crime Weekly Presents | Wolves Among Us, Season 1, The Larry Lavin Story

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

On the surface, there was nothing remarkable about Larry Lavin. He lived in a quiet neighborhood with his wife and family, drove a Volvo, and practiced dentistry in Philadelphia. But, from 1978 to 1984, Dr. Lavin ran one of the largest cocaine enterprises on the entire eastern seaboard.  Through the voices and perspectives of law enforcement, drug runners, friends, business associates and Larry Lavin himself, Wolves Among Us, Season One, The Larry Lavin Story, tells the story of Lavin’s dual life, his impact on Philadelphia culture in the late 70s and early 80s, and the stunning events that led to his capture.   Wolves Among Us is a presentation and creation of  Peabody-nominated C13Originals, a Cadence13 Studio.

Hi, I'm Stephanie Harlow, and I'm Derek Levasseur. We're excited to share an extended preview of Wolves Among Us, a gripping new true crime anthology series from C-13 Originals, the Peabody-nominated team behind shows like Gone South, Gangster Capitalism, Fallen Angel, and The Sunshine Place. It tells the stories of community pillars, soccer moms, and PTA dads whose seemingly perfect lives are merely an illusion. On the surface, there was nothing remarkable about Larry Lavin. He lived in a quiet neighborhood with his wife and family.

He drove a Volvo and practiced dentistry. However, from 1978 to 1984, he ran one of the largest cocaine enterprises on the entire eastern seaboard, distributing hundreds of pounds of coke every month and earning nearly $200 million. His empire spanned two continents, three countries, and 14 states during Reagan's war on drugs. Through the voices and perspectives of law enforcement, drug runners, friends, business associates, and Larry Lavin himself, season one of Wolves Among Us explores Lavin's dual life, his impact on Philadelphia culture in the late 70s and early 80s, and the stunning events that ultimately led to his capture. That's right.

You can find Wolves Among Us now on the Audacity app or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And right now, we're going to play you a trailer from Wolves Among Us. Larry Lavin, as I know him, was a dentist who really was talented at what he did. They liked him, his patients, his staff. He's the kind of person that you meet and you just can't help but love him. Bright, very smart, good looking, articulate, nice guy, really. A regular good kid, like you could have looked at him and said, what the fuck's he doing in business, you know what I mean?

A Philadelphia dentist today was sentenced to 22 years in prison and fined $100,000. This was just unbelievable. The size and the breadth of the operation was crazy. Dentist Lawrence Lavin pleaded guilty to running a $5 million a month cocaine ring that catered to lawyers, stockbrokers, and other professionals. You've got to understand the genius in Larry. Nobody was doing coke at this point. He was smart enough to realize that that's where the drug industry was

going. Illegal cocaine is coming into our country at alarming levels. From Hollywood movie stars to NFL player to Wharton School business grads. Look, he's a great salesman. He could sell dirt to a dead man. To businessmen, lawyers, stockbrokers, people on the street. As an undergrad at Penn, he might have been making $10,000 a year. As a full-fled undergrad at Penn, he might have been making $10,000 a year. As a full-fledged cocaine dealer, he might have been making a million dollars a month. Everybody wanted cocaine, and I mean everybody wanted cocaine. No one could believe that this highly educated, young, handsome man was this kingpin drug dealer. It's funny, even when you're running something like that, you just don't think of yourself as a kingpin. I just want enough money to pay for dental school.

And then all of a sudden it snowballed into something else. This is Wolves Among Us, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season one, the Larry Lavin story. I said, you're sitting in this beautiful home. You 1, The Larry Lavin Story. I said, you're sitting in this beautiful home. You've got millions of dollars in cash. What the fuck more do you need? Listen to Wolves Among Us now for free

wherever you get your podcasts. And he was like, oh, Willie, I'm never going to get caught. Yes, you are. The odds are against you.