No-Go Zones - World’s Toughest Places | Ghost Town, South Africa | Free Documentary

ghost town a deadly no-go zone ruled by the ugly americans murderers and hitmen led by a boss who rules with an iron fist even the police fear for their lives town is violent addicted to drugs and willing to do anything to experience the next kick no matter what the price it's like this guy took something wrong prostitution crystal meth from the daily threat of a new gang war welcome to ghost town one of the toughest places in the world uh cape town south africa the country's oldest city africa's southernmost tip is home to almost 4 million people prosperity prevails on one side of the town big business flashy cars and last but not least a fabulous lifestyle but just a few miles away from the center of downtown it's like a whole other world mitchell's plane township home to 300 000 people according to official stats almost 600 physical attacks take place here every year 200 sexual assaults 5 000 drug-related defenses and 140 murders however no one is certain of the unofficial figures these facts alone make it sound pretty dangerous however even in mitchell's plane there is one block that no one dares to enter ghost town territory belonging to the ugly american street gang no police or ambulances will help you here it's one of the toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the world a definite no-go zone all of cape town slums are located within a specific area a place known as cape flats mitchell's plane is the largest of these slums and right at the heart of it you will find ghost town a kingdom belonging to one man he writes the laws here and he decides who lives and who dies nicknamed dimes boss of the ugly americans gang he's been ruling over ghost town for the past 37 years and he will do anything to defend his territory we get rid of any enemy who enters our area definitely without a doubt fifty percent chance he'll die fifty percent chance you wind up in hospital it will always be one of those two according to estimates cape town is home to over 100 gangs and nearly all of them have their own patch the result the borders between these patches end up turning into battlegrounds according to official figures alone south africa records 57 murders a day most of these are committed in the area around ghost town hey everything okay with you guys yeah see ya hello take out a split you can die here within the blink of an eye without a single soul noticing everyone knows that that's why this area is known as ghost town dimes gang the ugly americans is a splinter group of the main gang the americans which is the largest in cape town and its members are among the toughest around on the corner of marydale monsoon avenue the headquarters also known as the white house located right on the western border of ghost town bullets molotov cocktails bombings the center of this no-go zone has survived every attack made on it to date the gang used this as their base for defending their turf planning hold ups murders and running their core business drugs the members are ready and waiting for their next briefing with the boss dimes we do everything in our headquarters punish people make trades and lead negotiations that's not why even small fryer permitted to hang out in front of the building however the white house itself is reserved exclusively for a tight-knit group of the toughest members a briefing in the headquarters dimes summons his most loyal henchmen to a meeting once a week and as always expects nothing less than blind obedience sitting opposite the boss dimes is his right-hand man janme nicknamed boozy his rank general his specialty knives and in the middle of the table the killing machine andrei gideon nickname anas the weapons expert nola even ghost town has its own rules though they lie outside the law and no gang member is safe from them any violation quickly results in death is accusing the gang member of stealing a cell phone a typical crime committed by drug users the verdict guilty what follows is the ugly americans usual forms of punishment from a beating or torture to execution [Music] unregistered firearms there are 5 million such weapons throughout the whole of south africa on average 10 of the population own one this rises to almost 100 in the no-go zone the police attempt to fight back with machine guns and pump guns pistols here you'll find pistols 12 o'clock in ghost town time for a patrol through the go zone knife master boozy and killing machine honest both cold hard killers lead the group [Music] the patrol unit are making their way to the railway tracks the outermost limit of the no-go zone ghost town ends here and enemy territory begins the tracks a line that no one should cross if they want to live to see another day two days ago anas almost lost his life at this exact spot another gang the dixie boys were out to kill him is planning to hit back soon and there's no one he fears less than the police no cop would dare to come here until now that is a new special unit was recently introduced in an attempt to bring the situation under control the anti-gang unit 95 team members are now investigating the toughest gangs working with undercover cops and informers and slowly but surely they are getting results the police's operating base is just 10 kilometers northeast of ghost town as the crow flies an assignment meeting the boss major general andre lincoln is putting pressure on his team there have been far too many deaths over the past few days a team made up of specially trained police officers and soldiers are supposed to put a stop to this the fact that over this weekend just in gang-related murders they've been 15 and they've been 10 attempted murders this is totally unacceptable it is unacceptable to this unit at the top of the most wanted list a member of the americans gang the gang that owns the ghost town territory wanted for a brutal murder danny you and them when we go up one of the two flats on the floor captain arzia gifta will lead the assignment her goal to head straight into cape flats and follow the tip-offs provided by several informants she heads to the first address our boss our general always laugh and say there's no such thing as a no-go area for policemen we are the gang unit we are mean to go to those places where no one else wants to go to but generally in the police there aren't places where the policeman will tell you that is a no-go area because that is why we employed to go and address the now go area where the normal citizen can't go the teams in the response vehicles are applying special tactics they split up just before they reach their destination guys close to target please just keep it tight blocking off any nearby escape routes that's when the raid begins no one is permitted to leave the area the first potential criminals are willing to cooperate but the house is full of nooks and crannies nobody knows if anyone is still hiding in there at first glance the assignment appears to have failed or a sham the weapons turn out to be toy guns all the police find is a sword nevertheless a state of red alert still prevails not least due to the countless fighting dogs owned by the spectators ready to pounce on command at any time most houses we get to it's either massive dogs like that or put bulls but it's always a very big dog and a vicious and aggressive dog and the dogs are are not tolerant of the police let me put it that way [Music] the first search has come to an end the anti-gang unit has collected three suspects and perhaps they'll break one more too during questioning down at the station perhaps their next lead will take them to the murderous member of the americans gang the captain is still hoping for success the shift is over when the job is done and there are days where the job isn't done for 16 or 17 hours later so this must be something that you love to do because otherwise you're going to work yourself today the next raid is underway and the cops are closing further in on gang leader dimes meanwhile he is personally checking the situation and his no goes on alone without any bodyguards not a problem for dimes as long as the people of ghost town stick to dime's rules they will be under his protection but if they break them they will be punished everyone here is willing to protect him dime's career began when he was young he well and truly wiped out his predecessors the gang known as the nice times using a cleaver many have tried to take his place dimes has almost lost his life several times this is exactly where they attacked them i played put my arm over my head they wanted to shoot me in the head but only managed to get my hand you know what i thought i was dead took my weapon and ran off and i'm still in line that's just one of 17 murder attempts dimes survived them all maybe that's why people look up to him particularly the youngest inhabitants of the no go zone and why they want to be part of everything that dimes has created around 60 henchmen now work for him and the number is growing all the time we don't worry about who's driving around here they want to suit us because we stand in god with us if they dare to come here we just shoot back we are not scared he means his obedient lackeys almost all of them are junkies drugs are what fuel the no go zone the worst drug of them all took also known as crystal meth it has been spreading through the whole country from cape flats since the year 2000. addiction counselors reckon that one in five young people alone in and around cape town now takes crystal man and then there's mandrax a synthetic drug normally smoked through the neck of a bottle it acts as a downer following the high of crystal meth no other country in the world consumes as much mandrax the drugs sold in ghost town don't take long to leave the borders of the no-go zone to various places around cape town [Music] nikita lives in the northwest of the city along with her son and her boyfriend she's a prostitute and a drug addict she takes mandrax and crystal meth on a daily basis family time on sunday afternoon nikita earned a lot last night enough to pay for the electricity and buy some food her wish is for her son to have all the opportunities that she never had like my daddy always wanted to be wanting me to be a lawyer and i wanted to be a teacher i decided to become a teacher and all that it didn't work out you must decide one day what does he want to do what do you want to be jayden i nikita's path to prostitution started when she was young friends first introduced her to drugs not long later she turned to crime to pay for more drugs and after that full-blown addiction the last resort sex in exchange for money we walk they say they call our friends but they're not really our friends friends is this what you find here in the room the four of us you say like it must happen when the four of us are there too we protect each other man i can be a girl i can be a boy i can be whatever but i haven't seen it happen to her i'll come stand out like barcelona like i will actually attack the guy or whatever just like every other day late afternoon means it's time to get ready for their prospective jobs i put techies on they put aisles on slippers whatever and we're off on our way to work good work west coast streets what do you call what are we going to let's go play around our playground west coast a road not far from the coast home to expensive vacation homes gorgeous lagoons and exclusive golf courses while the prostitutes are preparing themselves for their days trading business is already booming in the no-go zone of ghost town dozens of junkies middlemen and dealers stream towards the ugly americans headquarters the center for trading the garage next door inside killing machine anus and knife master boozy oversee the drugs trade to keep the risk of an attack as low as possible the ugly americans pursue a specific set of tactics headquarters so the smaller amounts we got underground the grounds of america was used now there is houses there the small cr1 ones secret temporary storage areas regular replenishments never keeping too many drugs in one place and above all reliable suppliers the boss dimes deals with them personally the biggest deals in the underworld are made by people who have come to south africa for precisely this reason the italian mafia the russian mafia the yakuza you'll find them all here in cape town nigerians pakistanis mafia from the congo and somalia in ghost town a gram of crystal costs the junkies 18 euros just enough for a single hit if you're heavily addicted it's a tough business you must be very alert in this game because why your life is also important so you must defend whatever you have because why there's a lot of drug dealers on the street in houses in hotels everywhere a drugs war that has not only ravaging ghost town but the entire area of cape flats a war in which addicts are prepared to kill for every hit the anti-gang unit is back on the hunt an informant thinks that the american wanted for murder has gone into hiding here while captain guiefta reassures the first residence [Music] her team turns over the entire apartment okay there's another one here i need more people in here the police officers catch two suspects and take them to pieces captain giafta starts by looking for gang-affiliated tattoos and finds nothing serious players at this precise moment no one can be sure if one of the suspects is the killer and the chance of them getting away in one way or another is pretty high the south african police are constantly accused of being corrupt even the newly established anti-gang unit has to defend itself against such [Music] allegations we are extremely proud this unit is the first of its kind in the western cape and it's an honor for all of us to be have to would have been chosen to be here it's a first for the south african police services so there is a huge responsibility on us they have one more target left the next one is located right in the heart of american territory [Music] while the special unit continues with its hunt for the murderer prostitutes nikita and her friends are ready to hit the streets just a few blocks away [Music] it's all part and parcel of their daily business nikita needs the money for her friends to feed her son and for her next hit [Music] when i reach my target i don't come home until i reach my target yeah usually i reach my target over and over time to head to a location that promises a new source of income west coast road 20 to 60 euros depending on the service if he pays well enough a single john means the chance to continue living this way for another 24 hours at least [Applause] however as the number of addicts rises so too does the number of prostitutes the market is crowded and her young competitors are willing to do anything their customers want for decreasingly small amounts of money the cheaper you become the more weak you become on the road and the more weaker the clients become on our skills they don't charge so little [Applause] 15 minutes later the first clients arrive [Music] nikita leaves empty-handed to begin with and has to rely on her minders dumbass and boike who are dealing nearby [Music] almost an hour later two more jobs were 30 euros each in a life that others deemed to be worth less my little sister was also like this doing what i'm doing okay and she was bumped over by a car my whole body was broken into 144 pieces that's an eye opener for me [Music] i fight men i fight females and secure myself a daily battle which so far has left nikita without any earnings her biggest fear is that her son will grow up without a home as is the case for the one and a half million street children in south africa almost all of them from impoverished [Music] families most of the girls end up selling their bodies while the boys wind up in gangs all of them addicts the prostitutes and henchmen of tomorrow the ugly americans in the ghost town no go zone also offer future prospects for the younger generation and they're expanding primarily in the drugs trade killing machine anus and knife master boozy are currently dividing up half a kilo of crystal meth [Music] more drugs more money more power a simple philosophy one that doesn't even seem to stop when the police arrive cops also they come 30 cops they can't buy drugs smoking drugs tuck the other one anas loves the high starting afresh every day and he has his own special vision for the future of his no-go zone expansion you know weapons what we need houses on enemies crowns we kill our swipe the enemies we take the enemy grounds we buy our houses their name we make business there we protect the house there it's so important so this is what we're doing so our grounds are expanding the killing machine doesn't fear the police not even the anti-gang unit if they want to fight gangsters and they're not gonna if history didn't work today and in in the future it's not gonna work you can't wipe the american okay ever you can dream about it but if you wake up people see the americans still there the drugs trade is booming in ghost town and far beyond the borders of the zone his customers will do almost anything to secure their next hit they sell themselves either their bodies or their souls anything they have left prostitution is illegal in south africa the official red light district was destroyed by the government a long time ago nevertheless nikita still scrapes through day in and day out even though she knows that she can't do it forever i finally say hello to me honestly because i don't because if i do that i hope i wouldn't be doing what i'm doing now at the moment because that's just stupid if you've got to hope why do this go rather work or go get a job or something nikita and ruveda despite being trained in a career became addicted to drugs prostitution the only way they can make enough money on a daily basis they know that their time is slowly running out but giving it up is not an option they simply keep on going this is what happens on a daily basis some get some don't some lose some wind things happen this is our life is on the road a little later raveda manages to make another 20 euros more clients arrive as the night progresses paying enough money for the day ahead and the next hit [Music] a new shot of life for a few more hours of normality [Music] last night i had a client i went out to class she wanted to go home because this morning when i came back i brought them beers i brought the pizza brought them chocolate money we smoked did everything just like she wanted it and now we're still together i don't think they're gonna leave they're my best friends [Music] drugs just like the ones sold in ghost town under the leadership of one man dimes his apartment is just a stone's throw from the headquarters [Music] he lives here with his wife and children a normal life for all intents and purposes and yet he trusts no one at all which is why he always has an eye on what's going on around him it doesn't matter if it's daytime afternoon or during the night no one can escape our cameras headquarters street house entrance and cars dimes watches over it all personally 24 7. no one can mess around with them as well as his cameras dimes has spies placed along all the borders of his patch any unfamiliar car any potential intruder and they are ready to strike straight away my guys can stop any car if the car doesn't stop we open fire the same goes for unknown pedestrians if they start running the bullet will fly after that ghost town is like a high security zone and one man plays a key role in it all anes no matter who dares to enter the ugly americans patch their life is in his hands on his house the meeting point for the foot soldiers this is where they plan their next attack on rival gangs using a whole lot of firepower all under the command of dimes of course rival gangs always try to get in here but they don't stand a chance this is our country these days they're too scared to come in here we shoot anyone who causes trouble there we go sometimes you go into the house we go kill five of them we take three four guns we get them there and then we come back an army of strung out killers for whom every job regardless of whether it involves money drugs or even human life seems to be just part of one big game [Music] to kill someone like he's uh uh woof like a bag i don't feel it anymore i don't think about it anymore yeah because it's normal for me to go kill someone and they could come back because you are programmed with it while anas and his followers are preparing for the next attack the anti-gang unit is still searching for the murderer an american however the snitcher's information is contradictory there are three possible hideouts we arrive there it's fast action we need to do all three places at the same time especially the premises that is on the top because those people have the vantage point that they see us coming so there's anything illegal in the house they would be able to go and hide it or discard it before we get on to the third floor of the premises go go go go go go go go go go maximum strength fully armed air reconnaissance there is no way the american can escape at first the mission seems to be a dad but then are you miley he is definitely an american and it doesn't take long for the suspect to confess he claims to have been present during the brutal killing but only as an accomplice captain arcia kieva's search still isn't over [Music] the most important thing in all of this is to stop the perpetrator from committing an offence again so it's not about making the race but about getting the guy off the road so that he doesn't commit the same offence again so although we found we found one of the accomplices we still don't have the actual shooter and we don't have the fire on but this is the start so from here we'd be able to work with him interrogating look who else has been arrested with him and identify other suspects from this winding up in prison in cape town involves much more than just serving your sentence most criminals end up in polls more prison one of the toughest prisons in the world a prison at war and one which is controlled by the numbers gang anyone who winds up here has to contend with a whole new set of rules the gangs of the outside world don't exist inside pulls more here there is only the 26th 27th and 28th gang leaders tattoo the numbers onto their new members branding them failure to follow their rules results in death even behind bars it seems that police have no power the boss of ghost town dimes has managed to avoid prison so far and keeps the no go zone under his control even former prisoners have nothing to fear providing they swear their allegiance to him i've never been to prison once in all these years and it's been 37 years now i was never in jail dimes will continue to defend his no-go zone to the last in a never-ending battle and the anti-gang unit will keep on trying to crack ghost town it is traumatic for anybody just arriving on a scene alone where someone is shot you know by all means it's a gangster langley but it is someone's child someone's father someone's brother it's a human being lying there a human being that is protected under the constitution all that's left is to hope that the children will find a new way through life their parents hope that they'll live the dream that they never had for themselves something that you're doing now mommy is what you're teaching me not to do when i'm older to start the life of mommy yes i'm sorry i want to become an i.t specialist i want to become something i want to be famous i don't want to become on he's a street child so i don't believe he'll take drugs when he's older my life that's my everything all this is a future that killing machine anas has long since forgotten about for himself ghost town will always be his whole life right through to the death they do what they want and they don't die and fight [ __ ] they do what they are told to do just like knife master boozy he's even been known to get rid of gang affiliates to protect the future of the no-go zone ghost town i'm the only one who can take one of our members out all of which is controlled by gang leader dimes he will never give up he'll keep on fighting his ghost town will continue to thrive i'm free on my turn around me in front of me behind me they're all scared and that's precisely the reason why nobody should ever set foot in ghost town one of the toughest places in the world you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 2,251,011

Rating: 4.7210207 out of 5

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), dangeorus places, worlds most dangerous places, south africa, dangerous south africa, south africa gangs, ghost town south africa, no-go-zones, no go zone, no go zones south africa, toughest places, worlds toughest places

Id: SA3ytkfCztM

Length: 42min 45sec (2565 seconds)

Published: Sun May 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/A7MOSPH3RIC]

This is a waste of time.

Synopsis: There is an area in Capetown South Africa that has gangs. One of the gangs is called 'The Americans' Everyone is addicted to drugs. The cops are trying to stop it.

End of story.

[u/PC_Nthusiast]

Oddly enough this video is unavailable in my country.....South Africa

[u/Vegan_Harvest]

5mins in: That is the cleanest "no go zone" I've ever seen in my life!

[u/thatweirdguyted]

That was without question the most repetitive intro to a show I have ever seen. It actually put me off watching it altogether.

[u/Biteysdad]

I really wish they could blur some of the stuff in this documentary.

[u/plasterposters]

This is dumb

[u/scapstick]

That voice on the narrator is the worst. I feel like I am watching a 45 min Michael bay trailer.

[u/B-Myman]

Mirrors?

[u/bbvr]

"No Go" - unless you're Google Street View apparently.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-34.0629229,18.6201763,3a,60y,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZKCDS7qh5ZWZagJ1ZgNA2w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656