From the BBC World Service.

He knew his way around the underground.

I would never imagine he was capable of doing what he did.

Launder.

Tens of millions of dollars for the North Korean.

The Lazarus Heist, Season 2, is available now.

Find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello from a cold and dark morning in Dresden in the east of Germany.

I'm in a city known for its cultural heritage, the devastation it suffered in the Second World War,

and also for being a global leader in manufacturing.

During the Cold War, this region was the centre of a battle for technological

supremacy, as the Soviets tried to edge an advantage over Western powers. And three decades

after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dresden's tech manufacturing sector remains the envy of

Europe. And that's why I've come here today. I'm Alex Bell,

and I've been given an exclusive look inside Global Foundries Plant just north of the city.

It's one of the world's biggest semiconductor makers, and this factory alone churns out more

than three quarters of a million of them every year. But before we go any further,

let's remind ourselves of why semiconductors are so important right now.

Whether it's smartphones, cars or even refrigerators, almost every modern gadget relies on semiconductor chips.

These tiny components made of silicon, also known as

wafers or integrated circuits, contain the printed mazes of wires that make computer processing

at lightning speeds possible. Chips, by the way, are nothing new. They actually date back to

...