In Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller explores the inner workings of the global underworld’s most dangerous black markets. In each episode, she journeys inside a different black market or trafficking network — from drugs and stolen cars to outlaw bikers and Amazon mafias — to meet the players, learn the business, and better understand the world’s multitrillion-dollar shadow economy.
Black Market Surgery (12/1)
Mariana van Zeller investigates the dark corners of black market plastic surgery, where sex, greed and social media drive patients toward deadly motel-room operations. In Miami’s discount surgery centers, she uncovers a bombshell connection between felons, greedy doctors and patient deaths. (The program explores various ideals of feminine beauty. Content includes images of body modification and plastic surgery. Viewer discretion is advised.)
Black Market Marijuana (12/8)
In 2016, California began a massive social experiment: legalized marijuana. But after four years, the black market is three times larger than the legal one. Mariana van Zeller sets off to find out what happened, who’s profiting, and which groups are racing to meet skyrocketing demands. Following an underground supply chain from growers to distributors, she journeys through the wild west of weed.
Romance Scams (12/15)
In 2020 alone, romance scammers exploited Americans out of more than $600M. Mariana’s investigation takes her to Ghana, where she meets a gang of scammers who are relentless in searching for high-income targets on dating apps and social media. The gang shows her their secrets to seduction, how much money they’re making, and the lifestyle that has blossomed alongside the scam’s growing popularity.
Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs (12/22)
Mariana van Zeller goes inside the secretive world of outlaw motorcycle gangs, also known as 1% clubs, when her interest is piqued by a string of biker-related violence. Undeterred by a strict code of silence, she interviews members of three major clubs, as well as ATF agents and cartel contacts, to learn about the bonds of blood and brotherhood that fuel these groups.
Meth (12/29)
Mariana van Zeller follows a meth superhighway from a massive cartel-run lab in Sinaloa across the border and into the lives of American users. Her guide is a wily, meth-smoking dealer whose smuggling empire stretches from coast to coast. Some get rich, some get high, while others wind up dead. It’s a hellish tour of an overlooked drug crisis that’s burning a hole through America.
White Supremacy (1/5)
As America struggles to reckon with its white supremacist past, Mariana races to expose an underground movement hellbent on an even more violent white supremacist future. It’s a movement that trades in ideologies as dangerous as any narcotic or firearm — and one responsible for mass killings around the globe.
Stolen Cars (1/12)
Over 750,000 cars are stolen each year in the United States — one every 42 seconds — with many of them headed overseas. Despite recent crackdowns, law enforcement agencies warn of an epidemic of stolen cars smuggled to West Africa, where they command higher prices. Mariana chases down the players profiting the most from this surprising transcontinental supply chain.
Cocaine Queens (1/19)
In the world of cocaine trafficking, the favelas of Rio and the mountains of Colombia are hallowed ground. But, what appears as an investigation into smuggling networks is actually a journey with a more specific focus. It’s not only the drugs that have caught Mariana’s attention. It’s a new breed of narco that is starting to gain power in the shadows: las jefas, lady bosses.
Amazon Mafia (1/26)
Mariana journeys into the heart of the Amazon rainforest to expose the networks responsible for a slew of recent killings and illegal destruction of the jungle. Along the way, Mariana will attempt to uncover an Amazon mafia profiting from “dirty gold” mining and clandestine logging operations.
Fish Pirates (2/2)
Few Americans realize that as much as 30% of the seafood we eat has been caught illegally. Mariana goes inside the global hunt for these fish pirates, who make billions each year while destroying our oceans. Her journey will take her from the ports of Boston and Vigo, Spain, to the west coast of Africa, as she seeks to understand how these bad actors operate and why it’s so difficult to stop them.
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