Mariana Van Zeller OF ‘TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER’

This is an extremely dangerous underworld to explore. What security measures did you employ to keep production safe?

That’s a very good question. You know, the access that we get takes months, sometimes even years to get. Miguel (Angel Vega) knows this well. I worked more with Miguel than any other fixer or local journalist in the world. Miguel is based in Culiacán in Sinaloa, Mexico. And I’ve actually reported more from Culiacán than anywhere else in the world, including my hometown here in Los Angeles. And so, it takes a lot of time to gain access into these worlds. A lot of trust building. And there’s a lot of security measures put in place.

Are you not afraid of repercussions from those who disagree with this series?

We go through enormous lengths to protect the identities of those that we speak to. You know, everything from covering and their whole bodies, tattoos, anything. They’re not disclosing locations. Miguel knows that every single cut, every time we cut one of these episodes, the first person we send it to is Miguel, who sees himself, when we’re working with him, in anything that has to do with cartel, for example. And he sees and makes sure that nothing is identifiable. So that’s one way of protecting not only the people that spoke to us, our sources, but ourselves.

But, ultimately ... we come back as journalists. We four journalists always say that we are the lucky ones because we get to come back to the safety of our own homes, but people like Miguel, who are local journalists uncovering these incredibly important stories, aren’t as lucky, and they have to stay back which is, you know, why it’s important for us to make sure that he sees it and that (Miguel feels) comfortable with the material that we’re putting out there.