IN PLAIN SIGHT
Journalist Mariana van Zeller shines spotlight on black markets in ‘Trafficked’
TRAFFICKED Wednesday, 9 p.m. National Geographic
MARIANA van Zeller takes viewers inside the world’s dark corners and criminal underbellies in “Trafficked,” her new National Geographic docuseries.
“Trafficked” takes a deep dive into various underground industries around the globe, including episodes exploring the world of fentanyl smuggling in Mexico, scamming in Jamaica and counterfeit money in Peru.
The Portuguese-born van Zeller, 44, is a Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist and correspondent for National Geographic and Fusion. Her previous documentaries include “This (Illegal) American Life” and “El Chapo: CEO of Crime.”
Van Zeller answered some questions about “Trafficked.”
How did this show come about?
I’ve been covering the underworld and these black markets for over 15 years. And one thing that I started realizing is that there’s so much information out there about the formal economy. But we know so little about...the black markets that make up almost half of the global economy.
Did you learn anything that surprised you?
Oh, so much. We think about black markets as happening in these faraway places and hidden locations. But actually what this show will tell you is [that] they’re all around us. And they often happen in plain sight. We filmed some of the season a couple of miles from my house in LA. We saw a gun deal going down with a car being packed with AK47s...and I spent time with pimps and sex traffickers.
Was it hard to get people to talk or appear on camera?
For every “yes” that we get, there’s dozens of “nos.” When we arrived in Peru to do the episode on counterfeiting, I had my whole team in place and we’d spent months preparing for this moment. So we went and met with this family of counterfeiters that run a huge operation in Lima...And they said, “Tomorrow we’re going to give you access into this world.” And then the next day we showed up and waited for hours and they never came. We had to start from scratch and go back to the US.
Did you ever feel nervous or unsafe?
There was one situation in Mexico where we were going to a region controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel. We were walking into this forest area with these gunmen, and they told us “While you’re with us you’re protected, but if...there’s a fire fight, you’ll be stuck in the middle of it.’ ”