Nat Geo’s ‘TRAFFICKED: UNDERWORLDS With Mariana van Zeller Interview
Mariana van Zeller – Host, Producer, and Investigative Journalist
I had the incredible opportunity of speaking with Award-Winning Journalist Mariana van Zeller about her new series ‘Trafficked: Underworlds.’ Catch us discuss her remarkable and brave career, the dangerous and inner workings of the global black market, investigative journalism, gaining sources trust, filming in her native Portugal, and being stuck in a military coup.
AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST MARIANA VAN ZELLER TALKS ABOUT THE MOST DANGEROUS BLACK MARKETS ON THE PLANET & HER NEW SERIES ‘TRAFFICKED: UNDERWORLDS WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER’
| Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller explores the inner workings of the most dangerous black markets on the planet. In each episode, she investigates a different underworld — from the trade in body parts and hired assassins to sextortion and the smuggling of brides — to meet the players, learn the business, and better understand the world’s multi-trillion-dollar shadow economy. |
Mariana van Zeller is an award-winning correspondent and investigative journalist. She is the host and executive producer of National Geographic’s original documentary series “Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller,” which explores the complex and often dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, smuggling networks, black and informal markets. For her reporting, Mariana has earned some of the most prestigious awards in journalism and storytelling.
Her 2016 investigation “Death by Fentanyl,” which tracked the pharmaceutical and clandestine sources of the deadly opioid was honored with a DuPont Award. For her report “Rape on the Reservation,” which examined the increased incidence of rape and sexual violence on American Indian reservations, she received the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. And her documentary on prescription drug abuse and pill trafficking, “The OxyContin Express,” received a Peabody Award, a Television Academy Honor and an Emmy nomination.
In 2011, Mariana began her coverage of the drug war in Mexico and for years, attempted to interview drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, only to be scooped by the actor Sean Penn. As a consolation, Penn reported that he and Guzman discussed Mariana’s 2015 documentary, “Chasing El Chapo,” in which Mairana traveled to El Chapo’s hometown in the mountains of Sinaloa. Mariana hosted Travel Channel’s “Breaking Borders”, where she journeyed to conflict zones around the world with acclaimed chef Michael Voltaggio.
Mariana began her journalism career in her native Portugal and moved to the US to attend Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she met her husband and producing partner Darren Foster. They live in Los Angeles with their son Vasco. Mariana is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian and French.
Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller
Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller premieres January 17 on National Geographic
Series Description:
Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller explores the inner workings of the most dangerous black markets on the planet. In each episode, she investigates a different underworld — from the trade in body parts and hired assassins to sextortion and the smuggling of brides — to meet the players, learn the business, and better understand the world’s multitrillion-dollar shadow economy.
Episode Descriptions:
Assassins
Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 17, at 9/8c
Hitmen murder nearly 3,000 people a year around the globe, yet little is known about them. What drives a person to make a living out of killing? In this episode, Mariana journeys inside this violent trade, first tracking down an assassin in her hometown of Los Angeles before heading to a country where contract killings have become an almost daily occurrence: South Africa.
Sextortion
Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 24, at 9/8c
Mariana investigates a new blackmail scam called “sextortion,” in which compromising photos are used to extort victims. Heading to the Philippines to try and find the scammer who shamed one young American victim into taking his own life, she finds a scamming culture that is bigger, scarier and more complicated than she could have imagined.
Body Parts
Premieres Wednesday, Jan. 31, at 9/8c
Every year, the sale of human remains generates billions of dollars worldwide. Astonishingly, this thriving trade remains largely hidden from the public eye. With little oversight, abuses abound. During her investigation, Mariana learns how anyone—whether they’ve chosen to donate their body to science, cremation, or a traditional burial—can become the victim of human remains trafficking.
Black Market Meds
Premieres Wednesday, Feb.7, at 9/8c
Americans spend more per capita on prescription drugs than anywhere else in the world. That’s why nearly 20 million U.S. citizens are turning to the black market for their meds—and why criminals are eager to cash in on the rising demand. In this episode, Mariana heads to Mexico and India to meet some of the underworld opportunists risking the lives of vulnerable patients.
Apes
Premieres Wednesday, Feb.14, at 9/8c
Mariana heads to the Congo to investigate the illegal trade of wild apes, pushing them to the brink of extinction. She’ll follow the supply chain from the poachers to the brokers and ultimately to the buyers, many in the Middle East, who use these apes as pets and in sideshow attractions. She’ll also spend time with Congolese activists who are fighting to protect apes from extinction.
Migrant Smugglers
Premieres Wednesday, Feb.21, at 9/8c
As the debate over America’s broken immigration system continues to boil, Mariana heads to Mexico to investigate the billion-dollar business of people smuggling to the U.S. While following a 2,000-mile trail from Tapachula to the U.S. border, she’ll try to understand who’s making the money, how the cartels are involved, and why so little is being done to stop it.
Hash Smugglers
Premieres Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 9/8c
The first drug that Mariana was exposed to growing up in Portugal continues to be Europe’s favorite: hash. The booming popularity of this seemingly “soft drug” holds a dark secret. Mariana follows the trail of smugglers from the mountains of Morocco to their buyers in Europe — a world of shadowy dealers, lightning-fast smuggling boats and increasing violence.
Illegal Gambling
Premieres Wednesday, Mar. 6, at 9/8c
Americans love to gamble. The legal market made $53 billion in 2021. And yet that total is dwarfed by an illegal gambling underworld that rakes in an estimated one trillion dollars annually. Mariana goes inside this dangerous scene to try and understand its allure, its growth, and its dark side.
The Drug Mule Scam
Premieres Wednesday, Mar. 13, at 9/8c
When Mariana learns that 66-year-old American Rodney Baldus is locked up in a prison in Mozambique for drug running, she begins an investigation unlike any she’s done before. She learns that international criminal syndicates are targeting elderly Americans with inheritance scams and conning them into becoming drug mules. But is it enough to prove Rodney’s innocence?
Terrorist Gold
Premieres Wednesday, Mar. 20, at 9/8c
What starts as an investigation into rumors that gold mining is funding terrorist groups in Niger, gets turned on its head after a military coup puts the country on lockdown. While Mariana struggles to escape, she realizes that the gold trade is part of a much larger fight for influence in Africa that pits the U.S., Russia and China against some of the world’s most dangerous terror groups.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/trafficked-with-mariana-van-zeller
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