The official companion podcast to National Geographic’s eight-part series, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. Join investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller after each episode as she sits down with former black market operators to hear the story of their rise, fall, boom and bust. These intimate, honest and empathetic conversations pull back the curtain on the global underworld and reveal how the people operating these trafficking rings are more like us than we realize. How did they get pulled to the dark side? What was it like to live the outlaw lifestyle? And, how did it end?
Mariana talks with David Packouz, one of the two notorious young men who inspired the movie War Dogs. He made headlines when he sold illegal ammo to the US government in what was called “The Afghan Contract.” We hear how he became a major player in the weapons trade by age 25, how a major...
Published 01/07/21
Cocaine production is at an all-time high, but it came to fame in the Miami Vice era of the 1980’s with the help of the “Cocaine Cowboys.” In this episode, Mariana sits down with JC Perez, who piloted cocaine smuggling runs for one of the biggest bosses in the business. Over the course of his...
Published 12/31/20
Heidi Fleiss is perhaps best known as the “Hollywood Madam.” Despite having started her business at just 22, she developed a star-studded list of clients, all meticulously organized in her red Gucci planner. Among them was Charlie Sheen, who famously testified at Heidi’s trial that he’d spent...
Published 12/24/20