National Geographic Takes Viewers Inside the Global Underworld in New Docuseries, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, Premiering January 1, 2021
Ahead of Winter Premiere, Network Greenlights Second Season
Armed with National Geographic’s trademark inside access, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller takes viewers on a journey inside the most dangerous black markets on the planet. Each investigation in the eight-part series embeds with Peabody and duPont Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller as she explores the complex and often violent inner workings of a smuggling network. While she dives deeper and deeper into these underworlds, Mariana reveals – with characteristic boldness and empathy – that the people operating these trafficking rings are often a lot more like us than we realize. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller premieres January 1, 2021.
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About Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller TV Show
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC GREENLIGHTS THIRD SEASON OF AWARD-WINNING SERIES, "TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER"
Season Pick-Up Comes Ahead of the Emmy(R)-Nominated Docuseries' Sophomore Season Premiere on Dec. 1, 2021, at 9 P.M. ET/PT on National Geographic, And Will Be Streaming Next Day on Hulu
Season Two Takes van Zeller Even Deeper Into the Underworld ... But the Deeper She Goes, the Darker It Gets As She Infiltrates the Worlds of Black Market Plastic Surgery, Romance Scams, White Supremacy, Stolen Cars, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs, Marijuana and Meth
(WASHINGTON, D.C. - Aug. 18, 2021) National Geographic announced today the greenlight of the third season of Emmy-nominated TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER ahead of the winter premiere of the docuseries' second season bow on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic. Episodes will also be streaming the next day on Hulu, and filming for the third season will begin this fall.
"Filming a whole season of TRAFFICKED during a global pandemic was extremely challenging, but there's been an explosion of black markets over the past year, and I think we all quickly realized that this series has become more relevant than ever," said van Zeller. "With this second season, we've managed to dive even deeper and gain even more access into underworld networks around the world."
Peabody and duPont Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller continues her harrowing exploration into the underworld's most dangerous black markets. Armed with National Geographic's trademark inside access, each episode follows van Zeller as she works her way inside a different black market or global trafficking network where she meets the players and learns the business, all in an effort to understand the inner workings of the world's multitrillion-dollar shadow economy.
The 10-part second season of TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER offers viewers a mission-driven adventure to places rarely seen, providing an intimate peek behind the curtain to provide a 360-degree view of these poorly understood trafficking networks. Topics this season include van Zeller unveiling the inner workings of romance scams; following a meth superhighway, from a massive cartel-run lab in Sinaloa across the border and into the lives of American users; setting off on a wild journey through California's black market for weed, which has mushroomed since marijuana legalization four years ago; following a smuggling route of cars stolen from the U.S. to shipping containers bound for West Africa, where the demand is skyrocketing; going inside the secretive world of outlaw motorcycle gangs, also known as 1% clubs, where her interest is piqued by a string of biker-related violence; and investigating the dark corners of black market plastic surgery, where greed and social media are driving patients toward deadly motel-room operations.
Additionally, as America struggles to reckon with its white supremacist past, van Zeller 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, with one responsible for mass killings around the globe.
Season one of TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER was a 2021 Gracie Award winner for Best Reporter/Correspondent - Mariana van Zeller and received a 2021 Critics Choice Real TV Award nomination for Best Crime/Justice Show. The series was also recently nominated for a 2021 News and Documentary Emmy for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary.
TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER is produced for National Geographic by Muck Media. From Muck Media, executive producers are Mariana van Zeller, Darren Foster and Jeff Plunkett. From National Geographic, Bengt Anderson is executive producer, Matt Renner is vice president of Production, and Alan Eyres is senior vice president of Production and Development.
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TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER (Previously Announced)
Renewed for Season Two (Muck Media)
Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller continues her harrowing exploration into the underworld's most dangerous black markets. Armed with National Geographic's trademark inside access, each episode follows Mariana as she works her way inside a different black market or global trafficking network - from meth, marijuana and stolen cars to outlaw bikers clubs and Amazon mafias - where she meets the players and learns the business, all in an effort to understand the inner workings of the world's multitrillion-dollar shadow economy. For Muck Media, executive Producers are Mariana van Zeller, Darren Foster and Jeff Plunkett.
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Armed with National Geographic's trademark inside access, Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller takes viewers on a journey inside the most dangerous black markets on the planet. Each investigation in the eight-part series embeds with Peabody and duPont Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller as she explores the complex and often violent inner workings of a smuggling network. While she dives deeper and deeper into these underworlds, Mariana reveals - with characteristic boldness and empathy - that the people operating these trafficking rings are often a lot more like us than we realize. Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller now premieres December 2 at 9/8c with a two-episode premiere.
Trafficked offers viewers a mission-driven adventure to places rarely seen, providing an intimate peek behind the criminal curtain. Mariana spends time with major players from a host of underground economies - from tiger traffickers and international scammers to counterfeiters, gunrunners and fentanyl suppliers. Along the way, she also meets with law enforcement, ex-cons, fellow journalists and locals caught in the crossfire, all in an attempt to provide a 360-degree view of these poorly understood trafficking networks that contribute to the world's multi-trillion-dollar shadow economy.
"I couldn't be more excited to share Trafficked with viewers around the world," said Mariana van Zeller, who has spent the better part of the last 15 years reporting on the global underworld. "People don't realize that black markets are all around us, hidden in plain sight. And what fascinates me most is how normal, law-abiding people - people like you and me - get pulled into these criminal worlds."
In a special two-hour episode, Mariana uncovers a lethal supply chain of American firearms being smuggled into the hands of drug cartels and fueling record levels of gun violence in Mexico. A journey filled with jaw-dropping access to gunrunners, mules, cartel bosses and assassins takes an even more terrifying turn when the son of the world's most notorious drug lord, El Chapo Guzman, is arrested and the cartel that Mariana infiltrates decides to violently revolt.
Additional episode topics include:
SCAMS
Mariana dives into the world of international scamming to understand how it all works and meet the outlaws at the heart of this booming industry. Her investigation takes her from the streets of Montego Bay to the glitzy neighborhoods of Tel Aviv as she pursues some of the biggest phone, lottery and financial scammers in the world and learns why Americans are the perfect targets.
FENTANYL
Fentanyl has turbocharged the deadliest drug crisis in American history. But less understood is how the drug has utterly transformed the black market. Mariana goes in search of the new bosses, new routes, new risks and the American communities paying the price for fentanyl's next wave.
TIGERS
Mariana tackles what one of her sources calls "the untouchable smuggling story." The black market for tigers and tiger parts is so lucrative, so secretive and so dangerous that few have attempted to uncover its ugly details. Mariana journeys far, and near, to meet the smugglers face-to-face.
STEROIDS
In the age of social media, the demand for illegal steroids is booming. Mariana searches out producers and users in an attempt to understand the vanity, insecurity and greed that's driving this dangerously unregulated, billion-dollar black market in body-enhancing drugs.
MONEY RUNNERS
Mariana journeys deep inside the Peruvian underworld to meet the gangster craftsmen who make and sell the world's finest counterfeit U.S. dollars. Along the way, she learns that many of these counterfeiting operations are run by criminal families in Lima, who are making a fortune despite the anti-counterfeiting efforts of the U.S. Secret Service and the Peruvian National Police.
PIMPS
In an eye-opening journey through her home state of California, Mariana embeds with pimps, victims, undercover cops and private investigators to understand the ugly business of illicit sex in America. How do pimps recruit? How do they think? Where do they get their power? And just how far will they go to grab their share of this billion-dollar black market?
COCAINE
Mariana retraces one of the world's most intractable smuggling routes, following cocaine's path from a remote Peruvian valley through Colombia's Caribbean coast, all the way to the streets of Miami. Despite the decades-long U.S. War on Drugs, cocaine production is at an all-time high, and Mariana meets some of the makers, smugglers, drivers and teenage backpackers who risk their lives to deliver America's favorite party drug.
TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER is produced for National Geographic by Muck Media. For National Geographic, Bengt Anderson is executive producer; Matt Renner is executive producer and vice president, original programming and production; Alan Eyres is senior vice president of production and development; and Geoff Daniels is executive vice president of global unscripted entertainment.
---
Trafficked offers viewers a mission-driven adventure to places rarely seen, providing an intimate peek behind the criminal curtain. Mariana spends time with major players from a host of underground economies - from tiger traffickers and international scammers to counterfeiters, gunrunners and fentanyl suppliers. Along the way, she also meets with law enforcement, ex-cons, fellow journalists and locals caught in the crossfire, all in an attempt to provide a 360-degree view of these poorly understood trafficking networks that contribute to the world's multi-trillion-dollar shadow economy.
"I couldn't be more excited to share Trafficked with viewers around the world," said Mariana van Zeller, who has spent the better part of the last 15 years reporting on the global underworld. "People don't realize that black markets are all around us, hidden in plain sight. And what fascinates me most is how normal, law-abiding people - people like you and me - get pulled into these criminal worlds."
In a two-hour special episode, Mariana uncovers a lethal supply chain of American firearms being smuggled into the hands of drug cartels and fueling record levels of gun violence in Mexico. A journey filled with jaw-dropping access to gunrunners, mules, cartel bosses and assassins takes an even more terrifying turn when the son of the world's most notorious drug lord, El Chapo Guzman, is arrested and the cartel that Mariana infiltrates decides to violently revolt.
Additional episode topics include:
COUNTERFEITING
Mariana journeys deep inside the Peruvian underworld to meet the gangster craftsmen who make and sell the world's finest counterfeit U.S. dollars. Along the way, she learns that many of these counterfeiting operations are run by criminal families in Lima, who are making a fortune despite the anti-counterfeiting efforts of the U.S. Secret Service and the Peruvian National Police.
SCAMS
Mariana dives into the world of international scamming to understand how it all works and meet the outlaws at the heart of this booming industry. Her investigation takes her from the streets of Montego Bay to the glitzy neighborhoods of Tel Aviv as she pursues some of the biggest phone, lottery and financial scammers in the world and learns why Americans are the perfect targets.
COCAINE
Mariana retraces one of the world's most intractable smuggling routes, following cocaine's path from a remote Peruvian valley through Colombia's Caribbean coast, all the way to the streets of Miami. Despite the decades-long U.S. War on Drugs, cocaine production is at an all-time high, and Mariana meets some of the makers, smugglers, drivers and teenage backpackers who risk their lives to deliver America's favorite party drug.
STEROIDS
In the age of social media, the demand for illegal steroids is booming. Mariana searches out producers and users in an attempt to understand the vanity, insecurity and greed that's driving this dangerously unregulated, billion-dollar black market in body-enhancing drugs.
FENTANYL
Fentanyl has turbocharged the deadliest drug crisis in American history. But less understood is how the drug has utterly transformed the black market. Mariana goes in search of the new bosses, new routes, new risks and the American communities paying the price for fentanyl's next wave.
TIGERS
Mariana tackles what one of her sources calls "the untouchable smuggling story." The black market for tigers and tiger parts is so lucrative, so secretive and so dangerous that few have attempted to uncover its ugly details. Mariana journeys far, and near, to meet the smugglers face-to-face.
PIMPS
In an eye-opening journey through her home state of California, Mariana embeds with pimps, victims, undercover cops and private investigators to understand the ugly business of illicit sex in America. How do pimps recruit? How do they think? Where do they get their power? And just how far will they go to grab their share of this billion-dollar black market?
TRAFFICKED WITH MARIANA VAN ZELLER is produced for National Geographic by Muck Media. For National Geographic, Bengt Anderson is executive producer; Matt Renner is executive producer and vice president, original programming and production; Alan Eyres is senior vice president of production and development; and Geoff Daniels is executive vice president of global unscripted entertainment.
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