Synopsis: 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. (Courtesy NatGeo, 2023)
The Cast:
Production Credits:
The Episodes:
Season One Episode Guide (NatGeo)
1-01 Scams--12/02/2020
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.
1-02 Fentanyl--12/02/2020
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.
1-03 Counterfeiting--12/09/2020
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.
1-04 Steroids--12/16/2020
Mariana attempts to understand the vanity, insecurity and greed that's driving the unregulated, billion-dollar black market in body-enhancing drugs.
1-05 Pimps--12/23/2020
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?
1-06 Cocaine--12/30/2020
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.
1-07 Tigers--01/06/2021
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.
1-08 Guns--01/13/2021
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.
Season Two Episode Guide (NatGeo)
2-01 Black Market Surgery--12/01/2021
Mariana van Zeller investigates the dark corners of black market plastic surgery, where sex, greed and social media drive patients toward deadly motel-room operations. In Miami's discount surgery centers, she uncovers a bombshell connection between felons, greedy doctors and patient deaths.
2-02 Romance Scams--12/08/2021
Mariana journeys from America's heartland to the cafes of Ghana to meet the romance scammers fleecing Americans out of millions.
2-03 Black Market Marijuana--12/15/2021
Mariana sets off on a wild journey through California's black market for weed, which has mushroomed since marijuana legalization four years ago.
2-04 Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs--12/22/2021
Mariana van Zeller investigates outlaw motorcycle gangs known as 1% clubs, learning about the bonds of brotherhood that fuel these violent groups.
2-05 Meth--12/29/2021
Mariana van Zeller follows a meth superhighway from a cartel-run lab in Sinaloa across the border and into the lives of American users.
2-06 White Supremacy--01/05/2022
Mariana races to expose a global underground movement hellbent on a violent white supremacist future.
2-07 Stolen Cars--01/12/2022
Mariana follows a smuggling route of cars stolen from the U.S. to shipping containers bound for West Africa, where the demand is skyrocketing.
2-08 Cocaine Queens--01/19/2022
Mariana investigates a new breed of narco starting to gain power in cocaine trafficking networks of Colombia and Brazil: las jefas, lady bosses.
2-09 Amazon Mafia--01/26/2022
Mariana travels to the Amazon to track down the criminal networks behind a slew of killings and the illegal destruction of the rainforest.
2-10 Fish Pirates--02/02/2022
As much as 30% of our seafood has been caught illegally. Mariana searches for the fish pirates who make billions each year while destroying our oceans.
Season Three Episode Guide (NatGeo)
3-01 Black Market Organs--01/18/2023
Mariana Van Zeller investigates one of the darkest and most elusive black markets in the world--the illicit trade in human organs.
3-02 LSD--01/29/2023
LSD is booming because of the growing faith in its healing power. Mariana hunts for the elusive chemists responsible for making the world's supply.
3-03 Ghost Guns--02/01/2023
Mariana is on a mission to expose how ghost guns — untraceable firearms built from kits bought online — are fueling violence across the country.
3-04 Terrorist Oil--02/08/2023
Mariana embarks on a journey from Africa to the Middle East to uncover how black-market oil is fueling terrorist groups around the world.
3-05 MDMA--02/15/2023
Mariana investigates how the demand for MDMA here in the U.S. is threatening to turn the Netherlands into a narco state.
3-06 Black Market Babies--02/22/2023
Mariana investigates the global surrogacy market to understand how the dream of starting a family is fueling a babies-for-cash black market.
3-07 Cyber Pirates--03/01/2023
Mariana is on a mission to understand how personal and financial data is stolen and sold by a shadowy network of hackers and thieves.
3-08 Gangs--03/08/2023
Violent crime is soaring in Los Angeles to levels not seen in 30 years. Mariana goes inside the Crips and the Bloods to understand why.
3-09 Crypto Scams--03/15/2023
Mariana embeds with a crew of cryptocurrency scammers who show her how they make millions of dollars in mere weeks.
3-10 Fight Clubs--03/22/2023
Mariana investigates underground fight clubs and the push to bring bare-knuckle fighting into the mainstream.
Season Four Episode Guide (NatGeo)
4-01 Assassins--01/17/2024
What drives a person to make a living out of killing? Mariana goes inside the dark world of contract killers.
4-02 Sextortion--01/24/2024
Mariana investigates a new blackmail scam called "sextortion," in which compromising photos are used to extort victims, and often leading to suicide.
4-03 Body Parts--01/31/2024
Mariana exposes how black market operators are profiting from the sale of stolen human remains on secret marketplaces in the U.S. and beyond.
4-04 Black Market Meds--02/07/2024
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.
2-05 Apes--02/14/2024
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.
2-06 Migrant Smugglers--02/21/2024
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.
2-07 Hash Smugglers--02/27/2024
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.
2-08 Illegal Gambling--03/06/2024
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.
2-09 The Drug Mule Scam--03/13/2024
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?
2-10 Terrorist Gold--03/13/2024
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