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Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller - General Discussion

MicheleinPhilly
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MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

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TRAFFICKED with Mariana van Zeller is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire. - airing on NatGeo. 

Has anyone else watched this? I watched the first episode last night which dealt with the ubiquity of scammer operations in Jamaica and Israel. You know, the super sketchy calls you get from an unknown number that tell you you've won $19 million and can claim it by forking over a measly $100,000 "processing fee"? 

It was simultaneously fascinating and terrifying. I'm looking forward to future episodes. 

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DanaK

DanaK

I've watched the first episode so far. I thought it was pretty interesting. Her reaction to the interviewee suggesting he was thinking of robbing them was kind of priceless

Mariana seemed to try to get us to feel sorry for the Jamaican scammers given their history, but notice she didn't try to do that with the Israeli ones.

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MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

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54 minutes ago, DanaK said:

I've watched the first episode so far. I thought it was pretty interesting. Her reaction to the interviewee suggesting he was thinking of robbing them was kind of priceless

Mariana seemed to try to get us to feel sorry for the Jamaican scammers given their history, but notice she didn't try to do that with the Israeli ones.

I agree. I would have peed my pants and then ran. I was curious whether she had any type of personal security with her aside from the crew because some of those meetings were SKETCHY.

I definitely noticed that too. It made sense to me though as the Jamaicans talked about imperialism and colonialism and reparations and working for peanuts at luxury resorts, etc. Not to say that it excuses their behavior but their motivations were, I think, easier to stomach than simply, "I want to make a lot of money" which Moshiko was not shy about. 

This is why I NEVER answer my phone unless you're in my contacts or I'm expecting a call from a vendor or service provider. 

 

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Neurochick

Neurochick

(edited)
On 12/8/2020 at 11:19 AM, DanaK said:

I've watched the first episode so far. I thought it was pretty interesting. Her reaction to the interviewee suggesting he was thinking of robbing them was kind of priceless

Mariana seemed to try to get us to feel sorry for the Jamaican scammers given their history, but notice she didn't try to do that with the Israeli ones.

Probably because the Jamaican scammers were doing to to survive, while the Israeli's seemed to be doing it to buy large boats and just have more money for....buying more shit.

I'm surprised they weren't doing the love scams there.

I'm watching the steroids one now.  Why anybody would take that shit is shocking. 

It was interesting when Mariana was talking to the medical doctor and he said something like, "this is beyond the science of today" LOL.  So is it possible that a drug company could make some kind of steroid with no side effects in the future? 

Edited by Neurochick
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SuzySmith

SuzySmith

I've enjoyed this show a lot.  It is interesting that she can find these peopel and get them to allow her to tag along.  The fentanyl episode was sickening - such a horrible drug.  And teh steroid show was horrific as well.  Looking forward to more of them.

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DanaK

DanaK

On 12/20/2020 at 8:32 PM, SuzySmith said:

I've enjoyed this show a lot.  It is interesting that she can find these peopel and get them to allow her to tag along.  The fentanyl episode was sickening - such a horrible drug.  And teh steroid show was horrific as well.  Looking forward to more of them.

Sometimes I think they either overdramatize Mariana getting into danger or she just likes taking a lot of risks. Sometimes she gets the funniest reactions from her interviewees. In the Fentanyl episode, she asked one of the guys, while he was making this stuff in a highly dangerous procedure, if he really knew what he was doing, and he just gave this ehhh reaction. I’m not sure the episode emphasized enough how dangerous Fentanyl is for someone to even touch without protection even when it’s ready to be used

I watched the counterfeiting episode in the last couple of days so I’m 2 episodes behind. What is really interesting is that when I first read about the series I was expecting the focus to be on just human or animal trafficking so I was surprised at the varied number of topics, though much of the activity could rightly be called smuggling

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DanaK

DanaK

(edited)

What got me about the steroid episode was that the steroid users that were profiled, at least the ones building muscle, seemed to mostly be using either to look good or to be in bodybuilding competitions. Tony Huge allegedly wants to build a super human but we didn’t see anyone actually using them to do that beyond looks. No super soldiers or things like that. I don’t see an over muscled bodybuilder being able to run fast. Of course, you have someone like Lance Armstrong using banned stuff to win biking competitions, but Tony seemed to be mostly concerned about building big muscles

And man, all those needles...

ETA: I realized after the fact that since Mariana was profiling folks who trafficked in illicit goods, talking to this guy was on the mark for this show. I think in the end, I felt she didn't really push him on what good he was actually doing and how he really was advancing human growth. And of course the guy ended up in Thailand to escape the attention of US authorities

Edited by DanaK
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DanaK

DanaK

Programming note: This Wednesday at 9pm ET is the Cocaine episode. For some reason, listings are showing it titled as “Cocaine: First Look” and DVRs may not be picking it up (depending on the record settings) because the short first look segments are shown one or more times before their episode so it would see it as a repeat and this listing is 1hr. Plus, promo has said the cocaine episode on Wed is new

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MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

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I had to change my DVR setting because it was picking up the First Looks but not the actual episodes. 

I've only just seen the Fentanyl episode and it was jaw-dropping. You couldn't pay me enough money to get that close to that stuff.

And I've always heard rumors about drugs being smuggled in coffee to confuse the sniffer dogs but who knew mustard was a tool in their arsenal as well???

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DanaK

DanaK

The finale on guns was both enlightening and quite sad. So much death. It’s really disheartening that the Mexican government had to back down from arresting El Chapo’s son because the cartel had more firepower and was only too willing to cause a lot of destruction and death. That doesn’t bode well for their future

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MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

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Caught up with a couple of these over the weekend...

Counterfeiting was absolutely fascinating. Watching the process of manufacturing these counterfeit bills was just mesmerizing. It's not something I've ever given much thought to given all of the stylistic bells and whistles they've added to U.S. currency over the last few decades - I guess I just didn't realize that it was still such big business. 

Steroids was absolutely disgusting. I have a thing about needles so watching a constant stream of injections is not my idea of a fun Sunday night. 🤢 Also where do these people get their ideas about body image from? I found all of the users and competitors to be physically grotesque. I know the bodybuilder world has different standards as to what constitutes an attractive form but 🤮. But it was interesting to see her sources be so open and unmasked in comparison to the other episodes. 

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MicheleinPhilly

MicheleinPhilly

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For some reason my DVR hates this show but it is available on demand. I decided to skip right to the "Meth" episode which was utterly terrifying. Her calm in the face of these encounters is truly astonishing. And I would love to get some sort of behind the scenes look to see how exactly she goes about securing these interviews. "Hey, does anyone have a contact with a Mexican drug cartel? Can you see if they'd be willing to sit down with me on Thursday for a chat?" 

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DanaK

DanaK

15 minutes ago, MicheleinPhilly said:

For some reason my DVR hates this show but it is available on demand. I decided to skip right to the "Meth" episode which was utterly terrifying. Her calm in the face of these encounters is truly astonishing. And I would love to get some sort of behind the scenes look to see how exactly she goes about securing these interviews. "Hey, does anyone have a contact with a Mexican drug cartel? Can you see if they'd be willing to sit down with me on Thursday for a chat?" 

You might want to check your DVR listings for the show. There seem to be some Behind the Scenes stuff on Season 1 shows following the new episodes at 10pm ET

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DanaK

DanaK

Van Zeller was on ABC’s Good Morning America this morning to promote the 3rd season, which premieres on Wed, Jan 18 at 9pm ET on the National Geographic Channel and next day on Hulu

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Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

Wow last nights episode about Black Market organs was an eye opener.  That guy Mariana interviewed who got the pancreas has to live with the possibility that someone was murdered so he could live.  He doesn’t want to think about that and maybe he should have.   So I guess these people who got transplants through illegal means are also getting the anti rejection drugs as well?  They didn’t go into that at all.  
 

The guy waiting for a new kidney that she talked to at the beginning and the end is a good person although he may die waiting for that transplant.  I hope he makes it.  

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Lovecat

Lovecat

On 1/19/2023 at 1:08 PM, Cobb Salad said:

The guy waiting for a new kidney that she talked to at the beginning and the end is a good person although he may die waiting for that transplant.  I hope he makes it.  

Mariana posted on IG :  "I am so happy to report that in November, a kidney from a donor in Minnesota 🙏 was flown to Garrett. And it only happened because his wife Erin donated her own kidney to someone else in what is called a chain donation. (They weren’t compatible with each other.) They are both still recovering, but their surgeries went really well. As Garrett told me this week, 'I have energy again. I actually have the ability to think about our future. Now it’s all about how I use my new lease on life.'"

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DanaK

DanaK

“Cocaine Queens” was very interesting. The interview with Sonia(sp?) was kind of shocking on how brutal she was, including kidnapping teenage boys to add them to her gang. The epilogue has the gang broken up by the government and on the run. It’s a tough situation for a poor country to have a very popular illegal crop and being controlled by murderous gangs. Of course, if there wasn’t such a big demand for cocaine, especially in the US, this wouldn’t be happening

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DanaK

DanaK

On 3/10/2023 at 7:01 PM, DanaK said:

Correction, 2 episode finale from 9-11pm ET

Another correction, it looks like that second episode is Van Zeller talking about her experiences making the season

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DanaK

DanaK

FYI, it does look like from the above new season pickup announcement that they've officially renamed the show to Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana Van Zeller. I had noted that with my DVR this past season that it had a different name. I don't know if we should rename the forum or not. What do you think?

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