Nat Geo’s ‘Trafficked’ Reveals World Of Underground Black Markets And What Drives Them

Around the world, people wake up to take on a new day. They have a cup of coffee and check in on their social media accounts while they get their kids ready for school, and then they head off to work. Just another day in the life. However, for many of those people “work” is engaging in underground and illegal activities. Trafficked, a new series from National Geographic, takes us inside these criminal enterprises to reveal that black market activities are taking place all around us—but also to show the human side of the people involved.

Peeking Behind the Curtain

There are eight subjects explored by “Trafficked:” Guns, Pimps, Fentanyl, Steroids, Cocaine, Scams, Counterfeiting, and Tigers. I recently spoke to Mariana van Zeller about filming the original documentary series, and what it was like peeking behind the curtain to learn about the complex and dangerous inner-workings of black markets and the global underworld.

In each episode, Mariana investigates the topic to understand the underground market from all sides—the scammers and smugglers, the law enforcement agencies trying to stop them, and the innocent people often caught in the crossfire. She tries to understand both how the black market works from a business perspective, as well as the “why”—why are these people involved in these criminal activities?

Mariana told me that it is somewhat shocking how pervasive these underground markets are—and that often times they aren’t all that underground. Criminal activity is often taking place in broad daylight. She described a scene where an arms trafficking transaction took place out in the open next to a freeway in Los Angeles. In another episode, she found that the criminals blended in with the bustling tourist activity by dressing like tour guides and brazenly transport contraband across town in common tourist vehicles.

Some of the people Mariana spoke to for “Trafficked” have aspirations outside of the criminal world they work in. One individual spoke of wanting to one day be a dentist so he can help people smile. Many of the people are just trying to get by—and some even have some sense of guilt about what they do. For others, though, there is a sense of self-righteousness. In some cases, the criminals have bought the cooperation of law enforcement and operate with a sense of impunity and the belief that they can’t be touched.

Technology Plays a Role

Crime has been around since the dawn of time, and it would exist without technology, but the internet, social media, mobile devices, and other technologies all play a role in these underground markets today. There are areas where technology plays an integral part in the criminal activities, and where technology is integral for Mariana and her team to capture the stories we see in “Trafficked.”

The black markets rely on technology. The internet and burner phones provide the means to communicate. In some cases, technology is essential for testing and refining the illicit products being sold. In others, access to social media profiles and other information on the internet arms criminals with information they need to conduct their business.

Mariana and her team use drones in many cases to capture aerial shots of meetings and underground black market activity. She told me that in most cases the people she speaks to know who she is and why they are being interviewed and they are aware that the cameras are there. In at least one episode, though, Mariana also uses a button camera hidden in her shirt to secretly record when she goes in for an interview with a suspected criminal organization.

The Takeaway

At face value, it may seem like the message here is that crime is both pervasive and persistent and that the whole situation is hopeless—but that is not what Mariana wants the audience to get from watching “Trafficked.”

She told me that her experience investigating these different black markets and underground criminal networks has shown her that the world is not as black and white as we would like to believe. There is a lot more gray out there.

Mariana noted that many of the individuals she spoke to for “Trafficked” are single mothers or sons and daughters trying to provide for their families. Circumstances led them to choose a life of crime, but at the end of the day they are more like us than we might like to admit. She hopes that “Trafficked” will help people approach the world with more empathy instead of judgment, and that it can drive a shift in strategy from aggressively pursuing the criminals to understand the underlying problems that create the market and the need and investing in solutions to address those.

Trafficked premiers on Wednesday, December 2 with a 2-episode kickoff. The show airs at 9pm Eastern / 8pm Central on National Geographic and will be available on Video-on-Demand and the Nat Geo website and app after its initial run.