Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller: Spotlight on Crime | MEGA EPISODE | National Geographic

0:11 MARIANA: It's military grade? MARIANA: They call it "the Iron River." Day and night, American guns are flowing across the border into the hands of Mexican gangsters, fueling an arms race between the cartels and terrorizing innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. ♪ ♪

1:11 MARIANA: So, it's almost midnight and we're following this person who's driving this car right in front of us. It's allegedly someone who transports guns down to Mexico. We're just looking for an isolated place to park and talk. For years, I've cultivated sources in Mexico who have connections to the cartels. One of them has helped me gain access to an LA-based operation that moves guns south of the border.

2:16 MARIANA: She won't reveal her name but tells me to call her "La Guera" or "Blondie." Blondie tells me she's been working for the Sinaloa Cartel since she was 18 and has driven vehicles packed with American weapons into Mexico at least 100 times. For her efforts, she's paid $20,000 a month. MARIANA: Blondie is just a low-level courier. She can't, or won't, tell me who her suppliers are. The buyers, on the other hand, are less of a mystery.

3:02 (speaking native language) (rapid gunfire) MAN: Hey! MARIANA: Over 35,000 murders were committed in Mexico in 2019, the most ever recorded. And yet there's only one gun store in the whole country. It turns out 70% of the weapons seized by Mexican authorities originated in the United States. The following night, my cartel contacts set me up with Blondie's LA-based suppliers. How are you? T: T. Nice to meet you. MARIANA: Nice to meet you, I'm Mariana. T: Come on in.

3:48 MARIANA: The lead supplier tells me to call him "T." Then introduces me to his cousin and his 17-year-old niece. MARIANA: So, it's somebody down in Mexico, who's your relative who called you and said, asked you to do this favor to show us this operation up here. T: Yes... But like I said. MARIANA: We're not cops. T: I know you guys not cops. MARIANA: I'm a journalist. T: And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing right now. Or else you guys wouldn't even be this close. MARIANA: I see that you've got some stuff ready here. T: Yes. MARIANA: And are these going down tonight? T: They're going, they're getting shipped out tonight actually. MARIANA: Whoa. Well, how do you get a hold of so many weapons? Where? T: Well, actually, honestly, I'm gonna be honest with you. This one, we just got it from a police officer that just took it away from one of our fellas.

4:34 And he gave it back to us for $1,000. And we just get that for like 700, so he made $300 worth of that. MARIANA: Wait, wait, wait, wait. LAPD? T: LAPD. MARIANA: So, the officer confiscated the weapon and then you paid him $1,000 to get the weapon back? T: Yes, ma'am. MARIANA: Oh, wow. T: And then this one was actually bought from a marine in a military base in San Diego. All this is different. MARIANA: Right, but they're, all ultimately come from law enforcement here in California. T: Yes, ma'am. MARIANA: So, in general, just outside of California, in general, how easy is it to get guns in the United States? T: Easy... MARIANA: So, this is the AR-15, right? T: Yes, that's the AR-15. MARIANA: It's military grade?

5:25 MARIANA: So, this, for me, is so insane, because I live here in Los Angeles. This is my backyard and the fact that I'm holding an AR-15, with another one next to me, and an AK-47, these are the guns that are killing Mexicans on a daily basis. T: But that's the killing machine you got right there. MARIANA: These are the same weapons being used in many of America's mass shootings. MARIANA: This is (bleep) crazy, because we're on a corner, out in the open, there's cars passing, it's like 10:00 PM on a regular weekday night in Los Angeles,

6:12 and they're going to stash the guns in this car and then the car's gonna go to Mexico. ♪ ♪ The Iron River moves quickly. I can't ride with Blondie and her cargo, but I know where she plans to deliver the guns. 180 miles southeast of Los Angeles lies Mexicali. A dusty desert town that sits along the US/Mexico border. ♪ ♪ This is where Blondie told me to meet her if she hasn't been apprehended.

7:04 MARIANA: So, she's waiting for us right at that place. She sent me the map which should be right around the corner. Okay. She's right here. I think that's her car right there. Yup, that's her. The keys apparently... This is how it works, she hides the key under the mat, the door, the car mat. And then somebody else will come here, get the car, take it away and then call her when the car is ready. So, we just stay here, and we wait. Let me see if she's actually leaving the car right now. Okay. Now off she goes.

7:54 And supposedly now, she says somebody else is gonna show up and take the car. Do you see somebody? Oh, yeah. Okay. Is that it? There's a guy coming this way. Okay, yes. This is it. This is him. So, this guy knows we're following him or at least I hope so. (honking) Sorry, sorry, sorry. I just don't wanna lose him. I don't know much, I don't know (bleep) about this guy. Just, I believe this, he works for the guy that receives the guns here in Mexico. Um, so he's another link in this chain.

8:41 We follow the SUV until it pulls into a small garage. MARIANA: So, I guess this is it. Standing in this small, quiet garage in Mexicali, I have no idea what the Iron River has waiting for me further downstream. MARIANA: My quest to trace the flow of American weapons into Mexico has brought me

9:29 to this garage in the border town of Mexicali. Mexico's drug cartels run a multibillion dollar criminal industry, but in a country with exactly one legal gun store, firearms are almost impossible to acquire unless you know someone like Hector. Wow. Check this out. This is crazy, that's just wrapped in a denim jacket. Oh, no, in a denim, no, jeans. Jeans. Here, Hector fills orders from the cartels with a massive markup. So, we've got a, a .9mm, a .22 caliber, both of these have already been sold for $3,500 apiece. And then there's an AR-15 here that's been sold for $5,000

10:15 and there is a Colt 45 here and a Glock. MARIANA: Hector says he's a businessman, and in a country with a skyrocketing murder rate, business is booming. MARIANA: It's dangerous to pry into organized crime affiliations in Mexico, but Hector is part of the same supply chain as Blondie and I'm fairly certain they both work for the Sinaloa Cartel, the dominant drug cartel in this area.

11:22 MARIANA: To understand why so many American guns are being smuggled into Mexico, you first have to understand that there are more than a dozen drug cartels here, all competing to supply the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs, the United States. In 2006, the Mexican Government decided to crush this supply and launched their own war on drugs. But the plan backfired and unleashed a wave of violence that 14 years later is deadlier than ever. To beat back both the military and local competition, the cartels need firepower, so they look to the most heavily armed country in the world,

12:07 with some of the most lenient gun laws. 800 miles south of Los Angeles lies Sinaloa, Mexico's drug capital. The Sinaloa Cartel produced the most infamous Mexican drug lord of all time, El Chapo Guzman. This is my fifth time working in Culiacán, but I've never arrived quite like this. We just got here last night, and this is the first time we took out the cameras, and immediately within seconds, we got a call that there was a shooting. MIGUEL: Right. That tells you the level of violence that we live in this city. Culiacán is becoming like a war zone now.

12:53 MARIANA: Miguel Angel Vega is a local journalist and an old friend. We work together every time I come to Sinaloa. He tells me gun violence in the city has spiked recently, and no one knows exactly why. Some say outside cartels are trying to muscle their way into Sinaloa. Others suspect the Sinaloa Cartel has internally splintered since El Chapo's capture as different factions battle with El Chapo's sons for control. Whatever the reason, 82 people were killed here the month before I arrived, that's one murder every ten hours. Oh, it's right here. It's right here, guys.

13:52 (speaking native language) MARIANA: Oh, so they're picking up the body right now, but he's saying that it was an assassination. There was a guy inside. He was shot several times. (speaking native language) I try to find out more, but no one wants to speak to me. Impunity reigns across Mexico, 95% of murders like this are never solved. Yeah, they're scared to talk. You know?

14:37 A lot of people around here, even when they're witnesses to crime, if they're, go on television or talk to the press about what they saw, that can get them in serious trouble, that can get them killed, so they don't feel comfortable talking. They definitely know something, they just don't wanna talk to us. Miguel has more luck with his crime beat contacts. The victim was allegedly part of the Mexican underworld, though it's unclear which cartel he belonged to. He recently arrived in Sinaloa from Tijuana, and just before noon this morning, two assassins followed him into the building supplies store and shot him four times, at point blank range. We still don't know what kind of weapon was used, but he says usually, the vast majority of times, it's either AR-15s or AK-47s, it's, uh, assault weapons,

15:25 and the vast majority of times, it's well-known that those weapons come from the United States. MIGUEL: We have the green light. We have their permission to enter to this territory we're going. I'm not supposed to tell you the name of the town. Not even the name of this region. Just basically say that we're in the south of Culiacán. That's all I can tell you. MARIANA: For me, it's not enough to know these American guns are pouring into Mexico. I want to meet the end users, the ones pulling the trigger in murders like the one we saw yesterday. This is the belly of the beast when it comes to narco trafficking in Mexico. Okay, this is the point that we have to stop the cars,

16:11 and then we're gonna have to walk the rest. MARIANA: These men are called "Sicarios", hired killers employed by the Sinaloa Cartel to protect their product, and eliminate the competition.

17:47 MARIANA: I'm reminded that the cartel's billion-dollar profits may come from the drug trade, but their real source of power will always be violence. MARIANA: For men like this, the gun is seen as an essential tool to change their fortunes, just like El Chapo.

18:58 MARIANA: And that is what fuels the never-ending cycle of violence in Mexico. The extraordinary profits made from America's insatiable demand for drugs, means the cartels will always find a supply of eager young recruits. (gunshots) And the more I see, the more I'm convinced that the violence is only going to get worse. MARIANA: Since the war on drugs began, 40,000 men, women, and children, remain unaccounted for. They are simply called Los Desaparecidos, "The Disappeared." Four times a week, 52 weeks a year,

19:45 Maria Isabelle Cruz leads a group of grieving mothers who search for their sons and daughters. They just found this tape. They say it's very common to find, you know, bodies that have been wrapped around, or they put tape, ooh. Such strong smell. They'll put tape around the face. They tell me they've recovered 78 bodies so far. But not Maria Isabel's son, Josimar.

20:30 MARIANA: Josimar was a member of a Sinaloan Police Unit, aggressively combating the cartels. On January 26th, 2017, a group of hooded and heavily armed narcos broke into Josimar's home, and in front of his fiancée, dragged him out into the night. He was never seen or heard from again.

21:33 (singing in native language) (quietly sobbing) ♪ ♪ (overlapping chatter) MARIANA: Your classic American barbeque. Perfect weather. Meats on the grill.

22:23 And a backyard full of friends. But this is not your typical summer get together, because this is Dr. Tony Huge's house. MARIAH: Tony. We're ready for you, dude. ♪ ♪ MARIANA: And performance-enhancing drugs are at the ready. TONY: Yeah! MARIANA: Tony Huge is the face of a movement that

23:09 believes performance-enhancing drugs, like steroids, can turn everyday people... TONY: Friends of Freedom. Pioneers of human evolution. MARIANA: Into superhumans. TONY: Instead of using medicine to make us average, we can use medicine to make us evolve. ♪ ♪ MARIANA: When I started investigating the underground explosion of steroids in America, there is one name I heard over and over again. TONY: Dr. Tony Huge. Dr. Tony Huge here. Dr. Tony Huge here. Where in the world is Dr. Tony Huge, update? MARIANA: Dr. Tony Huge.

23:55 Hi. TONY: Mariana. MARIANA: Reporting for duty, Tony. TONY: Yes. Welcome. You now get to see the behind the scenes of how we actually build muscle, besides the drugs. Although there might be some of that involved as well. MARIANA: Okay. OPRAH: Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance? LANCE: Yes. MARIANA: Performance-enhancing drugs are notorious for causing scandals at the highest levels of sports. But these days, people like Tony Huge are bringing experimental versions of those same drugs to the masses. TONY: I'm gonna show you what we do before our workouts as bodybuilders. MARIANA: Just minutes after I arrive, Tony invites me and a handful of his "guinea pigs,"

24:40 his words, not mine, into a locker room. TONY: You know, they wouldn't do it openly. We'll get kicked out of the gym if there's people around. This is generic Chinese growth hormone. This is an underground testosterone. All right, Akaash, I'm loading your needle. You want testosterone? Do you need test? TONY: This is actually an extremely potent prototype. A half cc would... AKAASH: Oh, let's do it, let's do it, like... TODAY: Okay. One quarter. MARIANA: Ah, it looks like a big needle that I wouldn't wanna stick on myself. Yeah. It's much bigger than I thought and thicker too. TONY: So, now, this is Molly's shot.

25:27 In one month, she can make about a year and a half worth of muscle-building progress. MARIANA: And why are you doing this? MOLLY: I've always had insecurities, like, with my body, with myself. So it slowly but surely does help you gain that confidence. MARIANA: Yeah, I'm feeling the pressure right now guys. I'm feeling really tiny and terrible here. I feel so out of shape right now. Dr. Tony Huge is a larger-than-life figure in the world DIY performance-enhancing drugs. You're Dr. Tony Huge. Where did you get your medical degree from? TONY: I don't have a medical degree. I'm a Doctor of Jurisprudence. Contact us at Hughes Financial Law today. I'm a lawyer. Retired lawyer.

26:13 Yo soy Antony Hughes, le puedo ayudar en Espanol. It's quite fortunate for the audience that I'm not an actually medical doctor because if I was, they would take my license for teaching the things that I do. MARIANA: Tony is evangelical about the power of anabolic drugs. TONY: I love steroids. I think before I came on the scene, steroids were an even greater taboo, so I've sort of made steroids cool. Steroids. Steroids. Steroids. I use them all the time in mega doses. And I don't think it's a bad thing. Be swell and swole, friends of freedom, pioneers of human evolution. ♪ ("Move Pon Bakka" by Tambor Battant Feat. Brail) ♪ MARIANA: So when did you start taking steroids? MARIAH: Uh, steroids? I actually started taking about two years ago.

26:59 I didn't know I was taking them. Someone told me they were vitamins. MARIANA: Who? Who? Like a friend or? MARIAH: It was an ex-boyfriend. MARIANA: And then when you found out, were you angry or? MARIAH: No, because I liked the results that I got from them. MARIANA: Back at Tony's house, his friends are open about using steroids. SOLDIER: If you're someone who's deploying all the time, or you're in a specialist operations career field, we don't get down days. MARIANA: That includes a member of US Special Forces. SOLDIER: We're hiking the tallest mountains, we're in the hottest deserts. Pretty much perform like a superhuman. And when it's a life or death situation, it's a small price to pay to take performance-enhancing drugs to be able to get back home to my family. MARIANA: Who contacts you about steroids? TONY: Everyone. Teenagers all the way up to old ladies. I kid you not. And everywhere in between.

27:44 Police, 40-year-old female, house moms that are using them to get in better shape. MARIANA: Do you still take steroids now? WOMAN: I do in the sense of if I wanna get ready for Halloween, I wanna body paint. MARIANA: Uh-hmm. WOMAN: So for me to be able to body paint after three kids, instead of me doing a cabbage soup diet. MARIANA: Uh-huh. WOMAN: I wanna look strong and feel strong... MARIANA: Uh-huh. WOMAN: And not to (bleep) up my metabolism. MARIAH: Everyone has their poison, whether it's smoking, or alcohol, or hardcore opiates, and you know, things like that. Pick your poison and that's the one I chose. MARIANA: Tony is happy to give away performance-enhancing drugs at his party. But how do everyday people normally get their hands on them? Do you know where the steroids you take, do you know where they're coming from? SOLDIER: It depends. MARIANA: You don't wanna tell me?

28:30 SOLDIER: Not at all. MARIANA: So the anabolic's that you take, where are those coming, where is it coming from? MARIAH: Our source asked not to be named. WOMAN: Um, I wouldn't say. MARIANA: You don't wanna say? WOMAN: No. MARIANA: See, I've spoken to several people here and nobody wants to tell me where from. Why is that? SOLDIER: Well, I don't know you, and it's a small community, and you're dealing with stuff that can potentially put other people in jail. MARIANA: Okay. Can you just tell me if they come from overseas or they're domestic? MARIANA: Okay. Here's the thing, I don't really take no for an answer. So, after a few off-camera conversations with Tony, he agrees to show me where underground steroids come from.

29:17 Yeah. This is where he told us to meet him. Not where you'd think they'd be doing steroids and human experiments, you know. I see this light over there. (engine approaches) Tony Huge, right here. So, you're, it's not, is it here? TONY: No, it's not here. I'm gonna take you to it because the experiments that we do are kind of underground. You're not supposed to experiment on humans and you're not supposed to be making some of these compounds the way we do. And that's a lot of risk to me and the people I work with.

30:09 MARIANA: When you mentioned an underground lab, I definitely wasn't expecting something, so. It looks, it looks like a real lab. TONY: Well, it has to be clean and it has to have all the tools that we need for any given experiment. MARIANA: The DEA and FDA are the federal agencies with oversight on steroid use. They often make news for busting underground labs. ANCHOR (over TV): DEA agents raided the facility. REPORTER (over TV): A massive illegal drug operation. Homemade drugs are especially dangerous to anyone who uses them. MARIANA: Aren't you scared they could come after you? TONY: Yeah, everything, they did. They did. MARIANA: Tony is the face of Enhanced Athlete, a supplement company that was raided by the FDA in 2017. That same year, Enhanced Athlete was accused in a civil lawsuit of selling products not approved for human consumption.

30:58 INTERROGATOR: You said you've got a doctorate of laws? You don't, you don't really think it allows you to call yourself a doctor, do you? TONY: Yes. I was under investigation for many years and they were surveilling me and, and my CEO ended up in, in jail. ANCHOR: This is New Tonight. A Sacramento man was sentenced to three years in prison today for selling fertilizer disguised as fat-burning pills. MARIANA: And you guys were making that here? TONY: That's what Scott was prosecuted for. MARIANA: Why are you still here? And why's he in prison? TONY: Because I never made money from any of this. I was a lawyer. I sold my law firm and I took that money and I invested it into research. MARIANA: Tony claims that for him, developing new drugs is merely a passion project, albeit, a risky one. So why do you let us film in here? Why do you let us come here?

31:44 TONY: Because there's, there's a risk versus benefit. This is my passion. I retired from law to further the chemistry of bodybuilding. Instead of just using medicine to make us average, we can use medicine to continue to enhance us, to make us evolve. MARIANA: And who make, do you actually make all of this or who makes this? TONY: Coach Trevor is our lead chemist. Hey, Coach Trevor! MARIANA: Coach Trevor is Tony's secret weapon. Hi. TREVOR: Hey. How's it going? MARIANA: How are you? I'm Mariana. TREVOR: Trevor. Nice to meet you. MARIANA: Nice to meet you. The two are incredibly close, with an almost brotherly bond. This is your lab? TREVOR: This is it. This is ground zero. MARIANA: And they have a shared passion for creating new performance-enhancing drugs. TONY: Coach Trevor and I have gone over the protocol. What I'm gonna start with is 50 milligrams per day.

32:29 MARIANA: Tony was saying that you're the main chemist. TREVOR: I think they call it chef. MARIANA: Sort of Breaking Bad kind of a thing? TREVOR: No, meth, no. MARIANA: Trevor is obsessed with the chemistry behind steroids. Despite the imposing exterior, Trevor sees himself as a science nerd at heart. If you wanted to, what drugs can you make right now? TREVOR: Actually, it'd be easier to name what I couldn't make. MARIANA: Could you make cocaine? TREVOR: Yeah. MARIANA: Can you make heroin? TREVOR: Yeah. Very simple. MARIANA: Do you know how to make fentanyl? TREVOR: Yeah. That's, yeah. MARIANA: Do you know how to make meth? TREVOR: Yes. MARIANA: If you can make any drug in the world, why are you making anabolic's? TREVOR: Because I could sell steroids to a lawyer. He's happy and it improves his life. If it's not hurting you, why not? MARIANA: Is what you're doing dangerous?

33:15 TREVOR: Yeah, yeah... TONY: Sometimes, really bad things do happen. And, and afterwards, we sometimes say we're never gonna do another experiment. We are addicted to the science and pioneering, and we do, we do continue experimenting even after bad things happen. MARIANA: The raw chemicals that you use here, where did those come from? TREVOR: Almost everything comes from China now. MARIANA: Because these chemicals are often on the DEA's list of banned substances, companies in China have found inventive ways to sneak them past customs. TREVOR: Here's one. MARIANA: Disguised as food. TREVOR: Yeah. It looks like flour, right? MARIANA: And so a lot of it is actually coming out. So it's not dangerous that it's all over my hands, is it? No? TREVOR: Yeah, actually...

34:01 No, it's not. Nah, I don't wanna bust.. MARIANA: Today, Trevor and Tony are developing a new, injectable version of a drug called "ASARM" TONY: A Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator. So, potentially the future of steroids, all the benefits without the side effects. MARIANA: And this is illegal? TONY: This is illegal to sell to a human as a supplement. It is legal to possess. It is legal to use. MARIANA: People are using the stuff that you guys are making here in this lab.... are using this. TONY: Yes, they are using these formulas by, by facilities we have, are teaching how to make these things underground.

34:48 MARIANA: That was a very around the way answer. TONY: I was a lawyer. I was a lawyer before. MARIANA: The stuff that is made here, does it end up inside people's bodies around the country? TONY: That's what I don't wanna answer. MARIANA: Because that can get you in trouble? TONY: Right. I plead The Fifth. I plead The Fifth. I plead The Fifth. JEFF: Back then, I felt like a loser. I felt like a zero, felt like a nobody. And I found this thing, the sport that could give me respect immediately for nothing. You know, almost unearned, you know, you get big in the gym and people were afraid of me or respected me.

35:33 MARIANA: Jeff started bodybuilding and using steroids when he was in his 20s. But a decade later, he was diagnosed with heart failure. JEFF: The heart thing, that's what everyone's risking. And it's just when, when's your number gonna get called? Like that's how bodybuilders die. JEFF: I was weak, like, weaker than I'd ever been. And there was something obviously wrong. When they use that word "heart failure", it's like, yeah, that hit me like a ton of bricks. And I got a kid right now, I've got a family, like, "Yo, this isn't cool." ABBY: Now that we have a baby, it was putting a lot of strain on us. JEFF: Many, many people I admire were doing steroids. MARIANA: Uh-hmm. JEFF: And they weren't dropping dead. My hero's Arnold Schwarzenegger,

36:20 they're alive, they're still alive. They were big steroid users. MARIANA: Ironically, doctors only discovered Jeff's heart problems when he was sent to the hospital for a different medical emergency, also caused by steroids. JEFF: Like my butt was so big, that, like, I had elastic basketball shorts, and I couldn't pull them up over my butt. It was... MARIANA: Because it was too big? JEFF: Yeah. It was, like, I don't know if you can tell, like. MARIANA: I can definitely tell. JEFF: You know. MARIANA: After injecting a batch of underground steroids, Jeff got an infection so malicious, that doctors had to amputate parts of his butt and legs just to keep him alive. JEFF: The lady was like, "Holy (bleep), we gotta operate on you right now." You know, there were seven surgeries to get the

37:06 infection under control. And then there were five surgeries to clean it. So there was 11 surgeries in 24 days. MARIANA: Eleven surgeries? JEFF: Eleven. MARIANA: It was only then that Jeff began to rethink his long-time steroid use. Tomorrow, Jeff will get the results from his cardiologist. JEFF: I'm hoping that, you know, I'm gonna get some good, good news. JEFF: I think some of the damage I did is probably permanent as far as, like, an enlarged heart. DOCTOR: Yeah. JEFF: I don't wanna go back and body-build. I'm not looking for that. I'm looking for, you know, how long can I live, right? Like, I mean, if you look around this office, who's here?

37:51 It's old men. It's like, "Why am I here?" I'm freaking 37. Something's wrong, right? MARIANA: Because Jeff took testosterone for so many years. DOCTOR: Right. Right. MARIANA: Now his body doesn't produce it naturally and he actually has to take testosterone to stay healthy. DOCTOR: Right. Right. This is the unfortunate irony for guys that are looking to become superhuman, per se. You know, they end up in a point where, again, they obliterate their body's own ability to produce testosterone. MARIANA: Today, Jeff will be getting the results to see if his heart has bounced back to normal. DOCTOR: So there's, there's two main things we're evaluating with that echo. One is your systolic function, which is the squeezing function, and that was the one that was mildly reduced last time you were here that actually does not look significantly different. JEFF: All right. DOCTOR: Okay? So it still looks a little bit sluggish.

38:37 JEFF: Yup. DOCTOR: But there's another parameter that we look at, which is the relaxation function of the heart. JEFF: Right. DOCTOR: And that was also quite abnormal last time you were here. That looks significantly better. JEFF: Okay. DOCTOR: Okay. Now we're not, we're not at the point where I'd say your heart looks normal, unfortunately. JEFF: Right. DOCTOR: I think you should sort of get your mind around the fact that you're probably gonna be on long-term medication. I worry about Jeff's longevity. His heart actually hasn't bounced back to normal. MARIANA: Uh-hmm. DOCTOR: And the longer we see it, that sort of suggests that something permanent has happened there. And if he started taking steroids again? DOCTOR: Not a good outlook. MARIANA: We've heard from a lot of people that say that there is a safe way of doing this. The people that have gotten hurt, it's because they didn't know what they were doing and they were taking too much or...

39:23 DOCTOR: Right. MARIANA: But there is actually a safe way to do this they say. DOCTOR: Right. MARIANA: What do you think? DOCTOR: I think those people are kidding themselves. The best data that we have are autopsy studies. That means someone died. Jeff, frankly, is lucky. There's lots and lots of case reports of young guys having heart attacks and having strokes, sudden death. So your first symptom is dying. MARIANA: I meet with Dr. Thomas O'Connor, a physician who specializes in steroid abuse. THOMAS: What do I think of Tony Huge? A very dangerous guy, because he's so seductive and his social media is so amazing. We have young men, boys, 13-year-old boys, 16, 18,

40:10 25 that are buying it hook, line, and sinker. He's destroying lives. He looks like he's a physician, and he calls himself a doctor. If they were medical professionals, they'd be in jail. MARIANA: So Tony Huge right now is creating this injectable SARM. He says it's like a steroid, but without side effects, right? THOMAS: Okay. It's, he's wrong. It's not possible right now. Pharmaceutical companies like to do what? Pharmaceutical companies like to do what? Make money. Make money. MARIANA: So you're saying that if it was possible to create a steroid without the side effects that the pharmaceutical companies. THOMAS: Billion-dollar industry. MARIANA: Okay. And the fact that they're not all over it right now, it's because. THOMAS: It's, that's it's beyond the science of today. MARIANA: Recently, the FDA released a statement saying that SARMs can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke,

40:57 and liver damage. The same side effects of steroids. THOMAS: The patients tell me that, "Hey, doc, I used to love Tony Huge, man, because he represented just, like, freedom and all this kind of stuff." TONY (over phone): You see me in my bedroom with a hot girl. THOMAS: "And then I really took some of the drugs he recommended and then I ended up in the hospital," or "My brother died" or "A friend of mine is really suffering." You see the bodies that are constructed. Being superhuman on steroids is part of the game. It's part of the trip. But the reality is, you can't be superhuman forever. And your heart doesn't wanna be superhuman. MARIANA: It's estimated that up to four million Americans are now using steroids.

41:47 Hi, Tony. TONY (over computer): Hi, Mariana. MARIANA: How are you? TONY (over computer): Good. Thanks. MARIANA: So you've spent the last couple of months in Thailand, is that right? TONY (over computer): Yeah. I'm building an epicenter of chemical transformations to push the limits on performance enhancement. MARIANA: When I last checked in with Tony Huge, he's still promoting "Enhanced Athlete" products, but he's got a new place to conduct human experiments. Are you and Trevor planning on moving your whole operation to Asia? TONY (over computer): Yeah. We're transitioning right now, so yeah. As fast as we can. In Thailand, they have clinics on every corner. We don't have to go through doctors and get prescriptions for lab work. We can just move much faster in Thailand than in

42:33 the US with our research. MARIANA: In 2019, a bill was introduced to the US Senate that would allow the DEA to arrest anyone making SARMs. Are you ever afraid that the authorities will come after you? TONY (over computer): Yeah, sure, there's always a little bit of that fear. Yeah. It's not so much that I'm running away from authorities and law enforcement, as it is, I'm just less of a target if I'm outside the country. MARIANA: Do you think there's anything wrong with wanting to be superhuman? TONY (over computer): No. I think that that is the next step of our evolution. I mean, how strong can we become? How amazing can we look? How long can we live? If people could just visualize when they felt the best in their life,

43:23 imagine having that all the time and then imagine amplifying it. That's what it feels like to be superhuman. And once people experience, it's hard to go back. MARIANA: This is what makes Tony's pitch so seductive. He believes, with missionary-like zeal, in what he preaches. TONY: All right. Here we go. MARIANA: That sort of faith can be dangerous, even deadly. But it's hard to argue with those convinced they're on the path to salvation.

44:13 MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Could you tell me a little bit about your day-to-day? You wake up and then what happens? GOTTI: I wake up, make sure my sons are in school, and then drive all over creation, looking at these young, pretty girls. MAN: Train stations. MAN: Instagram. WOMAN: Instagram. MAN: Facebook. MAN: County jail. All-night Denny's. MARIANA: First comes the seduction. Then comes the reality. LADY P: After a couple of days of drinking and smoking, now you got to walk the street. MARIANA: This is a story about pimps. How they work, how they think, and what they'll do to grab their share

44:58 of the billion-dollar market for illicit sex in America. (knocking) JACK KNIFE: I'm not saying what I do is right, but I'm a wolf out here to survive on these streets. Because I'm not gonna be no sheep. (sirens) ♪ ♪ MARIANA: Not long ago, sex trafficking was thought to be largely a transnational problem, with criminal networks smuggling undocumented women across borders to work as sex slaves, but there's a far more common variety, happening in every U.S. city, big and small,

45:45 that sees Americans exploiting other Americans. My search begins on Instagram. That's where I learn that pimps have their own ecosystem of hashtags. There's this one hashtag, 3-0-4. If you turn around 304, it actually spells "hoe." Can't show a lot of these faces, but #GameRelated, #PGO, Pimp Game On, #HGO, which means Ho Game On, #IZM, which is, like, the swagger. More jewelry, more diamonds. This display of wealth and power. These stacks of cash. All of this is just a way to show these women what their lives could be like if they were working for them.

46:31 I have no idea if any of these guys are actually pimps or just playing the part. But for some, it certainly feels like their social media feed is the marketing arm of their operation. Doesn't seem like they're very ashamed or trying to hide what they're doing at all. In fact, they want to show it off. Over several weeks, I message countless guys and a few women, asking if any of them would be up for talking. I get mostly silence. Then finally, a breakthrough. I stumble upon a genre of book I didn't know existed: the pimp memoir. That's how I found Mickey Royal. Sure enough, the author of The Pimp Game

47:17 agrees to meet me at a motel in the heart of South Central Los Angeles. I'm hopeful that Mickey will be the key to finding my way inside his former profession. How are you? MICKEY ROYAL: Alright. MARIANA: Mariana. MICKEY: Mickey Royal. At your service. MARIANA: Hi, Mickey, so nice to meet you. MICKEY: Same here. Likewise. I didn't really start really pimping until I was about 19 or 20. I came from a drug and gang background, so I always thought of that particular life as being weak, you know, because if it didn't involve a pistol, I wasn't interested. But it was something about the allure of it. It just sucks you in, and I fell in love with it.

48:05 MARIANA: Mickey offers to take me for a tour of the most infamous track in L.A. Where are we heading? Where are we going? MICKEY: We're headed to Figueroa. It's referred to as the track, the blade. It's been around since the '60s. We're talking about 95 blocks. MARIANA: Wow. MICKEY: 95 blocks. MARIANA: How dangerous is it, do you think? MICKEY: It's extremely dangerous. You got the tricks you have to worry about. You have upsetting the pimp you have to worry about. Kidnapping, stabbings, shootings, plenty of them. You're talking about a profession where sexual assault and rape are just occupational daily hazards. MARIANA: So, I've lived in Los Angeles for over 10 years, and I know Figueroa, but I have never seen any of this till tonight.

48:51 MICKEY: That's why I call it the Shadow World. It exists at night and broad daylight. She's working to the right. MARIANA: Oh, she's wearing a bikini. MICKEY: Yeah. MARIANA: It's also freezing. It's 46 degrees outside. MICKEY: I mean, you got to understand, if they have pimps or whatever, they can make extra money by being seen from a distance, they're not even allowed to wear jackets. See how they both were naked? More than likely, they have the same pimp. MARIANA: Was that a thing? Where your girls that worked with you dressed the same? MICKEY: Yeah, 'cause it's easier to shop for all of them at the same time. MARIANA: So all these three girls have the same shoes. Does that mean that they work for the same pimp? MICKEY: More than likely. MARIANA: She was so young. She looked like she was like 15 or something. Did you see that? MICKEY: Yeah. You'll see a lot of those. MARIANA: I mean, it's dozens and dozens and dozens of women that we've seen so far in, what, in about 20 blocks, right?

49:36 MICKEY: Right. You should see them on Friday and Saturday night. It's like a concert. (siren) MARIANA: So where would you be? Imagine a girl would be on this corner. Where would you be? MICKEY: Sitting in the car not far away. MARIANA: Oh, watching her. MICKEY: Yeah. MARIANA: Why? MICKEY: To make sure she's okay. And I figured that was my job. MARIANA: And if you had more than one girl, how do you do that? MICKEY: You cruise around. You might sit here for about 10 minutes until she gets a date, see where it goes, and then you cruise up to see this one. Pull up on one, you collect your money. But she's not gonna get any dates while you're sitting there. MARIANA: We've been circling the same stretch of blocks several times when Mickey gets spooked. MICKEY: Okay, that's, uh, we got to go somewhere else.

50:22 MARIANA: What happened? MICKEY: That's them. MARIANA: Why? What happened? MICKEY: It's starting to get hot. MARIANA: What do you mean? What'd he do? MICKEY: Once we got made, as far as the cameras, what'll happen is they'll start telling everybody what they saw and pointing out the car. MICKEY: You don't want to do that. No. You want to call it a night right now, trust me. MARIANA: I follow Mickey's advice, but I'm still hopeful he can connect me to an active pimp. So, we've been working on this story for a long time, and it's been really hard to get people to talk to us, especially people who are currently in the game. MICKEY: Yeah, you won't get that. MARIANA: I mean, if you were currently doing it, would you even admit it to us? MICKEY: No. You hopping out with the cameras, you're better off pulling guns on me. No. Guns I'll challenge, the camera I'll just run. No. MARIANA: Why not?

51:07 MICKEY: Because if you want to get away with a crime, it has to be a secret. Simple as that. (phone ringing) NINA: Hello? MARIANA: Hi, it's Mariana here. How are you? NINA: I'm fine. MARIANA: Mickey gave me your number and said that you'd be willing to talk to us. We'd love to meet with you at a place somewhere in Inglewood if you're available. NINA: Yes. MARIANA: Okay. And you're bringing some people that work with you, right? NINA: Right. MARIANA: That hotel, is that the place you want to meet? NINA: Right. MARIANA: So, we've rented this motel room. It's a place that they've said they've worked at before. We were supposed to meet here an hour ago.

51:54 They still haven't showed up. It's been really hard to get people to talk to us, so it sounded really positive, and I'm hoping that they will show up tonight. MARIANA: Oh, hi. NINA: Nice to meet you. MARIANA: I'm Mariana. How are you? NINA: I'm fine. MARIANA: Come on in. So, we're very close to Figueroa, which is one of the most famous tracks or blades in Los Angeles. Have you guys ever been out there? NINA: I have. BEE: Yeah. MARIANA: Do you think that a lot of the women that are working out on the blade, the track, they all have pimps? BEE: I say 80% of them do. NINA: Yeah. HONEY: I say, yeah. MARIANA: Did you have a pimp? NINA: When I first started out, no. I was just, "Hey, let's get away." You know what I mean? But I did try it out.

52:40 Like, guys wanted me to be they ho. And, you know, I'll hang around them or kick it with their female and see how their environment was, and it just wasn't for me. It was a lot of violence. It was a lot of jealousy. I didn't see where the money was going. MARIANA: Why do you think other women do it, then? NINA: Daddy issues. Seeking attention, might've been molested. Might feel that they need to be valued by a man and not really know they value for they self. HONEY: Yeah, there's a lot of people that grow up in broken homes. Not having that father figure is like a huge part in a young girl's life. When you don't seek and get that love that you deserve, it pushes you to a whole 'nother state that you can't really explain or describe. You just feel the pain.

53:26 MARIANA: Do you think that the pimps know that and they exploit that? They go after those... HONEY: Yeah, that's how they abuse you. That's how they get you to never leave. And that's why most girls that's my age, they get stuck and they live like that for a very long time. MARIANA: The more we talk, the more I realize how many different ways women are pulled onto the streets. This is a woman we'll call Bee. Prostitution is not her day job; just something she does after her shifts as a nurse. BEE: Paying for school. So it was, like, I'm doing it anyway. Why not? I mean, I'm not ashamed, I'm not ashamed of it. So it's like it ain't no need to be ashamed. Everybody having sex. Don't you ever fantasize about being a stripper?

54:12 MARIANA: Yeah, see, this is the part where I'm not sure if I should be nodding or not. BEE: Exactly. (laughs) MARIANA: Honey says she works primarily with clients from the business world. HONEY: I'm very high priced. I mean, I make a lot of money doing what I'm doing. MARIANA: She says she can make as much as $20,000 a week. But all that money comes at a high personal cost. HONEY: So I had a friend, and her father, he was a drug dealer and a pimp. My mother was never around, so, you know, I always spent a lot of time at her house. And her dad, you know, he would always hit on me and touch me. But, I never told anyone, I didn't have anyone around, so. MARIANA: How old were you? HONEY: Um, I was 12. MARIANA: I'm sorry if I'm gonna ask you this, and tell me if you don't want to answer

54:58 or if you don't even want the question, we can take it out, but did he rape you? HONEY: Yes, he did. MARIANA: When you were 12? HONEY: Yes. MARIANA: And then how did it progress from there? HONEY: He told me like, "It's okay if you do it for me. I'm not gonna judge you. No one's gonna judge you. Don't tell anybody." So, you know, I always kept it a secret, like no one ever knew what I did. MARIANA: And how did he convince you that you should be selling your body out to other men? HONEY: I didn't have a mother and a father around, so I grew up thinking that it was okay, you know, to sell my body. I was young, I was naive, like, you tell me it's okay and I just believed you. MARIANA: He was a pimp. HONEY: Yes. MARIANA: He had several women working for him? HONEY: Yes. MARIANA: How many? HONEY: About five of us. MARIANA: All of them as young as you?

55:43 HONEY: Yeah. MARIANA: So they were all between 12... HONEY: 12 to like 15, no older than that. MARIANA: After four years, Honey finally escaped. Did he do any time in jail or anything? HONEY: No. I didn't press any charges, nothing like that. I just wanted to get away. MARIANA: One of the things that we hear a lot is how women that have pimps, even when they're abusive, that they just don't want to talk to the police, they don't want to testify. They just want to leave that behind. HONEY: Snitches get stitches, so if you tell, people will put a bounty on your head, and they don't care how much it costs. MARIANA: Right. That's what they say? HONEY: The lingo. Mm-hmm. MARIANA: Meaning that they will beat you up if you talk? HONEY: Right. And they'll do it, they'll make sure it get done. NINA: Once you in it, it's hard to escape. It's always gonna come back to you.

56:30 Once you turn a good girl bad, it's hard to turn back good. MARIANA: After the interview, Nina tells me she knows everyone on the streets, pimps included. She makes some introductions, I trade some texts, and it looks like it's all about to happen... until it doesn't. (text message tone) We've been in three different locations so far just today alone, waiting for these pimps to show up. (text message tone) They tell us they're coming, they tell us they're on their way. We get everything set up and we wait and wait and wait, and then last minute, they either don't show up or they text us telling us they can't come, or they're, you know, unsure whether we're police, and they don't feel comfortable. (text message tone) He just bailed.

57:17 He's not coming anymore. (text message tone) We actually just got a text from this one guy who says he's on 54th and Western. He's on the corner. He told us he'd be waiting for us. We have no idea what we're walking into, who we're meeting with exactly. But we're hoping that at least there's somebody there. ♪ ♪ MARIANA: After months of trying, I'm finally face to face with a working pimp. He wants me to call him Chill, and this is his business partner, Lady P. I know that when we were texting back and forth,

58:02 you were, you didn't want to give us the right address immediately. So you weren't sure if we were police, essentially? CHILL: Absolutely. Because of the business that we're in. If you're even claiming that you're in this part of the business, they've changed (bleep), so now instead of just some regular (bleep) where pimping is pimping, no. What we're doing now is considered human trafficking, and that (bleep) is completely different from what pimping is. MARIANA: So tell me what is pimping about. CHILL: It's about choice. It's they see the flash, they see the gold, they see the money, they see the cars. Every time you turn on a radio, what do you hear? Oh, it's some rapper dude talking about how he got a bunch of bitches and all this other (bleep). So what do they want? They want that rapper dude.

58:48 They see the Ferrari, the Lamborghini, all that (bleep). They want that (bleep). What's next to a rapper? (bleep) A pimp! Why not? He can get you everything you want, easy. Drugs, sex, rock and roll. That's what it is. MARIANA: That may be the way pimps like Chill view the lifestyle, but I imagine the reality is far more complicated for the women working for him. How do you find the girls? LADY P: Clubs. They see us hanging out. We're in the VIP section and we're drinking and we're having fun. Of course they don't want to be sitting over there with normal people, they want to come to the VIP. "Hey, girl, you want to come back with us?" MARIANA: Who says that? LADY P: I do. They come back. They see the glitz, the glamour, the gold, the cars, the bikes.

59:36 They want to smoke weed, do powder, ecstasy. We have all that around. Couple of days after they've been there, okay, now you got to come up with some money. CHILL: Bills got to get (bleep) paid. You got a choice at that point. You can say, "I'm cool. (bleep) that, I'm out." 99.9% of the time, these young (bleep) are gonna be like, "Hey, I got (bleep) weed, I got ecstasy, I got every (bleep) thing I want, and I can get some money out of this? Why not?" MARIANA: Is it really that high, like, that amount of girls, the majority? LADY P: It's not like you're going out looking for the classiest of females, you know, you want the ones that are "ahhh," turnt up. CHILL: Or keeps looking over at us. LADY P: Keeps looking over. You can tell. CHILL: Just keep on (bleep) eyeing and watching.

1:00:22 She done already been spotted. Over here, we just spotted her. It's a wrap. At that point the choice is made. MARIANA: It's rare to get an inside look at a pimp's operation, which is why I want to see others. Over the next week, I connect with two more pimps who are currently in the game. At a cheap motel in Inglewood, I meet Jack Knife, and after a bit of convincing, I sit down with Gotti late night at a bar near the airport. So these women, that you meet them on the street or how do you recruit them? How do you get them to work for you? JACK KNIFE: On the street, 9 times out of 10. Sometimes Instagram, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes Facebook, it depends.

1:01:11 MARIANA: What do you say to them? GOTTI: How are you doing, beautiful? You mind if I hang out with you while you shop? And, uh, we can talk and get to know each other. We hang out, become friends, and talk about how we can make money, and if they want to go along with the situation, we go do this. MARIANA: You butter them up? JACK KNIFE: Of course I butter them up. I got to tell them they pretty, so they can get out there and get this money. They got to be out here with a big head, so they can get out here and get this bread. MARIANA: Is there a particular kind of girl that you're looking for? GOTTI: Someone that's not showing fear. Ready to go. MARIANA: Each admits to working a certain number of women. LADY P: I'd say about seven. JACK KNIFE: Six is the lowest, eight or nine at the most.

1:01:58 GOTTI: Right now, I got four. MARIANA: These four girls work full-time for you? GOTTI: Yes. They're only for me. MARIANA: And each takes a certain percentage of the earnings. Do they keep the majority or do you guys keep the majority? LADY P: No. We keep the majority. MARIANA: You guys keep the majority? LADY P: If I'm taking care of you, I have to keep the majority. CHILL: Absolutely. MARIANA: What makes pimping different than other hustles is that people's lives are in the balance. Most often young women coming from their own difficult circumstances. So I'm actually surprised when Chill agrees to let me sit down with one of the women who works for him. When did you start escorting? CANDY: About when I was 15, and I fell into the wrong guy. And it was horrible.

1:02:44 And then I met Chill at a bar and he just seemed like a nice guy. He was so sweet, honorable. He's always a man of his word. He does exactly what he said he's gonna do. He believed in my dreams. And he was just like, "Oh," like, "I can help you." And he just started helping me. MARIANA: I quickly realize that something feels off. CANDY: He never judged me, and he just kind of took me in. MARIANA: It's the most glowing review of a pimp you could ever imagine. Do you give him part of your money, though? CANDY: Just, like, as if you would take your card out and make a withdrawal. Only mine is not a card, it's a person.

1:03:31 MARIANA: So he's your pimp? CANDY: I wouldn't call him my pimp. Because he's sweet. He's very honorable. MARIANA: You don't like to call him pimp? What do you call him? CANDY: My friend. MARIANA: And I realize I have no idea how many of these details are true. And how many of them are simply talking points to please her boss who spends the entire interview looming over us with a pool stick in his hand. That's the tricky thing about doing these sex trafficking stories. When you drive down a street like Figueroa or International Boulevard, and you see the women working, it's impossible to know their realities. Some of them are out there by choice, but some of them are not.

1:04:17 Some of them are like Honey. Do you ever get angry knowing that there's men, right now, all over the city, all over the country, doing to women what your pimp did to you? HONEY: Yes. In my case, a 12-year-old, for one, they don't know what's best for them at the time. I'm looking at an adult who can potentially guide me in the right direction, but I was guided in the wrong direction. So it always crosses my mind, like, if I never got introduced to this type of lifestyle, how would I be living? Or what would my life be like? Or how would I be? Would I be different? Would I still be the same? Like, I just feel sorry for the females out there who has to go through the same thing, because it's like, it's just destroying a woman's whole life.

1:05:04 Uh-oh! Go get it. Now, I'm like to the point where I have a child of my own, and I have to make sure that I have more than enough for her. Because I want to give her the world, you know, 'cause she deserves it. You know, she didn't ask to be here, I brought her here. MARIANA: So I've been reading your book and I've been taking some notes here. "A ho to a pimp is worth nothing. She's actually worth everything." "You take away everything she has then give her what she needs. You, the pimp, are the cause as well as the solution to all her problems. You give her the poison and sell her the cure." So this is something you... MICKEY: That's actually true. Pimpin' is premeditated. You know exactly what you're doing

1:05:50 and you know the long-term effects of it. You have to be a sadist, because you have to enjoy what you're doing, and you know good and well what you're doing. You know good and well what you're doing.

1:28:13 (lighter clicks). (inhale). (bubbling). (lighter clicks). (heartbeat). MARIANA: It's being called a "new wave" of crystal meth. MARIANA: A generation after US government crackdown on labs and ingredients torpedoed the drug's supply. Meth is back with a vengeance. WOMAN: I basically learned how to be a high-functioning addict. MAN: We call it Zombieland now, because everybody's zombied the (bleep) out. MARIANA: I want to know who's making it, how it's being trafficked, and why it's become such a hot commodity again. MIKE: The thing about this drug, she always wins in the end.

1:29:09 ♪ ♪ MARIANA: How many people are you expecting to come tonight? You have a phone full of messages? MIKE: Yes, tons of them. MARIANA: 50 messages? MIKE: Yeah. MARIANA: And everyone there, they're trying to buy drugs from you? MIKE: I dabble with a lot of different communities. The freaks come out at night. MARIANA: This is Mike, a meth dealer from Austin. He tells me he's been dealing meth for more than five years. He doesn't like his clients knowing where he lives. MIKE: Hi, girl. MARIANA: So he posts up at a hotel for what he refers to as a cattle call. So who's coming up now? MIKE: Mr. Pink. MARIANA: After some convincing, Mike allows us to watch as he conducts deals on a very busy Friday night.

1:30:00 MIKE: You want some crystal meth? MR. PINK: Yes. MIKE: Okay. Thank you. MARIANA: It seems like every deal is interrupted by another call from another customer. BUYER: Thank you. MARIANA: The last time meth was this popular, Mike was in elementary school. REPORTER (over TV): It's called crank, crystal or speed. REPORTER (over TV): Federal officials say more than 12 million Americans have tried it. MAN (over TV): And once you get that high, you just want more, and more, and more. MAN (over TV): This is the result of a meth lab exploding. MARIANA: When they weren't killing themselves, amateur chemists were cooking meth from a toxic mix of household chemicals and over the counter cold medicine. It was a DIY phenomenon that produced one of the most

1:30:47 addictive drugs ever seen. It was an epidemic that was devastating rural white America. Perhaps the most lasting images from those days were put together by a sheriff's deputy in Oregon. A series of before and after mug shots of users that became known simply as "the faces of meth." But as I talk to some of Mike's clients in Austin, they surprise me. WOMAN: I try to keep us in my, like, together appearance. I don't look like somebody from the faces of meth. WOMAN: I am. MARIANA: Not in a million years would I think that you use meth. MAN: Well, I appreciate that, I think, because I think there is a certain stigma that we're all like

1:31:35 toothless and eating people when we don't sleep for ten days. I have an education and I have a job. MARIANA: You're a lawyer. MAN: Yes. G: I sell cars actually. MARIANA: You are able to function and hold a job? SPEAKER X: Yes. Yes, for sure. WOMAN: I was an interior designer in a very affluent part of town. MARIANA: And you're able to work? WOMAN: Yeah. MARIANA: How often do you use meth? MARIANA: And why do you use it? SPEAKER X: It's a habit. It's just what I do. It's not what I wanna do, but it's just what I do. MARIANA: The demographics of meth users may have changed but the control the drug asserts over those users has not. It comes from the power of dopamine.

1:32:20 Meth unleashes a concentrated high to the pleasure sensors of the brain. And explains why it's so easy for users of any background to become addicted. How do you do it? G: I inject it. Yeah. MARIANA: Is that a more dangerous way of doing it or more powerful at least? G: It's more addictive I would say. WOMAN: It's not even a decision. It's like a loop you just can't get off of. You just reach for it. I basically learned how to be a high-functioning addict. MARIANA: Mike is an addict too. When he's not dealing, he's often using. His relationship with meth has been a rollercoaster. MIKE: I had three houses, two cars and lost it all. Homeless in the streets for four years. MARIANA: Have you done time in prison?

1:33:05 MIKE: I have three felonies. MARIANA: For drugs? MIKE: Possession. If I catch another one, I'm gone. It's a life sentence. I made a promise to my mother that I will be here to take care of her, and I'm gonna keep that. MARIANA: Mike and his clients are some of the new faces of meth. I'm in the border town of Calexico to see how Mexican cartels smuggle meth into the biggest illegal drug market in the world. We're here. MARIANA: We just wait now.

1:33:50 MIGUEL (over phone): Hey, Mariana, the biker should arrive to your spot any minute now. MARIANA: Okay. So he's coming right to our car? MIGUEL (over phone): Yes. MARIANA: The trafficker tells me to call him Ricardo. He's an American citizen from East LA. MARIANA: Crystal meth. MARIANA: That's crystal meth? Ice? The drugs are wrapped with duct tape and plastic. They're called huevos or eggs, and each one is packed tightly with crystal meth.

1:34:42 MARIANA: Two pounds. Turns out there are 12 huevos hidden throughout the bike. Totaling 24 pounds of meth, a street value of $36,000 in Los Angeles. MARIANA: Ricardo is one of thousands in a decentralized network of freelance smugglers utilized by the cartel. It's an army of ants who avoid seizures by funneling smaller packages of meth in cars and motorcycles, maximizing efficiency and minimizing risk with drivers

1:35:30 who have less direct ties to the cartels themselves. This meth pipeline is part of a drug trafficking empire that brings in an estimated $30 billion in revenue a year. That's more than Fortune 500 companies like Visa or Starbucks. And like any good business, the cartels are never satisfied. That's how I find myself parked on an LA street awaiting a sketchy meet-up with a cartel operative working on a new initiative. Hey guys, can you hear me? ROGER (over radio): Loud and clear. MARIANA: Are these the people we've met before? MARIANA: Do you trust these people?

1:36:28 MARIANA: Oh. That's, they actually said that? MARIANA: Okay. So no, absolutely no filming on the way to the location, wherever that location is. MARIANA: Okay. You guys heard that? Okay. I think this is it. So we're parking about two blocks from the actual location. And they've asked us to park away. And also, they told us to bring all the gas masks because apparently it's super toxic. Okay? Let's do this.

1:37:16 MARIANA: Raking in billions a year, the cartels have seen their meth profits soar thanks to their endless pursuit of cheaper and quicker ways to reach American users. I walk a few blocks to meet a new cartel contact who calls himself Pablo. Hey. PABLO: Hello. MARIANA: And I honestly have no idea what to expect. PABLO: Please put your mask on. I did already and the smell of chemical is really bad and it's really strong. All the chemicals that we're using are very, very dangerous. You gotta be careful what you touch? PABLO: Yes, I was cooking. I have something here, but I don't wanna touch it 'cause it's still cooking. This is what you call a "Shake and Bake." 'Cause in case, "Police is coming," shake it. We gone, do another one.

1:38:13 PABLO: I go directly to my boss in Sinaloa cartel. PABLO: He gives me the orders. That's why you guys got the okay and the access to come here. MARIANA: That's right. According to Pablo, the same Shake and Bake labs, that once dotted the American landscape are making a comeback. But this time they are funded and run by Mexican cartels. PABLO: We got the gas, we got the battery acid. PABLO: We have the liquid Sudafed because we crush up the pills MARIANA: Pablo tells me that while getting Sudafed is hard, the cartel has channels to source ingredients from pharmaceutical companies. PABLO: Let's say that they were doing 60 pills.

1:38:58 MARIANA: Uh-hmm. PABLO: So I'm using 500 pills, the more pills we crush up, the more stronger it is. PABLO: Yes, they are. PABLO: Exactly. MARIANA: Pablo explains that the cartel is experimenting with this direct to consumer model which lowers production costs, eliminates the risk and cost of transport, and cuts out mules and middlemen. PABLO: We're in the middle of the city PABLO: We have five that are getting built right now as we speak. PABLO: And around the corner, they already have at least eight. PABLO: Yes. MARIANA: Profits are already soaring. Just from the network of labs run by Pablo in LA,

1:39:44 he tells me he's making $12 million every year for his bosses in Sinaloa. PABLO: We call it Zombieland now, because everybody's zombied the (bleep) out now, they're using crystal meth. PABLO: Yes, it does bother me, but like I gotta live one way or another. I grew up in this (bleep) I come from Sinaloa, this is all I know and, you know, this is hard. MARIANA: As the cartels' producers in Mexico and within the US pump out more and purer crystal meth,

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