JOURNALIST MARIANA VAN ZELLER IN TRAFFICKED

It’s a harrowing journey, to keep up with this journalist as she digs into some dark stories that need to be told and heard. 

There are some excellent episodes. 

Here are a few facts:

We call it a SCAM. They call it a MONEY GAME. 

Don’t be a target. Lonely, gullible. 

Jamaica and Israel are big sources

Fentanyl was invented in the 1960s for use in Belgium’s ORs

Synthetic fentanyl “Little Devil”, “revolutionizing the industry”

Cutting heroin with fentanyl makes it cheaper because of its potency (50x)

“Heroin may kill. Fentanyl will kill.”

“Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun.”

“A national crisis”

Sinaloa, Mexico, on the west coast, is a major port of the drug cartel source (and the name of the biggest drug cartel, led by Guzman/El Chapo. The  (unsuccessful) arrest of son Ovidio led to warring factions joining against the Culiacan military police in 2019 called the Battle of Culiacan). 

China supplies the other through the mail.

M-30 is Mexican cartel made “oxy” - pills resemble, but made of fentanyl and horse lidocaine. It’s never left in Mexico.

“Down here among Mexico’s narco traffickers, fentanyl isn’t a deadly opioid. It’s an opportunity.”

“Chemists” or cooks should measure more. 

5 kgs are worth millions in America

Packers do the job of making the drugs unrecognizable to dogs: coffee, fabric softener, mustard

Most goes through the Mexico/California San Ysidro crossing

Supply chains work like Al Qu’aida cells, if they had a hot potato. Each does their job, and doesn’t ask question about the chain. 

Only 10% of the drugs estimated to be trafficked are confiscated.

Sicarios - gunmen (usually assassins for a cartel)

Cambistas - dealers

Mula - mules

Look for counterfeit money: Touch, Look, Turn

murky, sketchy

Journalist maxim: The harder you work, the luckier you are.