Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller (2020) s01e02 Episode Script
Fentanyl
1
(Mariana speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: I can see somebody.
Okay. So this is
our welcoming committee.
♪
♪
♪
♪
MARIANA: Five years ago,
almost no one had heard of it.
Today it's a household name.
Fentanyl.
MARIANA: In the US, fentanyl
is helping drive overdose deaths
to record highs.
OFFICER: It's wiping out
a generation.
MARIANA: While in Mexico,
it's disrupting the drug trade
in ways not seen in generations.
MARIANA: But few people
understand how the cartels
are getting their hands
on the chemicals
necessary to make fentanyl,
or what the fallout will be
if they continue to churn
these raw ingredients
into more deadly pills
and powders.
(siren)
MARIANA:
From Mexico's cartel country
to the border and
into American communities
Whoa.
I'm going deep inside
the fentanyl pipeline
to see exactly how it's fueling
the most devastating
drug epidemic in US history.
♪
♪
(siren)
MAN: Okay, received.
(siren)
MARIANA: Like many first
responders across New England,
the Manchester Fire Department
handles far more overdoses
than fires.
So it says
it's a 26-year-old female,
overdose, not conscious,
turning blue.
New Hampshire has one
of the highest rates
of opioid-related deaths
in the country.
Looks like we're
the first ones here.
MAN: Yeah, we're it.
♪
MARIANA: The chief is in there
trying to revive this patient.
I got to see inside,
there was a woman on the floor,
it was an overdose,
she was overdosing.
♪
WOMAN: Heroin may kill.
Fentanyl will kill.
They took him from us.
MARIANA: I first reported
on fentanyl in 2015,
when most Americans had never
even heard of the drug.
Another overdose.
What I witnessed was shocking.
And this is what they're finding
in a lot of these
overdose sites.
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger
than heroin
and killed 20,000 people
the following year.
Today the situation
is even worse.
MAN: It's like playing
Russian roulette
with a completely loaded gun.
You're going to die,
and it could be the first time
you pull the trigger.
But every chamber's full,
and how, you know,
you wanna take a 90% chance that
you're gonna succumb to that
in seconds or minutes.
That is mind-boggling.
MAN: Yo, come on. Get up, man.
Come on, get up.
Come on, get up.
Come on, get up, buddy.
MARIANA: What do you think
needs to happen for this to end?
Certainly less drugs
on the streets, right?
Less drugs entering
the United States?
You don't think so?
MARIANA: To understand
why fentanyl is more prolific,
potent, and killing
more people than ever,
I have to go to the source
the Mexican cartels.
♪
MARIANA: It's go time.
♪
Our contact sent us a location
of where to meet them.
It's at a port
on a coast close by.
It's about 20 minutes away
from where we are right now.
Fentanyl is the most dangerous
drug in America,
and much of it comes from
right here in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Hey, guys, what's happening?
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
Okay, we're trying to get there
as fast as possible.
We've been in town
less than 24 hours,
and already my cartel contact
has gotten us a lead
on the arrival
of a new shipment.
So that's one of the things,
you know,
when you're following a real
shipment and supply of drugs,
is that they're not gonna wait
around for us
before they, it goes
to the next location.
♪
(exhales)
So we're just crossing
our fingers
and hoping that nothing
falls through.
There are two ways fentanyl
illegally enters
the United States:
Through black market mail orders
from China
or via Mexico's drug cartels,
the people I'm trying to meet.
MARIANA: Yeah, so it's
that's him right up there.
They don't want us to show
their faces or anything,
so just be careful.
But this is our guy.
MARIANA: Our hope
for access comes through.
My sources inside
the Sinaloa cartel have agreed
to show me the critical first
step in their fentanyl pipeline.
So they've got this boat
ready for us to go out
on sea with them.
Under the pretense of filming
a little fishing expedition,
we're actually heading out
to film something
that has never ever
been filmed before.
♪
♪
We're being taken out to sea
by a guy who's asked us
specifically not to even point
the camera in his direction.
He doesn't wanna be
filmed at all.
And supposedly, we heard
that our contacts
will be waiting for us
somewhere out at sea,
and then we'll be told
what the plan is.
Fentanyl has been called
Mexico's ghost drug
because nobody has any idea
how much is being produced
and imported
into the United States,
but what's beyond a shred
of doubt is its impact.
WOMAN: Hey!
MARIANA: Opioids are now
the number one cause
of accidental deaths in the US,
killing more people
than guns or car crashes.
WOMAN: Yeah, let's
lay her down flat.
Everybody lay her down
flat, okay?
MARIANA: In just a few years,
fentanyl has become
the most popular synthetic
opioid on the streets,
and Mexico's cartels
have stepped up
to supply this demand.
But it's a little known secret
that the cartels can't make
the drug themselves.
They first need to source
these potent chemicals
from somewhere or someone else.
There's a boat that I think
might be the people
we're meeting,
this boat right ahead,
with three or four guys inside.
There are cargo ships
all around us,
there's a fishing boat
right here.
And then, we see it.
Oh, my (bleep) lord.
A row of large plastic barrels
floating towards
the small tourist boat
we've been following.
Barrels that have been
tossed from the stern
of a rust-covered
fishing trawler nearby.
There were about ten barrels,
white barrels,
that were thrown out to sea.
Packed inside
are the potent chemicals
the cartels need
to create fentanyl.
I mean, it's so (bleep) crazy.
You look at it,
and it just looks like
a totally normal fishing boat.
There's hundreds,
if not thousands of them
around the coast of Mexico.
In a way, it's sort
of the perfect crime
because it's
so indistinguishable.
It would never raise any alarm.
(man speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Okay, it has to be
really quick.
So it has to be
really quick, guys.
They're saying that they don't
feel obviously safe here.
(Mariana speaking Spanish)
MARIANA:
What's inside the barrels?
Wow.
(man speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Wow. So they're saying
that it was one
of these big cargo ships
that we see all around us that
threw these barrels oversea.
Then the fishing boat over here
got a GPS location
of where to pick them up,
picks them up, brings it out,
and then there's
a meeting point here
where these guys come
and pick it up
and then take it to off to land.
Mazatlán is one of Mexico's
busiest Pacific ports,
and while most of these
international container ships
are moving legitimate
commercial goods,
the smugglers tell me that some
of the people on board
are in business
with the Sinaloa cartel,
delivering the chemicals
they need from Asia or Europe.
Okay. Sí, okay.
They say they have to go
because there's Marines all
around us, and they're worried.
♪
We should definitely
keep our distance
because we have a boat
packed with drugs,
and if the Marines come
or anything,
we don't want to be seen
being part of this operation,
you know?
Incredibly, one of the cartel's
most dangerous drugs
is being trafficked
in plain sight.
♪
You can see what's happening
right behind me,
they're unloading the boat
one barrel at a time
going to shore.
We're in a little port
surrounded by other
fishing boats.
There's actually a tourist boat
with about 50 people heading out
right now, right next to us.
Earlier, I'd asked my contact
if we could follow this shipment
from start to finish.
The answer was yes,
if we can keep up.
We're here. We're here.
We're coming up. Okay, quick.
¿Ya se fueron?
Are they here or they left?
MAN: It was loaded
from the boat to here
in a matter of 15 seconds.
MARIANA: I mean, it was crazy,
the whole thing took about,
I don't know, 10 seconds?
I don't know.
MAN: Yeah.
MARIANA: We've been waiting
and planning this
for months and months.
MAN: A car just like that one.
MARIANA: Oh, it's like
a tourist car?
MAN: Yes. Just like that one.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
So it's these cars that you see
all around Mazatlán,
which are these open trucks
with these benches on the side,
and they transport tourists
around here
in sort of these
local tourist taxis.
And that's where
they loaded them.
MAN: And that's where
they loaded everything.
♪
(man singing in Spanish)
♪
MARIANA: Mazatlán is
a popular resort town,
and it seems like
the drug smugglers here
are using this
to their advantage.
None of the tourists
appear to realize
that this is
a key staging ground
for the cartel's
booming fentanyl business.
Keeping a low profile is key
to a trafficker's survival.
Mexican law enforcement
is all over the city,
and they're just one
of many threats.
(phone ringing)
So why, what's happening?
Why are we rushing?
MARIANA: My team has
reestablished contact
with the smugglers,
but now it seems we're not the
only ones pursuing the shipment.
MARIANA: Really?
MARIANA: So gunmen?
MARIANA: I'm hardly surprised,
Mexico is being ripped apart
by gun violence,
as a dozen different cartels
vie to control the drug trade.
With 11 containers
full of drugs,
I'm sure that there's
a lot of eyes out there,
other people trying
to get their hands on it.
It's worth a lot of money.
Of course if we can't lose
the people following us,
my contacts are going
to disappear
along with the fentanyl shipment
I'm trying to catch up with.
MARIANA: Let's just
wait here for a second
and see if by any chance
we see them pass by us.
I'm pursuing a group
of fentanyl smugglers
through downtown Mazatlán.
But it now appears
someone else is pursuing me.
It could be the Sinaloa cartel,
it could be a rival group,
or it could be nothing.
Reporting on narcos in Mexico
can make you paranoid.
Okay, so it looks like
we've lost them.
They're not behind us.
(exhales)
It's a relief,
but it's also slowed us down.
We need to catch up with
the shipment we're following.
We've been given access to film
where they put these barrels
with the fentanyl precursors
before they ship them
to the labs.
But we're just waiting
for an exact location.
Okay, I think this is it.
The GPS coordinates take us on a
30-minute drive outside of town
to a gated apartment complex.
Okay, here, (bleep). Down.
I think we should put cameras
down, guys. Sorry, but.
We have to be careful
not to reveal the location
or identities of our hosts.
We're just following him,
our contact.
These apartments
are called privadas,
quiet residential communities.
My contact tells me this privada
is controlled by the cartel.
MARIANA: The apartment is
being used as a stash house;
A temporary way station
where the product is safe
from cops and competitors.
And it's managed
by these two men.
MARIANA: Wow.
MARIANA: You can hear it.
It's all liquid inside.
They say the chemicals swishing
around inside these barrels
will be transported to
secret labs further inland
where the cartel's chemists
will process them
into fentanyl itself.
So all this stuff that they have
here is worth about $350,000,
and they're saying that once
it actually gets mixed
with the other products
and transformed into fentanyl,
that it's worth millions
and millions of dollars.
MARIANA: I've heard
the cartels are getting
medical-grade pharmaceuticals
from outside Mexico,
and I want to know where.
MARIANA: Pushing further will
put these guys in a tough spot
with their bosses.
Since they won't
let me open the packages,
I can't implicate
a specific country or company.
DONALD TRUMP: Today
President Xi and I discussed
ways we can stop the lethal flow
of poisonous drugs
into our countries.
A special emphasis will be
placed on the new phenomena,
fentanyl.
MARIANA: It's a well-known fact
that China has thousands
of poorly regulated
chemical companies
pumping out generic drugs
and pharmaceutical ingredients
every week.
I really wish I could see
what's written inside.
MARIANA: Okay. (Speaks Spanish)
MARIANA: Trafficking networks
are compartmentalized by design.
(speaks Spanish)
You get something from one guy
and pass it along
to someone else.
In between, you do your job
and you ask few questions.
But this network is nothing
if not efficient.
My sources tell me it takes
as little as eight days
for the chemicals to move
from a Pacific Ocean delivery
to hidden cartel labs,
then north across the US border
and finally onto
America's streets.
MAN: Come on, get up, man.
Come on, get up, buddy.
(siren)
MARIANA: Fentanyl was first
created in Belgium in 1960.
It was designed
for use in surgery
and to treat the most
severe forms of pain.
Over time, American
pharmaceutical companies
found a profitable way to market
related opioid medications
outside hospital settings.
WOMAN: Since I've been
on this new pain medication,
I have not missed
one day of work,
and my boss really
appreciates that.
MARIANA: Prescriptions surged,
and patients were reassured
that the risk of
addiction was low.
MAN: Less than 1% of patients
taking opioids
actually become addicted.
MARIANA: They were very wrong.
As fatal overdoses skyrocketed,
doctors made prescription
opioids harder to get.
Addicts turned to heroin,
and the crisis got worse.
Then in 2015, fentanyl emerged
on the black market
in a big way: Potent, cheap, and
readily available on the street
without a prescription.
In the US, overdose rates
exploded to record highs.
But here in Mexico,
fentanyl became a boon
to the underworld economy.
♪
Which is why I've
journeyed inland
to witness how
the cartels transform
the precursor chemicals
into street-ready drugs.
(man singing in Spanish)
It's happening tonight
in an underground lab
where we'll get a glimpse
into the future
of the Mexican drug trade.
MARIANA: Unlike heroin,
cocaine or marijuana,
fentanyl doesn't need farmland
or water or sunshine;
It can all be made in
an underworld lab like this,
by a handful of cartel chemists.
MARIANA: So this, he's saying,
is the base to create the pills,
the M-30 pills, the Mexican oxy.
M-30 pills are imprinted
with an M on one side
and the number 30 on the other
in an attempt to make them
indistinguishable from
legitimate oxycodone pills.
In just the last four years,
millions of these
cartel-manufactured pills
have flooded America's streets.
So you're saying just
this little amount here,
if you were to ingest
this somehow,
this amount could
kill you immediately.
That's how powerful
this stuff is.
(speaking Spanish)
Okay, everybody,
we should put the masks on.
This is where it starts
getting dangerous here.
If these chemists combine
the raw materials just right,
in a matter of hours, they'll
have successfully completed
the next step in the process,
creating sell able
black market fentanyl.
MARIANA: This is
the pure fentanyl.
They mixed all the liquids
that come from Asia,
a lot of times from China,
they mix it and they make this.
MARIANA: Like a veteran chef,
the chemist tells me
his mixtures aren't entirely
based on careful measurements,
but his own
physiological reactions
to the chemical process.
MARIANA: This is so crazy.
Ooh. Look at this stuff.
MARIANA: I'm hoping,
really, really hoping
this guy knows what
he's doing here.
MARIANA: I'm starting
to think my team and I
should get the hell out of here.
Outlaw narco chemists
accidentally kill themselves
all the time.
This is so nuts.
MARIANA: I'm in
the Sinaloan countryside,
I can't disclose where exactly,
in an underground lab
with a cartel chemist
who is perfecting his latest
shipment of fentanyl.
MARIANA: Turns out, he's a bit
like a Mexican Walter White.
He runs a legitimate
business by day,
but for the past four years,
he's been moonlighting
for the Sinaloa cartel.
MARIANA: Once the paste dries
and the room clears
of deadly fumes,
I'm told it's okay
to take off our masks.
MARIANA: Now that
the chemical ingredients
are properly balanced, it's time
to craft the fake M-30 pills,
each one designed to mimic
the look of OxyContin,
the most popular painkiller
in America.
MARIANA: Maybe, but that's
not what I've seen
on America's streets.
MARIANA: It's clear that's
nothing is going to stop
the process tonight,
and all that's left is
to press the paste into pills.
The chemist tells me
he makes $100
for every 20,000 pills.
Which means that
on any given night,
he can make
a few thousand dollars.
MARIANA: A sense of dread
follows me north.
Soon, these pills
will find their way
into the hands
of American users,
and we know what happens then.
(baby crying)
MAN: Oh, my god.
MAN: Hello. Hey!
Andie, Andie, Andie.
MARIANA: But down here among
Mexico's narco traffickers,
fentanyl isn't a deadly opioid.
It's an opportunity.
MARIANA: The ugly truth
is that fentanyl supports
an incredibly lucrative
underworld economy.
That means jobs for
cartel accountants,
couriers, and chemists.
And for the those who undertake
one of the most dangerous roles
in the pipeline: Prepping
the drugs for the final crossing
into the United States.
(horns honking)
Just south of
the US-Mexican border,
I've been granted access to film
with these so-called packers.
But we have to move fast;
They're scheduled to smuggle
another fentanyl load
across tonight.
So they just sent us a location.
It looks like it's about
seven miles from the US border.
It definitely looks like we
entered the rough part of town.
So let's just be discreet.
We're here. This is it.
♪
♪
MARIANA: Our hosts are tense
for good reason.
Right now they're in possession
of five kilos of fentanyl
that's worth millions of dollars
on the streets of America.
Whoa.
MARIANA: They tell me
there are cops and competitors
everywhere in Mexico,
many willing to kill to corner
the fentanyl marketplace.
MARIANA: Using ordinary
household ingredients,
these packers will make
five kilos of fentanyl
invisible to
the eyes of the law.
And I'm about to see
how it's done.
(siren)
MARIANA: I'm seven miles south
of the US-Mexico border,
about to witness
how the Sinaloa cartel
smuggles five kilos of fentanyl
into the United States.
Despite the green light
I've been given,
the packers prepping the
shipment are extremely anxious.
(speaking Spanish)
So he's trying, he's talking,
and I can see this guy's
getting really nervous,
and telling him to speed up,
because he says the person
that's gonna take it across the
border is arriving any moment,
and he wants to make sure
that he can get all of this
out of this house
as soon as possible.
MARIANA: He's putting coffee
on it right now.
MARIANA: I'm watching
a shadowy game of cat and mouse.
In less than an hour,
these drugs are headed
to the most frequently crossed
and one of most heavily
patrolled borders in the world.
Last year,
US Customs and Border Protection
seized more than
a ton of fentanyl.
And yet, these packers
plan on foiling
thousands of
highly trained agents
and billions of dollars
of surveillance technology
with little more than
homemade ingenuity.
He has other products here.
He has mustard. He has
(speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Softener.
Laundry softener.
And all this is to avoid
any sort of smell.
So crazy.
Coffee, fabric softener,
and mustard.
There's simply no way
to describe the smell.
But the one thing it doesn't
smell like is drugs.
Layer after layer,
every coat could mean
the difference between
failure and profit.
But dogs aren't
the only concern.
MARIANA: So now they're able to
disguise the smell for the dogs,
and also for the x-ray machines
they have this
carbon paper around it.
MARIANA: The packers tell me
they'll make $2,000
for their work tonight,
$400 per package.
And just like everyone
I've met on this journey,
they do their job and
then they pass the drugs on
to the next link
in the supply chain.
MARIANA: The girl he's referring
to is tonight's driver.
In the trafficking world,
she's called a drug mule,
but I'll call her Beatriz.
MARIANA: Beatriz tells me she's
been doing this for a year
and makes $3,000 per crossing.
MARIANA:
After we finished speaking,
Beatriz agrees to let me
follow her to the border.
The car parked in front, that's
where all the drugs are stashed,
all ready to go up to the US.
And I think she's
about to leave.
Fentanyl trafficking convictions
in the US have increased
by nearly 5,000%
over the past six years,
and those who are caught
are almost always
sentenced to prison.
Right now, Beatriz has five
kilos of it hidden in her trunk.
Where the heck is she going?
Something's wrong.
(siren)
Oh, my god.
She's seriously being followed
by police, I'm not even joking.
Right?
Yeah.
Oh, my lord. What do we do?
I don't think
we should go too close.
We need to figure out
what the plan is now.
We were following her
for, I mean, 10 seconds,
and then suddenly we see a
police car come out of nowhere.
What the (bleep)?
Why? What happened?
MARIANA: Just two miles south
of the US-Mexico border,
the drug mule I've been tracking
is pulled over by police.
Her trunk is filled with
five kilos of fentanyl,
worth millions of dollars
on the street.
And she was stopped by
the police over there.
I assume Beatriz is busted.
But the cops never
opened her trunk.
And minutes later,
she drives off.
I catch up with her
further down the road.
MARIANA: Beatriz is shaken, so
she decides to stay the night.
But the following day,
she's at it again.
And I'm not far behind.
She has to be super nervous,
you know?
She's packing
five kilos of fentanyl.
So it's a very strange feeling,
because on the one hand,
we've met her and we don't
want her to get caught,
and I'm actually
nervous for her.
But on the other hand,
she has a car packed with drugs
that can kill
a lot of people in the US.
It's complicated.
I know Beatriz has a growing
family to provide for.
But in all my years reporting
on the opioid crisis,
it's the parents who lost
sons and daughters to overdoses
that I remember the most.
GIRL: Mom, wake up.
Come on. Ma, Ma, Ma!
MARIANA: And I can't help but
wonder what they might think
as I watch Beatriz attempt
to carry a deadly shipment
across the border.
But this is how a majority of
drugs are smuggled into the US
according to the DEA.
Through legal ports of entry
on the southwest border,
stashed in passenger vehicles
or tractor trailers.
And I'm here to
witness it for myself.
She was stopped,
she's being checked right now.
I would say just put
the cameras entirely down.
Last night, I watched the cartel
packers slather her cargo
in coffee, mustard,
and fabric softener,
all to avoid detection by
America's drug-sniffing dogs.
As the K-9 units approach,
I'm about to see if
their method actually works.
So they're opening
the trunk right now.
They're looking under the hood.
This is a really
uncomfortable moment.
(exhales)
And then, just when I'm
certain she's busted
Oh, my god.
They're letting her go.
Yeah, she's just going
into her car and leaving.
I can't believe it.
They just let her go.
I can't believe it.
♪
(exhales)
Beatriz agrees
to meet up with us
a few miles north of the border.
I'm just gonna talk
to her real quick.
She's right here.
(speaking Spanish)
I cannot believe
MARIANA:
Despite how nerve-racking
crossing the border was,
Beatriz tells me she doesn't
think she'll ever go to prison.
MARIANA: While there's no way
for me to confirm this,
it's well-documented that part
of the Sinaloa cartel's strategy
is to infiltrate and corrupt
America's border agents
with lucrative payoffs.
MARIANA: And there she goes
with five kilos of fentanyl.
When I contacted CBP for
comment, they told us, quote,
"US Customs and
Border Protection
seized over 750,000 pounds
of illegal narcotics in 2019.
Our officers remain relentless
and are always working to stay
one step ahead of the cartels."
But with so much
demand for drugs
and so much money to be made,
it's a difficult task.
In recent years, there have been
almost 200 drug overdose deaths
in the US every single day.
And fentanyl is
the major reason.
I'm eager to follow
this road to the end
to expose just how easy it is
for these traffickers,
but I'm also aware
the shipment I'm tracking
might end up killing someone.
So we were just
given this location
right next to the 710 Freeway
here in Los Angeles.
It's at the end of
a dead-end street.
And I think that's, I think
that's actually our woman,
with the drugs inside her car.
There's a guy in
an orange jumpsuit with a mask.
♪
So it looks like that's where
they're doing the deal,
right here out in the open.
The masked men tell me
they're all native Angelenos,
American citizens who work
directly for the Sinaloa cartel.
But like everyone else I've met,
they focus on their jobs
and ask no questions.
Do you know what's
in these packages?
You really don't care
what you're transporting?
MARIANA: So can you tell me more
or less where they're heading?
MAN: This is one of the main
distribution areas
that we have here.
MARIANA: This is very much
like a hot potato
where they just want to get it
out as soon as possible.
It was incredible,
because you saw she arrived,
and within, I don't know,
under 10 minutes,
they had managed to take
the drugs out of her car,
put it in their car,
and then they're off.
And he says he does this
every other week,
which is crazy.
(siren)
OFFICER: There you go.
OFFICER: You got it?
WOMAN: Stay with me.
Stay with me. Stay with me.
WOMAN:
Got three Narcan deployments.
(siren)
MARIANA: Never have so many
people been addicted
to such a deadly narcotic.
Never has the need for solutions
been more urgent.
I worry that the fentanyl supply
chain seems too big to fail.
Too many people benefit,
and I've met many of them
along my journey,
from the chemical companies in
Asia to the cartels' chemists.
Americans will have to find
a way to slow the demand,
because the suppliers
will always find
a faster and more profitable way
to deliver the goods.
MARIANA: In fact, they tell me
the cartels have begun
to do just that by eliminating
their Asian suppliers.
MARIANA: If that's true,
the worst may be yet to come
for America's opioid epidemic.
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services
(Mariana speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: I can see somebody.
Okay. So this is
our welcoming committee.
♪
♪
♪
♪
MARIANA: Five years ago,
almost no one had heard of it.
Today it's a household name.
Fentanyl.
MARIANA: In the US, fentanyl
is helping drive overdose deaths
to record highs.
OFFICER: It's wiping out
a generation.
MARIANA: While in Mexico,
it's disrupting the drug trade
in ways not seen in generations.
MARIANA: But few people
understand how the cartels
are getting their hands
on the chemicals
necessary to make fentanyl,
or what the fallout will be
if they continue to churn
these raw ingredients
into more deadly pills
and powders.
(siren)
MARIANA:
From Mexico's cartel country
to the border and
into American communities
Whoa.
I'm going deep inside
the fentanyl pipeline
to see exactly how it's fueling
the most devastating
drug epidemic in US history.
♪
♪
(siren)
MAN: Okay, received.
(siren)
MARIANA: Like many first
responders across New England,
the Manchester Fire Department
handles far more overdoses
than fires.
So it says
it's a 26-year-old female,
overdose, not conscious,
turning blue.
New Hampshire has one
of the highest rates
of opioid-related deaths
in the country.
Looks like we're
the first ones here.
MAN: Yeah, we're it.
♪
MARIANA: The chief is in there
trying to revive this patient.
I got to see inside,
there was a woman on the floor,
it was an overdose,
she was overdosing.
♪
WOMAN: Heroin may kill.
Fentanyl will kill.
They took him from us.
MARIANA: I first reported
on fentanyl in 2015,
when most Americans had never
even heard of the drug.
Another overdose.
What I witnessed was shocking.
And this is what they're finding
in a lot of these
overdose sites.
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger
than heroin
and killed 20,000 people
the following year.
Today the situation
is even worse.
MAN: It's like playing
Russian roulette
with a completely loaded gun.
You're going to die,
and it could be the first time
you pull the trigger.
But every chamber's full,
and how, you know,
you wanna take a 90% chance that
you're gonna succumb to that
in seconds or minutes.
That is mind-boggling.
MAN: Yo, come on. Get up, man.
Come on, get up.
Come on, get up.
Come on, get up, buddy.
MARIANA: What do you think
needs to happen for this to end?
Certainly less drugs
on the streets, right?
Less drugs entering
the United States?
You don't think so?
MARIANA: To understand
why fentanyl is more prolific,
potent, and killing
more people than ever,
I have to go to the source
the Mexican cartels.
♪
MARIANA: It's go time.
♪
Our contact sent us a location
of where to meet them.
It's at a port
on a coast close by.
It's about 20 minutes away
from where we are right now.
Fentanyl is the most dangerous
drug in America,
and much of it comes from
right here in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Hey, guys, what's happening?
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
Okay, we're trying to get there
as fast as possible.
We've been in town
less than 24 hours,
and already my cartel contact
has gotten us a lead
on the arrival
of a new shipment.
So that's one of the things,
you know,
when you're following a real
shipment and supply of drugs,
is that they're not gonna wait
around for us
before they, it goes
to the next location.
♪
(exhales)
So we're just crossing
our fingers
and hoping that nothing
falls through.
There are two ways fentanyl
illegally enters
the United States:
Through black market mail orders
from China
or via Mexico's drug cartels,
the people I'm trying to meet.
MARIANA: Yeah, so it's
that's him right up there.
They don't want us to show
their faces or anything,
so just be careful.
But this is our guy.
MARIANA: Our hope
for access comes through.
My sources inside
the Sinaloa cartel have agreed
to show me the critical first
step in their fentanyl pipeline.
So they've got this boat
ready for us to go out
on sea with them.
Under the pretense of filming
a little fishing expedition,
we're actually heading out
to film something
that has never ever
been filmed before.
♪
♪
We're being taken out to sea
by a guy who's asked us
specifically not to even point
the camera in his direction.
He doesn't wanna be
filmed at all.
And supposedly, we heard
that our contacts
will be waiting for us
somewhere out at sea,
and then we'll be told
what the plan is.
Fentanyl has been called
Mexico's ghost drug
because nobody has any idea
how much is being produced
and imported
into the United States,
but what's beyond a shred
of doubt is its impact.
WOMAN: Hey!
MARIANA: Opioids are now
the number one cause
of accidental deaths in the US,
killing more people
than guns or car crashes.
WOMAN: Yeah, let's
lay her down flat.
Everybody lay her down
flat, okay?
MARIANA: In just a few years,
fentanyl has become
the most popular synthetic
opioid on the streets,
and Mexico's cartels
have stepped up
to supply this demand.
But it's a little known secret
that the cartels can't make
the drug themselves.
They first need to source
these potent chemicals
from somewhere or someone else.
There's a boat that I think
might be the people
we're meeting,
this boat right ahead,
with three or four guys inside.
There are cargo ships
all around us,
there's a fishing boat
right here.
And then, we see it.
Oh, my (bleep) lord.
A row of large plastic barrels
floating towards
the small tourist boat
we've been following.
Barrels that have been
tossed from the stern
of a rust-covered
fishing trawler nearby.
There were about ten barrels,
white barrels,
that were thrown out to sea.
Packed inside
are the potent chemicals
the cartels need
to create fentanyl.
I mean, it's so (bleep) crazy.
You look at it,
and it just looks like
a totally normal fishing boat.
There's hundreds,
if not thousands of them
around the coast of Mexico.
In a way, it's sort
of the perfect crime
because it's
so indistinguishable.
It would never raise any alarm.
(man speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Okay, it has to be
really quick.
So it has to be
really quick, guys.
They're saying that they don't
feel obviously safe here.
(Mariana speaking Spanish)
MARIANA:
What's inside the barrels?
Wow.
(man speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Wow. So they're saying
that it was one
of these big cargo ships
that we see all around us that
threw these barrels oversea.
Then the fishing boat over here
got a GPS location
of where to pick them up,
picks them up, brings it out,
and then there's
a meeting point here
where these guys come
and pick it up
and then take it to off to land.
Mazatlán is one of Mexico's
busiest Pacific ports,
and while most of these
international container ships
are moving legitimate
commercial goods,
the smugglers tell me that some
of the people on board
are in business
with the Sinaloa cartel,
delivering the chemicals
they need from Asia or Europe.
Okay. Sí, okay.
They say they have to go
because there's Marines all
around us, and they're worried.
♪
We should definitely
keep our distance
because we have a boat
packed with drugs,
and if the Marines come
or anything,
we don't want to be seen
being part of this operation,
you know?
Incredibly, one of the cartel's
most dangerous drugs
is being trafficked
in plain sight.
♪
You can see what's happening
right behind me,
they're unloading the boat
one barrel at a time
going to shore.
We're in a little port
surrounded by other
fishing boats.
There's actually a tourist boat
with about 50 people heading out
right now, right next to us.
Earlier, I'd asked my contact
if we could follow this shipment
from start to finish.
The answer was yes,
if we can keep up.
We're here. We're here.
We're coming up. Okay, quick.
¿Ya se fueron?
Are they here or they left?
MAN: It was loaded
from the boat to here
in a matter of 15 seconds.
MARIANA: I mean, it was crazy,
the whole thing took about,
I don't know, 10 seconds?
I don't know.
MAN: Yeah.
MARIANA: We've been waiting
and planning this
for months and months.
MAN: A car just like that one.
MARIANA: Oh, it's like
a tourist car?
MAN: Yes. Just like that one.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
So it's these cars that you see
all around Mazatlán,
which are these open trucks
with these benches on the side,
and they transport tourists
around here
in sort of these
local tourist taxis.
And that's where
they loaded them.
MAN: And that's where
they loaded everything.
♪
(man singing in Spanish)
♪
MARIANA: Mazatlán is
a popular resort town,
and it seems like
the drug smugglers here
are using this
to their advantage.
None of the tourists
appear to realize
that this is
a key staging ground
for the cartel's
booming fentanyl business.
Keeping a low profile is key
to a trafficker's survival.
Mexican law enforcement
is all over the city,
and they're just one
of many threats.
(phone ringing)
So why, what's happening?
Why are we rushing?
MARIANA: My team has
reestablished contact
with the smugglers,
but now it seems we're not the
only ones pursuing the shipment.
MARIANA: Really?
MARIANA: So gunmen?
MARIANA: I'm hardly surprised,
Mexico is being ripped apart
by gun violence,
as a dozen different cartels
vie to control the drug trade.
With 11 containers
full of drugs,
I'm sure that there's
a lot of eyes out there,
other people trying
to get their hands on it.
It's worth a lot of money.
Of course if we can't lose
the people following us,
my contacts are going
to disappear
along with the fentanyl shipment
I'm trying to catch up with.
MARIANA: Let's just
wait here for a second
and see if by any chance
we see them pass by us.
I'm pursuing a group
of fentanyl smugglers
through downtown Mazatlán.
But it now appears
someone else is pursuing me.
It could be the Sinaloa cartel,
it could be a rival group,
or it could be nothing.
Reporting on narcos in Mexico
can make you paranoid.
Okay, so it looks like
we've lost them.
They're not behind us.
(exhales)
It's a relief,
but it's also slowed us down.
We need to catch up with
the shipment we're following.
We've been given access to film
where they put these barrels
with the fentanyl precursors
before they ship them
to the labs.
But we're just waiting
for an exact location.
Okay, I think this is it.
The GPS coordinates take us on a
30-minute drive outside of town
to a gated apartment complex.
Okay, here, (bleep). Down.
I think we should put cameras
down, guys. Sorry, but.
We have to be careful
not to reveal the location
or identities of our hosts.
We're just following him,
our contact.
These apartments
are called privadas,
quiet residential communities.
My contact tells me this privada
is controlled by the cartel.
MARIANA: The apartment is
being used as a stash house;
A temporary way station
where the product is safe
from cops and competitors.
And it's managed
by these two men.
MARIANA: Wow.
MARIANA: You can hear it.
It's all liquid inside.
They say the chemicals swishing
around inside these barrels
will be transported to
secret labs further inland
where the cartel's chemists
will process them
into fentanyl itself.
So all this stuff that they have
here is worth about $350,000,
and they're saying that once
it actually gets mixed
with the other products
and transformed into fentanyl,
that it's worth millions
and millions of dollars.
MARIANA: I've heard
the cartels are getting
medical-grade pharmaceuticals
from outside Mexico,
and I want to know where.
MARIANA: Pushing further will
put these guys in a tough spot
with their bosses.
Since they won't
let me open the packages,
I can't implicate
a specific country or company.
DONALD TRUMP: Today
President Xi and I discussed
ways we can stop the lethal flow
of poisonous drugs
into our countries.
A special emphasis will be
placed on the new phenomena,
fentanyl.
MARIANA: It's a well-known fact
that China has thousands
of poorly regulated
chemical companies
pumping out generic drugs
and pharmaceutical ingredients
every week.
I really wish I could see
what's written inside.
MARIANA: Okay. (Speaks Spanish)
MARIANA: Trafficking networks
are compartmentalized by design.
(speaks Spanish)
You get something from one guy
and pass it along
to someone else.
In between, you do your job
and you ask few questions.
But this network is nothing
if not efficient.
My sources tell me it takes
as little as eight days
for the chemicals to move
from a Pacific Ocean delivery
to hidden cartel labs,
then north across the US border
and finally onto
America's streets.
MAN: Come on, get up, man.
Come on, get up, buddy.
(siren)
MARIANA: Fentanyl was first
created in Belgium in 1960.
It was designed
for use in surgery
and to treat the most
severe forms of pain.
Over time, American
pharmaceutical companies
found a profitable way to market
related opioid medications
outside hospital settings.
WOMAN: Since I've been
on this new pain medication,
I have not missed
one day of work,
and my boss really
appreciates that.
MARIANA: Prescriptions surged,
and patients were reassured
that the risk of
addiction was low.
MAN: Less than 1% of patients
taking opioids
actually become addicted.
MARIANA: They were very wrong.
As fatal overdoses skyrocketed,
doctors made prescription
opioids harder to get.
Addicts turned to heroin,
and the crisis got worse.
Then in 2015, fentanyl emerged
on the black market
in a big way: Potent, cheap, and
readily available on the street
without a prescription.
In the US, overdose rates
exploded to record highs.
But here in Mexico,
fentanyl became a boon
to the underworld economy.
♪
Which is why I've
journeyed inland
to witness how
the cartels transform
the precursor chemicals
into street-ready drugs.
(man singing in Spanish)
It's happening tonight
in an underground lab
where we'll get a glimpse
into the future
of the Mexican drug trade.
MARIANA: Unlike heroin,
cocaine or marijuana,
fentanyl doesn't need farmland
or water or sunshine;
It can all be made in
an underworld lab like this,
by a handful of cartel chemists.
MARIANA: So this, he's saying,
is the base to create the pills,
the M-30 pills, the Mexican oxy.
M-30 pills are imprinted
with an M on one side
and the number 30 on the other
in an attempt to make them
indistinguishable from
legitimate oxycodone pills.
In just the last four years,
millions of these
cartel-manufactured pills
have flooded America's streets.
So you're saying just
this little amount here,
if you were to ingest
this somehow,
this amount could
kill you immediately.
That's how powerful
this stuff is.
(speaking Spanish)
Okay, everybody,
we should put the masks on.
This is where it starts
getting dangerous here.
If these chemists combine
the raw materials just right,
in a matter of hours, they'll
have successfully completed
the next step in the process,
creating sell able
black market fentanyl.
MARIANA: This is
the pure fentanyl.
They mixed all the liquids
that come from Asia,
a lot of times from China,
they mix it and they make this.
MARIANA: Like a veteran chef,
the chemist tells me
his mixtures aren't entirely
based on careful measurements,
but his own
physiological reactions
to the chemical process.
MARIANA: This is so crazy.
Ooh. Look at this stuff.
MARIANA: I'm hoping,
really, really hoping
this guy knows what
he's doing here.
MARIANA: I'm starting
to think my team and I
should get the hell out of here.
Outlaw narco chemists
accidentally kill themselves
all the time.
This is so nuts.
MARIANA: I'm in
the Sinaloan countryside,
I can't disclose where exactly,
in an underground lab
with a cartel chemist
who is perfecting his latest
shipment of fentanyl.
MARIANA: Turns out, he's a bit
like a Mexican Walter White.
He runs a legitimate
business by day,
but for the past four years,
he's been moonlighting
for the Sinaloa cartel.
MARIANA: Once the paste dries
and the room clears
of deadly fumes,
I'm told it's okay
to take off our masks.
MARIANA: Now that
the chemical ingredients
are properly balanced, it's time
to craft the fake M-30 pills,
each one designed to mimic
the look of OxyContin,
the most popular painkiller
in America.
MARIANA: Maybe, but that's
not what I've seen
on America's streets.
MARIANA: It's clear that's
nothing is going to stop
the process tonight,
and all that's left is
to press the paste into pills.
The chemist tells me
he makes $100
for every 20,000 pills.
Which means that
on any given night,
he can make
a few thousand dollars.
MARIANA: A sense of dread
follows me north.
Soon, these pills
will find their way
into the hands
of American users,
and we know what happens then.
(baby crying)
MAN: Oh, my god.
MAN: Hello. Hey!
Andie, Andie, Andie.
MARIANA: But down here among
Mexico's narco traffickers,
fentanyl isn't a deadly opioid.
It's an opportunity.
MARIANA: The ugly truth
is that fentanyl supports
an incredibly lucrative
underworld economy.
That means jobs for
cartel accountants,
couriers, and chemists.
And for the those who undertake
one of the most dangerous roles
in the pipeline: Prepping
the drugs for the final crossing
into the United States.
(horns honking)
Just south of
the US-Mexican border,
I've been granted access to film
with these so-called packers.
But we have to move fast;
They're scheduled to smuggle
another fentanyl load
across tonight.
So they just sent us a location.
It looks like it's about
seven miles from the US border.
It definitely looks like we
entered the rough part of town.
So let's just be discreet.
We're here. This is it.
♪
♪
MARIANA: Our hosts are tense
for good reason.
Right now they're in possession
of five kilos of fentanyl
that's worth millions of dollars
on the streets of America.
Whoa.
MARIANA: They tell me
there are cops and competitors
everywhere in Mexico,
many willing to kill to corner
the fentanyl marketplace.
MARIANA: Using ordinary
household ingredients,
these packers will make
five kilos of fentanyl
invisible to
the eyes of the law.
And I'm about to see
how it's done.
(siren)
MARIANA: I'm seven miles south
of the US-Mexico border,
about to witness
how the Sinaloa cartel
smuggles five kilos of fentanyl
into the United States.
Despite the green light
I've been given,
the packers prepping the
shipment are extremely anxious.
(speaking Spanish)
So he's trying, he's talking,
and I can see this guy's
getting really nervous,
and telling him to speed up,
because he says the person
that's gonna take it across the
border is arriving any moment,
and he wants to make sure
that he can get all of this
out of this house
as soon as possible.
MARIANA: He's putting coffee
on it right now.
MARIANA: I'm watching
a shadowy game of cat and mouse.
In less than an hour,
these drugs are headed
to the most frequently crossed
and one of most heavily
patrolled borders in the world.
Last year,
US Customs and Border Protection
seized more than
a ton of fentanyl.
And yet, these packers
plan on foiling
thousands of
highly trained agents
and billions of dollars
of surveillance technology
with little more than
homemade ingenuity.
He has other products here.
He has mustard. He has
(speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Softener.
Laundry softener.
And all this is to avoid
any sort of smell.
So crazy.
Coffee, fabric softener,
and mustard.
There's simply no way
to describe the smell.
But the one thing it doesn't
smell like is drugs.
Layer after layer,
every coat could mean
the difference between
failure and profit.
But dogs aren't
the only concern.
MARIANA: So now they're able to
disguise the smell for the dogs,
and also for the x-ray machines
they have this
carbon paper around it.
MARIANA: The packers tell me
they'll make $2,000
for their work tonight,
$400 per package.
And just like everyone
I've met on this journey,
they do their job and
then they pass the drugs on
to the next link
in the supply chain.
MARIANA: The girl he's referring
to is tonight's driver.
In the trafficking world,
she's called a drug mule,
but I'll call her Beatriz.
MARIANA: Beatriz tells me she's
been doing this for a year
and makes $3,000 per crossing.
MARIANA:
After we finished speaking,
Beatriz agrees to let me
follow her to the border.
The car parked in front, that's
where all the drugs are stashed,
all ready to go up to the US.
And I think she's
about to leave.
Fentanyl trafficking convictions
in the US have increased
by nearly 5,000%
over the past six years,
and those who are caught
are almost always
sentenced to prison.
Right now, Beatriz has five
kilos of it hidden in her trunk.
Where the heck is she going?
Something's wrong.
(siren)
Oh, my god.
She's seriously being followed
by police, I'm not even joking.
Right?
Yeah.
Oh, my lord. What do we do?
I don't think
we should go too close.
We need to figure out
what the plan is now.
We were following her
for, I mean, 10 seconds,
and then suddenly we see a
police car come out of nowhere.
What the (bleep)?
Why? What happened?
MARIANA: Just two miles south
of the US-Mexico border,
the drug mule I've been tracking
is pulled over by police.
Her trunk is filled with
five kilos of fentanyl,
worth millions of dollars
on the street.
And she was stopped by
the police over there.
I assume Beatriz is busted.
But the cops never
opened her trunk.
And minutes later,
she drives off.
I catch up with her
further down the road.
MARIANA: Beatriz is shaken, so
she decides to stay the night.
But the following day,
she's at it again.
And I'm not far behind.
She has to be super nervous,
you know?
She's packing
five kilos of fentanyl.
So it's a very strange feeling,
because on the one hand,
we've met her and we don't
want her to get caught,
and I'm actually
nervous for her.
But on the other hand,
she has a car packed with drugs
that can kill
a lot of people in the US.
It's complicated.
I know Beatriz has a growing
family to provide for.
But in all my years reporting
on the opioid crisis,
it's the parents who lost
sons and daughters to overdoses
that I remember the most.
GIRL: Mom, wake up.
Come on. Ma, Ma, Ma!
MARIANA: And I can't help but
wonder what they might think
as I watch Beatriz attempt
to carry a deadly shipment
across the border.
But this is how a majority of
drugs are smuggled into the US
according to the DEA.
Through legal ports of entry
on the southwest border,
stashed in passenger vehicles
or tractor trailers.
And I'm here to
witness it for myself.
She was stopped,
she's being checked right now.
I would say just put
the cameras entirely down.
Last night, I watched the cartel
packers slather her cargo
in coffee, mustard,
and fabric softener,
all to avoid detection by
America's drug-sniffing dogs.
As the K-9 units approach,
I'm about to see if
their method actually works.
So they're opening
the trunk right now.
They're looking under the hood.
This is a really
uncomfortable moment.
(exhales)
And then, just when I'm
certain she's busted
Oh, my god.
They're letting her go.
Yeah, she's just going
into her car and leaving.
I can't believe it.
They just let her go.
I can't believe it.
♪
(exhales)
Beatriz agrees
to meet up with us
a few miles north of the border.
I'm just gonna talk
to her real quick.
She's right here.
(speaking Spanish)
I cannot believe
MARIANA:
Despite how nerve-racking
crossing the border was,
Beatriz tells me she doesn't
think she'll ever go to prison.
MARIANA: While there's no way
for me to confirm this,
it's well-documented that part
of the Sinaloa cartel's strategy
is to infiltrate and corrupt
America's border agents
with lucrative payoffs.
MARIANA: And there she goes
with five kilos of fentanyl.
When I contacted CBP for
comment, they told us, quote,
"US Customs and
Border Protection
seized over 750,000 pounds
of illegal narcotics in 2019.
Our officers remain relentless
and are always working to stay
one step ahead of the cartels."
But with so much
demand for drugs
and so much money to be made,
it's a difficult task.
In recent years, there have been
almost 200 drug overdose deaths
in the US every single day.
And fentanyl is
the major reason.
I'm eager to follow
this road to the end
to expose just how easy it is
for these traffickers,
but I'm also aware
the shipment I'm tracking
might end up killing someone.
So we were just
given this location
right next to the 710 Freeway
here in Los Angeles.
It's at the end of
a dead-end street.
And I think that's, I think
that's actually our woman,
with the drugs inside her car.
There's a guy in
an orange jumpsuit with a mask.
♪
So it looks like that's where
they're doing the deal,
right here out in the open.
The masked men tell me
they're all native Angelenos,
American citizens who work
directly for the Sinaloa cartel.
But like everyone else I've met,
they focus on their jobs
and ask no questions.
Do you know what's
in these packages?
You really don't care
what you're transporting?
MARIANA: So can you tell me more
or less where they're heading?
MAN: This is one of the main
distribution areas
that we have here.
MARIANA: This is very much
like a hot potato
where they just want to get it
out as soon as possible.
It was incredible,
because you saw she arrived,
and within, I don't know,
under 10 minutes,
they had managed to take
the drugs out of her car,
put it in their car,
and then they're off.
And he says he does this
every other week,
which is crazy.
(siren)
OFFICER: There you go.
OFFICER: You got it?
WOMAN: Stay with me.
Stay with me. Stay with me.
WOMAN:
Got three Narcan deployments.
(siren)
MARIANA: Never have so many
people been addicted
to such a deadly narcotic.
Never has the need for solutions
been more urgent.
I worry that the fentanyl supply
chain seems too big to fail.
Too many people benefit,
and I've met many of them
along my journey,
from the chemical companies in
Asia to the cartels' chemists.
Americans will have to find
a way to slow the demand,
because the suppliers
will always find
a faster and more profitable way
to deliver the goods.
MARIANA: In fact, they tell me
the cartels have begun
to do just that by eliminating
their Asian suppliers.
MARIANA: If that's true,
the worst may be yet to come
for America's opioid epidemic.
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services