Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller (2020) s03e01 Episode Script

1
(helicopter)
♪
♪
MARIANA VAN ZELLER:
Around the world,
from Los Angeles
to South Korea
filmmakers have tapped
into organ trafficking
as a uniquely horrific subject.
WOMAN: They farm out
our kidneys, lungs, heart.
MARIANA: It's a horror that,
unbelievably,
exists in the real world.
And to players in this game,
your body is a collection
of products
to be stolen
or bought on the cheap,
and then resold to buyers
for astronomical prices.
NEWSCASTER: How much would you
pay to save your life?
REPORTER: Both men paid
over 200,000 U.S. dollars
in order to obtain kidneys.
WOMAN: It's a sizable
amount of money.
MARIANA: This red trade
isn't a Hollywood creation.
It's a reality, with origins
in modern-day Africa, Asia,
and the Middle East.
REPORTER: In this village alone,
more than half the people
living here
have sold one of their kidneys.
MARIANA: But now, rumors
of the red trade
are bubbling up
far closer to home.
And I set my sights on finding
the people and organizations
that are making a killing
in body parts.
♪
♪
MARIANA: So this is the liquid
that's coming from inside you?
GARRETT ROWE: Yeah.
It's been in my stomach cavity
for about four, five hours
right now.
MARIANA: Garrett Rowe
is hoping to beat the odds.
GARRETT: Just kind of
taking out the toxins,
processing what my kidneys
aren't doing.
MARIANA: To stay alive,
Garrett normally spends
nine hours each night
hooked up to a dialysis machine.
GARRETT: I had a flu
at one point,
and they just noticed
that my blood pressure
was a little high.
Did some blood work, and then,
probably by about 5:30,
after I got home, I got
a phone call and she said,
"I have a room for you
at the emergency room,
you need to go right now."
MARIANA: And so
what was happening?
GARRETT: Um, they, they,
they just were shutting down.
MARIANA: Your kidneys?
GARRETT: Yeah.
So, as of now,
I essentially have
less than three percent
functionality.
MARIANA: Wow.
GARRETT:
I mean, last year alone,
I was almost
maybe a month and half,
two months in the hospital.
I was passing out, I was going
headfirst into walls.
Like, I was, I just
couldn't function.
MARIANA: So, you're going
to need new kidneys?
GARRETT: Yeah.
MARIANA: Two?
GARRETT: I'll need one
MARIANA: One kidney.
GARRETT: to start,
and that should hopefully,
I hope it gets me,
at best, 20 more years,
and I'll probably need
a second one at that point.
MARIANA: And you've been on,
on the list here in Georgia
for how long now?
GARRETT: Oh, jeez.
Almost two years.
ERIN: Two years, yeah.
GARRETT: Year and a half,
at least.
MARIANA: Really?
GARRETT: Yeah.
On average, they say
it's like seven years
that you wait on the list.
MARIANA: Wow.
GARRETT: On dialysis,
it can roughly get you
about seven years extra before,
like, you have to get an organ.
MARIANA: So, what happens
if you don't get an organ then?
GARRETT: That's it.
MARIANA: Right.
♪
♪
The numbers are brutal.
In the United States,
17 people die every day
waiting for an organ.
In 2020, over 39,000 Americans
did receive a transplant.
But over 100,000 languished
on a waiting list,
hoping for a phone call
that never came.
GARRETT: We've already had
very loose conversations
of, "What do we do when we,
when we don't,
when we don't get one?"
MARIANA: I can't help but wonder
what I would do in a situation
where my life
or the life of a loved one
was hanging in the balance,
and a solution, perhaps, was
for sale in the underground.
GARRETT: What's plan B?
Where do we go?
Who do we know
in other countries
that could help us out
and set us up
with whatever we needed?
MARIANA:
Facing the same struggle,
how many patients in America
have made the decision
to take action?
To head towards a destination
where the will to live
overpowers judgment
of right and wrong.
PETER CHIN-HONG:
The mortality rate
while waiting for an organ
in this country
can actually be more than 50%,
because we don't have
enough organs.
MARIANA: Wow.
In San Francisco,
Peter Chin-Hong is
an infectious disease doctor
who specializes
in transplant patients.
How prevalent would you say
are black market organs
in the United States?
CHIN-HONG: So we know
the, the floor,
which is at least 10%.
But it's certainly much higher,
because the 10%
is what we know about.
MARIANA: When you think
that you've found a patient
that has performed
the surgery elsewhere
and has a black market organ,
do you ask them?
CHIN-HONG: So it's a really
difficult conversation.
It's hush-hush.
MARIANA: What is it
that you think makes them
not want to tell you the truth?
CHIN-HONG: Embarrassment, guilt,
because they didn't line up
like everyone else here.
And depending on
how they got it,
there could be fear
of, you know, harm maybe
if you reveal identities
of certain organizations
that might be doing this.
MARIANA: And do you
have any sense
of where these organs
are coming from?
CHIN-HONG: We know that
the Philippines, China, India,
and some places
in Eastern Europe.
But there are undoubtedly
other places as well.
MARIANA: No recipients
under Dr. Chin-Hong's care
would agree to meet,
but combing through
social media,
there are ample clues
of a thriving trade overseas.
This one sells kidney
for $6,000, location is Rwanda.
26 years old and healthy.
I mean, it's just
message after message.
Mostly, actually,
from developing countries,
you know, which is
the really sad truth about this.
And that makes me wonder;
with a full-blown migrant crisis
taking place at our own borders,
could organ trafficking
be right here at the doorstep
of the United States?
It's a question
I put to my contacts.
So, any luck with this
organ trafficking story?
MIGUEL: Not really.
You know, I've been calling
a whole bunch of people.
They don't have anything yet.
(speaking Portuguese)
(speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: Experts say that
organ trafficking is widespread
but incredibly difficult
to report.
MARIANA: Often because
the victims are poor,
are willing participants,
and there's no political will
to go after medical tourists
and wealthy doctors
who enable the trade.
Ciao. Adios. Adios.
Ah, (bleep).
(phone ringing)
Hey, Oliver, how are you doing?
OLIVER SCHMIEG: Hi, Mariana.
Yeah, I've been in touch
with a couple of guys
in organized crime.
They basically are confirming
that they are
more and more involved
in illegal organ trafficking.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
So did you think that if
we go down to Colombia,
we'll be able to film,
meet people,
and talk to people
about this trade?
OLIVER: Definitely,
definitely.
You should come down here.
♪
♪
MARIANA:
It's been almost 30 years
since Pablo Escobar was gunned
down on a rooftop in Medellín
(gunfire)
but this region of Colombia
has remained a crossroads
for cartel activity
and cocaine trafficking.
And if my local producer,
Oliver Schmieg, is correct,
it's also becoming a hub
for organ traffickers.
(men singing in Spanish)
MARIANA: Normally, when I
set out to report on a story,
whether it's drugs
or guns or scams,
I have some expectations
of how the market operates.
But here, there's no telling,
because this market,
if it exists, is so new.
There are no official reports,
no arrests, and no bodies.
If we are to prove the existence
of organ trafficking
in Colombia,
it will be an investigation
that begins with accounts
from the underworld.
♪
To be viable,
an organ like a kidney
must come from a live donor,
or a body that has just died,
and must be transplanted
within 36 hours,
preferably even sooner.
If Oliver's sources are correct
and organs are being smuggled
out of Colombia,
that's a remarkably short window
for them to cross borders
and be transplanted
into another body.
So I've come to see if I can
confirm it with my own eyes.
The town we're
heading to, Turbo,
is rumored to be
the epicenter of smuggling
for Colombia's
most dangerous cartel,
the Clan Del Golfo.
And how dangerous is it
to report in this region?
MARIANA:
Yes, you heard that right.
And if you look around,
cartel markings are everywhere.
I've been to Turbo once before,
to report on the movement
of cocaine.
But this time, I'm looking into
something far more sinister,
and in many ways
hoping it doesn't exist.
So we're heading now to meet
the comandante,
which we met last time, who was
trafficking cocaine, right,
in charge of this area.
OLIVER: Yeah.
MARIANA: Our first stop is
to meet with an operative
known as the Commander,
who controls smuggling routes
for the clan,
granting safe passage
to those who pay the cartel
and punishment
for those who don't.
This is him.
♪
♪
(car door slams)
MARIANA: ¿Sí?
MARIANA: Looking at a map,
it's easy to see
why the cartel has placed
the Commander here
and why it's one of the world's
hot spots for smuggling.
There are no roads connecting
Colombia and Panama.
Anybody headed north
must travel by boat
or pass overland
through the Darien Gap,
a 100-mile journey through
one of the most treacherous
jungles in the world.
MARIANA:
Controlling the Darien Gap
is crucial for the cartel,
which collects a so-called "tax"
on drugs and migrants,
and now, I'm being told,
on human organs.
MARIANA: ¿Sí?
♪
♪
MARIANA: While we wait to see
if the interview will happen,
I'm headed 30 miles north
to the town of Necoclí.
If migrants are being targeted
for their organs in Colombia,
this is probably where
it would be happening.
(motorbike passing)
Think we should go
that way, maybe?
So, this is the point, the beach
where we hear a lot
of the migrants congregate
before they make
their way across the sea.
This small town
has been transformed
from a minor tourist destination
to a chokepoint for migrants,
who get stuck here
for weeks at a time,
waiting for a seat on a boat
to continue their journey
north to America.
And you see there's
the Red Cross is here.
MARIANA: Migration
and refugee crises
have been breeding grounds
for organ traffickers
in other parts of the world.
It's an economy of desperation,
just as Garrett's desperation
in America could, someday,
lead him to buy an organ
on the black market.
Here in Colombia,
it's easy to see
how desperation could also fuel
someone's desire to sell one.
MARIANA: Heartbreak and hope
are everywhere here.
But evidence of organ harvesting
is elusive.
Everyone here in his group
has heard rumors
of organ trafficking,
but he's not sure.
Neither the Red Cross
nor the local police
have confirmed anything
beyond scant rumors.
But one policeman did agree
to speak with us
on condition of anonymity.
MAN: Muchas gracias.
MARIANA: Gracias, señor.
MARIANA:
As these families prepare
for the perils
of the Darien Gap,
they are largely upbeat.
The violence they're escaping
in their home countries
feels far more real than these
rumors of organ harvesting.
♪
I, on the other hand, am growing
increasingly concerned.
♪
We've just been given
the location
to go meet this man
who apparently goes
by the name of "Deshuesador."
It's an ominous name.
In Spanish, "deshuesador"
is the word
for somebody who
tears apart cars.
A wrecker.
We don't know much
about this guy.
We've been told he's
pretty high up on the chain.
♪
There's no light.
It's completely dark
and there's a gate.
(creaking)
♪
♪
(speaking Spanish)
MAN: Hola.
♪
MARIANA: The go-fast boats
that he refers to
could certainly make it
to Panama
in time for a kidney transplant.
But could an organ be
safely smuggled from here,
all the way up to an operating
room in the United States,
and within just two days?
I have my doubts.
(laughs)
♪
♪
♪
MARIANA: The video he shows me
is too gruesome
to show on television.
Organs are being removed
from a dead body.
It's happening
in a surgical setting,
but there's no care involved.
Rather, hands are pulling organs
from an open chest
and casually slapping them down
on a metal table.
Whether they represent
what he claims, I cannot say.
But by the time
he's walked away,
I feel like
I can hardly breathe.
Uh, yeah, that was
(bleep) heavy and horrible
and incredibly dark
and depressing.
And really difficult
at the same time to
believe a lot
of what he was saying,
because it just sounds
so horrible.
I think the hardest interview
I've ever had to do in my life.
I mean, how much is he
trying to make himself
be more important in this
than he actually is?
Like, he knows what he's doing?
That, I'm not sure, and I don't
think we ever will know.
Ego plays an important role
in black markets.
It's very often the reason
why people agree to talk to me.
And sometimes it's difficult
to parse the truth
from bluster and lies.
What I do know
is that a business that works
for one criminal group
is often copied by another.
And since the Wrecker
has mentioned ties
to the Mexican cartels,
I'm going to follow
the story north,
even closer to the U.S. border.
♪
(siren)
MARIANA: Okay.
In other parts of the world,
organ trafficking rings
have employed a small army
of accomplices:
recruiters, doctors, nurses,
hospital administrators,
even people to launder the cash.
I'm hoping that if I can find
a low level accomplice,
doors might open
to bigger players.
MARIANA: My search starts here,
with a criminal group
that I've been told buys kidneys
from Mexican citizens,
which are then resold
for transplant.
There's two guys waiting
inside the car,
and they're looking
very suspiciously at us.
Hola. Soy Mariana.
♪
MARIANA: I guess we're here.
It's a old house with lots
of trash everywhere.
MARIANA: They're closing
the gate behind us.
Not the ideal situation.
(gate slams)
♪
MARIANA: Hola.
ANGEL: Hello.
MARIANA: Hi.
So, I hear you speak English?
ANGEL: Yeah.
MARIANA: How should I call you?
MARIANA: He's got a gun?
MARIANA: Okay, so, Angel,
what do you do?
MARIANA: Who are willing to
MARIANA: And so how
do you figure out
if these are, if people
are even compatible?
MARIANA:
Wait, where is here? Here?
MARIANA: You serious?
So this is actually
where you bring the, the
MARIANA: And how often
do these organs
end up in American bodies?
ANGEL: Well
(laughing)
MARIANA: So, Angel, I hope
you don't mind me asking,
but we're in Mexico, and we know
that nothing happens here
without the knowledge
of the cartel, so.
MARIANA: Unlike the
murder-for-organs scenario
in Colombia,
Angel says he's buying organs,
not stealing them.
But in both instances,
there's undoubtedly the presence
of organized crime.
(man singing in Spanish)
♪
MARIANA: And I've come here
to make contact with one group.
♪
(knocking)
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Paloma describes
a medical practice in this town
where surgeons work hand-in-hand
with organized crime,
profiting from transplants to
wealthy Mexicans and Americans.
(siren)
♪
♪
The guy in prison, um, he's
apparently agreed to talk to us.
Apparently he also has
a phone in prison,
and, uh, he said that only
after we speak to him
will he decide whether he lets
us interview the doctor or not.
♪
(man speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: I've met up again
with Paloma,
who's letting me use her phone
to speak with her son-in-law
in prison.
MARIANA: Okay.
MARIANA: Oh, yeah,
you speak English?
WOMAN: Yeah. (laughs)
MARIANA: This is a first for me.
I've spoken with crime bosses
behind bars before,
but none who've handed me off
to their assistant.
Can you tell me how
you and your boss,
how are you guys involved
in the organ trade?
What's, what's, what exactly
is your role in it?
MARIANA: The demand
for black market organs,
according to (bleep),
is met with a steady supply,
provided by patients
at a local medical clinic.
MARIANA: Right.
MARIANA: So you're saying that
sometimes, that these people,
they're not just selling
the organs because they want to.
You're saying that you guys
actually force them to.
Is that what you're saying?
WOMAN: Yes, yeah.
MARIANA: And who are,
who are these people
and where do you find them?
WOMAN: You know?
MARIANA: How so?
What do you mean?
Like, how is it trouble?
Because how,
do they know anything?
WOMAN: I mean
MARIANA: I had thought
that here in Mexico
this trade was about commerce,
not murder,
but it seems I was mistaken.
(traffic passing)
(dog barking)
MARIANA: Okay.
MARIANA: Do you think
I could talk
to the boss again real quick?
I wanted to ask him
a couple more questions.
MAN: Sí.
MARIANA: Ah, hola.
Que bueno, que bueno.
MARIANA: Okay. Okay
(men yelling on telephone)
MARIANA: The boss never
gave me a clear answer
about whether they
were killing people.
But it's not hard to read
between the lines.
♪
I'm past the point of wondering
whether this trafficking
network exists.
What I want to know now
is how it actually works.
And I'm hoping one
of the doctors at this clinic
can provide the answers.
We've been in Colombia.
We've been to Mexico
several times now,
just waiting for,
for this interview.
Three days pass by
before the call comes.
(sighs)
So, we've been waiting
for, um, over two hours now.
They were supposed to
get here at 2:00.
It's now 4:10.
This is actually the sixth
doctor that we've contacted.
The other five backed out.
♪
(phone vibrating)
Hey.
Okay, coming down.
♪
Does that look better?
MAN: Yeah, yeah.
MARIANA: So I'm going to put
a microphone on you, doctor.
(speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: You know, I was
actually very, very nervous
that you weren't going to come.
So, um, can you tell me,
um, what is it that you do?
You're, you're a doctor.
DOCTOR: Sí.
MARIANA: And in the world
of the black market,
what is it that you do exactly?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
DOCTOR: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Something feels off.
It seems this doctor
is only willing to go so far
with cameras rolling.
DOCTOR: No.
MARIANA:
They were forced to give?
DOCTOR: Okay.
MARIANA:
The doctor describes his role
as testing black market
donors and recipients
for compatibility,
before handing the results
to transplant surgeons.
MARIANA: Okay.
DOCTOR: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Are you
in touch with them?
(speaking Spanish)
MARIANA: But they gave you
the okay to speak to us today?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: We trust doctors
to protect and preserve life.
But here, some combination
of coercion
and a promise of profit
is turning them into murderers.
♪
If I had doubts that the red
trade existed in Colombia,
I have none that it's
thriving here in Mexico.
♪
There is one stone
left unturned:
Who are the buyers?
I've spent months looking
for an organ recipient
willing to speak to me.
Finally, from prison,
Paloma's son-in-law
has made an introduction.
MARIANA: Yeah. We've been
trying for many months.
You're the first one
to agree to talk to us.
MARIANA: This is a man
we'll call "Juan."
Nine months ago, he claims that
diabetes nearly took his life.
But he was saved
by a pancreas transplant
obtained through
this same cartel connection.
How do you find an organ
on the black market?
Or how do you even find
the black market?
MARIANA: So you started
asking around,
and then how soon after
were you able to actually
get the surgery?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
MARIANA: How many people
were in the team?
Is it a staff?
MARIANA: Because, yeah
JUAN: For whatever.
MARIANA: There could be
consequences to you telling me?
MARIANA: And how much did you
pay for the surgery?
MARIANA: More than $100,000?
MARIANA: More than $200,000?
MARIANA: Was it
half a million dollars?
MARIANA: A little bit more
than half a million dollars?
Wow.
MARIANA: Hmm.
So you were ready to pay
more than anyone else?
MARIANA: Hmm.
MARIANA: Do you know where
your pancreas, um, came from?
MARIANA:
If it's a full pancreas,
then the person that donated
the pancreas had to be dead,
but if it's part
of a pancreas,
it could have been given
by a person who's still alive.
Would it make a difference
if you knew?
Would you, would you have done
anything differently
if you found out
that they had forced somebody
or even possibly
killed somebody?
MARIANA: You, you would
have not done it?
MARIANA: Mm-hmm.
JUAN: May I ask you
a question, ma'am?
MARIANA: I have no idea.
Because I, you would have to be
in that position.
MARIANA: But I have thought
about this many times,
and I, you know, I think people
go to great lengths
to, to survive and to be
able to continue living.
And it's true.
Ethical arguments hit a wall
when it comes
to our own survival
and that of our families.
What wouldn't I do?
What wouldn't any of us do
if our own life
or our child's life
hung in the balance?
So you've never felt inclined
to go online
and try to see where you could
possibly get a black market.
GARRETT: No. (laughs)
I mean, it's in, like,
the back of your head,
of, like, you know, "Would you?"
And, you know, if someone said,
like, "Hey, I got an organ,
like, tomorrow."
"Okay. Let's figure this out.
Let's do it."
But, like, where can you turn?
Who do you ask?
GARRETT: Who do you find out?
Who do you trust?
ERIN: Right.
GARRETT: It's hard enough
to find, like, a weed dealer,
like, let alone an organ.
(laughing)
MARIANA:
For somebody like Garrett,
who's playing by the rules,
who deserves a chance to live,
our society has an obligation
to make a more efficient
legal market
so there's simply no reason
for a black market to exist.
Captioned by
Side Door Media Services