#1938 - Mariana van Zeller

Joe Rogan (0:14)

Hello, good to see you again. What's happening?

Mariana van Zeller (0:16)

Great to see you too.

Joe Rogan (0:17)

Good to see you alive and well. You scare me sometimes with your dangerous adventures, like real boots on the ground, investigative journalism.

SPEAKER_4 (0:25)

Yeah.

Mariana van Zeller (0:26)

We've been all over the world. I think the last time I was here was two years ago.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

Yeah, last time you had just gotten back from the cocaine manufacturing in the jungle, which was wild. And then you took a backpack with the stuff and traveled with the, oof.

Mariana van Zeller (0:44)

And since I've reported on a lot of other drugs and other crazy situations, and we're now doing, actually already filming season four. Season three is coming out.

Joe Rogan (0:55)

Tell people where to get it and what it's called.

Mariana van Zeller (0:56)

Yeah, it's Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. It's on National Geographic, Next Day on Hulu, and it's on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. And it's about black markets, so it's illegal markets around the world, whether it's drugs, guns, fight clubs.

I mean, anything, surrogacy, illegal surrogacy.

Joe Rogan (1:13)

The craziest one to me was the getting the guns in America and transporting them to Mexico, that that is going on, and then it's going on with cops.

Mariana van Zeller (1:27)

It is, for me, it's always been, I think the first story I did on guns in America was about 12, 15 years ago, where I was able to buy an AK-47 out of a Taco Bell parking lot in Arizona.

Joe Rogan (1:39)

Where else?

Mariana van Zeller (1:40)

Where else than in Arizona. And then the funny thing that happened-

Joe Rogan (1:43)

I meant where else but a Taco Bell parking lot. Both those things.

Mariana van Zeller (1:46)

Of course. And then we went to a bar to sort of celebrate the fact that we just filmed this crazy thing that just happened, because we knew it was possible that people were doing this, but we wanted to show it with our camera. So we had sort of secret cameras filming, and then I went out and I bought it, and we went out to a bar after, and I ordered a beer, and I forgot my driver's license, so it didn't give me a beer.

Joe Rogan (2:07)

That's hilarious.

Mariana van Zeller (2:08)

Isn't that funny? So no beer, but I could go out with a Naked 47 And a few days later, we bought a 50 cal out of a guy's garage that we went out into the desert and filmed.

Joe Rogan (2:17)

Women like it when they get carted.

Mariana van Zeller (2:19)

Of course we do.

Joe Rogan (2:20)

Yeah.

Mariana van Zeller (2:22)

Unfortunately, I don't get carted as often nowadays.

Joe Rogan (2:24)

It's just ridiculous, come on.

I guess they have to, but whatever. Oh, it's ridiculous.

Mariana van Zeller (2:31)

I know.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

21, come on. Look at me.

Mariana van Zeller (2:34)

But this was 12 years ago, so it's possible.

Joe Rogan (2:36)

Possible, yeah. How hard is it to buy an AK-47?

Mariana van Zeller (2:40)

It was so easy. We went online at the time. I can't remember the name of the website, Backpage. At the time there was a website called Backpage where you could essentially buy anything. I don't think that website exists anymore. But it's not even on the black market, regular online website. And we went there, and with an, I think we spoke to the guy 20 minutes before. He said, meet us here. We went there. It was him and his girlfriend were there. He was high on drugs.

And he had an AR-15 with him as well that he was also wanting to sell. We ended up buying the AK.

But yeah, so I've been fascinated with sort of how easy it is.

Joe Rogan (3:13)

How do you know he was high on drugs?

Mariana van Zeller (3:15)

Because you could tell. I've reported enough on drugs.

Joe Rogan (3:17)

Meth, you think?

Mariana van Zeller (3:19)

At the time, probably. He was very jittery. Yeah, it was definitely an upper sort.

And then yeah, so then we decided to do this for the first season, actually, of Trafficked, to story on guns and how American guns are winding up in the hands of the cartel in Mexico and how it's responsible for so much of the violence that's happening there. And sort of this cycle, which I don't think most people think about, how then the violence leads people to immigrate to America, and then they come here. And, you know, so it's like a cycle of violence and immigration and guns, and it's all sort of connected. But whenever we do a story on guns, and we just one, another one that I did on ghost guns was released last week on National Geographic. And it is the most sort of controversial issue, the hot topic that we can always. So I immediately start getting messages of people saying that I should go back to my country and what am I doing? And I'm trying to take away people's rights to want a gun, which is absolutely not the case.