Under the radar

Where are there billion-dollar businesses run by people whose faces we never see? They aren’t even traded on the stock market. These are the shadow economies created by illegal activities like drug and gun running, sex trafficking, poaching, scamming, counterfeiting and the like.

Now Portuguese investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller (2013 doccie El Chapo: CEO Of Crime) is taking us inside these deadly black-market organisations to speak to people who make a living in the underworld in the eight-episode National Geographic (DStv 181) series, Thursdays on National Geographic (*181) at 21:00.

For some of her subjects, it was a way of flexing their power. Mariana reveals, “In Sinaloa (Mexico) alone, there are several different sorts of sectors or groups that belong to the Sinaloa Cartel. So a lot of times, they see this opportunity of being able to talk to National Geographic, a brand that is known all around the world, as a way to show force and