Shots in the Dark: The Black Madam

Frank Meeink was once one of the most prominent neo-Nazis in the U.S. and inspiration for the character played by Edward Norton in the 1998 film American History X. At 17, he was hosting a neo-Nazi cable-access TV show and touring around the country preaching white nationalism. After Frank kidnapped a rival gang member, he was arrested and sentenced to three years behind bars—but it wasn’t until he got a job moving antique furniture for a Jewish boss that his perspective really shifted.  Join Mariana deeper in the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller Wednesdays on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Al Peratt’s trafficking career started when he was in the military: legal clerk by day, hashish dealer at night. The gig turned to heroin, and after a lengthy prison sentence, to dealing meth in San Diego’s biker scene. He later fled the city—but not his old habits. In the Black Hills of rural South Dakota, he started one of the area’s biggest meth rings. Join Mariana deeper in the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller Wednesdays on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the 1980s, Outlaw Motorcycle Clubs had been deemed “organized crime on wheels” by federal agencies. This was the world that Frank D’alesio entered as a rookie ATF agent, when he began the string of undercover operations that would define his career. Investigating the most notorious motorcycle clubs, Frank’s undercover work pulled him deep into a world of brutal traditions, tested loyalties and illegal arms dealing—and ended with him at the head of his very own illegal motorcycle gang. Join Mariana deeper into the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller Wednesday on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just off the coast of San Diego, a group of high school surfers and their former Spanish teacher get involved in an unusual extracurricular activity: international weed smuggling. They called themselves the Coronado Company and Lee Strimpel was one of their leaders. For years, Lee’s team of “pot marines'' circumvented the U.S.-Mexico sea border. What started with a bunch of high school students swimming bundles of marijuana on their surfboards, grew to become a multimillion dollar smuggling empire. Their hauls got bigger and bigger, and so did their means of transport. But by the time they tried to expand their business across the Atlantic, the DEA caught wind. Lee’s plans all came down with a crash in a cinematic takedown on a freezing winter night in Maine. Join Mariana deeper into the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked With Mariana van Zeller Wednesday on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Recording assistance provided by Alexis Peery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek Alldred could have been an actor. He first invented characters to fuel an addiction, putting on costumes and playing trustworthy roles that put people at ease and got him what he wanted. But as his lies left a trail of destruction, he had to invent more aliases to cover his tracks—a web that spun out of control. But the curtain dropped when a girlfriend found his iPad—and his real name. Then military investigators got involved, bringing charges of stolen valor. Alldred received an astounding 24-year sentence in federal prison. He tells the story of his shifting identity. Join Mariana deeper into the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Wednesday on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Black Madam was an aspiring rapper who made her money building a business she believed in—administering illegal silicone injections to give trans (and cisgender) women the bodies they dreamed of. After all, she’d once been in their shoes. But the deadly dangers of the black market caught up with her—and so did the police. Join Mariana deeper into the underground, and don’t miss the TV series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Wednesday on National Geographic and streaming on Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The companion podcast to National Geographic’s Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. In season two, investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller goes deep with masterminds behind black markets and underground economies, including illegal plastic surgery, meth labs fueling America’s addiction crisis, and a global marijuana smuggling empire built by high school surfers. Each episode pulls back the curtain on the player at the center: how they became criminals, what it felt like to live in the shadows—and how it all crumbled in the end. Join Mariana in the underground, and don’t miss the TV show Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller on National Geographic and Hulu. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mariana talks with David Packouz, one of the two notorious young men who inspired the movie War Dogs. He made headlines when he sold illegal ammo to the US government in what was called “The Afghan Contract.” We hear how he became a major player in the weapons trade by age 25, how a major ammunition delivery went wrong, and how his booming career got shot down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cocaine production is at an all-time high, but it came to fame in the Miami Vice era of the 1980’s with the help of the “Cocaine Cowboys.” In this episode, Mariana sits down with JC Perez, who piloted cocaine smuggling runs for one of the biggest bosses in the business. Over the course of his career, JC trafficked thousands of pounds of drugs, until an unexpected bust crashed his party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Heidi Fleiss is perhaps best known as the “Hollywood Madam.” Despite having started her business at just 22, she developed a star-studded list of clients, all meticulously organized in her red Gucci planner. Among them was Charlie Sheen, who famously testified at Heidi’s trial that he’d spent $53,000 a year on her services. On a bad night, Heidi says she raked in $10,000. What made Heidi Fleiss so successful, how did her ring unravel, and where did she fly off to? For more information about Heidi Fleiss’ Nevada bird sanctuary, please visit her YouTube Channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices