Global Illegal Trades | Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller MEGA Episode | National Geographic

(beating) MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Thrash, stash, dash, and cash. This is how you smuggle hash. (thump) In 2020, European authorities made over 90,000 seizures of hashish, the concentrated resin made from marijuana plants. That number may seem high, but in this world, it's a drop in the ocean. The business of hash smuggling, once a sleepy pastime, has gone full throttle. It's a black market generating billions of dollars each year, and one that is increasingly concentrated in the hands of just a few organized crime families. I want to know how they corner the market and scale smuggling to new heights. And for that, I'm looking for a barón, a king of the hash trade. It's right here, it's right here! (man shouts) (siren) (gunshot) (woman singing in Portuguese) (bell ringing) Portugal. This is where I was born and raised, and where, even after all these years away, I still feel most at home. (woman singing) My hometown of Cascais is just outside of Lisbon. But in my teenage years, it was a world apart from the city. And as sheltered as it was, it was here that I got my very first taste of contraband. I remember coming here ever since we were super young, but people would come here to smoke, a lot. BARBARA: Yeah, a lot. MARIANA: There were a lot of people here. This is my best friend, Barbara, and my little cousin, Teresa. Like many Europeans, the first drug any of us tried was hashish. I remember not loving the taste, but I did have fun. Hash was my first connection to the underground and the start of questions that weren't easily answered. Who makes this stuff? And what journey did it take to reach my small corner of the world? Last time I tried was, uh... (laughter) 25 years ago, I think? Exactly like I remember it. Today there's no crime attached to smoking hash. It was decriminalized in Portugal in 2001. BARBARA: Double this would maybe be a gram, five euros. MARIANA: Double this would be five euros? So this is like two and a half euros only? Which is more or less two and a half dollars. So this cost like less than a dollar to make? BARBARA: Yeah. MARIANA: I mean, actually the cigarette that you use for the tobacco... BARBARA: Is more expensive. MARIANA: ...costs more than the actual drug that's inside. BARBARA: Probably. MARIANA: With that low price point, smuggling hash and marijuana has become a volume business. Profits are realized by organized crime groups importing product into Europe by the ton. But how are they pulling that off? And how do I even begin to look for the barones, the all-powerful barons at the top of this trade? CHICO: So I have different kinds of hash, different intensities. I have Pacho. MARIANA: Pacho, that's the name of this one? CHICO: Yeah, that's the character from Narcos. These are really, really good. MARIANA: Black banana. CHICO: Yeah. MARIANA: My search begins in Lisbon, where Chico, a local dealer, has agreed to talk. Original Paki. MARIANA: This is a little softer. CHICO: Yeah, that's softer. MARIANA: It's really incredible. The smell is so strong. Hash is created using the same plant as marijuana. But while marijuana is the flower, hash is the concentrate made from the trichomes, the resin glands, which are extracted from the surface of the plant and pressed into blocks. CHICO: This, like, if I sell it, I sell it for 900 euros, I bought it for 600. You mean the whole thing? CHICO: Yeah, this whole thing. MARIANA: Yeah. CHICO: But this one, I bought it for 200 each plate, and I'm selling it maybe for 350 maximum. MARIANA: And it's still the number one drug, right? The most popular drug in Portugal? CHICO: In Portugal, yeah, for sure. We have a big tradition of smoking hash. And we are super close to Morocco, and it's easier to get here and it's cheap to get here. MARIANA: Although smoking hash is decriminalized, smuggling it into the country remains highly illegal. All of the hash that makes it here, it's all from Morocco? CHICO: For sure. All of it, yeah. MARIANA: Back in my time, I had friends, I knew people who would go to Morocco, would buy hash and bring it back to Portugal. CHICO: The border is completely different now. And I think only bigger groups are managing to do it, and they do it with boats, they do it with trucks. MARIANA: So, and do you have any connections in Morocco? CHICO: Uh...yes. It's one of the oldest families. MARIANA: And where are they, in northern Morocco? CHICO: Uh, yeah, in the mountains, in the Chefchaouen direction. Yeah. MARIANA: And do you think they would let us film with them? CHICO: Um... Let me see. MARIANA: When it comes to hashish, all roads lead to one place. The Kingdom of Morocco. Located at the northwestern corner of Africa, only 10 miles from Spain, Morocco is a Muslim country which has long served as a crossroads to Europe. By law, hashish cultivation is illegal for recreational use, but in practice, most of the world's supply originates here, controlled by a handful of powerful families. It's a little bit of an off-road. Wow. Can you see this? There's another of these fields coming up. A source has promised to grant us access to one of those families. But while we wait, we decide to venture up to where the bulk of marijuana is grown. So, we're driving through the Rif Mountains where the center of the production of cannabis happens, right there. There's one field here, and we've been driving by all these fields of marijuana. You know, it's supposedly illegal, but it's also, once you arrive in these mountains, you start seeing cannabis everywhere. We also have to be careful with filming, you know, people watching us around here. We've been told that farmers are wary of outsiders and can be openly hostile to journalists. So we're on our way to meet a local contact, who can help make introductions. Let me drive a little bit, because there's a guy here. While cannabis has been growing in Morocco for at least 500 years, hashish was only introduced here between the 1950s and '70s. It was brought by travelers from America and Europe, on what became known as the hippie trail, a passage through Central Asia and India that often included a stop here, in Northern Africa. KEITH RICHARDS: We were here for weeks, before we...and drove into Marrakech. MARIANA: When farmers in this region, one of the poorest in Morocco, saw the potential to supply the European market, the hash industry took root. (coughing) Centered in this town, called Ketama. The guy we're meeting, he says he knows a lot of people here, he can make some introductions. He told us he would be waiting right outside the butcher shop. (horns honking) Oh, you can see all the meats hanging here, actually. There's a bunch of butcher shops. Oh, I think that's him. DEALER: Welcome. MARIANA: How are you? Mariana. DEALER: How are you, Mariana? MARIANA: Good, and you? DEALER: Welcome to Issaguen. MARIANA: Thank you so much. DEALER: I'm very good. Okay. MARIANA: Nice. MARIANA: Straight ahead? DEALER: Yes. MARIANA: Great. The trip to our destination is not for the faint of heart. MARIANA: This is Ketama. DEALER: Yeah. It's a narrow road up a mountain that's blanketed in fog. MARIANA: Sometimes it's smuggled in donkeys like this? (dog barking) MARIANA: How are you? Nice to meet you. YOUSSEF: Nice to meet you. A lot of cannabis here, huh? YOUSSEF: Yeah. your, uh, yours? MARIANA: This farmer, who we'll call Youssef, is part of a family that's been farming marijuana for generations. MARIANA: Kirikita. The "kirikita" he refers to is an imported marijuana strain known in the West as "critical," which features sky-high levels of THC, the compound that gets you high. In the 1980s, hash produced here from local marijuana had an average THC content of 8%. Today imported strains have levels that can surpass 60%. (rhythmic beating) Can you hear this noise? I think...the beating? I think it's the actual production of hash. Sit right here? (loud beating) So this is the dried plant? The dried marijuana? MARIANA: Why is it beating? Why do you need to beat it? MARIANA: So you're hitting it. MARIANA: Drugs come on the bottom. The trichomes. (man rapping in foreign language) MARIANA: Unlike the marijuana smoked in the West, which is actually just the flower of the plant, hashish is the result of a labor-intensive process. It begins with plants that have been dried and covered with plastic sheeting. And then the drumming begins. The goal is to rattle the plant enough to release its trichomes, glands resembling tiny hairs which contain THC. How long does the process take? MARIANA: How much do you sell this for? The hash, the actual hash? And where does it go to? Where does the hashish go to? MARIANA: Europa? It all goes to Europe? MARIANA: If there was no cannabis here, what would people do? MARIANA: So after 45 minutes, that's it? It's it? Done? MARIANA: Now we're gonna see what's, uh... Wow. Look at that. MARIANA: Oh, hashish powder. So from all the huge amounts of plants and flower, this is the end product. So this gets pressed into these molds and makes basically the bars. MARIANA: This is what makes it all the way all across Europe and the rest of the world. I have no reason to doubt these farmers are telling me the truth and that the real money is being made much further up the food chain. I've been given permission to accompany one of these farmers to a remote location on the mountain, where the next step of the process will play out: transporting the hash to the coast. This is pretty remote. We've been driving up this mountain for about 25 minutes now. MARIANA: We saw you yesterday. You were making the drugs. Are you here to give it so they transport it, or do you actually transport the drugs, too? MARIANA: And then when you get there, do you give it to the boat people? Do you give it to people who transport in the boats? MARIANA: Oh, so, then it goes in the Zodiac... MARIANA: Okay. And can I see the drugs? Yeah? (man mumbles) Oh, in this car? (speaking foreign language) Packed as if it's a suitcase? Wow. It's heavy. Very heavy, huh? How much is this? MARIANA: How much money do you make from driving drugs? MARIANA: $3,000 each? MAN: Yeah. MARIANA: It's no different from cocaine and other drugs I've covered. The farmer has produced a kilo of hash for $1,000 at relatively low risk. Now, as the product changes hands, the risk increases, and so does the price. So, you're driving? You're driving the drugs up. Okay. Are you scared? Dangerous? MARIANA: Really, mafia? Like other people trying to steal the drugs from you? MARIANA: The smugglers won't allow me to follow these bales to the sea, and they won't connect us with the operatives higher in their organization. I was counting on a different contact for that access. But as usual, with my job, nothing comes easy. So, we've been in Morocco now for four days. (meow) Essentially just waiting around. Every day we get a call that we should move to a different city. Our local producer has been trying to call this, this person, as well, and possibly has some news, so we're just waiting for that call. But so far, you know, another day, another Moroccan hotel. (phone ringing) Hello? WOMAN: Hi, Mariana. How are you? MARIANA: (speaking Spanish) How are you? Good. Any news? So, we've been, we've been calling and texting and nothing. Did you get any luck on your end? WOMAN: Yeah, I was, I was trying, I call him many times. I texted him and nothing. Yeah. He answered at first, and then he stopped answering a couple of days ago and I haven't heard. MARIANA: We're gonna try and see if we can get access some other way, but if you hear anything, please let us know. WOMAN: Okay, Mariana. Bye-bye. So, nothing, basically. She, he was responsive at the beginning and then he stopped, she says for two days now she hasn't heard from him, and neither have we. I'm frustrated, but I'm also done waiting. If we can't find a hash kingpin in Morocco, we'll follow the product through the Strait of Gibraltar and look for one on the other side of the sea, where fortunes are made when the drugs enter Europe. But I won't be the only one looking, because when hash crosses these waters, it's pursued with a vengeance. (gunshots) (ship horn blows) MARIANA: The Spanish port of Algeciras is one of the busiest transshipment hubs in the world, moving goods back and forth across the Strait of Gibraltar, a 10-mile stretch between Morocco and Spain. But not all of those goods are arriving on cargo ships. This is a graveyard of confiscated boats, collected for evidence and awaiting demolition. MARIANA: To understand how the hash barons operate, I've sought out an official who pursues them. Miguel Gil Hare is the head of the Customs Surveillance Operational Unit in Algeciras, targeting smugglers in a high-seas game of cat and mouse. MARIANA: In Spain, building these boats is illegal, so the hash barons are taking their business next door, to my homeland, Portugal. (shouting) In 2022, Portuguese police raided this warehouse, part of an operation that seized 20 go-fast boats under construction, all being built to smuggle bales of hash from North Africa to Europe. MARIANA: Wow. MARIANA: Those smugglers sometimes live on these boats for days in international waters, just waiting for the all-clear sign. And when it comes, engines throttle up that can rocket them to speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour. MARIANA: A lot can happen in those 20 minutes for smugglers. It can mean success, arrest, or all hell breaking loose. (boat zooming) (sirens) Tonight, this elite team is in charge of policing these waters. And they plan on hitting the smugglers hard. (engine starting) (rotors whirring) (radio chatter) So we're just getting ready to leave. The helicopter's actually up right now, so they're getting information on what suspect boats they're seeing out there. The hunt for contraband begins in the skies, with a dedicated flight team scanning the shoreline with night vision cameras, searching for incoming boats from Morocco. MARCOS: Vamos. Hold on to something. Hold on to something. (agent speaking Spanish) This highly trained crew mans a small fleet of patrol boats equipped with engines powerful enough to pursue incoming go-fast boats. (man speaking Spanish) Oh, you see the helicopter? MARIANA: We've been warned that hash smugglers have become increasingly brazen in recent years, leading authorities on chases that can quickly turn deadly. MARIANA: Think we just saw a boat, we're gonna start chasing after them. The boat is in Spanish waters going full throttle towards the coast. It's not responding to hails from police; a telltale sign of smuggling activity. We can't see the boat, but the helicopter surveillance shows it's headed directly towards us. (Mariana speaking Spanish) AGENT: Sí. MARIANA: There's a boat that's in, sort of in a river entrance over there. So he's basically purposefully going around in circles making waves, so then when the suspect boat comes out of the river onto the sea, onto this part of the water, it'll be harder for them. MARIANA: It's coming, it's coming. Oh, yeah, I can see it under the light. MARIANA: Okay, it's right there. MARIANA: On this side? No, it's on that side. Right there. You see it? it's right here. (agent shouts) He has a helicopter over it, too. To minimize accidental deaths, Marcos' team isn't allowed to ram suspect boats or shoot at their engines. This is (bleep) crazy! For the smugglers we're pursuing, getting caught could mean five to seven years in jail. And that creates an incredibly high tolerance for risk. Are they going, they're going under the pier. They're going under the pier. (shouting over radio) MARIANA: Yeah, so they basically hid under the dock here. (agents speaking Spanish) MARIANA: You're so close, and yet just out of reach. MARIANA: Ah, he's done. (speaking Spanish) Hold on, hold on! MARIANA: Hold on tight, we see them again. Oh, my god, look! (bleep) MARIANA: Hold on! Holy (bleep). In this pursuit, one wrong move, and people can easily die. Right in front of us now! Woo, they're right here! But even in the best of circumstances, with the best of equipment, this can feel like a very dangerous exercise in futility. MARIANA: And that's it. They escaped, basically. They went to a part that's too shallow and this boat can't go in. You can see just how impossible of a task it is, how difficult it is. So far, in Spain, I'm no closer to finding a hash baron than I was in Morocco. But it seems logical they'd be close by, with so much product on the move. On some days, up to ten go-fast boats are deployed at once, each loaded with literally tons of hash, and pointed at Spanish beaches sometimes in broad daylight. It's the boldest, in-your-face drug trafficking I've ever seen. MAN: Mama mia. Mama mia. MARIANA: And that boldness doesn't stop once the boats have unloaded. The Spanish news media lit up in 2018 when Samuel Crespo, an alleged lieutenant in a local smuggling gang, was injured during an arrest and brought by police to a hospital in the Spanish port town of La Línea. Soon, his associates began to arrive. One after another after another. More than a dozen men in total who roughed up two police officers guarding the suspect and spirited him away into a waiting car, leaving no doubt as to the balance of power here. The beach towns of southern Spain have the highest unemployment rates in Europe. But social media paints a picture of a job market that exists off the books. Up above, lookouts on the Rock of Gibraltar will collect $1,400 for alerting boats when the coast is clear to land. At sea, captains will collect $27,000 for a successful run. And on shore, in open view of witnesses and cell phones, paid muscle gets to work. Up to $3,200 for a gig unloading hash bales, one that usually takes just a few minutes. Finally, on the road, $6,500 will go to each driver for a breakneck trip down back alleys to deliver the goods to hidden warehouses, usually just one or two blocks off the beach. If these wages seem impressive, think of the profits realized by the hash barons who pay them. That 30-kilo package of hash I saw in Morocco was worth $30,000. But by the time it reaches northern Europe, its value will soar to a quarter million dollars. (engine revving) Wow, look at those houses. We're in Marbella, southern Spain. One of the ritziest, fanciest spots in all of Europe. Marbella is on the Costa del Sol. In the 1960s, under the Spanish dictator Franco, it was developed as a destination for blue-collar workers on vacation. Today it's host to a different crowd. MAN: It's the Costa del Sol and Marbella, millionaires' playground of southern Spain. MARIANA: Earning it a nickname you won't see on tourist posters, "The Costa Del Crime" or "The Coast Of Crime." A lot, a lot of drugs come through here, particularly hash, because we're very close to Morocco. For those at the top of the chain, this is where they like to spend their money. Beneath the sort of glitz and glamour, there's also a lot of violence. (screaming and gunshots) This is a city of combustion, where street scenes viewed through the prism of social media offer strong hints that the hash barons have made themselves at home. But perhaps the strongest indicator here is the abundance of top-shelf criminal defense lawyers. Hola, Ricardo. RICARDO ALVAREZ-OSSORIO: Hola. (kissing) RICARDO: Nice to see you again. MARIANA: Nice to you, too. Daniela? RICARDO: This is Daniela. MARIANA: ¿Cómo estás? Mariana. In Spanish media, Ricardo Alvarez-Ossorio has been called the devil's advocate. An apt nickname for a lawyer who specializes in defending accused drug traffickers. MARIANA: So, we're talking about the Italian mob, Albanians, Russians. RICARDO: Yes. MARIANA: Colombians, Mexicans, and on and on and on. RICARDO: Yes, yes, yes. MARIANA: He's not exaggerating. On the Costa Del Sol, Spanish Intelligence has documented at least 113 criminal groups representing 59 different nationalities. All the hash from the clients that you represent, it all comes from Morocco. MARIANA: All of it? 100%? RICARDO: 110%. MARIANA: And who is the owner? Who's the owner of the... MARIANA: They're all Moroccans? RICARDO: They call them "barones." MARIANA: The barones. RICARDO: Barones. MARIANA: The barons. You know, we're here to look for people who are in the hash business that will talk to us. Do you think you could help us find people who would be willing to talk to us? RICARDO: They, you can... MARIANA: I know. MARIANA: Mm-hmm. MARIANA: Uh-huh. The adrenaline. MARIANA: While Ricky talks to his connections, I'm working on a different angle. When reporting on MDMA last year, I've learned that Dutch and Moroccan smugglers often have close ties. So I arranged to meet with a smuggler from Holland, who's straight out of central casting. (sighs) (La dona è mobile playing) ♪ La donna è mobile ♪ ♪ Qual piuma al vento ♪ ♪ muta d’accento ♪ (clears throat) ♪ e di pensiero ♪ ♪ muta d'accento ♪ Ho-yay! Wow, that was incredible! You have a wonderful voice. EVERT SMALLEGANGE: This is a cause of clapping, aye? MARIANA: So tell me, how did you end up in Marbella? MARIANA: In Amsterdam. EVERT: Yeah. MARIANA: Evert Smallegange was a smuggler who migrated to southern Spain in pursuit of the good life. MARIANA: Spend the money? MARIANA: You didn't know how to save it. EVERT: No. MARIANA: What did you spend it on? EVERT: Oh, anything. MARIANA: How much money were you making at the peak? EVERT: Ohhh... EVERT: A week. Yeah. MARIANA: So, when you were at the peak, what was your job exactly? MARIANA: And that was all for distribution in Europe? MARIANA: And you just recently came out of prison? MARIANA: For trafficking drugs? MARIANA: How much do you think the business has changed since you were in it? MARIANA: So, it's just a few groups now that are controlling it in Morocco? EVERT: Yes. Yeah, yeah. The production and the... EVERT: The prices, just, they, the consumers now want top-notch material. MARIANA: How organized are they? Or dangerous? EVERT: Of course they're very... MARIANA: And in terms of getting contacts, getting people to talk to us? EVERT: Um, I would...low key. You think that we will find people to talk to? EVERT: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just give me a bit of time, I'll, yeah, I'll organize it for you. (man singing opera) MARIANA: It turns out, I won't have to wait. I've been putting out dozens of feelers for the past few months, looking for a hash baron in Morocco or Spain. Oh, wow, look at this house. And right on the heels of my meeting with Evert, a different contact reaches out with an introduction, which brings me here. Apparently this is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Marbella. You can tell because of all the big mansions all around us. And this is also where we've been told there's a person that's in the hash business here, who's agreed to speak to us. I think it's here. (turn signal ticking) Yeah, this is the house. I've come for a face-to-face meeting with a barón, a hash kingpin. But there's a twist. I think it's this gate. It's not a hash king. It's a hash... queen. MARIANA: I'm sitting with a woman known as El Cisne, "The Swan," who heads a hash distribution network that stretches from Morocco to the far reaches of northern Europe. MARIANA: These bricks of hashish are merely samples. Buyers interested in the product will likely be ordering not by the kilo, but by the ton. (bubbling) MARIANA: ¿Sí? LE CISNE: Sí. EL CISNE: Sí. MARIANA: Sí. MARIANA: No. MARIANA: 60 tons is a staggering amount. In northern Europe, the value would equal nearly half a billion dollars. MARIANA: If what she says is true, and the hash barons have found a way to securely move shipping containers of product into Europe, there's no end to the profits they can make. It's no wonder they've been able to push the small players out and corner the market, and hardly a surprise that they're now willing to kill to preserve it. [♪ rhythmic drumming] [fire crackling] [slicing] [shouting]. [Mariana Van Zeller] Tension's very high right now. Everybody's yelling. They're unhappy that we're here, possibly filming some of this stuff. [Mariana Van Zeller] The Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC is one of the most breathtaking places on Earth. But a brutal colonial history, political instability, and dire poverty have also shaped it as a nation of extreme violence. [Police Officer] Okay. Go. [Mariana Van Zeller] But now they're saying we can go. Go on? [loud chatter]. [Mariana Van Zeller] Okay. I'll go with you. So this is the local uh, port and the local market. And this is where we, we know that there is bushmeat being sold. Obviously, we stand out like sore thumbs here with the cameras. Everybody's like looking at us. [chatter] [Mariana Van Zeller] In the DRC, approximately two million pounds of bushmeat, butchered forest animals, are eaten every year. Regulations on the trade are murky, with illegally-obtained animals regularly offered up for sale beside legal ones. [shouting] [Mariana Van Zeller] Which explains why almost nobody wants us filming here. There's dried fish being sold. These fried worms. And, yeah, right behind me, there's a monkey being sold. They're actually trying to cover it up right now. I've been told that when you see bushmeat for sale in markets like this, live animals may also be hidden nearby. And that's what I'm looking for, endangered chimps, gorillas, and bonobos that have been captured in the forest and trafficked to the city, part of a multibillion dollar black market that threatens the very existence of the world's great apes. [theme music plays] [Mariana Van Zeller] A recent report by conservation biologists predicts that chimps and gorillas will lose about 85% of their homelands in the next 30 years. Protecting these endangered animals is a race against time, because in addition to habitat loss, experts are reporting the existence of transnational crime groups that are snatching animals and selling them overseas for astronomical sums. This is what brings me to the Democratic Republic of Congo. I want to understand the black market for these species, known as great apes, and to track down some of the people responsible for this gruesome trade. [Adams Cassinga] Wildlife trafficking is the fourth most lucrative crime in the world. We are talking between $20 and $30 billion. The DRC is the only country in the world which has got three of the four great apes. And here in the Congo Basin, primates, in general, are paying the price. Adams Cassinga is an activist whose organization, Conserv Congo, infiltrates trafficking networks and tries to rescue at-risk apes. [Adams Cassinga] A great ape is the closest cousin to a human. It is as smart as we are. We are watching it but it's also watching us. And when it sees you, it ducks... then it peeps again. Only a chimp can do that. Scientists have determined that we share an astonishing 98.8% of our DNA sequence with chimpanzees. They organize their social relationships in ways similar to humans and are capable of complex communication. They know intense friendships and rivalries, and also experience many emotions that we as humans know well. Among them, joy, empathy, anger, and fear. They also excel at problem-solving. [Adams Cassinga] It's very difficult to catch a great ape into a snare. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's very rare. So the only way to catch a great ape is a gun. That's what kills an ape. [Mariana Van Zeller] By killing the family around it. [Adams Cassinga] Yes. [Mariana Van Zeller] And taking the baby chimps. [Adams Cassinga] Great apes flock in families. And before you can take a baby away from them, you've got to kill ten of them to have just one. [Mariana Van Zeller] That is such a crazy number. Given how protective we humans are of our babies, it makes sense. And yet it's almost impossible to fathom that there are people out there who are willing to slaughter entire families. [Adams Cassinga] We have what we refer to as tiers. [Adams Cassinga] When it comes to wildlife trafficking. Tier one being the hunter who kills the animal but leaves. Who kills or catches, if they want it alive. [Adams Cassinga] Kills and catches. -Yeah. -Both at the same time. You cannot catch before killing. Tier two is what we refer to as a transporter. These are the people who transport the products or the species to these areas, urban centers. And when he reaches here, there will be somebody waiting there. We call him a marketer. -Uh-hmm. -This is tier three. So he connects with everyone. [Mariana Van Zeller] So you, you've actually found, you've caught some of these guys in your. [Adams Cassinga] Of course. That's what we do every day. Right. That's... It's an uphill battle. Across Sub-Saharan Africa, the clips of ape rescues document tedious and dangerous operations, which sometimes free animals but often end up simply recording tragedies. [Adams Cassinga] If we had arrived here two days ago, we're going to find it alive. But she's been shot. And, as you can see, she had a baby. She has been breastfeeding. They only have a baby once every five years. It's a pity. what about the hunting? Where is that happening right now? [Adams Cassinga] Anywhere there's a forest, there's a, there's a poacher. [Mariana Van Zeller] Uh-hmm. And all of them willing to kill great apes and hunt great apes? [Adams Cassinga] They will kill anything that comes across. This is a very harsh place. [Mariana Van Zeller] To start our investigation, we head to where Adams says there's a lot of poaching activity, the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a protected region in the eastern DRC. But getting to the park, like many things in the Congo, requires time, money, and connections. The Congo cannot be traversed by road. In fact, only about 5% of roads in the DRC are paved. So our trip begins with a two-hour flight east to the city of Goma. Then a four-hour ferry to Bukavu. And, finally, a two hour drive in four-by-fours, accompanied by a prayer. [Horeb Bulambo] Father, we pray so that you would be at our departure and at our arrival and our returning time. Father... [Mariana Van Zeller] We have been joined by Horeb Bulambo, a renowned Congolese journalist, who, in the past, has braved these treacherous roads and made contact with poachers. [Horeb Bulambo] In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [All] Amen. So do you guys do that every time you go out? [Mariana Van Zeller] Have you been, you've been up several times before? [Horeb Bulambo] Several times, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. which is why also we're all wearing protective gear. [Horeb Bulambo] Okay. Thank you. Horeb has learned that an active band of poachers is operating 20 miles north of here. But in this war-torn region of the DRC, it's a very risky journey. We're entering the park, but it also is ungoverned territory. This is very concentrated area for military checkpoints. There's another one right here. We just passed by one. And that's because we're entering, basically, rebel territory. [gunfire] For over 25 years, this area has served as a staging ground for armed rebel groups. The stories of robberies, killings, and rapes here are all too real. Coming up on a very muddy, I mean, it's a crater in the floor. Holy moly. He says to go here. Oh, now, he's stuck. [Horeb Bulambo] Let's push from the front. [Man] That's it. [Horeb Bulambo] No, it's blocked. We can't go forward. [Mariana Van Zeller] Not the best place to get stuck, for sure. In fact, it's one of the worst. It's so dangerous that should our team fail in our attempt to pull the car free, we've been told to abandon it rather than wait for help. [speaking native language]. [Man] Woo! [♪ mysterious ambient music] [Horeb Bulambo] Yeah. -Okay. This is it? -Yeah. This is the way. Go from here? Four long hours later, we've arrived in an area where Horeb has arranged a meeting with a group suspected of trafficking and killing great apes. [Horeb Bulambo] Down there. [Horeb Bulambo] He's hidden in a hidden place. Oh, this is it. This is where they have their camp. [♪ mysterious tense music] He's putting on his disguise right here. We've made contact with a man we're calling Jean, the leader of a clan of Batwa Pygmies that is rumored to be poaching great apes. [Mariana Van Zeller] Oh, wow. It's a, so it's a trap, basically. They got, okay. Oh. Very delicious? [laughing] The Batwa are an at-risk group in the DRC. Compared to the majority Bantu people, who represent 80% of the population, they number less than 1% and have experienced widespread discrimination. [Mariana Van Zeller] Wow. So he's saying, basically, that the government calls this a park, a protected area, but they call it, this, their home, their land. They also say that you're poaching, illegally, endangered species. [Mariana Van Zeller] On a prior trip here, Horeb had been told that this group was catching chimpanzees in the park. But if that's not the case, we've just taken a very treacherous journey for nothing. We're not here to judge. [Jean] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] We're just here to understand and ask questions. [Mariana Van Zeller] Hmm. [Mariana Van Zeller] While higher level traffickers might ultimately earn life-changing sums, Jean's take is only enough to feed his family for about a week. [Mariana Van Zeller] Like humans, chimps normally give birth to just one baby at a time. And for the first five years of its life, that baby never strays far from its mother. When you hear the baby crying and screaming and the mother coming, do you feel bad? Do you feel sad? [chopping] [Mariana Van Zeller] It's only after we finished talking and a measure of trust has been established that they decide to take me to one more location in the bush. So the animals try to come through here, they step on this, and they're trapped. [Mariana Van Zeller] Jean's group is collecting $10 for a baby chimp, a pittance even for first-tier traffickers. But it's complicated to lay blame. Although they have drawn first blood, the men I've just met feel that they have no other option. [Adams Cassinga] Let's not think in a monolithic way. Not every poacher do this because that's what they wanted to do. But there are those who are compelled to do it because of life's hardships. [Adams Cassinga] If you go in the so-called "protected areas" are, there are no schools. There are no hospitals. There is nothing. So if the state is going to say, "Don't touch. Get out of there," it has to come up with ways and means on how these people can also live a decent lifestyle. absence of legitimate opportunities, the black market provides its own. In this case, tier two smugglers who transport captured animals and bring them to major cities in the DRC. I'm wondering what sort of quick money they can make for a baby ape they've just purchased for $10. It's been incredibly difficult to make contact with a transporter, but, finally, one of Horeb's contacts comes through. The guy we're meeting asked us to meet him here, in a church on the outskirts of town, in a place where he sort of felt safe. We don't know much about him. We know we can call him Jacques. That's what he wants to be known as. And that he was involved in the trade. [door shuts] [singing in foreign language] [door opens] [Mariana Van Zeller] Thank you for coming. [Mariana Van Zeller] At the edge of a protected forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I'm meeting a man who says he's wanted by the police. Are you religious? Is that why you wanted to meet here in the church? So can you tell me what you do? [Mariana Van Zeller] How many chimps do you think you've sold? [Mariana Van Zeller] And who were they? They were... [Mariana Van Zeller] How much were you buying the chimpanzees and how much were you selling them for? [Mariana Van Zeller] But how do you carry the chimpanzees, the baby chimpanzees? Where? In a cage or, where? [Mariana Van Zeller] Were you ever stopped by the authorities? [Mariana Van Zeller] Oui? [speaking English] How much money? $50 goes a long way here. It's about a month's wage for an average worker. And when poverty meets weak institutions, as it does throughout the DRC, it sets the stage for a thriving black market. Why did you stop? [Mariana Van Zeller] For tier two middlemen like Jacques, the next step is to ship apes up the Congo River to the capital, Kinshasa, and hope they survive the journey. [Adams Cassinga] So along the way, they will die of disease, they will die of stress, they will die of hunger, they will die of suffocation because they're being concealed, and so on and so forth. Adams Cassinga says the babies that reach the capital alive will now be sold to traffickers on the third tier. [Adams Cassinga] These are the movers and the shakers of the trade. He's gonna charge you $5,000, and he had, for something which he has bought for maybe $500. [Mariana Van Zeller] To locate third-tier traffickers, those who have contact with foreign buyers, Adams has suggested I visit a live animal market in Kinshasa. [Mariana Van Zeller] Yeah. Okay. So we're gonna try and go film this live animal market that he says is right on the side of the street. It's about 10 minutes from here. Oh, wow. You see that? [clinking] Basically, I can see there's like a monkey that's chained and a bunch of other animals right here on the side of the road. [birds chirping] [Mariana Van Zeller] Hello. Good. I'm Mariana. Gadhafi? - Oui. -Gadhafi. [Mariana Van Zeller] So he's saying they're selling this, this monkey for $250. 130 for the grey parrots. These are actually They're called grey parrots. They're endangered. There's five of them here. And a bunch more over there, actually. Despite the open trade in endangered animals, like these grey parrots, I've heard that animal sellers won't risk selling chimps or other great apes out in the open. So I'm talking to this man, Gadhafi, to see if he'll open up about how they're trafficked. What type of a monkey is this? [Mariana Van Zeller] A baboon? Six months? Oh, so it's a baby baboon. [Mariana Van Zeller] $650. The owner of the market sees him talking to us and decides he wants to talk too, but he wants his identity protected. So baboon, monkey, grey parrots, rabbits, python, turtle. [Mariana Van Zeller] He said it would be dangerous for him to give us any names. But Gadhafi here was also looking at me and trying to say that it's something that we can talk when we leave this place, that he can give us some more information. Gadhafi has agreed to meet us out of earshot of his boss. Do you know any chimps for sale here in Kinshasa, in the city? [Mariana Van Zeller] How much do they pay, the people that buy for you? [Mariana Van Zeller] Have you ever been caught by the authorities? [Mariana Van Zeller] Do you know where the chimps go when they leave the country? [Mariana Van Zeller] You don't care where it goes? [Mariana Van Zeller] You know, unfortunately, I kept pressing and trying to get to possibly see a live chimp somewhere. You know, they weren't really willing to reveal much information about that. They say that usually it's actually done on command per order. So once somebody comes here and orders a chimp, he can get it. It's rare that baby chimps are intercepted, but when it happens, many are brought here, to the Lwiro Rehabilitation Center. Wow. There's chimps right here. That's a really big one here. These are the so-called "lucky ones". Many were rescued from poachers or outgrew their utility as pets. But in all cases, they were taken in after young lives filled with trauma. How old is this guy? [Mariana Van Zeller] Luis Flores is head veterinarian here. What's their state when they're first rescued, when they first arrive? Mentally, how do they arrive here? [Mariana Van Zeller] A lot of these babies have actually seen their mothers being killed in front of them. [Mariana] To export, as part of a trafficking network? [Mariana Van Zeller] So on the one hand, you have people who kill them for meat. [Luis Flores] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] And on the other, you have the people that catch them and... So where are they going? So the UAE, Dubai, and... [Daniel Stiles] The Arabian Gulf is the biggest market now for the great apes as exotic pets, and to go into these big safari park-type zoos, wildlife parks. [Mariana Van Zeller] Back in LA, I meet up with Daniel Stiles, one of the world's foremost experts on wildlife trafficking. He confirms what I heard in the DRC, that one of the biggest markets for baby apes is currently in the Middle East. So this is how they sell them? [Daniel Stiles] Yup. So this is like an advertisement by a supplier in Kinshasa. [Mariana Van Zeller] Yeah. [Daniel Stiles] He says, "Does anybody want these chimps?" And if anybody does, whoop, they're on a plane and they're off to Dubai. These are the ones that didn't survive the poor transport. That one's been damaged in capture. You can see his head. [Daniel Stiles] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] He has injuries on his head. [Daniel Stiles] That's a gorilla. [Mariana Van Zeller] Ugh. [Daniel Stiles] They're the most desired of the great apes. I've got prices actually offered by a trafficker in Dubai. The equivalent is over $500,000. Half a million dollars? [Daniel Stiles] Half a million dollars. For a gorilla? [Daniel Stiles] Of which there are many in the Gulf. Many. A lot of private wildlife parks are springing up, belonging to private individuals, and they're patterned after ones we have here in the US. [Daniel Stiles] And I think you've heard of Doc Antle. I have indeed. Three years ago, I investigated Doc Antle and his operation in South Carolina, a so-called "animal sanctuary" that was charging visitors $500 to take selfies with baby animals. [Doc Antle] I am the only one qualified in this activity of raising cubs. [Mariana Van Zeller] Antle was later arrested by the FBI and has recently been convicted of four felony counts related to wildlife trafficking. [Daniel Stiles] He is one of the prime ones that have sort of inspired these guys, I think. They're linking the wildlife park with the social media accounts. [Daniel Stiles] To drum up business. That's the biggest new thing that's evolving now in, in great ape trade. [Mariana Van Zeller] Once upon a time in Hollywood, great apes were routinely used to drum up attention and dollars at the box office. Today, the screens are smaller, but the same dynamic is at play overseas, where baby animals draw likes on social media and attract paying customers to private zoos. [cheering] But now that I know how the market works, it's impossible to see a baby chimp in captivity without wondering just how it reached foreign soil. That's why I set my sights on investigating this social media post about a baby chimp named Koba by Jasem Ali, a man who calls himself the UAE lion king. Given the complexities of captive breeding programs, Daniel Stiles told me that it was very unlikely that there are any located in the UAE. So how would this baby chimp, named Koba, leave his home country, possibly the DRC, where I had just been, and suddenly arrive in a zoo 3,000 miles away? I wanted to go to the UAE to investigate, but our request to film in the country was denied. So I sought help from an insider. [Zara Hovelsas] The people you are up against are extremely powerful. They have a lot of money and they can just, you know, do whatever they want. [Mariana Van Zeller] Zara Hovelsas is a Swedish national who lived as an expat in the UAE, and spent years volunteering and caring for animals at the RAK Zoo, owned by Jasem Ali. So we've got a big tiger and somebody on top of the tiger. Is that him? [Zara Hovelsas] That would be him, yeah. [Mariana] Lionking_UAE? Is that, that's his... [Zara Hovelsas] Uh-huh. [Mariana Van Zeller] Jasem Ali opened RAK Zoo with government support in 2009. He claims his mission is to rescue animals neglected or mistreated by their previous owner. And this is the zoo that we've actually been investigating as you know, because they have a new baby chimp that has just arrived. -Koba. -Koba. Yeah. [Zara Hovelsas] The comments are just, people are loving it. "I want one. I want to see it." [Mariana Van Zeller] "Oh, my God. He looks so cute." Yeah. This one says, "I could watch this on repeat. The love and tenderness he gives and receives from the animals, so attractive." This baby couldn't have been born there. [Zara Hovelsas] No. [Mariana Van Zeller] They have to have come from somewhere in Africa probably, right? [Zara Hovelsas] Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. For that baby to be there in his arms now, her whole family would have had to be shot. She would have been pried from her dead mother's arms, shipped over in the most horrific way, or on someone's private jet. [Mariana Van Zeller] So you still have people that you work with? [Zara Hovelsas] Yeah. Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] And do you think that they are people who can help us try to figure out where this animal came from? [Zara Hovelsas] Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. [Mariana Van Zeller] Less than a week later, Zara asked two friends to visit the RAK Zoo, where a handler woke Koba up so they could purchase time with her. [Zoo Worker] Koba. Koba. [Zoo Worker] No. No. She's here. But before, we put, you know. [Mariana Van Zeller] While we can't come out and say that these claims are untrue, we can say that at one year old, a chimp is normally inseparable from its mother. And when Zara followed up with the same trainer, he contradicted what he told the visitors and said that he didn't actually know if the baby's family was at the zoo. We reached out to Jasem Ali to ask if he wanted to respond to our story. Through an assistant, he repeated the claim that Koba was born at his zoo. Although, when asked to provide any evidence, they refused. Zara says that illegal wildlife trafficking in the UAE is widespread, evidenced by sellers openly advertising animals on social media. So I can reach out to any of them and say, "Hey, do you guys happen to have a chimp for sale?" [Zara Hovelsas] Yeah, and I see in the comments all the time, "How much do you sell them for?" And then they probably DM them. [Mariana Van Zeller] And, in fact, that's what Zara did right after our conversation and found a trafficker on Instagram. [text tones] An animal that may have been bought for $10 to $50 in the very forest I just left is now on sale in the UAE for $350,000, and, most likely, it got there illegally. For great apes to cross most international borders, they must carry paperwork authorized by CITES, a global treaty between 184 parties that issues permits to regulate the trade of captive wild animals and maintains a database to track their movements. [Ivonne Higuero] The world is looking to us and has confidence in us to play our part in addressing these challenges. Ivonne Higuero is the secretary general of CITES. So any great ape, any chimpanzee, any bonobo, any gorilla that is leaving, for example, the DRC, that trade is not legal, correct? [Ivonne Higuero] Normally. Normally, yes. [Mariana Van Zeller] We spent some time in the DRC, in the Congo, investigating the wildlife trafficking, particularly of great apes. And if you go on social media, for example, you'll find a lot of chimpanzees and sometimes even gorillas and bonobos in places like Dubai, in zoos, in safaris, and private homes. We were told by experts too that these great apes, that it's not possible for these chimpanzees, for example, to be bred in captivity. That they, if they have baby chimpanzees, they must be coming from the wild. Is that correct? [Ivonne Higuero] They're very difficult to breed in captivity. If there are baby chimpanzees, this is a concern because obviously, yes, there must be something that is going on. [Mariana Van Zeller] So this is the one particular case that I do want to bring to your attention and I'd love if you can investigate further. It's a baby chimp call, that goes by the name of Kobo or Koba. And he's at RAK Zoo. He's about one year old, more or less. [Ivonne Higuero] We will check. That I can definitely look into. I will try to find out about this particular chimpanzee. [Mariana Van Zeller] But the secretary general's office later told us that they would not investigate Koba unless we could provide evidence that the chimp was illegally taken They suggested we reach out to a local CITES delegate in the UAE. And we did. Several times. But they never provided answers. If it all feels like a bureaucratic runaround, it's because CITES has no actual enforcement arm. Even if it was determined that Koba was trafficked, CITES can't send a team in to rescue him. so the grim reality is that protecting apes requires an approach that goes beyond treaties. And in the DRC, that approach includes putting AK-47s in the hands of rangers. DRC, the race is on to protect great apes before they're killed for meat or trafficked abroad. Towards the end of my journey, I joined a patrol with a group of rangers led by a man named Juvenal Muganka. [Juvenal Muganka] Be careful here. greatest danger to gorillas is habitat loss, but there are others. We're actually in rebel territory, which is why a lot of these guys are also carrying guns, in case there's poachers. And there's a lot of landmines in this area. [Juvenal Muganka] Careful. There is gorilla poop here. [Mariana Van Zeller] Whoa. So this is gorilla poop right here? [Juvenal Muganka] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] So we're going in the right direction? [Mariana Van Zeller] So, by nest, you mean this is where they slept, this was their bed last night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The gorillas were here last night. [Mariana Van Zeller] Trekking through the forest, you can see what an incredibly difficult place this is to navigate, let alone patrol. Juvenal? [Juvenal Muganka] Yes? There you are. It's really slippery here now. Be careful. [Mariana Van Zeller] In two hours, we've traveled barely more than a mile. And then as we enter a particularly dense section of the forest, the patrol stops. Yeah. He's here. Oh, my God. It's right here. Look, it's right here. Oh my god. It's right in there. [mimicking growling] [Mariana Van Zeller] He's starting to make the noises. Juvenal is starting to make the growling noises. Oh, my God. Come on. Let's go. Right there. [chewing] This is crazy. Nothing can prepare you for this, the majesty of a full-grown silverback, not in a cage or behind steel bars, but as free as you or me, in its own habitat, caring for its family, living without fear. [Mariana gasping] [♪ peaceful music] mother is actually holding a baby gorilla that was born just last week. Yeah, I mean, to know that they're basically killing the families, killing the silverbacks so they could take and sell the baby gorillas, so there's a lot of incentive to kill these animals. But still, you know, when you're in the presence of these animals here, it's really hard to understand how somebody could do that. Yeah, so if we keep on this way, you know, by the time my son is my age, there might be no gorillas left. Like that's a really emotional and sad, sad thought, as beautiful as this moment is. It really is special and you feel so privileged to, to be here and, and see this. Juvenal, what does it feel to you every time you see a gorilla? For, for me, it was incredibly emotional, but for you? Juvenal, you're making me cry. Do you think that in 30 years, we'll still be able to see gorillas in the wild like this? [Mariana Van Zeller] Compared to all the other black markets I've covered, this was one of the most emotional for me. I've got goosebumps everywhere. To know how much suffering, how much death humans caused to these great apes is beyond imagination. But there are ways we can help. We can take a stand against the exploitation of apes for entertainment and reduce demand. We can work to alleviate poverty and help people find alternatives to poaching. And we can put more resources into protecting great apes in the wild and preserving their habitats. There is still time, but barely. [shaky breathing] ♪ I ♪ ♪ Love ♪ ♪ You ♪ ♪ Open up your heart ♪ [Mariana Van Zeller] I've reported on the illegal trade of human organs in the past. So I thought I'd seen it all in terms of those making a killing from body parts. But recent headlines have identified another unexpected trade in human remains. [News Anchor] Illegally selling body parts. [News Anchor] Arms, legs, heads, torsos. [Man] Man that is sick. [Mariana Van Zeller] One that's even stranger and closer to home. [News Anchor] Four human skulls in a box. [News Anchor] Headed for South Carolina. shadows of the legal death industry, there's a bustling trade in stolen body parts. [Funeral Director] Human tongue $1,000. I'm surprised it's that high, cause you could take one of those pretty easily. [Mariana Van Zeller] Black market operators are selling everything from skulls and bones to spines and skin. [John] This is the remaining portion I have of human skin. [Mariana Van Zeller] All to the highest bidder. [Funeral Director] I could bring my lunch box into the prep room and cut out a kidney and no one would ever know. [Mariana Van Zeller] It all begs a terrifying question, what really happens to your body after you die? ♪ Your heart ♪ [John] Life doesn't end when you're in the ground. I could carry around a portion of somebody for the next 200, 300 years. ♪ Love you ♪ [jet engine rumbling] [Mariana Van Zeller] I'm driving through the valleys of Western Colorado and thinking about the logistics of death. On paper, what happens to a body after death looks fairly simple: Typically, the first stop is a funeral home, where the body is sent to be prepped for cremation or burial. If, instead, the person has chosen to donate their body to science, it goes from the funeral home to a tissue bank or university donation program before being used for training, education or research. But as the people of Montrose, Colorado know all too well, things don't always go as planned. [Rick] I get a call from the FBI, they want me to come in and I'm thinking, "Well what the heck did I do now?" So I went down to the sheriff's department and I went in there, and he says, "You might be a victim of," you know, "cutting up the body parts," and I'm thinking, "What?" I've never even heard of that before. Who does that? [News Anchor] Tonight a funeral home owner and her parents now under investigation by the FBI. [News Anchor] The accusations are outlandish. [Mariana Van Zeller] As local news reported, Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch, owners of the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home, were charged with the stealing and selling of body parts from more than 500 corpses. [News Anchor] Her organs, from her mother's heart, to liver, and even her hands and feet were sold to so-called body brokers. [Mariana Van Zeller] I want to understand how this grisly black market works, so I've come to meet with the families of her victims. [Candace] My father called me and asked if I had been watching the news about Sunset Mesa and I hadn't. [News Anchor] Claims of secretly dismembering and selling body parts. [Connie] She came with an SUV, a body bag and a gurney, and I never called her. [News Anchor] Federal agents followed and arrested Meghan Hess and Shirley Koch. [Debra] She was creepy. She was very creepy and there were very many red flags. [Judy] Everybody trusts a funeral home and you can't. Throughout the investigation, the victims' families became an informal support group for each other. [Candace] Different parts of her were sold and then they listed the parts, and that was really difficult to hear. [Diana] Hannah was 23 when she passed away and they sent her to Sunset Mesa for cremation. [sighing] With that in mind, they decided that they would steal her spine. She had a beautiful tattoo of Harmony and her brother and sister on her back. You know, how do you get a spine out of a 23 year old girl's back? [Kimberly] That's the nightmares that you live with. [Rick] Yeah, just picturing everybody here, somebody just hacking your loved one up. [Debra] Laura was sold before I got there to make the arrangements. Within 24 hours? [Debra] Less, she was gone. [Mariana Van Zeller] To be clear, with consent, the selling of corpses and body parts in the United States, by tissue banks or universities after they've used them for their initial purpose, is completely legal. What's illegal is charging up to $1000 for cremations that never took place. Secretly dismembering the bodies and selling the most valuable parts to customers. Buyers were charged $300 for a spine, $500 for a head, more than $1,200 for a pelvis with upper legs and they had no responsibility to check that the bodies had been donated willingly. All told, Hess netted $1.2 million. To cover her tracks, she returned fake ashes to the families, a scheme that was exposed by former employees of the funeral home. [News Anchor] Instead of cremains their cherished boxes contained cement, sand and what appeared to be, old batteries. [Debra] So nobody got their loved ones back. Nobody. They just mixed them all together with trash. [Paul Johnson] Megan Hess ran a funeral home and she ran a body donation business out of the same building. That's the problem with this industry; it can be done legally, it can be done lawfully, it can be done ethically. But right now that depends on the personal ethics of the people running these businesses. Oversight from the government is truly lacking. [Mariana Van Zeller] Paul Micah Johnson was the lead agent on the FBI investigation that busted Hess and her mother. [Paul Johnson] At the risk of getting a little bit philosophical, I think that most of us are uncomfortable with death. So that industry that requires dead bodies is something that most people don't think about and don't want to think about. And because of that, there's lots of room for things to go on unnoticed. [Mariana Van Zeller] The U.S. stands out for allowing a for-profit trade in human remains with very little regulation. That combo has made the U.S. the wild west of body parts. As agent Johnson saw first-hand in a case that became a sensation in the Detroit area. [News Anchor] Arthur Rathburn accused of buying, storing, selling and renting diseased human body parts to doctors. Body parts from more than 1,000 different people, heads, arms, legs. [Paul Johnson] He had dozens of freezers filled with human remains, often unwrapped, piled directly on top of each other, frozen together. He had a regular refrigerator and in that there was a human head, as well as some of his food, a sandwich was in there near a human head. A metal container that had four human fetuses, mixed in with floating slices of human brain. His warehouse was the... something of nightmares. [Mariana Van Zeller] Rathburn was an extreme case, but Johnson says he's seen abuse all over, at funeral homes, in the university donation programs and at both for-profit and nonprofit tissue banks. [Paul Johnson] Just like any other illegal activity the primary incentive is money. So, it comes down to greed. [Mariana Van Zeller] It's a chilling assessment, and as my investigation takes me to Arizona, it's time to find the folks who see the dead as dollar signs. [wind blowing] [Garland Shreves] Most people, when they think of whole body donation, they don't really realize the impact that it has on medicine, and society as a whole. Whole body donation saves more lives in this country, every single year, than transplant donation, than all the lives saved put together by transplant since transplant began. Because you couldn't have the medicine we do today, the advancements in medicine we do today, if it were not for donors. [Mariana Van Zeller] To understand the criminal possibilities of this trade, I need to see how the legitimate side of the industry works. Research for Life is a tissue bank that depends on body donations. It's run by Garland Shreves, who works alongside his wife and some of his children. [Garland Shreves] Research for Life is a whole body donor organization. Donors benefit either medical education or research. [Mariana Van Zeller] Shreves is opening his doors to us because he believes in transparency of a process that some might find disturbing. What does your family say about your job? [Hayley] They never want to talk about it. You know, the first, the first six months they didn't hear, they didn't want to hear a singular thing. [Mariana Van Zeller] Really? If you're dealing with an ethically-run company, this is what body donation looks like behind the scenes. [Mariana Van Zeller] When a body arrives it's kept in cold storage before the "procurement process" where the body is cut up into smaller pieces for sale around the world. [Hayley] And then this is to tag so we can identify the donor. [Mariana Van Zeller] Mm-hmm. [Hayley] Once we ship out the tissue. [Mariana Van Zeller] This leg, for example, might be sent to a medical device company or an orthopedic surgeon needing a practice specimen. [Garland Shreves] You may ask me any question that you like, but you're not going to see any blood, or gore, or anything of that nature. [Mariana Van Zeller] Garland Shreves opens his doors several times a year to people who are considering donating their bodies to medical research. [Cheryl] What's under the, the blue tarps here? [Garland Shreves] This tag tells me it's a torso, it's a human torso. [Mariana Van Zeller] Tissue banks like Research for Life provide the cadavers needed for vital hands-on training. Everything from hip-replacement practice for surgeons, to teaching first-responders how to intubate patients relies on body donation. [Medic] Remember you don't want to suction for more than 10 seconds because you're taking the air out of their body. [Garland Shreves] When we are notified that a donor is in route, they're going to come up a ramp, and they're going to go directly into this refrigerator, that will reduce the rate of decomposition. So you can come over and you guys can take a look inside. [Cheryl] Are we going in? [Garland Shreves] You can go in if that's what you like. [Cheryl] Oh yeah, okay. [Garland Shreves] You can see them right there. [Cheryl] I saw enough! [Mariana Van Zeller] Shreves' business depends on finding people willing to donate their bodies for free, so he's eager to show these potential donors the care they take in each step of the process. [Cheryl] Are these, like, all the same body parts? They're different body parts. This is a mid-forearm to fingertip. It's got a donor number on it. Everything is tagged, everything is marked, where it came from. How it can be used. A reminder that it has to be treated with dignity and respect. [Paul Johnson] There is a lot more that is legal than is illegal in this industry. It doesn't matter if people are trading bones, or tissues, or pieces of brain. The buying and selling of body parts is completely legal at the federal level. Completely. [Mariana Van Zeller] That's what's so different about the body parts trade than other trafficking stories I've covered. The bad actors are often part of the legal industry because, just like body-donation businesses, the criminal trade depends on access to body parts. That's why Megan Hess's funeral home was the perfect cover. As I try to find an active player, I cross reference complaints and citations against other funeral homes and tissue banks. I search Yelp reviews looking for suspicious anecdotes. And I reach out to dozens of people in the industry. You worked in the tissue bank industry for many years, correct? [Funeral Worker] About 30 years. [Funeral Director] No one would bat any eye even if I was working on a body and it had a huge chunk of skin missing. Human skin sells pretty frequently and it's expensive. Which body parts were they? Arms, feet, legs. [phone line ringing] [Colton Clouse] I know that a lot of samples that we have come across have been old retired medical specimens. So, various colleges use them. They usually get them from mortuaries, or tissue banks, or stuff like that. [Mariana Van Zeller] I know this is always, you know, kind of a complicated, question, but if you think you could share any contacts. We know there's a lot of people out there that know a lot of stuff and don't [Funeral Director] Um... Eventually, I catch a break. [♪ spooky ambient music] It's been a really hard one to crack, just no one wants to talk. It's a very sort of secretive and closed community. Most people that we spoke to said that they are afraid that even if we put a mask on them and disguise their voice that they think that everyone will know who they are. So, we're meeting this guy that I've spoken to on the phone, he's a funeral director. He agreed mainly because we're meeting in sort of an undisclosed location. He says he also has some stuff that he wants to show us. I'm quite curious to know what that is. This is it, this is the motel. [turn signal clicking] [♪ ambient music] [Mariana Van Zeller] Um, did you hear about the Megan Hess case in Colorado? I did. I did. think that's happening right now in other places across America? [Funeral Director] Yes. Yes. [Mariana Van Zeller] For sure? [Funeral Director] Yes. [Funeral Director] It's happening. It's happening. It's too easy to not happen. [exhales] [Mariana Van Zeller] When and, I guess, why did you become a funeral director? [Funeral Director] Because I knew that I could and I know that a lot of people can't, or aren't willing to. 'Cause it's disgusting and it's very hard work. I was responsible for everything, so basically any aspect that you can think of. [Mariana Van Zeller] So you're talking in the past tense, are you not a funeral director anymore? [Funeral Director] I still have my license, but I have left that business, just because I think it's too ugly for me. We're overworked, we are horribly underpaid and eventually just spending most of your time with dead people instead of living ones, it's not a fun job. [Mariana Van Zeller] This is a really difficult story and it's been really hard to get people to talk to us. [Mariana Van Zeller] So, I'd love to hear from you some of the darkest things that you've seen in this industry and the things that you think shouldn't exist. [Funeral Director] First and foremost, it is far too easy to get away with theft um, of either personal effects, or body parts in the funeral business. There are plenty of opportunities, if someone were so inclined to go in there with a scalpel, or not even necessarily in the case of an autopsy, all of the organs are conveniently presented to us in a bag. [Mariana Van Zeller] What would a person do with a bag full of someone's insides. [Funeral Director] If they were so inclined, they could make wet specimens, put them in a jar, fix them with formaldehyde or alcohol and um, sell them. So there's a market? [Funeral Director] There is a market, yes, yes. could do that and it would be totally legal for you to do that? [Funeral Director] It would not be legal to take the organ, but it is legal to buy, sell and trade organs in 47 of the 50 states. it sells for good money? Like there's an incentive for this? [Funeral Director] Oh yeah, it can be very profitable. For example, this is my pen. [Funeral Director] And inside that pen is a slice of human brain. And I've seen the brain that this slice came from. Oh my God. [Funeral Director] This was legal for me to buy, perfectly legal. -Can I see it? -Absolutely. [Mariana Van Zeller] So, this is a little piece of brain? [Funeral Director] Yes, it is. A human brain? -Wow. where do you buy it from? Facebook or Instagram. This was a woman who got access to some brains from a medical collection. [Funeral Director] And I took the time to slice 'em up and make these pens. Why did you buy it? [Funeral Director] Uh, I am involved in this trade because I'm also a collector of oddities and most people don't have a piece of human brain sitting on their desk. [Funeral Director] And I just think it's interesting. [Mariana Van Zeller] And in the case where they are body parts that are taken, where do you think those are ending up? [Funeral Director] Private groups for buying, selling and trading oddities. Skin for example, you can get away with selling, like, on Facebook. [Mariana Van Zeller] Openly? Like if I go on Facebook right now I'm going to see people selling this stuff? [Funeral Director] No. You would need to be part of a private group, or they're not going to let you in. oddities market can mean anything from animal taxidermy, to antique medical tools, to human remains. And it represents another ecosystem of buyers for those with legal, or illegal body parts to sell. He agrees to show me the private marketplaces, so I can see just how easy it is to pick up body parts in the U.S. There we go. Oh, my god. Do you think this is human skin? I mean, yeah. A human skin wallet for $2500 that is on par with what the price should be. [Mariana Van Zeller] So, in this case, this person is selling a skeleton, and it's, U.S. only, and he's selling it for $4,650? [Funeral Director] Yeah. Yeah, very lucrative. [Mariana Van Zeller] Late 19th century scientific skelly medical model. Is that what they say a lot, that this is old? [Funeral Director] Yeah, they'll often claim that things are usually around 100 years old, so that they're minimizing any risk in case they are selling something that is fresh and therefore much more likely to be illegally taken. [Mariana Van Zeller] Uterus. a dissected human uterus. [Mariana Van Zeller] $40. And a tongue goes for $1,100? [Funeral Director] $1,000, 'cause you could take one of those pretty easily. This is so (bleep) crazy. So, this is skin with tattoos, how does a person procure one of these? How do you get it? [Funeral Director] So that, that seems to be in good shape, it's obviously not very old. It's not all dried and worn out, looks like there's still some hair on it. [Mariana Van Zeller] Yeah, this person asks, "Is this real human skin? How do you get this? I'm intrigued." And then there was no answer. [Funeral Director] Yeah, good luck getting an answer to that. This is one of those examples where I think that it would have come from maybe an autopsy case. A piece of skin could just be taken off a body when no one would know the difference. [Mariana Van Zeller] So illegally in that case? Yes, yeah, yeah. I can't imagine how this would have been obtained otherwise. That is so crazy. So, if we're looking for some of the bad actors in this market place, do you think this is a good place for us to start? [Funeral Director] So, I'm going to see how many people in this group might actually be, like, funeral professionals or coroners, so we can search the members for... let's do 'coroner'. [Mariana Van Zeller] Wow, licensed funeral director, deputy coroner, so people who have access to body parts and bodies. yeah, there are a number of professionals in here. weren't expecting that? I mean, it's just, it's kind of weird to think about. These are also people who... Have access. [Funeral Director] Who would have access to getting skin or organs and then being able to sell them. Yeah, and I'm sure some of them are the people who do that. That's so creepy. In terms of the oddities market, you know some of the big players. [Funeral Director] I do. That you believe are acquiring these illegally. think they would talk to us? Do you think you could try to get us in touch with them? [Funeral Director] I think that it's pretty unlikely. These are people who are breaking the law and I think would go to um, great lengths to not get caught. But I do believe that a lot of the human bones on the market right now are brought in illegally from other countries. I know that some come in from China and I know that some come in from Mexico. That's just grave robbing, really, is what it is. you think grave robbing is actually happening? that a lot of the bones that are bought and sold in the United States were pulled out of the ground in another country. [Mariana Van Zeller] Oh. [♪ twangy music] [sirens] [Mariana Van Zeller] Okay so, I think we're actually getting pretty close. They've told us we can't go in through the main gate, we have to go through a side or a back entrance. Grave digging sounds like something out of the 19th century but apparently, it's still very much a thing. Obviously, they say that the reason this is happening at night is because nobody knows that we're coming, nobody knows they're doing what they're doing. I haven't actually met this guy, so I'm not sure what to expect. I've learned that grave digging is a major source of black market bones and skulls. And through my connections in Mexico, I've come to see how it works. [footsteps] I've been given some specific instructions of how to find the spot, and it kind of feels like the start of every bad horror movie. Nothing creepy about walking around a cemetery at night. [distant dog barking] [digging] [in Spanish] Hello. Hello, hi. [speaking Spanish]. Mexico City is running out of cemetery space. 30,000 people die each year in the capital and burial plots are scarce. To make room, some cemeteries enforce burial limits, exhuming bodies after a certain number of years. [Mariana Van Zeller] Uh-huh. And just like that, I learn of a new set of buyers. Santeria is a Caribbean religion that fuses Yoruba beliefs from West Africa with Roman Catholicism. It's now practiced in parts of Mexico and the U.S., too. And can sometimes include the use of human remains in secretive rituals performed by priests called Santeros. [rustling, panting] [unzipping] Wow, it's crazy. It's, um, so that's a skull, with actually, with a lot of teeth in it. Whoo. The smell is very strong. Lot's of body parts still with clothing. Um. [Mariana Van Zeller] You can see how people can actually make some good money here. Sell this for $500 and, in the U.S., it goes for thousands of dollars. And apparently it's happening all over Mexico. They said we should go. The odd shape of this black market is coming into focus but I still want to find an active buyer here in the U.S. That's what brings me to Miami, a city with an active Santeria community. And where a contact has put me in touch with a Santero willing to talk. So I think we're close. Sort of an industrial area looks like. [music intensifying] I think that's it, actually. That's the white SUV. -Hi. -Hey. How are you doing? Can we see it? [Buyer] Yeah. are involved in Santeria? Is that. [Buyer] That's what we practice. [Mariana Van Zeller] And what are you sort of a, a priest? [Buyer] Well, uh, yeah, if you want to call it that, yeah. do you want to call it? [Buyer] It's, it's we, we're called Babalawo. [Mariana Van Zeller] Babalawo? [Buyer] Yeah. That's the highest rank that you could have in the religion. [Mariana Van Zeller] So Miami is sort of a hub for Santeria? [Buyer] Oh, yeah. Big time, big time. your ceremonies, bones and all sorts of different body parts, are those used in ceremonies, or how are you involved? [Buyer] It's a religion that most people don't know. Most people don't even, you don't even think how far it could go with just the power of a chant. I could either save someone's life, or with a chant I could maybe kill somebody's life. [Mariana Van Zeller] Can you tell me which bones, or body parts are we talking about? [Buyer] The most common is, uh, uh, skulls. [Mariana Van Zeller] Skulls. [Buyer] But we use all body parts. You could use it for your protection, for anything, for avoiding bad things, getting to you. Hey, maybe you have a child with cancer. He's dying and the doctors can't do anything for him. [Mariana Van Zeller] So is that, you know, are those the situations in which you sometimes do. -Sometimes. -Santeria ceremonies? [Buyer] Yes. My grandmother was dying of stage 4 cancer. Lung cancer. [Mariana Van Zeller] And you performed a ritual on her? A ceremony? [Buyer] Yup. And she's there. She's still alive? [Buyer] She's there. [Mariana Van Zeller] Do you, do you have anything with you right now? [Buyer] I have, but it's not, I mean, it's inside the same. Even if we don't see the inside? So it's a shell, right? [Buyer] It's a shell, yeah. And then what's inside? [Buyer] It contains a whole lot of ingredients and stuff. But the main one is the skull. [Mariana Van Zeller] So there's a skull inside, actually? [Buyer] This one I had to break it in pieces, so it could, it all fit inside. Yup. do you have pay for a skull? [Buyer] I paid 5,000, so. [Mariana Van Zeller] $5,000? -Yes. -For a skull? [Buyer] They're expensive. old do you think it was? [Buyer] I mean, this one in particular, there were twins. Eight months? -Eight months old? -Yup. -So baby twins? worry at all where the, where these bones, or body parts, or skulls are coming from? [Buyer] No. I don't, I don't really care. I mean, I, I just want to, you know, resolve my problem for my people. have any idea where this skull came from? [Buyer] Which one? [Mariana Van Zeller] The skull that's inside here, or I mean, where do you get your skulls, and bones. [Buyer] I'd rather not, yeah. Not answer that question. is it a place, or a person? [Buyer] It's a person that I, usually, yeah. think this person would talk to us? [Buyer] Uh, maybe. I would have to talk to him. Typically, these sorts of asks don't pay off. But later that same day, he comes through and I feel like I'm on the verge of meeting someone who claims to be a real player. If I can find him. Is it here? [Producer] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] Nothing weird about driving in the middle of nowhere. [car engine rumbling] [door opens, closes] -I'm Mariana. -Chichi. [Mariana Van Zeller] Hi, Chichi. Thanks for meeting us. [Chichi] Of course. [Mariana Van Zeller] We spoke with somebody who says that they have been, they've purchased some body parts and bones from you. Um, can you tell me, um, yeah. Where, where do you get this stuff and how are you involved in the business? [Chichi] I, uh, I, uh, I work for a company that was a biomedical company and dealt with, uh, the donors. And, uh, the tissue went into a biohazard bin. It could have been anywhere from your big bones, to your spine, to your pelvis. Right? Uh, all that would be discarded into a big garbage can. And it was done. That's it. It was gone. Gonna go get cremated. And then there was, uh, few things I was able to, you know, kind of take, Right? And put it inside my sweater and kind of just put it in my bag. Right? [Mariana Van Zeller] And there were no cameras there, nothing? No surveillance? [Chichi] Not in the, not, not once it was inside the, uh, biomedical, uh, biohazard bins. So this is a image of a big bone that I was able to take out. That was gonna get discarded. [Mariana Van Zeller] Oh, so there's a lot of bags. -With lot of bones. And what, what bone? [Chichi] That's a tibia. -Oh, the leg bone? literally put it sort of under your sweater and walked out with it and then put it in a backpack? [Chichi] Yeah. Yeah. It's just, you know, simply just tucking it and going. There was many people that worked in the company that got caught up reselling discarded tissue on eBay. [Mariana Van Zeller] No way. Finally, firsthand evidence of what I've heard throughout this journey, that the real threat in this black market are opportunists working inside the legal industry, like this guy and his co-workers. [Chichi] It was many different people that did this, as well. [Chichi] I was just one that, you know, excelled. [Mariana Van Zeller] How long did you work at this tissue bank for? [Chichi] I worked there for about three and a half years. [Mariana Van Zeller] I'm in Florida, where I've finally connected with a man who claims to be a black market seller of body parts. So you actually knew other people who did the same? [Chichi] Yeah, and those people ended up getting dealt with through the company and were let go. [Mariana Van Zeller] Oh, so the company actually found out they were doing this? [Mariana Van Zeller] Oh, so they let them go because of it? [Chichi] Yeah. [Mariana Van Zeller] And did the company ever, uh, report to the authorities? [Chichi] Hmm. I don't think so. [Mariana Van Zeller] Um, what [Chichi] It could vary. It could vary from a skull to a pinky toe. What people needed, the human bones. [Mariana Van Zeller] But you were also making money from it? I'm taking a bone and I'm selling it for 1,000, 5,000, $6,000, depending on what it is. [Mariana Van Zeller] Is it expensive because it is not usually available because it's hard to get, I'm assuming? In order to get a skull, you gotta go to the cemetery. And that's the only way to get it, is if we go into the cemetery. And, uh, there's only one cemetery here in Miami that's capable of offering that. [Mariana Van Zeller] Wait, so, so there's actually a, a graveyard here in Miami where people go and... [Chichi] Yeah. It's, uh, in the heart of Liberty City, it's a very old cemetery. It's filled, so there's graves that come out of the ground and if needed, that's the place. you done it, too? No? [Chichi] Uh, yeah. -The grave robbing? -Oh, you have, as well? Uh, this skull here. [Chichi] Right? This was taken out of the cemetery. [Mariana Van Zeller] So it's a skull that you procured, that you got, you sold. Yeah, I went and dealt this. money would you say you made in total actually, more or less? [Chichi] Close to 80k. [Mariana Van Zeller] I mention the buyer I met earlier. [Chichi] He's, uh, my biggest customer. [Mariana Van Zeller] And, well, I think he did say he bought a skull for a $5,000 from you. [Chichi] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, whatever he did with whatever I sold him afterwards was his matters. You know? [Mariana Van Zeller] And if the police were to catch you, what do you think would happen to you? [Chichi] Uh, I mean, I'm pretty sure, uh, everyone's aware of what could happen. untraceable at this point. Untraceable, a heartbreaking thought for the bodies of our loved ones, and a far cry from resting in peace. When you die do you think you want your body to be donated? [Chichi] Um, I'm not a donor, uh, and I want to leave this message clear, that this can happen to anyone, regardless of you being a donor, or not. Your body parts are gonna be sold and it's gonna be sold to him at a top dollar. But you should note that every now and then, justice does get served. [News Anchor] Megan Hess and Shirley Koch pleaded guilty to mail fraud. [Mariana Van Zeller] For their crimes, Megan Hess was sentenced to 20 years and her mother, Shirley Koch, to 15 years in federal prison. [Paul Johnson] Would I donate my body to science? Um, no. I do believe in the work, but I don't trust the industry as a whole. [Mariana Van Zeller] Around 3 million people die in the U.S. every year, that's 3 million families trying to figure out burial, cremation or donation arrangements for loved ones. But if the options seem hopeless, they're not. In the course of reporting this story I met a lot of people on the hunt for the right option. It's out there. You just have to do your homework. Like Sherri did. [Sherri] I was diagnosed in 2013. I had a mastectomy, and then eventually I had a second tumor. I'm at the level of hospice that is end of life care. [Mariana Van Zeller] How do you feel physically right now? [Sherri] I have to have a lot of sleep, so I've sort of given into that and I eat like crazy. [Sherri's Husband] She ate 24 cream puffs one night. [Mariana Van Zeller] Without much time left, Sherri came to the decision to donate her body to science, specifically to a program at Western Carolina University that trains dogs to find missing people. [Dog Trainer] What? Atta girl. [Mariana Van Zeller] It made Sherri feel good that her body would be used to help other families after she's gone. What would you say to the people who don't respect those wishes, who profit out of people's bodies without their consent? Whether you're running a funeral home and selling body parts in the back, or you're stealing body parts to use them in the oddities market. I think there's this idea that, "who cares, the person's already dead, who cares what happens to their body?" [Sherri] Right. [Mariana Van Zeller] So what would you say to those people? [Sherri] Well, it's, to me, probably one of the greatest forms of invasion. It's the final act of a human being. Your leaving is no small thing. So when you have someone who has moved into that process in an illegal way, I'm, I'm baffled and I'm hurt that a human could move in that cycle of thinking. How they could sleep, how they could repeat it, how they could profit from it. It's beyond my capability to understand…

Transcript truncated. Watch the full video for the complete content.