New Zealand is a long way from anywhere, and drug cartels have traditionally not bothered sending them much cocaine or heroin. So, Kiwis have had to improvise – and they discovered a love for meth, and random new chemicals no one’s ever heard of.
This was all getting very dangerous, with rising addiction and biker gangs fighting over territory. Then one man – a steam-punk glam-rock musician named Starboy – decided to try and end New Zealand’s drug war once and for all. And he almost managed it!
From Medellin’s elite clubbers to the cartel queens that run the underworld, all of a sudden everyone in Colombia seems to be snorting pink “cocaine,” also known as “tucibi.” It’s fashionable, it’s six times as expensive as regular “white” cocaine, it has its own genre of music called “Guaracha,” and it’s so popular that it has even spawned a whole new generation of “neo-narcos.” Cartels are expanding production into Europe, so expect to see this “magic pink powder”- if you haven’t already.
Since the 1990’s Mexico’s Narco Pilots have risked life and limb transporting drugs for the Cartels. It’s a risky game but many are attracted to it by the upwards of $12,000 they can earn with every flight. In this documentary, we speak with these daredevils about the risks and rewards for a modern day drug smuggler.
Over the past decade or so, South American cartels have found a new way to get their product into the vast European marketplace – West Africa.
The region’s porous borders, endemic poverty and weak law enforcement make it an easy target for international organised crime. But now drug use is spilling over into local markets, and the corruption inherent in the War on Drugs has begun to warp entire societies, leading to the emergence of Africa’s first real narco-states.
We examine the social implications of prohibition worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the trade in drugs such as heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine or weed invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. Everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
We go undercover in Mexico to infiltrate a network of Chinese gangsters laundering drug proceeds for the cartels. This new alliance is making huge amounts of money for triads and cartels, and making the fentanyl crisis harder to stop.
We travel down to Sinaloa, Mexico – El Chapo’s home turf & the heartland of arguably one of the most powerful cartels in the country, if not the world. There, we follow a pair of local, low-ranking members eager to prove themselves as soldiers and sicarios (hit men) for the Sinaloa cartel.
Though they’re currently stuck making drug runs, tailing military trucks, & overseeing other petty assignments throughout the city of Culiacán, they’ll soon be headed to the mountains of Badiraguato to attend the cartel’s underground training camp, where veterans turn hungry young men into willing & able killers.
With never-before-seen, exclusive access to the intricate inner workings of the cartel’s recruitment and training systems, we’ll get a sense of how Mexico’s most powerful organized crime operations prepare their soldiers to wage war & enforce their dominion over their territory.
We’ll also get inside the heads of the civilians willing to permanently give up everything for a shot at rising through the ranks – ultimately learning both how & why so many young men are sucked into a life of crime & bloodshed
The Los Zetas Cartel changed the game in the Mexican War on Drugs. From the mid-2000s, they introduced an unprecedented level of violence – paramilitary-style executions, beheadings, bodies hung from bridges.
But this was not simply psychopathic violence. These were special forces soldiers from the Mexican military – who had received specialized training from the US Army – who had defected, and used their training to become the most feared drugs cartel in Central America.
Three years in the making, Southern Exposure is the first documentary that lifts the curtain of lies, half-truths and misinformation to reveal the many facets of illegal immigration to the USA.
The result is a hard-hitting investigation that chronicles the back-stories of drug cartels & human trafficking, the consequences of demographic changes, the resurgance of contagious diseases and the rise of racism and it’s corollary; Ethnic Studies programs taught in schools that promote the myth of Aztlan – that the Southern States are part of the Mexican homeland.
Long seen as a taboo subject, Southern Exposure is unflinching in identifying the consequences of illegal immigration, sensitive to those who risk everything to make the crossing and comprehensive in it’s analysis of the effects – both direct and indirect.
There’s a race to save a dozen small cetaceans, the last in the world of their species. They’re caught as bycatch in nets set to trap a fish with a huge demand in China. Can anything be done?
It all begins in Mexico, in the Gulf of California, just 97 miles from the US, where the totoaba is endemic. The demand for its swim bladder is at the heart of the issue. Two key towns in this region, San Felipe and Santa Clara, rely almost entirely on fishing shrimp and local fish. Times are perpetually challenging but engaging in illicit totoaba fishing can yield a substantial paycheck. They became overfished in the 2010s when a catch like this could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars each month.
Adding to the severity of the situation for this endangered fish, the nets used to catch this species, as well as those used for local shrimp, have inadvertently captured a small porpoise native to the Gulf of California, Mexico: the vaquita marina. This has pushed it to the brink of extinction. The latest survey in 2024 was only able to spot 6-8 vaquitas, from 10-13 last year. The US is exerting pressure on Mexico over the issue, and scientists, along with environmentalists and law enforcement in several countries, are working tirelessly to save the vaquita, halt totoaba trafficking and develop sustainable alternatives to harmful nets.