03x05 - MDMA

[bunniefuu]

(man speaking, played backwards)

(man speaking, played backwards)

MARIANA VAN ZELLER:
Before the assassinations,

before the hitmen,
the fire bombings,

the t*rture chamber,
and the underground pills,

there was this email
from my son's middle school,

warning parents
about ecstasy pills

that kids had ordered online

in a transaction that
had seemed all too easy.

I've done stories
about most ill*gal drugs,

but I hadn't paid
much attention to MDMA.

It was a party drug
and had seemed too soft,

or too tame, to warrant
that kind of deep dive,

at least until I came
to understand the forces

lurking beneath the surface.

♪ ♪

♪ I don't care ♪

♪ if the room's spinnin' ♪

♪ Will you talk to me? ♪

♪ I don't live alone
this time ♪

♪ I don't live alone ♪

MARIANA: How many people
do you think you've k*lled?

I don't know.

For me it's no problem.

♪ ♪

♪ Woo! ♪ (echoing)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Okay.
He's there. I see him.

Yeah, that's him.

Cigarette in mouth.

I'm in downtown L.A.
at 1:00 A.M.

to meet with an underground
party promoter named Ziggy.

I'm Mariana.
ZIGGY: How are you?

MARIANA: Nice to meet you.
ZIGGY: Nice to meet you.

MARIANA: So, you guys
keep the gate closed and...

ZIGGY: We have to, you know?

MARIANA: What do you call
a party like this?

ZIGGY: Well, this is
the true underground.

MARIANA: And what
makes it underground?

What, what is it?

ZIGGY: Obviously
the sales of alcohol.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm.

ZIGGY: Ecstasy,
everything you can imagine.

MARIANA: It's the ecstasy scene
that I've come to check out.

The letter from
my son's middle school

had been a warning
to parents about three teens

who had just overdosed
on a bad batch of ecstasy

that they had bought online
and received through the mail.

Is ecstasy a big part of it?
Do people...

MARIANA: Would you say that
it's, is it popular right now?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Inside,
partygoers are rolling,

a term used to describe
the whirlwind of energy,

pleasure, and abandon
fueled by ecstasy pills,

pills sold by this man
who goes by the name of Pito.

What do you have
in your hand, by the way?

MARIANA: Holy moly! Wow!

Oh, so the liquid
is only up here?

This is ecstasy?

MARIANA: What kind are these?

MARIANA: And they're
good quality?

MARIANA: How do you know
they're good quality?

MARIANA: How much do you buy it
and how much do you sell it for?

MARIANA: $2,000? Okay.

MARIANA: So you have
about 20 here.

How much do you sell
per, per pill?

MARIANA: That's a markup
of over 1,000 percent

from wholesale to retail.

MARIANA: Indeed,
it's a drop in the ocean.

In the year prior
to the pandemic,

the business of electronic
dance music was soaring.

160 million festival tickets
were sold worldwide.

And the consumption
of ecstasy by attendees

is a very open secret.

How do you get your stuff?

MARIANA: Here in the U.S.?

MARIANA: And do you know
how he gets it?

How it's shipped or...

You don't ask him
any questions?

MARIANA: Pito wouldn't
connect me to his supplier,

so I had to do some digging.

Eventually, I found
someone willing to talk.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Up in the Bay Area,
I've made contact with a crew

that is pressing
their own ecstasy pills.

Their leader is a man named Sai,
who has agreed to meet me

with the condition that we
not reveal his actual voice

or the location
where we're filming.

♪ ♪

Sai? Is that how
you want to be called?

SAI: Yes, please.

MARIANA: So, what
do you do here, Sai?

SAI: We make ecstasy.

MARIANA: Is this
the end product?

SAI: That is the end product.

They're Blue Buddhas,
200 milligrams of MDMA.

MARIANA: So,
what's the difference

between Molly,
ecstasy, and MDMA?

SAI: MDMA is just
the raw ingredient

in its pure crystal form.

Molly is usually referring
to this in a capsule form.

And then ecstasy
is a pressed pill.

MARIANA:
Oh, so that's pure MDMA?

SAI: Yep.

MARIANA: Can I see,
can I touch it?

SAI: Go for it.

MARIANA: Can I smell it, or is...

SAI: Go for it.

MARIANA: What happens?

SAI: Just don't sniff too hard.
You'll be fine.

MARIANA: That's,
yeah, it smells.

SAI: A little flowery.
A little sweet.

MARIANA: Yeah, definitely sweet.

MDMA is the chemical signature
of the molecule first created

in a lab in 1912 by the Merck
pharmaceutical company,

where scientists
were attempting, but failed,

to create
a blood clotting agent.

In the 1950s, the U.S.
government experimented

with MDMA
and other psychedelics,

hoping they could be used
as a truth serum,

but they, too,
abandoned the effort.

Later, in the 1970s,

psychedelic chemist
Sasha Shulgin

saw a different path for MDMA.

Recreating the molecule
in his lab,

he experimented on himself,

then gave the drug
to therapists

to treat patients struggling
with emotional trauma,

work that is again
picking up steam today.

But in the 1980s, when word got
out of MDMA's euphoric highs,

the drug jumped to the streets.

Clubs in cities across America
began openly selling MDMA pills,

now branded
with a new name...ecstasy.

MARIANA: Does it
have to be exactly 20?

SAI: Yeah.

We want to crush it up
so there's no hot spots

and the pills are evenly dosed.

MARIANA: How many pills
can you press

with that amount of...

SAI: This is an extra 100 pills.

MARIANA: 100 pills?

SAI: Yeah.

MARIANA: How much
do they sell for?

SAI: Uh, retail
on these are $20.

MARIANA: So, you can make
$2,000 from just today

from the pills
you're pressing today?

SAI: Yeah.

MARIANA: How much did buying
the actual MDMA cost,

just the raw materials?

SAI: Uh, I'd rather not say.

MARIANA: That means
you're probably making

good money from this.

SAI: Yeah, it's mostly profit,
let's be real.

MARIANA: Right.

SAI: And now it's time
to really mix it.

MARIANA: Oh, so now
it's all just mixing.

SAI: Now it's just mixing.
Now we wait.

MARIANA: What kind of people
buy and use MDMA,

you would say,
compared to other drugs?

SAI: Uh, I mean, ravers,
obviously, a lot of ravers,

but people of all sorts, like
older people, professionals.

I've been at parties where
there's grandparents there

who are rolling
and they're just, like,

a cute, little old couple

in love with each other,
having a great time.

It's nice to see.

MARIANA: Do you ever worry
that this might land

into the wrong hands?

Like a person
who's too young to try it

or who's not in the right place,

and things can
go wrong real fast?

SAI: For sure.

I mean, the kid thing
I kind of feel okay about,

because it's pretty bitter.

It's very bitter.

And, I mean, like, there's only
so much I can do about that.

Wrong person? I don't know.

No, I guess it's just their
own personal responsibility

to not do that, because
what can I do about that?

MARIANA: So, when was the first
time you ever tried MDMA?

SAI: Almost five years ago,

and it was just me
and my friend by ourselves,

and we were just overwhelmed.

We were just so, like,
sensitive to everything.

We just turned off the lights,

sat there in darkness
for a second,

and then just ended up, like,

walking around the park
all night and talking

and, like, really
connecting as people.

MARIANA: Did you like it then?

SAI: I loved it, yeah.

I felt like it opened
this emotional window

that's been closed
my whole life.

I just didn't know it.
And it was blasted wide open.

And then when the drug was off,
like when I came down,

it closed, but it never
closed all the way.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Wow. Now, totally blue.

So, this is the actual
pill-pressing machine?

SAI: Yep. This is a TDP 5.

MARIANA: And how many
pills can you do?

SAI: So, when it's
plugged in and automated,

it's 3,500 an hour, I believe.

MARIANA: Wow!

SAI: It's very quick.

So, it's been filled,
and now the press comes down.

Pressure's applied.

(pill drops)

MARIANA: Oh, wow!
So, here it is.

So, this is worth $20, yeah?

SAI: Yep.

MARIANA: Why not make this stuff
yourself, the actual pure MDMA?

SAI: The chemicals are
just too closely watched.

It's pretty hard
to source the ingredients

and get away with it.

MARIANA: MDMA
must be synthesized

using a substance
known as a precursor.

It was originally oil
from the sassafras tree,

but today the labs
that make the drug

do it largely by working
with synthetic compounds.

And where does this come from?

SAI: Usually Amsterdam.

MARIANA: That's right...
Amsterdam.

The famously tolerant
capital of the Netherlands

is also the world's
epicenter of MDMA.

The reason goes back to 1985...

MAN: The Drug Enforcement
Administration is announcing

its intention to place
the drug known as MDMA,

or by the street name ecstasy,

under emergency controls
in Schedule I.

MARIANA: ...when the
U.S. government named MDMA

as a Schedule I drug.

At the time, nations around
the world quickly followed suit.

But the Netherlands
didn't institute a ban

for three more years, and
criminal groups took notice,

using it as a hub
to legally produce MDMA

and then illegally distribute it
around the world.

It's 30 years later,
and the industry in Holland

is still flying high.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I'm here to find out how Dutch
MDMA reaches American shores.

And there's
a charismatic trafficker

with American ties
who has agreed to meet me.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: I've been looking for
a route into the underground,

and I'm hoping
Steve Brown can help me.

(ding)

He's agreed to a meeting,
right on the Amstel River.

And you were born
in the United States, right?

STEVE BROWN:
I'm born in the United States.

Came here with my father
and mother back to Holland.

My father was a GI,
so that's how he met my mother.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm.

STEVE: And when I was
growing up with my own family,

I have lived about ten years
in the States.

MARIANA: By the time he retired,

Dutch-American
trafficker Steve Brown

had moved ecstasy
across the globe.

And I'm hoping
he can introduce me

to current players
sending pills to the U.S.

How did you get started
in the, in the drug business?

STEVE: We started out
with a youth community center

called the Happy Family, and
we only were selling hashish.

I'm talking seventies
and eighties here.

MARIANA: Like Amsterdam's
red-light district,

the Happy Family
and other coffee shops

that sold weed and hash

revealed the boundaries of Dutch
tolerance and profitability.

According to Steve,

he was raking in $20 million
a year at the time,

mostly from ill*gal drug sales.

And when did MDMA
sort of enter the scene?

STEVE: The eighties.

The ecstasy pill is introduced
here by the Israeli Mafia,

and so they asked me,
because I had

at the Happy Family
a lot of customers,

if I wanted to sell
that pill on behalf of them.

MARIANA: So you were one
of the first people ever here

to sell ecstasy?

STEVE: I was the first
on the record.

MARIANA: Are you still involved
in the drug business?

STEVE: No. I went with pension,
already 15 years ago.

MARIANA: But you
still have contacts?

STEVE: Yes.

MARIANA: So if we
wanted to gain access

into this drug underworld
here in Holland,

would you be able to help us?

STEVE: I will do really my best,
but it's very dangerous.

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Steve says that
competing criminal groups

and widespread access to weapons

created an "anything goes"
atmosphere here.

He begins by putting me in touch

with people connected
with European distribution.

MARIANA: Oh, can I see that?

MARIANA: Is it because
it's high quality?

MARIANA: And where is this made?

MARIANA: For how much
time of work?

MARIANA: Oh, wow.

But what I'm really
in search of

is connections
to the U.S. market.

What other countries
are you guys selling MDMA to?

MARIANA: And to the U.S.?

MARIANA: Why not?

MARIANA: Wow.

MARIANA: Because we know
that Dutch pills

are going to the U.S.

Who's...how are they
getting there?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: So far,
I've come up short

with connections to the States,

but an American source
has sent me here,

to a warehouse in a town
one hour outside of Amsterdam.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Can I come in?

How are you?

MARIANA: Notorious...

MARIANA: P-I-G for pig?

MARIANA: Why that name?

MARIANA: (chuckles)
This is ecstasy?

NOTORIOUS P-I-G: Yeah.

MARIANA: And what is this?
What is it?

MARIANA: Salvador Dali,
the Spanish painter?

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: He was actually
my favorite painter growing up.

MARIANA: (laughs)
Is it really your favorite pill?

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.
MARIANA: What is this?

MARIANA: Oh, yeah, they have the
Maserati symbol and everything.

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: Where are
all of these going to?

MARIANA: You're shipping
them all to the U.S.?

MARIANA: So you're not afraid
of American authorities?

NOTORIOUS P-I-G: No.

MARIANA: For three years?
NOTORIOUS P-I-G: Yeah.

MARIANA: How do you ship
all this stuff?

How do you ship it to the U.S.?

MARIANA: Oh, so you're
hiding the address, right?

MARIANA: I'm not gonna
say the whole name,

but it's Ryan something

and going to Michigan,
United States.

And this one is Christian,
going to Colorado.

This one is going to Florida.
Ecstasy pills.

MARIANA: Oh, wow.
So, it's tons of packages.

MARIANA: So this guy received...

MARIANA: Wow! How do
these American people,

how do they even know,
how do they contact you?

How do they know,
where do you sell?

MARIANA: Yeah.

MARIANA: That you've posted?

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

♪ Beat, beat, rock,
to the rock beat, beat ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: What strikes me
as remarkable

about Piggy's Telegram channel,

which he has branded
"Dope Discovery,"

isn't just the hundreds
of videos plugging his wares;

it's the unbridled joy he takes

in thumbing his nose
at the police.

So, you have fun doing this?
This is like...

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah. (laughs)
MARIANA: ...fun for you?

MARIANA: Why is the Netherlands
such a center for production

of MDMA and ecstasy?

MARIANA: Okay. But if they were
able to get into this, this room

and see all this
and arrest you...

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: ...with all this stuff,
or in your car, wherever...

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: What
would happen to you?

MARIANA: Yeah. You did?

MARIANA: For how long?

MARIANA: 150 hours of
community service, that's it?

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: Given
the lenient sentencing laws

in the Netherlands,

it makes sense that
so many criminal groups

have set up production here.

Back in the States,
large ecstasy busts are rare,

but they do draw
serious jail time.

15,000 pills would result
in federal charges,

a minimum sentence of ten years
and a fine of $4 million.

What about overdoses?

Do you get scared
about, I don't know,

people receiving this
and taking it all?

MARIANA: Wow.
NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: And how
did you feel about that?

MARIANA: Oh, did you
worry about, I mean,

didn't the police investigate
then, who sold him...

MARIANA: Death is bad
for business, so Piggy says

he tests the purity
of his products regularly,

a preventative step
meant to guard against

the kind of overdose
that I was informed about

from my son's school.

What supposed to happen?

MARIANA:
So it's definitely MDMA.

NOTORIOUS P.I.G.: Yeah.

MARIANA: How do you get
your pills, by the way?

MARIANA: So, you don't
think it's worth it,

me asking you to talk to
the guy that doesn't like you?

MARIANA: Why do you
have a shotgun here?

MARIANA: It's tempting to think
of Piggy as an anomaly,

but after my conversations
with Steve Brown,

I realize that would be naive.

How much has it changed,
the drug underworld,

from back then to these days?

STEVE: So the business
in the beginning

was actually not
really violent at all.

MARIANA: And nowadays?

STEVE: Well, if you
compare with that time,

it's a difference
between day and night.

Step by step, the violence
get worse, worse, and worse,

up to today.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm. And now?

STEVE: And now, 30 years later,

it's a commercial
billion-dollar business,

and in every billion-dollar
business, people will k*ll.

k*lling is normal now.

I myself have been shot.

I have one b*llet in my liver
and one through my arm.

MARIANA: You know,
I grew up in Europe.

Holland is the last place where
you'd expect this violence.

You know, they give...

You know?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: By definition,
black markets operate

with their own set of rules.

When times are good,
money and market share

are low-hanging fruit.

But increasingly
in the Netherlands,

when a deal goes south
or a player feels threatened,

the kind of justice handed out

has nothing to do
with courtrooms.

(expl*si*n)

MAN: Politie!

♪ ♪

MARIANA: In 2020, at a Dutch
harbor, police officers found

seven shipping containers
converted into prison cells,

a trove of
stolen police uniforms,

automatic weapons,

and this, a fully soundproofed
t*rture chamber,

complete with dentist chair,

hedge cutters, pliers,
and scalpels.

That raid showed everyone
that a new level of violence,

the kind usually seen
in narco states,

has arrived
in the heart of Europe.

I want to connect with someone

close to the violence
and mayhem

to find out why things
are falling apart.

And Steve Brown says he knows
someone I should talk to.

Have to go right?

But there's little else
he's ready to reveal,

until we're all
in the same room.

STEVE: This is a very,
very old friend of mine.

We will call him not his real
name, you must understand that,

because he's still
an active k*ller and hitman.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: How did you first
become a k*ller, and why?

MARIANA: So, how old were you?

MARIANA: Were you involved in
the drug business at the time?

MAN: Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MARIANA: And how many people
do you think you've k*lled?

MARIANA: But is it...

MARIANA: And who are
these people? And why...

MARIANA: So all people involved
in the drug business?

MARIANA:
What's the process like?

How does it work?
How do you...

MARIANA: So, you spend
two to three weeks

doing surveillance
on the person before?

MARIANA: What g*ns do you
usually carry with you?

MARIANA: Do you
have AK-47s here, as well?

STEVE: They sell them
here for 1,000.

They're very cheap.
They come from the East Bloc.

MARIANA: I understand
that you don't think

these people are innocent,
but at least, I mean,

you at least have thought
of their mothers

and their children?

MARIANA: There's
a casual air to all of this

that I find quite unsettling,

because if there's a perception
amongst traffickers

that violence and k*lling
carry no consequences,

then it's open season on anyone
perceived as an enemy.

If myself
or a journalist coming here

and doing some sort of reporting
that you wouldn't like,

would that be a reason
to k*ll a journalist?

MARIANA: Oh, so you've
had situations in which

you've gone to journalists
and warned them,

do not mention my name
or my family name.

MARIANA:
If they had done it again...

MARIANA: Then you
would have k*lled them?

MARIANA: Every crime journalist
walks with a target

on his, or her, back.

In the last decade alone,

136 journalists have been
k*lled around the world.

But it's honestly shocking
to hear it described

in such casual terms
by a person

who actually accepts money
to pull the trigger.

So you're saying that you have,

many times in the past,
intimidated journalists?

MAN: Yes.

MARIANA: Threatened them
and told them that they can't

report on you or your family,
or else you would k*ll them?

MAN: Yeah. Yeah.

MARIANA: I'm trying to get
a sense of how much...

MARIANA: Yeah.
How much back then

and how much do people get now?

MARIANA: But of course,
the price depends on the target.

And some targets
are bigger than others.

It was one year ago

that the country's
most famous crime journalist,

Peter R. de Vries, was
ambushed as he stepped out

of a TV studio
in downtown Amsterdam.

(g*nshots)

REPORTER: Celebrity
Dutch crime reporter

Peter R. de Vries has died
after being shot in the street.

De Vries, who was 64,
was a frequent commentator

on television crime programs.

MARIANA: I want to understand
what the k*lling meant

to Dutch society.

These men, who have arrived
for our interview

in bulletproof cars

and under the protection
of seven government agents,

are friends of De Vries
whose own lives are now at risk.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: I started
looking into ecstasy

after receiving an email
from my son's school.

But following the trail
of this party drug

has led me further
and further underground.

And now, here
in the Netherlands,

I've arrived
at a somber anniversary,

the death of renowned crime
journalist Peter R. de Vries.

These men are friends
of De Vries,

lawyers Peter Schouten
and Onno de Jong.

PETER SCHOUTEN: Well,
what actually happened

was that Peter was shot,
ex*cuted from close range,

in a very busy area
in the Netherlands,

and without knowing,
he had been observed already

for a long time.

The k*ller walked up behind him
and shot him five times.

MARIANA:
The story began in 2018,

with a Dutch-Moroccan trafficker
named Ridouan Taghi.

One of the people working
for his organization,

named Nabil B., turned himself
into Dutch authorities

and agreed to testify
against his former boss.

ONNO DE JONG: When you are
becoming a crown witness,

you go and talk with
the police in secrecy,

in total secrecy,
and you make statements.

PETER: And in this case,

this protection agreement
was also made,

and it means that Nabil
was in a secret location

and that also his family
should be protected,

and there it went wrong.

MARIANA: Just a few days
after giving his statement,

Nabil's brother, who was not
involved with organized crime,

was m*rder*d at his print shop.

PETER: And more than a year
after the brother was k*lled,

the lawyer who assisted Nabil

was shot dead
in front of his house

by people sent to him to,
yeah, basically liquidate him,

to execute him.

ONNO: And it sent a shockwave
throughout society.

And I always experienced it
as very naive, because they say,

"Well, this, this, this
is not happening here.

This shouldn't
happen in Holland.

We're so nice, and we're
a lovely country."

Well, we are not anymore.

PETER: Yeah, that was a message
to put fear in society.

You could see it as the start of
narco-terror in the Netherlands.

MARIANA: Into that vacuum
stepped Peter R. de Vries,

who recruited Peter and Onno
to take on the job

of becoming Nabil's
new legal team,

while himself becoming
a high-profile advisor

for the witness.

He's seen here reading the text
of his shoulder tattoo.

PETER R. DE VRIES: All...

(applause)

...all that is necessary
for the triumph of evil

is good men do nothing.

(cheering)

PETER: Peter had the
enormous sense for justice

and an enormous sense
to fight injustice.

And he was basically
the only journalist

within the Netherlands who,
besides reporting on crime,

really picked up a case
and then helped the victims.

MARIANA: But not everybody
had warm feelings

about Peter de Vries,

especially those in the
underworld, like Steve Brown.

STEVE: You want to know,
of course, about...

MARIANA: Yup.

STEVE: ...the
"crime journalist,"

Peter R. de Vries.

But I have to tell you honest,

I might not be the right
person to ask about him

because I'm sworn enemy
of him for over 30 years.

♪ ♪

MARIANA: From the beginning of

his career, De Vries was known

to seek out high-profile targets

and had his crosshairs
on Steve Brown,

leveling accusations
and launching sting operations

that they broadcast on Dutch TV.

This confrontation
was Steve Brown's response

to a report that De Vries
had broadcast on TV.

(speaking Dutch)

(speaking Dutch)

MARIANA: You didn't like
each other. But I mean...

STEVE: That's an understatement.

MARIANA: I understand, but
there's certainly a part of you

that was shocked by the fact

that a journalist
of his caliber was k*lled.

STEVE: No. No, you know
what is shocking?

Generally speaking,
I'm against m*rder.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm.

STEVE: It's always shocking
if somebody gets shot.

MARIANA: Steve Brown
had nothing to do

with the m*rder
of Peter R. de Vries,

but it's easy to see how
reporters in this world

can make lasting enemies.

PETER: It was incredible, and
it was hard for Dutch society

to see somebody
like that being shot.

It was, actually nobody
feels safe anymore

at a moment like that
in a country.

MARIANA: And that,
perhaps, was the point.

Currently, Taghi
and 16 associates

are on trial in the Netherlands,

with 700 army and
police officers mobilized

to safeguard the courthouse.

I came to the Netherlands
to track the major source

of American MDMA,
but found a country

starting to resemble
a narco state.

A Dutch newspaper reporting
on drug traffickers

was recently rammed
in a van attack.

A news magazine was hit
with an anti-tank rocket.

And 94 hand grenade incidents
were reported by police

in a two-year span.

It's a wave of violence that
has all of Europe wondering,

what could possibly come next?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: Did you know
Peter de Vries?

GABRIELLA ADER:
Yes. Yeah. Personally.

MARIANA: Personally?

GABRIELLA: Yeah, yeah.

MARIANA: Like Peter de Vries,

who was m*rder*d for getting
too close to Dutch traffickers,

Gabriella Ader
reports extensively

on the Dutch underworld.

When you found out,
what was your reaction?

GABRIELLA: I was very startled
and, unfortunately,

I cannot say
it was a huge surprise.

MARIANA: Huh, really? Why not?

GABRIELLA: Yeah.
My family's from Sicily,

and I can't even tell you

how much it now resembles
the situation there.

MARIANA: With the Mafia?
With the Mob?

GABRIELLA: Yeah. I even spoke
to lawyers, almost crying,

who told me, "Yeah. I just
want to stop this job."

Because, you know, they used
to have a lot of respect

for attorneys,
journalists, et cetera,

but that's just all gone.

And you also see it now,
for instance,

if you see the trial,
it is not normal.

There's so many police cars,
so many army members are ready.

And then everybody thinks the
Netherlands is so progressive

and that we're
always in control.

But now you can see,
I don't know. Do we?

MARIANA: I'm European.
I was born in Portugal,

lived most of my life
in Portugal,

so the fact that this is
all happening right here

in the Netherlands is
really mind-blowing to me.

GABRIELLA: Yeah. It is. Because
there's so much money involved.

So, the stakes
are just too high.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm.

GABRIELLA: And also, I think,
what I hear from colleagues,

or from attorneys, is that
really the climate has changed.

It became so much more violent.

MARIANA: Mm-hmm.

I'm assuming it also sort of had
a negative effect on journalism,

anyone trying to investigate
the crime world here.

Now people are
more scared, right?

How's that affected your job?

Are you more scared
to do what you do?

GABRIELLA: I did
get myself unregistered

when I bought an apartment

because I didn't want
people to trace me.

MARIANA: Wow!

So, basically, you didn't
put your name on the...

GABRIELLA: Yeah.
You can't find me.

MARIANA: You can't find you.

GABRIELLA: Yeah.
So, I'm not scared,

but I do take care of things.

And I just think twice
before I do something.

MARIANA: The people I'm meeting
next are also taking precautions

to keep a low profile.

But in this case, they're not
worried about the police,

they are the police

and are so concerned
about counter-surveillance

that they've asked us
to keep their location hidden.

(door opens)

Thank you.

ANDY KRAAG: Go ahead.

So, this is
our mock-up facility.

This is where you have
all the hardware

that's been used in labs.

You have the boiler systems,
the ventilation systems,

and the tableting machines.

MARIANA: So, this is
what's used to make MDMA.

ANDY: This is actually what
was confiscated during raids.

MARIANA: Andy Kraag is
a former special forces officer

in the Dutch Marines who
now leads the Netherlands'

National Criminal
Investigations Division.

What can you do, as
a police agency, to stop this?

To try to stop the violence

in the drug business
from happening?

ANDY: Yeah.
Well, in recent years,

we've had pretty good
successes internationally.

We were able to get
into the communications

of those drug criminals.

We could actually
real-time monitor

what those criminals were doing.

It was as if we were sitting
next to them at the table

and we could constantly
anticipate what they were doing,

and then we could
act accordingly.

(shouting)

MARIANA: The operation
he's referring to

involved a company
called EncroChat,

whose encrypted phones
were widely used

by criminals across Europe.

In 2019, Dutch, French,
and British authorities

hacked the phone system,

giving them direct insight
into criminal networks,

which resulted in thousands
of arrests across the world.

It's a sting that
had a profound impact

on the drug underground
of Europe.

Even Notorious P.I.G.
had mentioned it when we spoke.

MARIANA: Oh, yeah,
the encrypted chat,

where they could read
encrypted chats. Yeah.

MARIANA: And what
does that mean for you?

For your business?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: What was the most
surprising thing you found

through the EncroChat
investigation?

ANDY: It is as if you have
one big wiretap

on the complete
criminal underworld.

We knew that the drug business
was intense, that it was high,

but we didn't knew
that it was that big.

The revenues worldwide,
of Dutch MDMA worldwide,

was almost up
to 19 billion euros.

MARIANA: Wow.

ANDY: Yeah.

MARIANA: Are you seeing
international groups coming in,

or foreign groups coming
into the Netherlands?

ANDY: Our Dutch criminals,
you see them working

closely together
with Mexican criminals.

They just switch products.

MARIANA: They bring cocaine in
and they take MDMA out?

ANDY: So it's, it's cocaine
for MDMA, it's MDMA for cocaine.

MARIANA: You know, I've
reported extensively in Mexico

on the drug business there,

and when we talk
about t*rture chambers

and intimidation of journalists

and even the k*lling
of journalists,

there's enormous similarities
to what's happening

in Mexico with the drug w*r.

ANDY: If you look at Mexico, if
you see what's going on there,

of course that scares us,
so we're very alert

of more symptoms of that
moving into Holland.

MARIANA: And are you
seeing more violence

in the Netherlands right now?

ANDY: It's becoming
more violent, yeah.

Demand worldwide is growing,
and that means there are

more drug criminals,
more competition.

And with competition comes
violence by definition.

♪ ♪

MARIANA: The global
MDMA business is a wheel,

and it is now
turning full circle,

taking me back to America,

to a mailbox
in central New Jersey

where clients
of the Notorious P.I.G.

await their product.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

MARIANA: I've left
the Netherlands behind,

but I'm here to see
some pills created there.

I think this is it.

I think they're expecting us.

(clears throat) Yeah.

MAC: Hi, Mariana?
MARIANA: Yes, it is.

How are you, Mac?
Nice to see you.

MAC: Nice to meet you.
MARIANA: You, too, finally.

MAC: Yes.

MARIANA: So I heard
you got the package?

MAC: I did.

MARIANA: How are you?
I'm Mariana.

ADRIAN: I'm Adrian, how are you?

MARIANA: Good, nice to meet you.

Notorious P.I.G.
asked two of his customers,

whom we'll call Mac and Adrian,

to let us know when
his next shipment arrived.

So these are the packages?

MARIANA: No, I don't, actually.

Can I just see them
before you open it?

MARIANA: So is it usually
in packages like this?

MAC: Yes.

ADRIAN: Yes.
And it came ripped, too,

so I just, kind of,
like, taped it up.

MARIANA: It came ripped?

ADRIAN: A little bit.

MARIANA: Oh, wow.

ADRIAN: So, here's the crystal.

MAC: That's pure MDMA.

ADRIAN: Yeah, it's pure MDMA.

Same presses he uses to make
these Maserati pills.

MARIANA: Oh,
these are Maseratis?

ADRIAN: Yes.

MARIANA:
We saw these in Holland.

These two are
small-time dealers.

They'll repackage and sell
Piggy's MDMA and ecstasy,

tripling their $500 investment.

So, how many of these
packages do you get?

MAC: Maybe five a month?
Once a week.

MARIANA: So every week,

you're receiving packages
from Notorious P.I.G.?

MAC: Correct, correct.

MARIANA: Can I talk about
the elephant in the room,

which I haven't yet?

MAC: Sure.

MARIANA: That's sitting right
there, which is a 9-millimeter?

MAC: That is a 9-millimeter,
but it's actually a ghost g*n.

MARIANA: It's a ghost g*n?

So you use this mainly
here for protection

because you're operating a drug
business out of your house?

MAC: Correct.

MARIANA: Notably, even
on this side of the Atlantic,

the top concern of dealers
is not law enforcement,

nor is it protecting
innocents abroad.

Have you heard how the drug
trade in the Netherlands

is fueling the violence there?

MAC: No, I...

MARIANA: Including
the death of journalists.

Priority number one
is safeguarding profits.

MAC: I guess, to answer
your question directly,

no, I haven't.

I guess it does concern me,
but it doesn't concern me

to the amount that I would
let it affect my business.

MARIANA: Apathy is a luxury
that's not available

to Tahmina Akefi,
a Dutch journalist

who was engaged to
Peter R. de Vries in 2021,

at the time he was m*rder*d.

I'm so, so sorry for your loss.

MARIANA: Did you ever think
that something like this

would happen in your country?

This was possible?

That a m*rder like this, out
in the open, would be possible?

MARIANA: Do you feel
like the Netherlands

is becoming a narco state?

MARIANA: Do you think
that the users, you know,

the casual drug users
that are, you know,

at parties using MDMA,

which the, the Netherlands
is such a center for,

do you think that they're
aware that their drug use

and them buying drugs

is actually funding these
criminal organizations?

♪ ♪

MARIANA: In every drug story
I've ever done,

I encounter this disconnect

between the violence
of the trade

and the ignorance
of the end user.

Maybe it's unreasonable
for a club kid in downtown L.A.

to consider Peter's death, and
the deaths of so many others,

before getting their fix.

But the complicity is real.

Without that demand,
there's no supply chain,

no billions in profits,
and no blood.

♪ ♪