Mariana van Zeller

Corrupt cops, yeah.

Sometimes in uniform, sometimes just hanging out.

Yeah.

They're corrupt cops who work many times for the cartel.

Right.

And that happens all over.

I mean, that's not just in Mexico.

That's happened.

I've seen it in Colombia.

I've seen it in Brazil.

We did a story about militias where I filmed a militia in Brazil with cops around.

So, yeah, that happens, unfortunately, everywhere.

It's not as if they don't know where these people are.

They're just afraid that maybe the DEA, knowing that I'm a journalist and I go and do this stuff, that they might be following me.

So sometimes they ask for our phones to stay behind, but a lot of times they just want our phones off so that we don't transmit any signals.

But once we're in their territory, it takes months to get them to say yes.

And there's all these ground rules, right?

We can't disclose locations or people.

We have to make sure we always bring masks and T-shirts, long sleeve T-shirts and hoodies and everything with us because if they have tattoos and we want to make sure that we don't show who they are because that can create a problem for them.

for them, but it can also create a problem for us.