Name: Marianna van Zeller Infiltrated a South American Cocaine Operation
Uploaded: 2020-12-09T16:31:47.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Marianna van Zeller Infiltrated a South American Cocaine Operation' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-09. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Marianna van Zeller Infiltrated a South American Cocaine Operation' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-12-09. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan experience you do
real boots on the ground
Investigative journalism you are a fucking gangster woman the shit that you did
in Peru and in Colombia
I was watching that episode on cocaine. I my hands were sweating watching you
do this
It's like you were you went to the places where they're growing it to the
places where they make it
Whoo. Yeah, that was you marched with the people that carry it through the
route when they're carrying it in their backpacks
Yeah, I was like, oh my god like you're risking your life like genuinely
risking your life
I don't like to see it that way. You know, no story is worth a life
So I hate I hit you know, we minimize the risk, but you know, there's
These are important stories to tell these black markets are happening all
around us. They're super widespread
I think we have this idea that they're happening in sort of faraway lands and
deep and secret locations
But they're not and they have a real impact on our lives
So there is a reason why we do the kind of reporting and you're right, you know
boots on the grounds
Old-school journalism, I think is more important now than ever and we are
seeing less of it nowadays
It's so hard to do. I mean to find someone willing to do what you did for that
cocaine episode
I watched it last night. I was I was sweating. I was like nervous. I was riveted
It's it's such a it's such a dangerous, but yet it's so much more
Illuminating than any other kind of journalism you could say oh, this is
happening in Colombia
Oh, this is happening in Peru and I'll just sit at home going. Oh, I guess that's
happening in Colombia
But to see you who I know yeah, they're going there and to see all the stuff
that you had to go through
To meet with these people and to gain their trust
Yeah, I would say also I would add to that that
You know, we did Mexico with fentanyl we did guns here in the u.s. going to
Mexico we did tigers in Asia and all these
Different scams in Jamaica and Israel and I think a big important reason or
goal for us with this show
and for me in particular because it's the way that I approached my job and my
career as a journalist is to
Not only be there to inform of what's happening like you were saying
But also I think it's important for people to connect to people in these far
away lands that at first glance
We have nothing in common right these are the bad guys operating in far distant
lands or maybe sometimes around us
But they're considered the bad people the people that we have nothing in common
with
But if you actually sit down with them and listen to their stories and this is
the big shocker of this show and I think
It rubs people or not wrong way sometimes when you admit or or when somebody
tells you that
Look actually there is not a lot that
differentiates you from the guy smuggling cocaine out of the Peru the rain
Valley in Peru
You both have the same are motivated by the same goals, which is you know
happiness
An opportunity in life a chance for you know to reach your dreams and
Unless you actually look at it this way and start realizing that that is more
often than not the case
Of course, there's a lot of bad people there doing it for greed and solely
greed that also happens and I spent a lot of time with those people as well
But unless you start understanding sort of the root causes of what leads people
into these lives
You're never going to be able to address black markets
well, you really did a fantastic job of getting close to these people and
Talking to them like you know, they were talking about their family. They were
talking about their children
The one guy who is the chemist who wants to get out because he wants to go to
school and like this is my last year
Yeah, it's it's it's horrible that story alone. We spent the night with these
mochilettos these backpackers teenagers who carry the
Loads of cocaine on their back out of the valley and spending time with them
and you know
Really dangerous work. They tell us stories about how they hike for days on end
out of the Amazon the rain Valley
To a place where then it's sent out into outside of the country to Europe and
to the United States
And you spend time with these guys and you listen to them and and and it's
incredibly dangerous
Work - they've seen their best friends being killed in front of them
And I asked them so why would you ever want to do something like this? You know
key and he's like look very simple
I grew up in a very poor family. I always wanted to go to college
I knew that the only job opportunities the whole economy is essentially
sustained by the growing of coca leaves
production of cocaine and smuggling of cocaine so the only job opportunity here
I had was this and
I asked him why do you want to go to college so badly perhaps a stupid question,
but he said you know because I want to be a dentist I said
Why a dentist because I want to me make people smile and this just is like
these are the moments that I think will really stay with me
And it was so genuine like though the experience was so raw like all of it from
Showing the families growing the coca leaves and I learned something from it
I always assumed that it was the organized crime cartels that were growing the
coca leaves
But no, it's these families these very poor families that are growing these coca
leaves and drying them out
By the road where everyone can see so you have children playing you have these
very poor people that are growing this this crop and
The vast majority of it is sold to the cartels and they they're not
Selling it for a lot of money either. No, not at all. It's never the people at
the bottom that are making money
It's always the people at the top. It's crazy that these are the people that
are growing it. Yeah, like it is whole valley has been growing
Coca for thousands of years. It's what they do and it's also crazy that the
thing itself the coca leaf like there's actually been
People that have made a really good argument that not only should that stuff be
legal, but it's probably good for you
Yeah, the coca leaf a lot if alone if it is not made into cocaine, it's
If you they chew it, you know, you go to the Andes and all around they actually
chew the coca leaf
I had an opportunity that there was a moment where one of them
I mean you do it it helps you without high altitude sickness and it helps you
gain more energy and
When we were filming with a group they actually wanted me to try some I had
tried some before but I did it as well then and
And it tastes it's actually doesn't take it's it's kind of tastes like a leaf
quite frankly
But you do feel a little bit more energy and there's nothing there's nothing
illegal about that by the way
That's completely something that's been doing they've been spend the tradition
in this area for you know thousands of years hmm
Mmm, and when you did it like what gave you energy like what did it feel like
it's not like a bump of cocaine
Have you done a bump of cocaine?
I actually have not you know, it's so funny because I spent my entire life
reporting on drugs and drive the drug trade and
I am and I'm you know people you know like do crazy shit for a living
And yet I am terrified of drugs. I think partly because I've seen how they're
done
Well after the oxy-con express and seeing how many people's lives are destroyed
by a legal drug
I could I could imagine why you would want to avoid the ones that are illegal.
I've never done coke either
That's what I'm asking. Oh, you haven't no never
No, I think we're some of the only two people. I took tea once mate de coca tea
Uh-huh. Have you ever had that made with coca leaves? Yeah, and I couldn't shut
the fuck up
There's a problem already. That's a problem with me, too. That's exactly my
problem is that I am high energy all the time
If I were to do cocaine, then I don't think anyone could exactly
Exactly, I my friend Jimmy in high school when we're
We're young one of his buddies was uh was selling coke and not in ego
He just looked at me. He goes you should never do this stuff. I go why he goes
cuz I think you'd love it
I'm like, okay, that's partly my problem, too. I'm afraid that I'm
I think everybody loves it. I think it makes you feel amazing
I mean, there's got to be a reason why it's so popular catch new episodes of
the Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify
Watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify including clips
Easily seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify
You can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can
download episodes to save on data cost all for free
Spotify is absolutely free you don't have to have a premium account to watch
new JRE episodes
You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app
Go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience