September 11, 2001. Mariana van Zeller was a Columbia University grad student when she found herself in the middle of a breaking news story. With very little time to process the unimaginable events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the Portuguese journalist went boots to the ground reporting for her home country via Sic Notícias. Since then the steadfast 47-year-old built an award-winning career by fully immersing in the stories she tells, even if it puts herself at risk. Nat Geo’s docuseries Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller has provided the correspondent a vehicle to dig into some of the world’s most black markets. During Season 4 alone she investigated everything from contracted killers and sextortion to hash smugglers and drug mule scams that prey on the elderly. For the finale premiering March 20, van Zeller gets “trapped in her own story” while filming the episode exploring NIger’s connection between terrorism and gold.