In development
Blood Batteries
Cobalt and the resource wars of the DRC.
Field investigations
Follow the money.
Find the story.
The routes, people, and hidden systems behind the global illicit economy. Reported from the field.
Now streaming / Eleven short films / 2025-2026Chemical
Chemical
Cartels
How fentanyl became a weapon of war: the precursor trade, the labs, the ports, and the street. Eleven short films, watchable now.
China · Mexico · Canada · United States
Explore the investigationIn production / 2026-2027Gold changes hands.
Gold changes hands.
Its origins disappear.
Gold from the Amazon is dug by the poor, taxed by armed groups, laundered through a refining chokepoint, and sold into markets that cannot tell where it came from. Once it is refined, no routine assay can establish where it was mined.
Colombia · Brazil · Switzerland
Inside Illicit Gold
The research agenda
Stories taking shape.
Subjects under research. These concept covers describe investigations in development; they are not production announcements.
In development
Thread Count
Cotton, garments, and the labor behind the label.
In development
Smoke Screen
The illicit tobacco trade and what it funds.
In development
Cold Rush
The Arctic opens, and the scramble begins.
In development
Iron Triangle
Where states, corporations, and criminal networks meet.
In development
Greed Inc.
Infrastructure lending, state actors, and the leverage it buys.
Official trailer / 2024 cutA first look
A first look
into the shadows.
Made before the gold shoot, the trailer introduces the fentanyl investigation and the wider world behind it.
Watch on YouTube