Foreign Correspondent: May 4

Foreign Correspondent screens a Channel 4 documentary by UK filmmaker Ben Zand gaining access into a Mexican Kingpin’s hidden Fentanyl lab.

On the outskirts of Culiacan in northern Mexico, backstreet drug labs are brewing up huge vats of fentanyl. This highly dangerous drug is currently the main cause of overdoses in the United States. The labs are run by the infamous Sinaloa cartel – one of the most powerful drug cartels in the world. Long famous for fueling the cocaine trade, today they are making a fortune out of fentanyl.

This week on Foreign Correspondent British filmmaker Ben Zand gains rare access to one of the cartel’s senior members. He proudly shows Ben the trappings of his wealth and takes him to the locations where fentanyl is produced and packaged ready to cross the border into the US. He also invites Ben to see his caged “pet” tigers. Despite the cartel leader’s assurance his tigers only eat chicken, US authorities claim to have evidence the Sinaloa cartel feeds its victims to tigers. Ben also meets the cartel’s young teen recruits who see the drug trade as an attractive alternative to a life of poverty.

8pm Thursday on ABC.