Mexico's Exotic Pet Trade

Overview

Anja Popp goes inside Mexico's illicit exotic pet trade, investigating how owning a lion or tiger has gone from being the indulgence of drug lords to a mainstream obsession. The Mexican state of Sinaloa is home to the notorious Sinaloa cartel. Exotic pets have become a trapping of Mexico's wealthy elite here, in what has become the world's fourth largest illegal trade after drugs, guns and people trafficking. Popp meets Jesus, who built a house in uptown Culiacan around his young tigers Simba and Nala, but as they grew up, they became riskier to manage.