WATCH: Inside the Murky World of Vigilante Pedophile Hunters

Follow the Leader is a four-part tour of some fairly peculiar pit stops.

The documentary series sees host Jamali Maddix travel up and down the Americas meeting the “passport bros” who move to Colombia to join a community of likeminded amateur pickup artists; the predator hunters who spend half their time flirting with pedophiles online, and the other half apprehending them in bowling alley parking lots; the members of a gun-toting church that celebrates its arranged marriages with target practice; and – most poignantly – the 14-year-old gang members carrying handguns around the South Side of Chicago.

Each episode juggles the absurd, the hilarious and the surprisingly moving, with a few sprinkles of crushing bleakness – everything you’d hope for from a deep dive into some of 2025’s most compelling fringe cultures.

In excellent news for you and anyone else in the US with a working internet connection, we’re going to be airing Follow the Leader in its entirety on the VICE YouTube channel. Today, we’re kicking things off with Jamali’s exploration of the controversial world of vigilante pedophile hunters. While they’ve been around for a while, taking justice into their own hands by entrapping predators online, some are now inviting members of their growing fanbases to come along and watch their operations IRL, rather than through a livestream.

In the words of one attendee at a bust in Colorado: “When you watch them get caught on the screen, it’s great, but it’s so awesome to see it in person.”

You can watch the episode below, and once you’re done head here to read our interview with Jamali about the series.