As OSINT investigative journalists, we sometimes need to combine open-source techniques with on-the-ground reporting to take our investigations further. Journalists from the program SOURCES on ARTE.tv spent months analyzing customs records, European sanctions regulations, and the technical specifications of CNC machines, which are high-precision tools used to manufacture parts for civilian and military applications. Their investigation revealed that European machines were imported into Russia via third countries in Central Asia. However, one European company flatly denied the open-source findings and the customs records available online. That’s when journalist Maëva Poulet traveled to their headquarters. There, she accessed internal documents and used open-source data to prove that the company’s records about the machine and its destination had been forged.