Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Surviving 7 Years in the World’s Toughest Prison | Locked Up Abroad

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Surviving 7 Years in the World’s Toughest Prison | Locked Up Abroad

Now, in the maximum security wing, where they send the worst of the worst of the country. They take over. Guards are held hostage inside the prison. Everybody's masked up. There's people walking around with guns in hand, machete's in hand, bulletproof vests on, their cells lit on fire. This guy tells one of the hitmen to take me out. So in my head, I'm like, I just got to escape.

I got to get out of here. Born in Jersey, immigrant family, hardworking, great examples. I just never followed through, you know, with my parents. I didn't do what they showed me to do. I, um, I like making money easily. I started off in school, like selling baseball cards, basketball cards, autograph plaques, things like that. And then gradually just moved into like when I was like 13, 14,

selling, I would buy like a little half-ounce, bag it up, take it to school. I would have kids from the high school coming to visit me. After school, they would be waiting for me. to get out of school. High school got out earlier than I did. I was still in middle school. So they'd be waiting outside in their cars, you know, 16, 17-year-olds rolling up. Teachers are like, what are these guys waiting for you?

No, we're going to go, you know, we're going to go practice football up at the high school, the bigger field. It was all lies, right? So, you know, school really wasn't a thing for me. You know, I didn't like doing homework. I just didn't like school. I like making money, though. So selling gradually moved up into different things, you know, started going to

clubs, maybe selling some e-pills, selling acid, things like that. My parents noticed I was getting into too much trouble, right? So they decided to up and move immediately. They're like, forget this. He's getting into too much trouble, got arrested a couple times. We got to go. So they pick up and we move. Now, where we moved to was not the best place, especially it wasn't better than where we were.

So I get to this new high school, you know, 16-year-old. and now you've got to make new friends. I really didn't want to do it. Got into a lot of problems the first couple weeks. And I was like, listen, I'm dropping out. I'm not dealing with this. You guys moving here. I don't want to do this.

And my father was like, all right, you want to drop out? And you got to go get a job. You're not going to be, you know, some lazy kid around here. So I was like, all right, no problem. Got a job. I'm in the back of a van going to work like a Mexican. Right. All illegal immigrants were going to some factory, right?

get there doing the 6 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. 8 hour shift. I meet this Colombian kid. We're going to call him G. All right. I feel like this is a business where it goes for all. So I meet this Colombian kid there on break. Lunchtime. He's outside. He asked me for a cigarette. Hey, you got a cigarette. Yeah, yeah. He was like, hey, you smoke. I was like, yeah. I got a joint. Let's go during break, whatever. We get friendly. And on the ride back home from the job, he's like hey you want to come over you know we'll have something to eat or whatever we'll hang out a little okay so i go to his house and i walk in meet his mother you know his sister and his cousin's there cousin rickie so he introduces me to rickie he's like hey this is my cousin from columbia he just

arrived oh okay nice to meet you eventually we get friendly as well you know we start going out we're going clubbing and um one day they invite me to a party christmas party so i get to the party and there's the whole family you know a bunch of upper level of traffickers you know nice cars a lot of jewelry beautiful women you know how it goes so we're in why is he working in a factory he's connected with this larger no so yeah he he just got here right he um he's getting his paperwork and he needs a job right he's trying to get his you know all his paperwork legally right so you need a job you have to pay your taxes all that good stuff. So he invites me to this party. I meet the rest of his family. And then this

gentleman called Tulio walks up to me. And he's like, hey, you know, I'm Tulio. I'm Ricky's uncle. You know, have you ever traveled to Columbia? I was like, Colombia, no, why? He's like, man, I'm telling you, if you travel down there, you can make some big money, a quick six-hour trip. And I was like, how are we going to do that? You're going to smuggle back some hair. We're going to put it in the shoes. Nobody's going to even know. You're a young white kid. Look at you. You got green eyes. You're young. Tell them you're going to go with you, your grandmother. You'll be fine. And I was like, sounds easy. All right. How much is it, how much is it going to pay? $20 a gram. So my head, $20 a gram, $1,000, $20,000. At 16, I was

like, let's do it. All right. I guess you hadn't seen locked up abroad. I hadn't seen it. It didn't exist. And if a podcast like this would have existed, I wouldn't have done it. You know what I mean? That's why we're doing this. So I accept the trip. Luckily, I had a passport, and I went to my mother's house and took it out, and she didn't even know.

Took the passport, got the ticket, and we're on a flight to Columbia. Your mother doesn't even know. My mother doesn't even know. Okay. Make it to Columbia. You know, somebody's waiting for me at the airport with a sign. The sign says, Bacho. They told me before I left, just look for the guy with the sign says Bacho.

All right. And get there. He's there with the sign. And he picks me up. He's like, hey, how's going? I'm Tudio's brother. You know, we're going to have some fun. So I hope you're ready.

Takes me to his house. Introduces me to his family. You know, everybody's there. Hey, how's it going? This is Oscar. Everybody knows why I'm coming. This is a family business. Right.

All right. So pretty much I'm just parting every day, you know, hanging out with the fellas, going to clubs, you know, smoke get them whatever you want you want women i was living the life for like a good two weeks right now two or three days before the trip they tell me all right now we got to put the brakes on you you got to relax stay at home eat well get ready because your trip's coming up it's an all right no problem so when the day comes they tell me all right here's a pair of shoes you know and each each shoe has 300 grams all right and here's a pair of sandals we're going to put the sandals in the bag each pair of sandals 300 grams. So you're going to take back, you know, 1,200 grams. Right. So in those days,

there was no, I mean, no scanners, no nothing. So I put on a pair of shoes, which were a pair of Adidas. And let me just explain how they make them, right? So it has to be a shoe with like some type of a platform bottom, like no air bubbles or anything. So they'll take it to a normal shoe guy, like a shoemaker. And he'll gut out the soul. He'll take everything out and he'll replace it with an actual soul that is all or any drug you're going to put it be it so this gets packaged up it's in a mold for that shoe at that size so my size was a size 10 and a half they made that mold on that size and they packaged up the drugs and put it in and then they seal it back up and they give it about a month so they already had my shoe size prior because they wanted to dry

and they don't want to have any smell of the chemicals for like the super glue that they use because they say the dogs could pick it up. In Colombia, the dogs were trained to sniff for that glue when it's fresh. Supposedly, that's what they said back in the day. So I get the shoes, I look at them. I'm like, wow, these are just normal sneakers. I mean, no one would know. I was grabbing and I'm bending it. Like, wow, this is crazy. Put them on my feet, walk around. They're like, how does they feel? You're all right? Like, yeah, no problem. You could walk with that? Sure, no problem. I'm good. I got the sandals in the bag. And then, you know, hop on the flight, come back to the city six hour flight and it was like nothing it just walked up how was your trip oh was great thank

you very much boom here stamp the passport they didn't say a word to me i mean i was so nervous but at the time i had my headphones on i'm listening to music you know i'm just trying to keep it cool and nothing happened i was like this is crazy i could do this like every week right at safety i'm just thinking about all the money like ching ching ching chiching right until you can't Until you can't, yeah. So pretty much get that. Once I get to the airport, they pick me up. The guys are there.

They pick me up. We go back to Queens to an apartment they had on 111th and 41st half. You know, took off the sneakers. They broke it open. We're weighing everything. And once we weighed everything, I got paid. After that, you know, I start to work with these guys. It was like a group of like five of us.

So this gentleman, Tulio, which was the head guy, guy here. He would distribute drugs throughout New York, say Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn. He had different people he would give this pure that's coming from overseas. I would eventually find out that, you know, maybe once or twice a month, he's got passengers going down to Columbia and bringing the stuff back. Usually couples, maybe sometimes just a woman by herself, you know, with a kid. But yeah, they were just smuggling these drugs back up. when the drugs would get here they would pay me to go pick up the passengers take them to a hotel all right i would take them to a hotel called the pan-american hotel in queens right by the airport and just get the drugs from them leave them there take it to the apartment in queens we'd go there we'd weigh it make sure everything's there and then i take her back the money and we split ways um quick question like is it you know if you keep going back and forth back and forth like Your passport's going to be flagged at some point, right?

It's going to be stamps everywhere, yeah. Right. So at some point they say, hey, look, you got to come in the, we got to, you know, we got to search you. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure that would happen. So I did one trip in 98, one trip in 99, and then I got caught on my third. Oh, I was going to say, yeah, that doesn't seem. Yeah, I wish I could have done several times, but you can't because you'll get flagged.

How many times are you going to come to Columbia? So that's also the reason why I flew to Ecuador the third time because we already done Columbia twice right so going back to the story working with these guys we're doing everything right we're picking up passengers we're distributing drugs we're taking it to elizabeth to a to a spot we had in the seaports we're taking it to newark and um throughout all this time you know we're just partying you never think about saving money especially at that age i was 16 17 18 i'm not thinking about saving it's coming too easy to it's coming too easy every week we're getting 510 grand you know 12 grand 13 grand to split up between three or four of us right we we could get um say we get the key

when it's here in queens at 50 and we would transport it to elizabeth we get it for 65 in elizabeth so we'd make 15 just off the right just taking it just transporting so at a young age and we were all young so we were all splurgeon nobody's thinking about saving money now i go on my second trip. Second trip was a little bit better. On the way down, we went to a different town called Medellín. I don't know if you ever heard of it. Yeah, yeah. Beautiful town, beautiful country. I love it. So get to Medellín. Same guys waiting for me with a sign, Paco. Now he picks me up at that airport and then drives me back eight hours all the way to the town of Perreta. So now I have two entrances in Colombia, one in Pereira and one in Medellin. But they're taking me from

In a car all the way back to Breda, it's like an eight, nine hour drive at night through the mountains, you know, and at that time, it was crazy. Like, they had guerrilla warfare going on everywhere. They would come and take over the highways, you know, and they just start asking you for documents. They want to see, you know, your IDs. So the driver was like, oh, give me the passport. He's hiding it every, you know, we don't want anybody to know you're American just in case they stop us. So he's like, if they stop us, don't speak in English. What would happen?

They could kidnap me. It would take me. I'm an American in Columbia will take me, take me to the jungle, and just ask for a ransom. You know, so another very dangerous position I was in. Get back to the house. Now, this time, this is the second trip. I get to the house, and there's a kid there that we had sent a couple days prior. Young kids, 16 years old, but he was like a real 16-year-old.

Like, he wasn't into drugs or anything. Now, his mother was going out with this. the boss tullio and she would send her son down there to pick up drugs and he didn't even know it and he would come back with like shoes you know i don't know if you remember the cd holders that would hold like 40 CDs in them right they would make like a double bottom in it and stack like 250 300 grams in there give him a pair of shoes like here take this to your uncle stack another 300 grams in each shoe in there this kid was trafficking drugs and didn't even know it his mother was putting him in the worst position ever i mean i think think she was just what a horrible mother right right and um this kid doesn't even know it he's

there he's playing around with the other kids at the house and he doesn't know he's the drug mule so i see him there he's like hey what are you doing here because he knew me from queens he's like what are you doing i was like no i'm just here on vacation man i was like no it's nice to see you everything but my movie was different i was on another level i was like hanging out with the guys going out to the clubs and all that stuff now that was a shorter trip so once that trip is done same thing we get the shoes test them out everything's great put them on make it back to the city now when i walk through customs and i walk out you know i had left um all my money to the driver because i'm like i'm going to make real money now so whatever i had in my pockets i was like bro

here you go that's all for you i think it was like a hundred and fifty dollars he almost started crying he was like oh thank you so much sir and then i left when i get back there's nobody here to pick me up and I have no money. So I'm like, where are these guys? I'm calling collect everywhere. I had to call my parents. So I'm at the airport. You know, I got a little bit over a key on me and I'm sitting there waiting for someone to come pick me up. Do your parents know you just came back from Columbia? Yes. They actually do, but they weren't supposed to. Let me just rewind and tell you a little story about that. They were going to Orlando, right? And they invited me. And I was like, I can't go. I was like I'm going to Miami to do something. I might swing by. And when I'm in Columbia, I make a call

from the hotel where I am to their hotel in Orlando. Just to say, you know, everything's all right. How you doing? And when the hotel goes to give the call to my mother's room, they tell her, you have a collect call from Columbia, your son, Oscar Castro. So when she, you know, they connect the phone. They connect the line with me. I'm like, hey, I'm mine, what's? going on? She's like, you, mother, where are you? I'm like, why? I'm in Miami. You lying, son of a bee, be, you know, just going crazy. I'm like, no. She's like, they just told me you're in Columbia. They just transferred the call here. And I was like, oh, my God. So, yes, when I got back, they knew I was in Columbia. So I call her. I'm like, listen, I need

you to come pick me up. She's like, all right, we'll be there like in an hour. I'm waiting outside. We got customs officials walking by. We got the dogs walking. We got the dogs walking by and I'm sitting there with all this drugs on me. About 40 minutes go by and the guys that I work with, pull up. And I'm like, what the hell? Where were you guys? Get in the car. We go to the parking lot. Take all the stuff out. Give it to him. I'm like, listen,

you got to take me back. You guys never picked up the phone. Yeah. You weren't here. I had to call my parents. It's going to pick me up. Take me back to the same spot. They drop me off. I sit down and my parents pull up. Bam. Get in the car and go back to the house. Crazy. Hey, real quick, just wanted to let you guys know that we're looking for guests for the podcast. If you think you'd be a good guest, you know somebody, do me a favor. You can fill out the form.

The link is in our description box, or you can just email me directly. Email is in the description box. So back to the video. Yeah, when we're looking for a smuggler, say, my boss was looking for someone, or he told me, if you know somebody, let me know, you know, I'll give you, you know, a little cut. Yeah. So I'd be like, of course, I'm looking for people too. I'm riding around town looking for hot girls.

Hey, what's going on? You know, talking to anybody. You want to take a trip to Columbia, make a quick 15 cash? So what they look for is young, you know, American, you have to have the blue passport. And beautiful women, they were always wanted. You know, we always want a pretty girl because life's easy. Yeah, life's easy when you're pretty, right? So that's what they would look for.

Never really heard of like any elderly couples, but there was always. always couples going, like boyfriend, girlfriend, going, like, say, the Cardagina, right? And then they would bring the drugs up to them, or they'd go like to Cali, you know, so Cali, Columbia, I'm saying. So they would transfer the drugs there from Perida. Once you get to the airport, you always have to just look and just go with your heart. I would get there and I'd say, where am I going? You know, they told me, always look for an elderly woman as the customs agent, the one that's going to stamp your passport. I said, why?

You were a young white kid with green eyes. Yeah. You look for an elderly woman. When she asked you why you flew, just tell him. I was down there visiting my grandmother. And she's going to be like, all right, sign here you go. And that's what happened. That's what I did both times.

Look for an elderly woman, went to her line and just walked right through without a problem. Second trip was done, right? Parents picked me up. I'm gone. We do the second trip. I get paid. Everything's good. Now, I continue working with these guys, right?

Dropping off drugs, picking up money. You know, we're working with fake bills. We did a lot of things that I'm not proud of either. But money gets short again. I want to do another trip, right? So I talk to the boss. I'm like, listen, and I want to do another trip. You think it's possible?

He's like, sure, but, you know, we're not, I don't want to send you to Colombia now. We're going to try Ecuador. So I said, Ecuador. All right, let's go. You know, I was never afraid of anything. I guess I was just young and dumb. So at that age, you know, I just had balls of steel. You know, just wanted to do anything, especially it was about making money.

So they'd never done Ecuador? They had never done Ecuador. I want to be the test subject. I was going to do the first run. So, yeah, we were the test dummy for Ecuador, all right, and that's the way it went. So we get the tickets for Ecuador. You know, it's all planned out. I get there, and from day one, it was just horrible, right?

On the flight down, I had a bad feeling. I get there. My luggage never made it there. It went to Waiakil, which was, you know, somewhere else in the country about 10 hours away. So I had no luggage and nobody was there to pick me up. So I knew what what hotel I had to go to was hotel, the Radisson Hotel. So I just took a cab, went straight there, got my room, went upstairs, and started making phone calls. And, you know, explained to the guy up here, you know, I'm like, nobody was there to pick me up and I lost my

luggage and, you know, what's going on? So he's like, oh, give me a couple hours. I'll make a few phone calls and I'll get back to you. So he gets back to me. He said, listen, the guy's on his way. He had a delay, but he's going to be there soon. So just wait. So that's what I did. I waited for the next two days in the hotel.

That's a hell of a delay. Yeah. So next two days and no one showed up. And then finally I was like, listen, I got to go get new clothes. So went to the mall, you know, started buying all new clothes because my luggage still didn't arrive. So I get back from the mall from buying all his clothes and I have a message from the airport. obviously they found my luggage right it's there so go to the airport get my luggage come back to the hotel and um have a message so I I call a number and he's like listen

you know I'm going to be there like in two hours are you going to be there I was like yeah I'll be here I'll be waiting for you he's like okay that was the last we spoke now two hours go by I'm outside in front there's a Swiss hotel with the casino on the first floor So I'm sitting at the casino at one of the machines playing that has a view to the front entrance of my hotel, which is across the street, because I had a bad feeling. So I'm sitting there playing, but I'm also watching the door. I'm just seeing if anything is strange or out of place. Never felt anything wrong. When the two hours go by, I walk across the street.

And when I walk in into reception, the young lady that was always there wasn't there. but there was a different guy there. So he looks at me and he says, Mr. Castro. And for some reason, like, I'm like the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. And I just looked at him and I was like, yes. He's like, your friend is over there waiting for you. I was like, oh, okay, thank you. And I turned around and there's this guy over there and he stands up.

So I'm like, hey, what's up, buddy? Like, if we're old friends and we know each other, you know, because we're old friends. So walk up to him, give him a hug. And when I hug him, I immediately smell that. He smells like death. You know, in our business, we don't walk around smelling like death. Right. It was, you know, nice and clean, you know, cologne on, cream, whatever.

But this guy smelled horrible. So that was like red flag number one. So I back up from him, you know, I look at him. So we sit down on the couch right there, right by the front entrance to the lobby. And we're talking. So I'm like, how are you? I was everything going? And I'm looking around.

Got a bunch of people around me. Remember, this is the lobby to the entrance of the whole. telling this is like five-star hotel was one of the best hotels in quito at the time so we're talking he's like listen i'm going to leave you the bag and i'm going to go back to my hotel and go take a shower because the trip was crazy i was on a bus for like 40 hours so i'm like all right in my head i'm like all right so this is why you know he's starting to make sense okay so it's like all right i'm going to go upstairs i was like listen just go do your thing come back and we'll go out tonight so he was like all right no problem he had this like little um kangaroo like

man purse with the drugs in it so he puts it there on the on the on the couch and i pick it up and go to leave pick it up put it on go to go to leave and bam everybody that was around me DEA Interpol undercover police officers everybody just grabs me boom they grabbed me immediately walk me to the elevator i'm like what's going on boom they put me in the elevator they take me upstairs when i get to my floor and the doors open there's already police there My room door is open, and they're searching everything in my room. They open the safe. You know, I see they got my jewelry out, my cash on the table, my passport.

And they have a capsule on the bed broken. They were like, what's that? And I was like, I don't know what that is. They were like, oh, you're going to play stupid? And then bam, they smack me. What is that? I was like, I don't know. I thought I was coming to pick up money.

They were like, money, this is and you're going to do the next 25 years in this country. Well, I mean, here's the thing. thing like you didn't have any in your room or on the bag i mean you've got the bag he just said i got the stuff he gave it to you you haven't opened the bag i don't know what this guy they like this i could be set up like you don't i don't know what's in there that's why when they deliver when someone delivers like a fedex thing to you they don't hand it to you and then jump on you they wait till you go and open the package they wait to you know like you don't that's that's what they do in in the countries where they have laws right and we go with the laws right oh

You know, in Ecuador, they're going to do what they want. They were taking my stuff in front of me and passing it out. What size sneakers are you? X-L, here you go. You know, T-shirt, hat, my watch. One of the police officers put on my jewelry. And I never saw it again. I had a $5,000 cannon camera that I took with me because, you know, we're a tourist.

Yeah, yeah. We're going to take pictures. and they stole everything. And this is Interpol is there? And everybody's there. Everybody's there. Interpol, DEA, and the national police. And who knows what other undercover people are there?

Are you going to sit here and tell me that an American DEA agent is dirty? Yes. Very. I won't hear of it. So all that goes down in the room, you know, they smack me. They look at my passport and they're like, oh, this is fake. You're not American. This is BS.

And they smacked me again because I had to use. the passport a lot. Besides my flights to Colombia, I flew to Argentina, Uruguay with my parents as well. So it was used. And the plastic was coming up just where the picture is, like the corner part. So it was peeling up. And they were like, oh, this is fake. Forget it. And I was like, call the embassy, you're going to find out. So they take me to Interpol, which is in an office across the street from the airport. I walk in. And as I'm walking in through this like tunnel, I look to my right and there's a door open and I see the guy that brought the drugs to me sitting in there with a couple agents so there I was like yeah this guy set me up right yeah you know so they walk

me into this room they sent me there for like two hours by myself it was freezing in there I had nothing there was no water no nothing um and then a young like 20 year old DEA agent from Manhattan walks in the room sits down he's like well you know what you're here for he's like let me tell you son you're gonna be here for a long time. And I was like, what do you mean? Yeah, he's like, you know, we're down on drugs here in Ecuador. And here, with what they caught you, you're probably going to do 25 years. So it's better if you talk now and let us know, and maybe we could help you out. He's like, maybe I could even put you on a flight and take you back to Queens right now. Nobody has to know. I'll put you on that flight. We'll go back. You know, you give up who you're taking this to. And, you know,

maybe we could talk in the States. In my head at that time, just snitching wasn't an option for me. Right. Right. I just never thought that I could do it, never wanted to do it. And I just always thought, you know, once you're in the game, you just got to go by the rules. That was my thought at the time. All right?

Young and dumb. You're one of the only people. But I have a question for you. Did you, were you thinking, too, that, like, they don't have anything? I was thinking that as well. Because, you know, I'm thinking states. law you're giving me they didn't even give me listen to this and it's all on paperwork that I have they didn't even give me the full key they only gave me 300 grams in that bag that I had in

my possession right right 300 grams that's it and then the rest of the key was not even there it was at interpull so how are you going to charge me with the you should have charged me with possession of 300 grams not possession of 1, 152 which they said it was so once it broke the threshold of, I think it was 350 grams, then it goes into bigger sentences. It'll be like 8 to 16, depending on what the quantities are and how big your case is, things like that. But again, Ecuador is a country of, you know, 100% corruption from, you know, the guards up to like Supreme Court judges.

I'm thinking, I'm thinking I'm in the States, right? Because they didn't give me the full kilo So in my head Once I grabbed the bag I knew there wasn't the full amount of drugs in there either That's another thing that like red flag When I grabbed the bag and stood up I was like this is light

You know once you've had a key in your hand You know how much your weighs So Anyway at the end of the day I said No I'm not going to say anything You know I'm going down with my My crime and that's it And that's what I did

It's what I came to do So you're going to just take your ride they put me in a cell and interpol and I'm there for two days and I got caught on December 18th right

so after two days they come back they're like all right you want to talk you know what are your thoughts and I'm like I can't talk anything

this is mine I was taking it back I have no one to take it to so if you want to go to the states take me back that's fine but you know

I don't have anyone to give up for you so like all right so I guess you're going to go to prison for the next 25 years put me back in the cell. You know, I had no bed, just a concrete slab to sleep on. There was no bed, no mattress, no sheets, no pillow, nothing. I believe I ate bread for the next two days, like loaves of bread with nothing else. And after that, they came in and just told me, listen, kid, you're going, you know, get ready, turn around, boom, handcuff me. They take me outside, and they put me in the back of a pickup, like some 1989 Nissan. piece of garbage with nothing and just like a welded metal bar and they handcuffed me to this

welded bar in the back of the pickup mind you now I have to take a trip from quito all the way to Tulcan which is where the case started this is where they get the guy that was bringing me the drugs so he goes to go through the border of Colombia and Ecuador so he's passing through Ipiales Colombia going into Tulcan Ecuador over a bridge now this bridge as customs. So they stop him. He gets nervous and they catch him. He talks to them. They tell him, you know, give up the guy that you're bringing it to. They set up an operation. And I didn't know, but they were already watching me the whole day at Quito. That was the whole delay. This whole delay was because of that. Okay. The whole delay was because of that. They were

already, they were watching me already at the hotel seeing if I had any other connects or I had other contacts that I was seeing in Quito. They were watching me the whole time, which I found out later on in the trial. Oh, my God. You're already out of trial. Yeah. So after that, you know, I get on this ride. We're going through the mountains all the way to Tulcan.

Crazies ride in my life, just bumpy. It's horrible. I don't know if you know about the roads in Ecuador, but they're horrible. It's all mountainous. There's paved roads. There's rocky roads. We finally get the Tulkan. They take me to this place that's called the Quartel.

so it's basically like the police academy so they have trainees they have you know normal police people this is where they put their cars away and and all their guns and everything and right next door is this small jail for the city of tulkan so they put me in this um police academy i guess that's where they hold the prisoners before they take them to the small jail and i walk into this little holding cell and there's three guys there local guys like all like scarface tatted up they look like you know, out of a movie, scary guys. They see me and they're like, oh, Gringo, and I talk to him in Spanish immediately. And I'm like, hey, what pass at all you know?

And they're like, oh, you speak Spanish? I'm like, yes. Oh, you're good. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine. This jail is run by the Colombians. You're going to be good here. He was like, you've ever been in jail here?

I was like, no, never. Oh, okay. You're going to see. It's a party over there. So I'm there. I believe for the next two days. And December 24th, they walk me out of that whole deal. cell and now they start walking me down the block. I'm in the streets, accompanied by like five

police officers walking down the street, going to the jail right next door. Now as I'm walking, I hear a bunch of loud music, salsa music. December 24th, you know, it's Christmas Eve. Yeah. It's a party. Get to the front door. The music's even louder. A bunch of guards there dressing, you know, fatigues. We open up the doors. Everybody's, you know, gringo, gringo. And I'm like, Yeah, yeah, the gringo speaks Spanish. So they're like, oh, you're going to be fine. Don't worry about it, man. Where are you from?

You know, everybody's asking this young lady guard. She's like, don't worry, you're going to be fine here. It's a party inside. Man, I'm like, what? Where am I? So I signed a bunch of paperwork. They take some photos of me, you know, put me up against the wall, left, right, bam, bam. And then they go through all the stuff I had, the stuff that they didn't steal, you know, at the hotel.

and now they're walking me down this tunnel. I'm walking down the tunnel. And I see at the end of a tunnel, sunlight beaming through, through the bars, and a bunch of faces like, you know, people trying to look down the tunnel. There's like four or five people behind. You know, it's just light beaming through.

So I'm walking. I'm walking. And then you see the people turn around. They're like, hey, it's a new guy. It's a new guy. So once I get to the gate, they open up, and everybody's like, yeah, fresh me, fresh me. And I'm like, oh, my God. When they open up that door and I see, All these people.

I'm like, what? It's like a small village. You see like three huts over there, which I found out were stores. See some pool tables on the yard. Like pool tables. See women dancing with men. They're dancing salsa. They got three, four foot speakers out in the yard.

This is the prison. This is the prison. And they have, you know, they got bottles of liquor, got tables set up. People dance. It's a party. This is Christmas Eve and it's a party. so while I'm watching all this you know I'm like in shock I'm in shock and all of a sudden I hear hey white boy and I turn to my right and there's this white guy blonde hair green eyes and I'm like what's up he's like you're American come on come with me bro takes me he's like we're going upstairs so I'm walking up the steps I'm walking with this guy everybody's cheering like yeah I got my little suitcase some guys are coming trying to like grab my suitcase but just messing around right you know and not really You know, they're just like, hey, like trying to scare you.

No, it's just like, what the hell's going on? Walk up the steps, and he opens up this door. And this is the cell where the guy that runs the jail lives. So they call him Caporal. His name was Orlando. So I walk in, Orlando's there, his wife, and his two kids. They got a TV on watching, you know. And this is an inmate.

The cartoon channel. Yeah, inside the jail on the second floor and cell one. That was his cell. And I walk in, you know, she's cooking. I don't know what she was making. I forgot. The kids that are watching the cartoon network and he's chilling on the bed with a cell phone. He's got like three cell phones on the bed as well.

So I'm like, hey, what's going on, man? They're like, all right, tell me your story. So I explained to him what happened. And they're like, all right. So obviously, you know, the kid gave you up, right? I'm like, yep, we know. So like, where is this kid? I don't know.

They didn't bring him with me. But, you know, I'm just here by myself right now. They're like, all right, don't worry. Eventually, they'll probably bring your friend here, and then you could see him again. He was like, all right, sounds good. So that's day one. And now he introduces me to his family. You know, Alex is there.

And he's like, white boy, I hope you're ready. Today's December 24th. It's a party. The girls next door are here. I'm like, what girls? He's like, the women inmates. You can see all the women outside? They're all prisoners.

But today, they're on this side. and we're partying, bro. He's like, come on. Orlando's like, bro, have a good time. Don't worry about it. You'll be fine. Go with Alex. I go with Alex.

Alex starts introducing me to all the guys. I'm walking through. I'm seeing women. I'm like, wow, look at that. She's beautiful. Look at this. Kids running around playing soccer. Takes me to the cell.

We open up the cell door. There's a party going on. They got plates. They're smoking. They're watching the music channel. They got videos on. I'm like, what the hell is this? So that was the first day, you know, entering the jail in Tulkan, which had me in complete shock.

And not only that, but that party didn't end there. It went to 1 o'clock in the morning because it was Christmas Eve. Right. And, you know, Latinos, they celebrate the 24th and they wait and open up the presents. Like kids will open up presents the 24th at midnight, not like in the States where they do it December 25th in the morning when they wake up. Yeah. So over there, it's different. And 1 o'clock in the morning

They took all the women to their side And they locked us on ourselves And that's it The party was over Next day opens up 6 a.m. Back out You know I received the call from my mother that day

You know And obviously she had spoken to the embassy You know, she was going through it man She was in shock as well How old are you at this point? At this point I was 20 Okay Yeah, I was fresh fresh 20 years old

Yeah Um But I mean this isn't the place you end up like how long like how long it's like do you get a lawyer there so this is a small jail in the country now they take me there because that's where my case starts right as soon as i get in there i'm i'm asking you know what are the how does this work yeah what is my case going to be like you know what is the the court system like and everybody's just you know i'm just like they're like oh bro here it's just so much corruption you know this

kid got locked up for a joint and he got eight years, a joint with a gram, you know, gram in a joint, he got eight years. Yeah, but he got eight years and he got lucky. You got the two for one. Like, what's the two for one? Well, yeah, if they give you eight years, you only do four. So every year counts for two. Right.

And I was like, and we don't have that anymore? No, we lost that last month. I said, what? He's like, yeah, November 21st, they took that law away. And I got arrested December 18th. I was like, oh my God, just my luck. So, finally get, you know, I know people there. I'm like, who's your lawyer?

This is my lawyer. All right, let me call them up. Call a bunch of different lawyers. They're giving me American prices, you know, 7,000, 10,000, 15,000. So luckily, we had some money saved up and also had a lawsuit that was pending before I flew down there and was able to get some money and get a lawyer. Paid the lawyer. Now, what he was telling me is they're trying to make it. out is like I'm the owner of this drugs like I'm the top guy right so you're just a courier I'm just

a courier right so the other guy was just a courier as well but from Columbia to Ecuador now he's bringing it to me so it's like I'm the owner and I don't want to give anybody up so it's mine now the courier from Columbia to Ecuador is supposed to get 8 to 12 and the owner is supposed to get 12 to 16 on drugs and when I'm hearing this I'm you know it's like depression like I just want to like you know I'm inside you know you're crying you you want to go crazy you know you can't show too much emotion you're in jail yeah but it's like I was I was dying inside you know at 20 years old you're going to throw away the key 12 to 16 years for me was a life oh yeah exactly you know it was a lifetime and I hadn't even lived my life yet you know 20 years old is very young okay

the the Colombians that are in the U.S. that were a part of this whole thing. Did, do we ever hear from them again? Yeah, yeah. I heard from them again. They helped me out in the beginning. Okay. You know, they sell me like 20 cell phones.

He sent me like luggage bags full of clothes. You know, they took to my mother and stuff like that. But that's it. Just a one-time thing. And then I never heard from anybody again, you know, pretty much I'm dead to them. You know, once you're going out of sight, out of mind. Yeah. Right?

Not what they should have done, but probably more than most people would do. Most people just walk away and just... Yes. Most people just walk away because also they're scared. You know, most people might just, you know, never answer the phone again because they think you might give them up. Right. You know, that wasn't the case with me. But at the end of the day, they all forgot about me.

Right. And that's a big point that, you know, I want to make, you know, here on my podcast and every podcast that I do is, you know, don't believe the lies that they tell you because it's never going to happen the way they say it will. We're going to take care of you. We'll get your lawyer. That's all BS. at the end of the day, it's going to be you on your own in jail or prison, and it's going to be your family suffering and your family paying the bills. That's it. You know, that's what's going to happen. So you eventually, you do get a lawyer. You get some money. Got the lawyer,

paid the lawyer off, and he's fighting for me, right? So he's, I'm fighting with him telling him, you got to try to get me at least eight to 12. Right. You know, not the 12 to 16. You're 20 years old. 20 years old. Arguing for eight. Argueing for eight to 12. You know, and, and, you got to try to And I'm in shock at this moment because I'm around people, you know, this guy's got a joint eight years. Another prisoner that was there did somebody, got 16 years and was paying eight, and he had already had six years in. So he had two more years and he was going to be out. And he somebody.

You know, so that just goes to show you how weird. The laws are in Ecuador. It's just, you know, there's no justice. Yeah. Right. We get the lawyer. He's fighting. right?

Eventually, we go to trial, they find me guilty, and I get the eight flat, okay? This is after a year and some change. Right. All right. Let me just rewind. Before I get sentenced, I'm in the jail, in this small jail in Tulkan, and I get this little money from the lawsuit or whatever, and I start buying things like pool table, you know, the store, and, you know.

Full table. Yeah. Yeah, they had two pool tables there. I bought one. And then they had three stores. We purchased one of those. So it's an income, right? And then bought some Coke, started bagging it up, selling it in the jail.

So first run goes great. You know, obviously there's someone in the jail. I'm like, bro, let's start moving some stuff here. He's like, oh, I got somebody that could bring it in. All right, let's do it. We get this girl. She brings it in. We bag it up.

Great. 50 grams goes real quick. I'd say, I don't know, two weeks. We go to get the second bomb in. She brings it in. We bag it up. We're taking her downstairs to the exit for the visits. And we're waiting at the door.

And all of a sudden, you know, we just hear all these police walk in. They're like, everybody to the ground, everybody to the ground. We turn around. They're, like, invading the patio. And they're taking all the visits out, rushing them out. And everybody's on the floor. They put his face down on the ground. They make sure all the visits are gone.

and then they lift us all up. They're like, all right, everybody gets up. Everybody goes and stands in front of their cells now. Everybody's running. Boom, boom, boom, run into those cells. Get to the cell. They're like, all right, we need one person in the cell to stand in the door. Stand in the doorway, and the cops start going crazy inside,

ripping out the mattresses, the clothes, everything. They're going through everything. Now, they go through everything. They didn't find nothing. They just made a mess. They leave. They go on to the next cell. I'm thinking in my head, thank God.

We're good. Now some young kid walks up. He had to be, I don't know, probably 18, 19 years old. And he asked me, he's like, did they check the cell already? And it was like, yeah, they checked. He already moved to the next one. He's like, okay, I'm going to check it again. And he walks in.

And as soon as he walks in, he just focuses his attention on the kitchen. So he's looking at the kitchen. We have everything like a normal kitchen. We got cupboards, you know, we got the stove. It's an electric stove, not gas. We got the mini sink, you know, everything there. um he's looking he's looking so he starts grabbing the cover he starts like trying to shake it like moving the the wooden cover it's on the wall seeing if they're loose when he did that my heart just dropped i was like oh no and then we had this little small wooden placard where we could hang the big like spoons and the big thing to take the fries out of the friar and he just moves it a little bit he noticed it was like loose and then he struggled to get this nail out he popped it out the thing just fell right behind that there was a small hole like this where you could stick your hand in and go and that's that was a stash and as soon as

it dropped he just you know he started calling for the other officers they came over you know cameras out and then they film it before they even put their hands in their film and they're like all right boom they go in and they take out the bomb they see this huge bag filled with bags of you know so obviously they're like all right whose isn't nobody fesses up and um they they uh let's say i was going to I say, are you guys telling me there's been in the cell the whole time? That's crazy. Yeah. So they take us out, you know, they lock up the cell, and they have a construction crew coming the next day to fill in the hole.

And then they break down the rest of the stuff, make sure there's no holes behind it. And they put everything back up. All right. So now, I'm like, what am I going to do? I'm talking. I'm trying to find out what's going to go on here. Because no one told me anything. They just took the drugs.

They took us out of the cell. And they just left. now I'm thinking like oh my god what is going to happen now then I think it was like two or three days later the director of the jail calls us up you know everybody from the cell so we get there and they're like all right who's going to take charge of this because you know it's either one of you or it's all of you so again I have to fess up you know it's mine I'm not going to let everybody go down for everything so told them it's mine it all right everybody else could leave and I sat there with him. He was like, man, he's like, you're screwed. And I was like, why? He's like, do you not

understand what's going on now? I was like, not really. So he says, you're going to get hit with internal drug trafficking. And that's 12 years. And I said, what do you mean 12 years? He's like, yeah. And that's on top of whatever sentence you get. They're going to stack it on. So if you get eight and you're lucky, this is going to be 12. So you'll be doing 20 years. And I was 20 years at the time. So in my head, you know, my head's just spinning, thinking, you're going to get out of here if I'm, if I'm lucky when I'm 40. So that right there, you know, that day just turned into a nightmare. You know, I got, you know, went into like depression. Didn't want to talk to anybody.

It was just really bad. Horrible times for me. But again, something I brought upon myself, you know, just stupid, trying to sell some stuff inside the jail. Right. And you just got caught, just unlucky. You didn't get 12 years, right? Did you get an extra 12? So I have to get a lawyer for this new charge.

But you haven't even been charged for the first eight yet. You're still hoping to get eight. Exactly. Okay. So this is, you know, it's a long story. So now I call it my lawyer that I contracted for my original case. And I explained to him what's going on. And he's like, man, are you crazy?

Do you know what you got yourself into? I was like, yeah, now I know they already explained it to me. What can we do about this? He's like, there's not much we can do. I mean, 12 is the minimum. And he's like, and I'm pretty sure that's what you're going to get. So in my head, I'm like, I just got to escape. I got to get out of here.

I can't do 20 years in Ecuador, you know? So pretty much, I'm like, all right, thanks a lot, you know. In my head, I'm like, we just got to go. I got to get out of here. So I start planning, start talking to my roommates and a couple of them are down, right? So we got five guys in the cell. This is nuts, bro. Five guys are in the cell, and one of them is a guy from Spain from Barcelona, but he weighed like 450 pounds, big guy.

So obviously, he can't go with us if we're going to make some little hole in the wall. So the solution for that was this kid from Columbia that was in our cell, he somehow managed to get some drops that would put you to sleep. I don't know what they were, but it would make you go to sleep immediately. Like maybe 10 minutes after we would put it in his coffee. he was out like a light. So we made it a normal routine to every day after we got locked in our cell at 7 p.m. You know, we would, you know, make a sandwich, coffee, hot chocolate. You know, we'd have like a little snack.

And there was always one guy that he always prepared everything. He would do the hot chocolate, coffee, whatever. And he knew to put the drops in this guy's coffee. So that's what we did. And we would do that. not every single day, but probably three or four times a week, we would do that. He would knock out and we would get to work. We were able to bring down this wooden cupboard and we would start cutting it because we got a sawin

that we paid for and we would start cutting the walls. So the wall there, it was like, that jail was probably like 130, 140 years old. So this is like plaster. And if you get hot water, you know, you get in a little bucket and you start splashing it and you start hitting it with this, you know, little saw or like we had like a Phillips head screwdriver as well, these little chunks would just start coming off and it would just start disintegrating. And we could actually wash this in the sink and it would just go.

It would turn, basically it turned into like sand. So we cut the hole, you know, it took us, I don't know, I would say maybe two, three months to do it every day. We also had to put it back, secure it. And throughout these three or four months, we're also going through other searches, you know, several searches because don't forget we have the academy next door where they're training these police officers and now they're bringing them into the jail i'm in so that they can go through and train and learn how to search and find things like drugs you know tunnels holes people trying

escape guns knives whatever the case may be so how thick are these wall is this wall you're this is an exterior wall so this the wall i'm going through is like the roof so i'm on the second floor of this jail, right? And the roof has, I would say, maybe five or six inches like this, right? And once we cut through that and we broke through, we were able to stick a mirror up. It was like a small hole, like you could put your hand in, right? And we were able to see up top, there was all like rebar, right? It was just a whole net of steel. So now we need another type of cutting device that cut steel because what we had was not going to work so we had to secure that back and we had to figure out a plan right now days are going by we get another search

I think this was like the third or fourth search that we had while we were working and they come in and start ripping everything out and they find the hole as soon as they rip that down and find the hole we turn around and look at us and they look at us and they just started beating us They ran at us, starting pulling out batons. Oh, you think you were going to leave here? All right. Beating us without stopping. I mean, it was like a good five, ten minutes.

All right. After that, they closed the cell, and then they all separate us, put us all in a bunch of different cells everywhere throughout the jail. That cell was closed for reparations or whatever. And basically, they told me, you know, get ready because they're going to be shipping you out to the prison soon. luckily when I got there there was people that had been there controlling the jails like I told you Alex White Boy Orlando and they got transferred to the prison in Quito before I did so while I'm in Tulkan going through all these you know drug trafficking charges internally and trying to escape these guys were already in the prison in Quito and I'm still in

communication with them we talked through cell phone messages and everything so when they transfer me over there to the big prison, luckily I arrived there and I have people that know me and people that are going to vouch for me or take care of me. And, you know, once I get to the big prison, they take you to the hole. So that was one of the scariest things in my life walking into the big prison. Let me just rewind. Because it's not a party. No, this is not a party. So this is the real deal. Like, all there were parties inside, but this was on a different level. So, you know, they find the hall eventually, they say, you know, we're going to transfer you to the bigger prison, and they take me. I go throughout the night, I believe I left two, three in the morning, I get there early the next day, sunrise 8, 8.30, and we're walking into the prison.

Now, the head guard is there and all his guards. They introduce me. Everybody's here to look at me. They want to see me. You know, they're taking pictures of me. they fingerprint me and all that good stuff and they're like all right this guy tried to escape take him up to the hole

and when I'm going up to the hole everybody's just kicking you beating you with batons you're falling you're tripping and I have to go up four flights all through steps so I get finally to this this huge tunnel which has a gate in front of it it's like the movies

at the end of the tunnel there's this light like swinging back and forth it's like flickering on and off and it's just it's it's Cold, right? That's what I could remember. It was cold and smelled horrible. They open up this gate and they tell me, keep walking, keep walking. They're like pushing me down. I get to the end. There's a door on the left and a door on the right. And they open up the door on the left. They open up that door and I hear, turn on the lights, turn on the lights, somebody that's inside. And I remember the spark that it made because there's no switch. They had to connect like some wires. It was like, zoom. I was like, what? And I was. turned and it was it's packed there's like people sleeping on the floors there's like 10 or 12 people on the floors there's like six beds concrete beds those are all packed with people and to my right there's the bathroom area with a hole in the floor to go to the bathroom there's no toilet and then

inside there it was like a sweatshop the walls are sweating it's so hot and humid in there there's no ventilation there's no window there's nothing the only window we had was the window from the door, which was about this big, and we could, like, communicate to the outside world and put a mirror out and see who's coming from down the hall. But besides that, there was nothing. So you're in there. Everybody's in there in their boxers. Shirts off. Everybody's dripping sweat. The walls, like, it's running. It's horrible. So once I realize where I'm at, and I'm looking around, again, what do I hear? White boy? And I turn and look, I'm like, what? And there's this other American there. And he's like, you're American. I'm like, yeah, bro, I'm American. What's up? He's

like, come here, bro. Makes a spot on his bed for me. I sit down next to him. He's like, you're all right? Where are you coming from? So I give him my story. Coming from Tulkan, I tried to escape. And he's like, really? Oh, man, he's like, what do you think I'm here for? He was all black and blue. Two black eyes. Arms had welts on him, you know, like from bats or whatever, his legs. They were all black and blue. He was being, I mean, just, he looked horrible. He was like, listen, I tried to escape too. He's like, you know, I had a relationship with the psychiatrist here. You know, it was going on for about a year.

Nobody knew about it. And I finally convinced her to bring me in a police uniform. So I got the pass to go see the psychiatrist. You know, we go in. I'm in the office with her. It's always private. Doors closed. I change into the police uniform.

She goes outside and she watches for when the shift is changing. Because there's like 20, 30 officers that are going to be coming. in and 20 or 30 officers that are going out at the same time. So once that was happening, she opens up the door and tells me, go. He's like, I walk out, bam, I just walk in, put the hat down like this, and I'm just walking next to everybody. He's like, I'm a cop just like them. And he walks through two of the main gates. He was already in the street. Now in the street, there's one last gate you have to go through. And when he goes out that gate, you're going down a hill and there's other police officers or guards coming up a hill.

So as these guards are coming up the hill, they see his face and they grab them and throw him on the ground and they catch them. Because these were guards inside the prison. So they catch them and then they beat the living hell out of them for days. And I walk into this whole calaboso, what they call it, and I meet him for the first time. Crazy story. He eventually comes my friend.

His name was Alex. He's from here from Queens, New York. And a little less than a year later, he actually manages to leave. He escaped with 18 other prisoners through a tunnel in B-block in the prison we were at. Did they catch him? No, never called him. So that night. So if you were to escape and get back to the United States, would they extradite you back?

I'm not sure how that would work. I don't think so. I mean, not in those times. Maybe now. I'm not sure. But, yeah, okay. And those times, I don't think so. He was American.

He was born in Queens, New York, right? But he had family in Columbia. So I'm pretty sure he left there and went to Columbia. And after that, I never heard from him again. Okay. But do you know, like, so 18 people escape? This seems like a big thing. Like, do you know weeks coming up, like, these guys are planning to escape?

So I'm about to drop a crazy story for you about that right now. Okay. So the night prior to the escape, you know, since me and Alex are boys, you know, he lives in B block, I live in D block. So we can see each other from the gates, from our blocks. After 5 p.m., everything's closed. So you have to stay inside your block. But you can still go to the front gate and, like, talk to somebody in B block or C block as you can see each other. So I'm in my cell that night, just chilling, you know, watching TV.

And then someone comes to like, hey, Alex wants you downstairs. So I was like, all right, I run downstairs going, hey, what's up? He's like, yo, you want to come over and drink? He's like, we're having a party. I was like, yeah, he's like, all right, start hitting the gate. So I start banging the gate, bam, bam, bam, until the guard comes. Guard comes up to the gate. He's like, what do you want?

I'm like, Alex, I want to go over for a little bit, just, you know, maybe a couple hours or something. He's like, no, no, we can't do it. And Alex calls him, hey, hey, come here, come here. Like, he's like, bro, come on. You know, he's offering five bucks, ten bucks, 20 bucks. I don't know, you know, and this guy just didn't want to budge. You don't want to let me through. So at the end of the day, I was like, bro, sorry, man.

I tried. Yo, see you later. I'm like, all right, bro, later. See you tomorrow. And I leave and I go back up to my cell. And the next day, when I wake up, everybody escaped. Right. It was insane.

They went through a tunnel. So pretty much it's like this. If you had gone over there and been in the cell, would you have not, they wouldn't have switched you back? You would have stayed there that night. No, I would stay there that night. Oh, man. That's how corrupt it was.

You know, we used to do that all the time. Oh, man. We would have left. You know, it would have been another movie. Crazy. But, yeah, he left and all the other prisoners left. A bunch got captured and brought back to the prison. He never made it back.

Hopefully he's okay. And maybe he's watching this. Alex, I love you, bro. Reach out to me. Yeah, reach out. We got those crazy stories to put on the pods. That was my first experience with an escape in the big prison when they all left. This is all stuff.

If you could look up on, you know, on Google, it's there. I have clips. I could send you as well. I tried to escape in 2005. I have the clips for that. I could send to you. How so, but you're, you're just being held in the prison. You still haven't been sentenced on the other.

Have you been sentenced for the eight years yet? I haven't been sentenced, not even for neither case yet. So I arrived to this prison, right? Oh, my God, bro. I can only imagine. I'm sitting duck just waiting for both trials. I can only imagine anxiety. So, yeah, anxiety was big, right?

And what didn't help was I spoke to my lawyer about the internal drug trafficking case. And he told me, you know what, your best bet, I'm going to tell you right now, is that you become a drug addict. And we could pull this off as consumption. You know, you're a drug addict. That's why you had all those bags. You buy it in bulk because you don't want to keep buying and buying. So you buy one big shot. And that's for you, for you to consume.

And he's like, but the way you look now, the judge is not going to buy it. So become a drug addict, you know, get skinny, do what you got to do. Unfortunately, that's probably a pretty good lawyer, right? It was a great lawyer. It was the best advice that he could have gave me. I took it. I ran with it. And at the end of the day, we got the 12 years knocked off.

Oh, okay. Because I was. Completely. Because I was sentenced to the 12 years of internal drug trafficking. So it's stacked, right? So eventually I got the eight years. They had to come get me. They took me back to Tulkan for the sentencing of the original eight-year case, right, for the international drug trafficking.

So I did, I believe, two trips back to Tulkan. And then I had one more trip for the internal drug trafficking case, and they sentenced me to the 12-flat. So I had a 20-year sentence for about seven months. It was the worst time of my life. the worst time I had in prison. I dedicated myself to, you know, consuming drugs. I really just, you know, I guess I wanted to die, but I just didn't have the balls to, you know, throw myself from the third floor, I guess. I don't know. You know, I sat up there and thought about it many times because, you know, that young and, you know, having to spend that much time in prison

for me was just, like, insane, right? And I miss my family. I miss my family. I miss the States you know it was just such a big change for me it's just super depressing yeah because i mean i can imagine if if if i was depressed yeah you know you i could oh my god bro how often could your did could your family come see you i mean you did you did you did have a cell phone though yeah so i had a cell phone you know and it was normal for us you know anyone could call me at any time on my phone for a limited time at mcdonalds enjoy the tasty breakfast trio your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small

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because they want to ask you for a ransom right right so um i lived through that a couple times being the new guy you know but then you don't you're not the new guy anymore and you're not messing around you're not paying anybody for no ransom right right um the police is a different case when they come in at night you know, 10, 11, 12 o'clock a night, and they do a search, they're taking your stuff. They might steal it or they might take it and just, you know, send you to the hole. You know, you can't have cell phones, guns, knives, machetes, none of that stuff. Everybody has them in jail, you know, just depends if the guards, you know, want to be an asshole or not. What would they tell you, like, 20 bucks, 100 bucks, get your cell phone?

The time I was there would be like 20, 30 bucks, you know, I'll give you back your phone. I'll catch you on the next shift, you know, something like that. Can you have actual cash? Of course. All you have is cash over there. There's no commissary. So basically, the only means of getting money inside the jail is Western Union into someone. And then your visit brings it in. So when I didn't have a visit, like the first days I was locked up, I would get the money Western Union to a friend of mine. And then his visit would bring it in and just give it to me. You know, obviously I'll be like, oh, here's for the taxi. Here's for the favor. Thank you very much. And then you got cash to buy whatever you want. But if there's no commissary, like, you mean no commissary accounts. There's no accounts. But there's no store, no commissary store. Oh, there's stores, yeah.

But the guys run them. Anybody can have a store. Yeah. So if you want, you can go into the prison, the big prison where I was at, and you have to buy your cell, right? So off the bat, you're walking in. Depending where they send you, they send me to D block, right? So I get to D block.

They'll be like, all right, listen, we got a couple cells for like four or five hundred. they're gutted. So you have to do all the, you have to remodel it. Or any idea, Hans. We have like $2,000, $3,000 that have everything. You know, it's got a carpet. It has modified queen-sized beds. It's got a 30-inch TV. It's got a DVD player. It's got a hot shower. You know, it's got a separation between the bathroom and the room side where you sleep. And it's got everything. You know, it's hooked up to the max. And then we have C block where the big drug traffickers like Colombians and, you know, a lot of foreigners that had money would buy their cells, five, six thousand dollars cells, air conditioning, it's got ceiling fans, carpeted, marble floors. I mean, it was just insane, things that you couldn't even, you couldn't even imagine.

So that was in my prison. If you go like to the prison in Guayaquil and you're a mobster, they're buying two or three cells connected and they're knocking down the walls between them and they're making an apartment, right? or they're making a nightclub. So when the prostitutes come in, they got the polls there and they're dancing. Like, it's a go-go. It's a go-go bar. That's the way they do it, man.

Yeah, it's crazy. So much corruption, you could do anything inside these prisons with money, at least back in the day. I mean, the problem is it's such an extreme. Like, you've got that, but then again, you just showed us videos of guys running around with machetes with this big gun fights, grenades,

you know like it's so it's one extreme to the other yeah it's definitely extreme all around right I mean it's just a different world it's something that when I got out and I would tell people that I got close to you know say co-workers or even other family members they'd be like what do you mean there was guns I'm like yeah there was guns you know I've been shot at you know I've been stabbed you know I've seen people get shot in in front of me like the things were just crazy in there There's no law, right, and there's so much corruption. And then there's people that have sentences that they're not going home, and they have no one that comes, visits them. So if you got an enemy and there's somebody that wants to do harm to you, and you don't want to pay another 25 years, and you don't want to do that.

You can hire someone, and you pay them, and they'll do the dirty work for you. You know, they'll go. You can give them the knife or the gun, depending on how they're going to do it. They'll take care of your enemy. and then they'll walk up to the front gate and say, listen, I just, this guy, here's the gun or the knife, and they're ready to go to the hole with cash in their pocket because it's 30 to 45 days,

and if you don't get transferred to a different prison, you'll just be back down on the same block. That's it. Will the guards shake you down for cash? Like, will they steal your cash? Very, very rare because the guards have to walk inside with us. Right. So, you know, it's very rare that that would happen.

They might do it to like some new guy or maybe a foreigner, you know, but... For the most part, the guard, for most part, there's some things that are off limits. Yes, yes. Yeah, that, that, I've never heard of, like, them trying to rob a mobster or something, you know, it's not happening. And there's people with cells in there. You walk by their cell, they got stacks of cash on the table. I mean, it's crazy. They got people that have a cell that's just selling drugs 24-7.

It's the trap house. And everybody knows it. The whole jail knows, you know, and everybody goes there to buy drugs and they're making a line. It's like a house. There's 10, 15 people in line just waiting to buy their drugs. You know, it's, it's insane. Okay. So once, so for seven months you had, back to the timeline. So for seven months, you have, you had this sentence of a full 20. Then you get it, the 12 drop because your lawyer convinces the court. Look, this is a drug addict. What are you doing? So they drop it. Yeah. So what happens? I became a drug addict. You know, I lost all this weight. And then we went to trial.

we make it to um the superior supreme court right so luckily the girl that i showed you in the picture her uncle was a judge in the supreme court okay now we talk to my lawyer he gets in contact with him you know a fee is paid for us to have my case moved into his um in his areas he's going to handle my case basically he's only right he's paying somebody off to get the case in his hands and then he's going to take care of me from there now luckily and you know that's just luck that i have we were able to do that and i also didn't look good right i was you know it was a drug i lost like a hundred pounds i probably weighed like a buck 60 you know real skinny and um i was able to pull it off right so we get we get that sentence dropped but at this point how how much time have you

I mean, how much, how long have you been in? Yeah. I would say going close to two years. Are, is there a good time there? Like, do you get time? Not really. No. And those times, I think it was like three days for every 11 months or something.

I don't know. Once they took that two for one law away, there was no, there was no good time. And that's when they started doing riots to get back to good time. Yeah, I was going to say, like, what are you thinking? This is not an expensive. This is not a wealthy country that can afford. It sounds good. But you can't afford to keep these people in here.

You just doubled the length of the amount of time that all these guys that, like, if it's bad before, now you just made it extremely overcrowded. And if they were violent before, well, you just, it's bad. Extra violent now. Correct. Yeah, you're 100% correct. So, like, I'm going to give you an example. When I got there, there was two people per cell, and there were some cells with mobsters that only had one person living in them. You could pay the director, you want to live by yourself, you bring in the construction crew,

you take away that second bed and you hook up yourself like an apartment right now two three years in there was already three four people per cell there were some cells where there was poverty like b block they'd have 70 people in the cell you know because these are like the drug addicts the hitmen the cicarios you know people that don't want them in d block they don't want them in c block so they send all the trash over to b block um okay so what to i mean are you after you get you at the eight years, are you appealing the eight years or it's just like, that's it, you're done. You're just hanging out. Yeah, there's no appealing.

Once I got the eight, that's it. I got the eight and I'm running with it, right? So now just basically thinking how I'm going to live throughout this time. Six years. Yeah. It was rough, man. You just have to learn to live with all these animals in there. You know, not accustomed to it.

You might think you're about that life, but once you get with the big boys and inside of an Ecuadorian prison, You realize that that life you thought you were about is much more bigger and broader, and it's much more dangerous. And, you know, life doesn't cost a cent in there, you know. So how long did you stay in that prison the entire time? Yes. So pretty much from December 2002, I stayed until September 26, 2008 in that prison. Just moved around to different blocks because, like, I tried to escape with the tunnel that they caught me with. And so they sent me to F Block, which was the maximum security, 22-hour lockdown.

And the first time I was there for six months in 2005. And then eventually I was sent back there for, like, selling drugs. And they said I was extortioning people and things of that nature. But, you know, I was just trying to survive like everyone else. Are your parents sending you money every month? Yeah, I would say probably every month. Yeah, they were helping me out throughout the whole. jail the whole sentence. So you said at some point you got or you got stabbed several times,

but like how did that happen? What was the story behind that? So the story behind that is around 2004, we purchased a cell on the first floor of D Block. And again, my plan is to try to escape. I mean, I don't want to stay there and not even the eight years. Right. Right. And especially I've seen, you know, other people escape while I'm there. And I know it's doable. I know we can make it happen. So that's what we start doing. It comes up that there's going to be a strike, a riot, right? They're going to do the riot with the visits.

So it'll be a visit day, Saturday, 8 a.m., the visits start walking in the prison. And all the top guys let everyone that's somebody in the prison know, right? So they can alert their visits if they want to come in or not because things get crazy. So, you know, everybody knows what's going to happen. and it's usually around one or two o'clock in the afternoon that once there's a lot of people inside they'll send like the chosen ones that have like life sentences I don't want to say life sentence because they don't hand out life sentences

but anyone that's like with a 25 or above they're going to send them with a gun and then once the guards are opening up the main gate to let the visits in this guy's going to pull out his gun and take over right it's like he's robbing a bank he's grabbing the guard putting them to the side and other guys coming behind him with another gun grabbing him they're dragging them inside the prison taking the keys locking the door and then they're bringing these steel barrels that we use as trash cans and they're putting them up against these steel doors and light them on fire we're all the trash and stuff inside so the heat's welding these doors shut and then nobody's coming in the prison colby it's well thought out i'm telling you yeah um for real so but so they're just they're welding the door shut coming back in they're not trying to to escape or is it just too hard to get out we're not escaping um nobody's trying to escape because

there's just too much police presence especially on a visit day there's hundreds of police officers around what they want to do is just take over the prison and they want to have the visits inside so this way they're not coming and shooting at us you know going crazy with the you know the gas and all that stuff um so they take over right to bring the guard inside guards are held hostage inside the prison you know we're strapping them to like the weight benches we're strapping a gas tank to them and there's people with gas tanks on their backs with the hose and they light the flame up and it's just you know we got helicopters over the prison there's cnn end up on the mountain filming us my mother saw it live on cnn just you know movie stuff it was crazy do the guards

in the prison have guns no okay no guns no the guards walk in with nothing the inmates so yeah the inmates guns guns machetes knives grenades you know anything you could think of you'll you'll yeah I'm telling you it's crazy yeah I mean I you know like I've heard stories just from guys that had been locked up like in South America or um or uh basically in the um you know like some of these countries like these old the eastern block countries in in Europe where they had you they have similar nothing like nothing this bad not this bad um their conditions are just bad yeah not yeah there's not guns and not well there's knives there's always nice But they're not guns. You couldn't manufacture a knife or anything. Right. And I've heard stories from guys that were locked up in South America. But you also, if you go on YouTube, there's videos that just are insane.

I mean, like, everything he's saying. And you're just like, this is. Yeah, like I said, when I came back and I would tell these stories to people, people wouldn't believe me. Some people would be like, bro, what movie did you watch? You know, I just laugh it off, you know. It is what it is. You don't have to believe me. I just, I'm speaking this.

truth. These are facts. This is stuff that I've lived. You know, I have proof of these things. And, you know, if you believe me or not, it doesn't really matter. I'm just telling my life story what I live through. So no one else would have to live through it. You know, you don't want to be stuck in a prison going through what I did. Yeah. Well, I mean, let's face it, like 98% of Americans have never even left the United States. And then there's another like something like, God, I forget what the percentage is of people who've never even left their state. Yeah. Like there's a there's actually a percentage of people that have never left their state. Like, it's not huge, but it's bigger than it should be. Yeah. So, yeah,

and the people that even, you know, so people who have never left the United, they just kind of assume it's like similar to this everywhere. Yeah. Who are you crazy? It's nowhere near like this. Yeah. I mean, in Ecuador, the prisoners ran. The prison and the jails, I mean, the guards are just there to take count and make sure you don't leave. I mean, the big thing is there, they don't want you to escape, you know? Right. So, like, I try to escape twice, got the living hell beat out of me both times, you know, got sent to F Block, you know, and just, it was, it was horrible. But, you know, what happened? So what happened with the, so they riot, they've got the doors welded together.

So they got the doors welded, right? We take over the prison. Now everybody's masked up. You know, you can't tell who anybody is. Everyone's got their shirts wrapped around their face, holes just with the eyes, and there's people walking around with guns in hand, there's people walking around with machetes in hand, people walking around with bulletproof vests on. I mean, it's just something out of the movies

And you're walking around There's cells lit on fire You know, it's like a movie There's smoke everywhere You know, it's crazy And what are you doing? So we're making the tunnel I'm busy working

You know, while all this chaos is going on outside You know, there's shootings Because it's hunting season You know, when the riot goes off This is where, you know, it's payback time So even though there's visits Inside the prison, the visits are locked in their cells You know, so like if I have

I have my cell, my visits inside with me. I leave to go out. I'm putting my padlock on my cell. Every single prisoner has their own lock and key on him. So I lock my visit in the cell and I go out. We're going to another cell. Who is visiting? Who's your visit?

I had several girlfriends throughout the time. Okay. Yeah. My mother, I would never let her stay during a riot. But, yeah, I had several visits with me. Okay. Yeah. That's nuts.

Okay. So you're digging the tunnel? We're digging the tunnel. You know, and like I said, this. This prison's even older because this used to be like, I think it was built like an 1890 or something like that. So it was like a quartel for like the army. So basically like an army base. And it was like on a mound.

So they had the full view of the city and they could see if any enemies are coming. So it's so old again, hot water in the sink. These rocks are just, they're turning into sand and it's all going through the drain. all right now the bigger pieces that we couldn't get rid of because there were some chunks that you're taking out from the dirt once you get down and you're digging this tunnel you're coming upon like blocks and rocks and things you can't break through and things you got to you got to um shovel through another way because there's this huge rock that you can't break through it those pieces we would take out and at night we would go dump it in this huge like um there was like this hole i would say it was like um like the gutters the drains here for like the rain but it was just a huge hole in the patio that You could just go and dump it, people would throw garbage in it, anything, and just disappear. So we're doing this tunnel, we're doing it, we're doing it. We went through the side wall. So I had a refrigerator in my cell, right, that I would put up against the side wall.

Now, when the guards would come in to do a search, they would come in with huge metal bars, and they would start bang on the floor to make sure that nothing on the floor was hollow, right? So I got that, and that's why we made the hole through the side wall. The side wall between cells is probably like three feet wide, right? So we started digging into the wall, and then we dropped down. Once we drop down about four feet, again, this prison's so old. Underneath it, it was like Swiss cheese. So we're digging, and we fell into a tunnel.

So as we're digging, we fall into something that's already made, had semi-constructed like wood like holding up the walls like Chapo style right no train but the wood was there so we take this tunnel and run with it it was already dug out about nine feet for myself and then we keep going now you know walk in the yard every day and you're here

that's where you live you know how far it is from your cell to the to the main exterior wall because there was two walls so there's the one wall from the patio and then there was like three feet, and then there was another wall. I don't know why they did it like that, but that's the way it was. So we kept digging and digging, and then we get word that the ride's going to end, all right? There's no more negotiations.

You know, they want to come in. They're going to come in blasting gas. They don't care if the, you know, visitors are there or anything. How long had this gone on? I think it was about 25 days when we got word that they were going to end. Yeah. so 25 days of you know only the food that was there I think after like 15 days they shut off the electricity right so there was no electricity um the running water they cut off on us and we only had water three times a day 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. 12 noon to 1 p.m. and 4 to 5 p.m. And we would have to gather water. Like I would have the 2 liter bottles empty and I would have like 15 or 20 of them to fill up water. So this way you can wash the dishes, take a shower, go to the bathroom. All that stuff.

And visitors are agreeing to come in during the riot. Knowing that this is, knowing this is about to happen. Visitors want to come in because they want to protect their family that's in there doing time because they know when the visitors are not inside the prison, the police comes in with everything. They're shooting grenade bombs at us. You know, it's just insane. Yeah. I mean, the whole time I'm thinking like, oh, is it 12 hours?

Like, are they holding up for 12 hours? No, no, no. weeks weeks at a time yeah and that was just that was the uh the second riot yeah i lived through three of them it was insane so the first one it was more like a hunting season riot where it was like 17 it was like uh i think it was like four or five days the second one was the longest one that uh i believe it was like 25 to 30 days and then the third one was a short one and the police came inside with everything because someone threw a rock and hit a police officer up on the roof and it hit him in the head and he fell down into the patio and died and as soon as that

happened the police came in with everything i mean they came in shooting rubber bullets at people and the gas was just everywhere i mean you can't breathe with that you get neutralized immediately so you're digging we're digging under the are you under any of the walls the exterior walls yeah i'm i'm calculating we're already at the wall i'm thinking maybe two or three hours or we're popping up like you know bugs bunny out of the dirt boom and we're gone but we have to seal this back up. We have to clean up the cell. The cell is a mess. There's dirt everywhere. Right? Because after the riot, all the police and guards come in and start searching everything. And if they come up in the cell, they see dirt everywhere, we're screwed. So now it's cleanup time. We start

cleaning everything. Start cleaning, you know, scrubbing, mopping. You know, we have to get paper to put on the wall to make it, you know, make the hole disappear. And then I got to put the fridge back and then wait for these cops to come in. So cops come in. They do the search. Same thing. Bam, bam, bam. They bang on everything. All good. Now, I lived in the cell with two people. One guy was from Poland and the other guy was from Columbia. Now, the Colombian had prior knowledge of making tunnels. So that's one of the main reasons why we did what we did. And the other kid was just there and he was a helper, basically with the rocks and cleaning and all that stuff. He lived with us. He was a good kid, but he had a drug problem.

now after the tunnel after the riots done we go back to our normal lives you know we're just day by day in in the prison and that holes there in the wall you're not digging in the you're not trying to do no we're not doing nothing i can't do nothing during the day because you know or at night because you never know when someone could come in someone could hear something you know sometime the guards are walking in the patio maybe just like sneaking in through the side window seeing if you're doing something so there's nothing going on No digging. Now, this kid has a drug problem, and he goes to B block, and he's speaking to someone that owes him money. I mean, he owes them money. Now, I guess they took him and tortured him because he's not paying up, and he gives up my tunnel. He's like, listen, I know where there's a tunnel. You know, maybe you could escape. Just don't me, you know, in my cell. We dug one during the riot, blah, blah, blah, blah. I have like, I don't know, probably like four Sicario's and this guy at my door.

So this guy bangs on the door. I look through the little hole in the door. He's like, hey, I got to talk to you. It's funny because I never interacted with this guy. I knew who he was, but he's in a different block. And I see he's got all these Sicario's when I'm so. I'm like, what's up? What do you want?

He's like, no, I open up. We got to talk. And my guts, like, twisting. I'm like, what the hell's going on? I'm about to get me over here. So I opened up the door and they walk in. They've got knives in their hands. Bam, sit down.

You know, like, listen, you know, we know what you got here. We want to sell. So I'm like, okay. I was like, listen, man. You know, I've already got, you know, about four years in. I know a lot of people, you know, I just want to leave. I don't want any problem. But maybe we could work something out where you can come with us, right?

And he's like, no, I just want to sell. You got to go. the guy wants to take me out of the cell so listen it's not going to happen man he's like all right it's not going to happen you know you're going to die then i was like listen man i don't want any problems we could all just leave i mean i don't see what the issue is we can set up a day where we all go you know i was thinking about you know calling them with the guards bring them over it's a party whatever it happens all the time so this guy wasn't having it we end up getting into an argument and um some people overhear the screaming in my cell and they come to the door and

These are upper, like, mobsters in my block, and they talk to the guy, they get out, and they leave. But now we're sworn enemies. So this is like, do or die. You know, I'm nervous. I don't want to kill anybody. You know, I don't want anything to happen to me. But, you know, I'm in my cell. I'm not bothering anybody.

I just want to do my time and go. This guy tells one of the hitmen to take me out. So it's a visit day. I'm with my visit. It's so bad, bro. This is so bad. I'm with my visit and lock her in the cell because I got to go to the bathroom. I'm not going to take a dump in my cell.

So lock her in. I'll be right back and I leave. And I go to some other cell where it's a cell of people that smoke and sell. So this cell has nothing. I mean, barely has like a cushion on the bed and just the bathroom. So I'm going in there just to use the bathroom and go back to my visit. Does she kind of realize that there's an issue with you in the sky? I tell her already off the bed.

bad. Like, listen, I don't know if you want to come and having issues, you know, getting impressed by some people. And she's like, no, don't worry. It's okay. So she came. I go to the cell, right? I'm going to go to the bathroom. Now, visit day is crazy. There's so much noise. There's everybody's listening to different types of music. We got rap, salsa, meringue. You know, we got all these like mothers, fathers, daughters, kids. There's everybody. So imagine two to three thousand prisoners plus all their visits. So right now, the jail is bumping. There's music. There's everybody's there. There's a lot of noise. So when you open up the door and you close it in the cell, you can hear all that noise from

outside. So when I'm in the back going to the bathroom, you know, I'm sitting there. And all of a sudden, I hear the door open. All that noise comes into the cell. And I go to look and it's the hitman coming in already with the knife. I'm sitting on the toilet. Immediately grab my pants, throw him up, jump up, you know, scared shitless, jump at the guy, stabs me once, we're struggling, and I don't want to get back into the bathroom because where the bathroom was, you know, the tiles on the floor, it was wet because it's visit day, they took a shower, they didn't dry it, and I know if I get, if he gets me back into the bathroom area, I'm going to slip, I'm going to fall, and he's just going to finish me off right there on the floor.

So I keep pushing, you know, we're struggling, and I managed to push him through the door. Boom. And when I push him through the door, you know, there's a bunch of visit, and there's a woman right to, right to my right side, like two feet away. And I'm with a white t-shirt. I'm all bloodied already, you know, and I'm screaming because I'm trying to get him out of here. And as I push him out, he starts running. Everybody starts screaming. You know, there's women, there's kids, they're grabbing their children, they're running.

This guy's running with a knife in his hand. And that's it. I look down, and I don't know how many times I'm hit. I just feel it. And then I go like this, and I see little. balls of grease. I always had a gut. And when I look, the balls of grease are coming out of my gut.

I got them in my hand. Right there, I think I fainted. I just dropped. Like, all the strength just came out of me. Two of my boys picked me up. They're like, come on, bro. Come on, you're going to be good. They dragged me out to the main gate.

And then the guards take me over. And the guards are dragging me down. And they're like, tell us who did this to you before you die. Just tell me who did it before you die. And I didn't say anything. I don't know I just I guess I was in shock but I didn't want to say who it was either

I don't know I guess I just wanted to die live by the law I die by the law I guess I don't know so I get outside and they put me in the the guards office it's like their main office where they got all the bulletproof vests stuff like that

where the police officer sit and they're like quick man just tell us before you die you're bleeding out I was bleeding so much it was insane and I kept on like grabbing my belly and looking at it, and the grease balls were just coming out. What is it? It's the grease from your gut.

When I got stabbed, I don't know if you know. I don't know. When you have a gut, the gut is filled with grease, and grease are little balls. They're like white little balls. Now, I got stabbed in the gut, and I have this huge opening, and the blood's gushing out, and these little grease balls are just coming out. And I'm like, what the? And I just, like, fainted again.

When I wake up, I'm in the ambulance. It's going like 90 miles an hour, right? And the girl I left locked in my cell is now in the ambulance with me. And I'm like, what the hell are you doing here? And I'm just, the ambulance is going all over the place. And she's like, oh, my God, you're alive. And I'm like, what the hell's going on? And they're like, no, no, put the gas.

And then they put something on my face. And I knocked out again. I get to the hospital. They're doing surgery, I guess, right? Whatever they were doing. And I guess they didn't sleep me with enough. And I wake up. So I'm on the bed.

the surgery room, and when I look up, I see them working with my intestine. I guess they're touching it to see if it's punctured. And when the nurse sees me, she's like, oh, my God, he's still awake. And they put more, you know, they give me that gas again. And I knock out. When I wake up, I'm all stitched up. Hurting. I'm so sore.

It's insane. So I asked them for something for pain. They gave me some pills. And then, like, five minutes later, my visit comes in. And she's like, oh, my God, what happened? So explain everything to her. And I was like, see, I told you not to come. You know, shit's crazy right now.

And she's like, what are we going to do? Where are they going to send you now? I have no idea. So that's it. They sold me up. I was in the hospital maybe for like two or three hours. I'm like, all right, kid. Back to the prison you go.

Same prison? Same prison. They walk me to the prison. And I get there, but they take me to the, it's called polyclinic. So it's like the clinic area where people who have been stabbed and shot are they are in recuperation, right? We're all there recuperating. I get to the gate.

They're like, yo, white boy, what happened? Tell them the story. They're like, oh, bro, that's crazy. There's another kid's been shot in the leg, one in the arm, one's been stabbed. So I'm there for about 15 days, cooperation. They take me back down, right? Take me back down. I go straight to myself.

As soon as they open up the main gate, I walk in to my right is B block where the enemies are straight ahead C and to the left is D which is my block I go straight to C straight to D which is my block immediately going straight to myself you know going the stash and are myself because I'm like now they know because the people that were in in B block are watching and they know I'm back so I know they're going to immediately go tell whoever tried to do this to me so I'm in the cell waiting nothing happens a lot of people were coming to the cell you know white boy you're right you're right now everybody's coming in you know what are you going to do? What are we going to do? You know, people want to do things. So I'm like, listen,

you know, just let me think. Let me recuperate. I'm not even 100% yet. Just, you know, make sure these guys don't come in the block. Please, you know, just hold it down. So that night, I hear the keys jingling. After the locked in, right? After we get locked in at nine o'clock, I hear the keys jingling like maybe 10.30, 11. So I get up, I stick the mirror out the window, and I see that, here come the Ninja Turtles, you know, with the helmets, the bulletproof vest is the special group that's going to do searches and i was like please don't come here but first sell they go to his mind i immediately knew what was going on somebody told of course so the guy that put the hit on me since he didn't get to sell and i didn't die he snitched it out

so they came went straight there you know as soon as they opened the door they were like you gringo stand at the door and the guy came and took my fridge and just threw it once he threw the fridge i knew it. They kicked the wall and it was just like, it's paper. Yeah. So his foot went right through. He's like, oh, you thought you were going to escape? Gringo, and they just started beating me. And I'm all bandaged up. Still hurting, still got stitches in me. Bam, all the way up to the hole. 45 days. And they found the tunnel. They took my cell. You know, they locked it up. And I lost that cell. I was going to say, and you stayed in the same prison. They didn't move you to another prison. Same prison. Now check this out. I do 45 days in the hole upstairs.

on the fourth floor after the 45 days are up well during the 45 days um i'm able to get a cell phone in in the hole and i talked to um my parents and they they said that they were going to fly down right they were like we're going to fly down see what's going on all right so when i'm in the hole i think it was like around like the 30 30th day or maybe the 35th day something like that i get a pass i'm thinking and it's got to be my parents. Boom. I get out. They take me out of the hole

and I go like to the administrative area where all the offices are and I see my parents in an office. I'm like, holy shit. Go and hug them, you know, we start crying. Crazy. So right there, they're like,

listen, they're going to transfer you to Wai'a Kha. And I was like, oh my God, Guayaquia is like where I was, it was probably kindergarten compared to Wai'a kid. And I'm in hell. But Wai'a Kila is 100 times worse. There's shootouts.

you know, eight, ten-hour shootouts every day. It's just insane. So they were like, listen, we're going to try to see if we can pay something to not get you transferred. We're talking to the director. So just, you know, stay calm, stay good, you know, try to stay alive. And that's what I did. Probably two weeks later, they confirmed. And I was going to get sent, aesthetic being sent to YF.

To the maximum security over there, they sent me to the F block in the same prison. Now, the two guys I was with in my cell, the Colombian and the Polish kid, they sent him to the Wyatt kid. Yeah, they got sent over there. Oh. I was lucky enough to have my parents. Thank you, Lord, for the parents that I had. I love you, mom. So how long are you in at this point? Four years, roughly.

Four and a half years, something like that, yeah. So how many times did you get stabbed? Just stabbed three times. Like, Colby's face. He's just, this is insane. This may very well be the worst story. Like, you know what I'm saying that I've heard? What?

So, okay, so what happened? I mean, tell me you kicked back, you started a store, and you rode out the rest less three and a half years, and it. No, no, yeah. So I get to F Block, right? F Block is the maximum security, two hour lockdown right two hours in the yard and then the two hours that you're in the yard it's mostly mostly so if you try to escape you try to extort someone you somebody or you're a big

profile case coming in from the streets and you're a dangerous person they're sending you to this wing now i get sent there i get to this wing and luckily throughout the four years that i was in prison there, I met people, you know, made acquaintances. You can't say friends because there's really no friends, but I was able to make contact with the guys that were top dogs there. Right. So once I get to F-Wing the first time, I walk in and the first thing I hear, white boy, what's up? And I look up and it's somebody I know. You know, non-American, he's Ecuadorian, but, you know, now he's the Pablo Escobar of the country. His name is Colom Pico. This is where I met him for the first time.

And he just got recaptured in Ecuador. And he is in La Roca right now, which is the rock in Guayaquil, which is the maximum security wing right now. And he's like the Pablo Escobar of the country. But you said this is the first time you met him, but you said, but he screams white boy. Yeah, yeah. So Colompico, you know, they know me because I've dealt with a lot of people in the prison, right? So I didn't meet him, but he knew me. He knew of you.

He knew of you. And he saw you. He was like, oh, he saw me. So he screams, white boy. So walk in, you know, he's there. Luckily, there's no enemies in that block. Everybody that's there at the moment, they all get along, you know, whatever the case may be, there's always an argument, you know, there's different tempers, and these guys

are all crazy. Yeah. Right. But at the moment, we were good. There was no enemies. So, you know, the first two or three months was great. You know, I had visit. Parents would come in.

We could walk the yard. It was nice. Now, there's a shootout while you're. and all these, you know, thugs and men get sent to Quito to the F-wing. Now, they walk in and they come in and just want to start, you know, they want to start a war because that's what they like doing. Yeah. They like being in, you know, shoot-out, stabbing, extortioning people.

So this little group comes in. They start trying to, you know, extort everybody there. They want everybody to get locked in. And, you know, they want to run the place. You know, when you get somewhere, there's always somebody running it. and then there's always someone that's going to come in that's going to want to take over and that's what these guys did i mean they just had the numbers and they had the with them you know people that are not afraid to do you know the or a stabbing or a shooting because they have nowhere

to go they're going to stay there forever um so what happens with that i mean how long is that does that so i'm assuming i i um i immediately you know they wanted to extort me i guess they they want to take money from me i locked up Locked up means I told the guards, lock myself from the outside, I'm not leaving. So they lock me in the cell. I get a state lock put on it. And then these guys are at my door every day.

White boy, you're not going to pay up. And they got broom, you know, the broom handle with, you know, maybe like a 12-inch knife taped to the end. And they're shoving it through the window, you know. My bet is directly to the left of the door in that little window. You know, they're throwing piss. throwing piss mix with you know feces you know they put a um a mattress up against my door and lit it it took them a few times but they finally got it to light up just right and all the smoke was coming in my cell

you know i had the sink i had the faucet turned on i had put a t-shirt so the water would start coming you know filling up yeah i started throwing water against the door started getting hot it was getting smoky i'm yelling out the window where's the guards the guards are all you know like by the main entrance they don't come inside that's the problem so you know everybody is in this block and there's no guards inside so i'm screamed i'm yelling for my life finally you know the guards get there i guess the mattress fell i kept throwing water and water and and that stopped but i mean it was just a nightmare man eventually my parents are able to get me out of there and put me into the clinic for drug rehabilitation okay so they paid a fee i guess to the director again

and they transfer me from this F-wing to this clinic for rehabilitation. Well, I mean, are other people paying these guys? Or it's just you? They're just targeting you. What do you mean? The guys that came in and you said they're extorting people. Oh, they're extorting everybody.

You're right, right. Everybody in the wing. Okay. So. You just didn't want to pay. Some people are paying, some aren't. Some people are paying. Some people aren't.

I mean, some of the biggest mobsters in Ecuador got extorted there in F-wing. I've seen it. You know, they have wars in Waiakil, but when they get to F-Wra. wing, they're paying up and they're paying food for the whole block, right? Because the guy that's running it at the moment says, listen, we're here. We're not going to, you know, there's no battle right now. Right now you're going to pay up. You know, you're going to pay us, I don't know, whatever the case may be, $1,000 a day or whatever the case may be, because these people have a lot of money. When they're running, you know, their trap houses inside the jails, they're making

$4,000 or $5,000 a day in each block. These people are millionaires. So now this is the main reason why these people don't want to escape jail because they live better inside than they do in the streets right you know they just have more control more power because they control everything think about it you you have to buy drugs from them they you know they extort everybody they have the behind them so if you don't doing you know you don't want to pay they're going to kill you they're going to run up in your cell and you know they'll choke you out and then they'll hang you with a piece of rope or the piece of the the sheets and just say you know this guy himself and it was just it was mayhem so you go to you you're you're at the um um at the

clinic yeah how long do you stay there i was at the clinic for six months yeah six months in the clinic it was great yeah um six months is the maximum you could stay there so lifting weights eating good no drugs no problems it was awesome after the six months were up they sent me back to um general population in the same prison right what about what wing D block again. So, okay. So you don't worry about these guys anymore? No, no, we're not in the max.

Those guys eventually got shipped back to Yakel because that's the way, you know, that's the way they live out their prison sentence, you know, from one jail to another because they're always starting trouble somewhere. Okay. What, um, all right, so, so what happens then? So now, um, I keep waiting for you to tell me, you know, and then it was smooth sailing and I got out. Yeah, no, no, not yet. So I get to eBlock, you know, I meet a friend that we had met prior.

His name was Venoise. I met him around my second year in prison, and he gets transferred from another jail because he was selling and extortioning some other prison. They send them over here. So we meet up. Hey, we're all buddies. You immediately, you know, we sell up together. We're sellies.

We start selling a little bit of a souco. You know, I don't know if you know what basuko is, like free base. Yeah, no. I mean, didn't you come close to getting 12 years the last time? Exactly. So we're doing that, but now because we have what's called the Comemuerto. It's somebody that could, you know, take charge of anything. So this guy with a big sentence, if they catch the drugs in the cell, he says it's mine, right?

So we start working like that. Now, about six months go by, and then we got a lot of slips dropped on us like they do here. You know, this guy's doing this, this guy's doing that, bam, bam, bam. and eventually back to F wing we go they send me in this guy which you know we were the best friends I mean like we were just back to back right

now we get to this wing over here and all the guys and all the big guys are over there and you can't do anything you can't sell drugs you can't extort because who are you're going to do it to right right these are all and he didn't have any means of getting money besides that

me in my case I had my parents that would send me money. Now, I don't know if he got jealous. He just didn't like it. I had a visit that would come visit me. You know, visit days I'd want to be myself by myself with my girlfriend. You know, I guess he was getting jealous. He didn't like it.

And we started getting into arguments. So eventually, you know, I end up moving out. And we pretty much become like enemies. You know, and this was someone I considered a friend. Right. Now, he's been in for 11 years. You know, he's been there for a long time. He's probably got this huge psychosis, you know, he's, you're just not normal after 11 years in prison living what they live through over there.

Right. You know, so he would start getting arguments with a lot of guys on the wing, you know, and these guys would come up to me and say, you know, you better talk to him because, you know, we're going to call this guy. You know, he's just acting crazy. I'm like, yeah, man, he is crazy. Just ignore him. I mean, where are you going to be after 11 years in this prison? You know, just he's about to go free. Let him be.

but he just wouldn't stop arguing with people and one day you know he yelled at me in front of everybody and he just he basically you know he was like listen man he's like you got to give me something you know we made it here together and now you know you're just like sideways you don't pay attention to me and I was so high at the moment because I was smoking you know freebase that would like freeze me so I I wanted to say something to him but I couldn't and I'm standing in my cell and this guy's yelling at me from the door Now, I know everybody in the wing is inside, and they're listening to this. So after that was done, you know, that night, I stayed in my bed just thinking about it.

Like, you know, you can't let this disrespect go by. Right. Right. And on top of that, everybody already wants to kill him. So in my head, I'm like, what you have to do to get the respect and maybe save his life right now, you need to beat the living hell out of him. So at 6 a.m., when the doors pop, I walked out, and I went to the head guy. sell, which his name was people. He's actually still in prison in 19 years.

So I speak to him. I said, listen, man, you know, I know you guys know what happened yesterday. I know you heard it. You know, I couldn't even sleep last night thinking about this guy. And, you know, I want to take care of it. They were like, you know, are you sure? You want to do it? I was like, yeah.

He was like, all right, great. He's like, let's do it. You know, we're going to do it as soon as he hits the yard outside on the patio. I'll give you the signal. You know, I'll take care of the guards. You just beat the shit out of him. him and make him go to the gate. I was like, all right, you got it.

And that's what he did. So this guy wakes up, you know, he's walking the yard. I'm outside with people and the other guys. People walks out. He gives me the signal. He pulls out two machete knives, like 10 inches each. I thought you were going to beat his ass. Yeah, no, he gets in front of the guards and doesn't let the guards interfere.

Okay. And I go and start being the hell out of this guy and just bloodied them up real quick, kicked them, punched them, and made him hit the gate. You know, the guards took him out. and then people walked up to him. He was like, yeah, man, you should thank white boy for your life because we were going to kill you. But he didn't want you to die.

But now you got to go upstairs to the third floor and you can't come out ever again. And what happened? He went up to the third floor. They put him what in the clinic for a while? No, they put him on that maximum security wing, but he can't walk the yard anymore. You know, and we were like best friends.

Right. But, you know. What was wrong with him? Do you think maybe he was, it was he upset? Because he was getting, you know, some guys went the closer they get to the door. Like, they don't have anything to go out to. I think so.

I think it could have been that because eventually I found out he went free. And then a year later, he was back in the prison. So, I mean, they don't have nothing to go out to do. Right. You know, they have no future over there. It's hard. It's a lot harder to, it's a lot harder to get out of prison over there and stay out than it is here in the States.

Yeah. I mean, it's just harder in general to survive to outside. Exactly. I mean, when I got here, man, I didn't have anything. You know, I have no clothes, no job, no car. All I had was the help. of my parents, my family, you know, and that moral support, you know, and I had, you know, the want and the will to make it and to come out and be something and not just go back to prison

and be another statistic. You know what I mean? So what, I mean, where are you at this point? Are you close to eight years? You've got to be close to eight years. That's when I got out, seven years. I did seven years. And luckily while I was in F-wing, a new president took over. his name was raphael correa and he signed the treaty saying that all foreign prisoners that have 50 percent of their time or more are getting deported so luckily i was unluckily i had to do my seven years yeah but whatever so i get deported you know thank god and um just made it back to the states man because of him yeah um and what do you do so when you come back there's no halfway house in they just they just fly you back in they just drop you off your parents pick you

fly you back in check this out so after seven years in prison um immigration comes to get me so they come and get me at the prison f wing they're like where's the crazy gringo the first thing wanted to come see me i never felt so awkward in my life because f wing was kind of like um it was like a zoo there was so many bars that remember saying if i ever get out of here i'm never touching a zoo again because now i know what the lions and tigers feel like when you're walking past these bars i would walk back and forth past these bars so much, I would get dizzy. And it was just, it was so like inhumane. Like, it was just crazy. So these guys came and immigration came and they were looking at me like behind the bars. So I felt like, you know, like I'm in the zoo. Right. You know,

with all these, you know, like, where's the crazy green go? And I'm like, it's me. I'm right here. You ready to take me? Like, no, no, we just wanted to come and see you. And I was like, see me for what? What do you think? This is a zoo? I'm like, bro, I'm free. I was free for three months and I was still in the maximum security wing where they send the worst of the worst of the country and I was still in there because I had left went to the office signed all my paperwork and they told me look immigration's backed up you're not going to be able to leave here for a while so keep your mouth shut don't say anything that you're going to be leaving you know but they can't come get you right now I was like when they're going to get me we have no idea

how does that work right you know what I mean so I have to go back as a free man and walk the yard with all these and not let anybody know that I'm going free all right right if you let them know somebody might get jealous and someone might get jealous ruin your time yeah exactly they're gonna ruin your time it's gonna it's gonna happen so pretty much after the three months immigration comes back and I'm like all right we're ready for you it was like the best day in my life man they got me you know they didn't even handcuffed me they just took me out and they took me to the the doctor's office they weighed me I'll never forget I weighed a buck 62 at the time the day I went free and I jumped in the back truck, some Toyota Highlander, and they took me to immigration.

And then I was in immigration for a week because they don't even deport you. You have to buy your own plane ticket. So luckily, called my sister here in the States. She sent me a plane ticket, and I was scheduled to come back. And you just go to the airport and you just walk out. Yeah, immigration takes me to airport and they make sure I get on a flight. That's it, because obviously I overstayed my visa. Right.

Right. So they take you to the airport. No, no handcuffs, nothing. And they were just sitting there waiting with me, waiting for the flight. You know, they walked me straight up to the door. And they're like, all right, Mr. Castro, have a nice life. And I was like, thank you. And that's it. Hopped on the plane and came back. So, I mean, and your parents are there to pick you up. Yes. One of the best days of my life arrived at Newark Airport. My mother and father were there. My cousins, my sister, my nephews, everybody. So, I mean, what did you stay with your family, your parents until you could get a... Yeah. Stay with my parents. I believe I was at home for like the first too much, you know, recuperating, eating, getting my weight back, you know, just and started looking for a job.

And I found the job in December. I got back September and found a job in December 2008, which was the recession, right? There was no work. And I started working at this factory at the C-3. port in Newark, and it was picking up tuna coming from guess where? So, um, look at Colby. I know Colby's got a bunch of questions. I know he does.

Yeah, let's do it, man. So, I mean, how long did you work there? Like, you know, what? Like six months. And then, yeah, I got another job, like driving trucks. And that was like another six months. And then I got a job at a furniture store until finally I found a spot where, I was able to get in, move up from, you know, warehouse guy all the way up to upper management,

you know, basically running the place for a couple years, um, in charge of a bunch of people started, you know, learn how to manage emails and, you know, write correctly and all those, you know, I never did none of that stuff, you know, I was in prison. I always messed around my whole, you know, my whole life, you know, what do you do now? Right now we do a couple things. So, um, who's we? Me and my wife. Okay. So, we opened. up a commercial cleaning business. So we have a couple of crews. We do that. We're starting an FBA Amazon business as well that, you know, we're waiting for our first container to come

from overseas. What's that? FBA. What is it? FBA, what is it? FBA. Amazon. We're selling stuff on Amazon. Okay. Yeah. Where are the products coming from? China. Okay. Yeah. I figured maybe South America, right? Like, you know, you know people. Okay. And then, okay, so that's, that's cool. And then when did you start the you you have I mean you have I'm looking at your shirt you have like Instagram and YouTube Instagram YouTube TikTok yeah global lockdown so basically it's me you know I'm telling my stories telling the stories of a bunch of prisoners that were there with me at the same time in the same prison you know it's everyone led a different life in prison you know I have Americans I have Colombians I have Ecuadorians I have someone from

Holland I have someone from England I have another person and Scotland, I mean, just all over the world. But these are guys that you're interviewing them now? Yes, we were all in the prison together, and we started interviewing, you know, little by little. We're going to get all our stories out. You know, we're trying to write the book. How are you doing, how are you doing the interviews in person or remotely?

Right now, because they're all over the place. Yeah, right now we're doing Zoom. So that's what we're doing, you know, trying to get the stories out. But just little by little, man, you know, it's a struggle. but, you know, I'm consistent. You know, I love a challenge, so I'm up for it. You know, I love what you've done. You know, I've been on Ian's podcast, Johnny Mitchell, so you guys are all inspirations for me.

You know, I watch you guys and I say, you know, you guys did it, right? I mean, you did a whole bunch of time in prison as well, and you're able to come out and change your life. So that's what I'm about, just changing and, you know, everything for positivity, just, you know, showing that you could be through or go through anything in your life, you know, as long as you want to change and come out on top, can. Right. Yeah, listen, I don't, I mean, eight, you didn't deserve eight years, bro. Like, and how many, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're saying, change your life. Like, you don't sound like you were going in. It just sounds like you were just a young, dumb kid who just wanted to make some easy money. Like, I don't, eight years, like, that's, that's insane,

especially in those conditions. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. You know, eight years, time sucks no matter what. It doesn't matter how good the conditions are. It sucks. But but that's horrific you know what I mean like that's that's PTSD stuff like um um so I know Colby just wait a minute um so how long have you been interviewing like how much stuff is on your YouTube channel right now is it just a few I just literally started two months ago okay I just started my my my journey I just started it how many subscribers do you have right now I think 250 yeah yeah you got to get you got to get monetize like I mean it seems I know it seems like like it's like sucks because you you know because right now it's like I don't know what kind of

views you're getting but you know you have to get the 4,000 watch hours you know and a thousand subscribers but like once you do that then YouTube has an incentive to start pushing your stuff like now there's no incentive for YouTube to help you much yeah so you got a struggle to do it yourself yeah we're struggling man but like I said you know I love a challenge you know I'm posting all my stories and you know we're here just to give the information you know just tell everybody what we went through and so you don't have to live through it man do you have those videos are they also on yeah we have everything i post that everywhere youtube tick to instagram global lockdown and these are guys that are and there's guys that are currently locked out there sending you little clip videos

yes yes i have people that are currently still in prison after all these years and you know they send me clips they send me you know beheadings and all kinds of things you know gruesomeness yeah you can't show that yeah we can't show all those things and i don't want to push that message either I'm not about pushing you know, what we're about is, you know, overcoming, you know, overcoming obstacles, you know, I just want everybody to know that prison's not the end of your life, you know, like you, you know, you went to prison, it's not the end of your life, look at you successful, you're making something out of yourself and you're on top, you know, so this is where I want to be, this is where I want all my friends to be as well, and I'm taking them all with me on the ride. well cool all right cool so do you have any questions yeah i got a i got a few so uh the first two are just stories that um that i think would probably make good stories i heard on the other podcast you said um you had a roommate or an inmate that uh yeah a roommate that was like a hitman or he's calling shots on the outside and someone wanted you like open the door to like set him up

yes so do you want to listen to that one yeah yeah yeah yeah let's do it yeah yeah because if If it's too graphic, then... No, no, no. Don't worry. I won't make it graphic. I'll just tell you the story. And at the end, at the end of this, if none of these fit, like, because all these will probably go on the main podcast, we could do just like a five-minute story that's

like gruesome or something that we will put on Patreon. Yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Do you have a Patreon? I know, I don't. Bro, you got to fucking be kidding me. You got to put it for Patreon. I'm just starting, man.

I need people like you to help me out, boy, please, help me. I mean, you'd be shocked. People will want to, they'll want to, they'll want, you know, your message, people will want to support you and it seems silly you know somebody gives you $10 a month but it adds up and next thing you know you're like oh my god like this is really turning into something like so you you got to do that yeah but and those are the stories that the stories that you're guys that you're interviewing that can't go on youtube they can go on there yeah and you just have to say that you say hey by the way go to my patreon pay 10 bucks a month or whatever you want to say yeah so like i did

that on johnny mitchell on johnny mitchell podcast we sat there i think it was like six hours Listen, he's got it down. Yeah. He's got it down. We sent there for like six hours. And then same thing as you. You know, like no introduction. We just sat down.

We were rolling, bam, bam, bam. And then he just cut and the video starts, right? And we just kept on talking. Now, the gruesomeness, we put in the second part, which he has a whole hour interview with me. He has a whole hour interview of me on Patreon. Yeah. You know, so definitely want to do that. If you can give me some tips later, that'd be great.

Yeah, we'll look at your channel too and see if there's anything you can tweet. Thank you so much. appreciate that but I'm getting into that story so this is a great story you know it was one of the scariest moments of my life I got to tell you because you know I'm not and I always wanted to just go home I don't want to be at war with anybody I don't want to be doing anything I just wanted my freedom so like I said I'm in e-block and um I get approached by somebody comes up to me He's like, listen, La Gartija, which is a lizard in English, he wants to talk to you. Here's this phone.

He's going to call you in two minutes. So I'm like, all right. Is this somebody that's in the prison? This is someone in the prison that lives on my block, but he's giving me a phone that I'm going to talk to somebody that's in maximum security, F block. Okay. So I take the phone, I go into a cell, and I'm just waiting. Bam, I get a call in two minutes. Pick up the phone.

I know it's lizard. Hey, lizard, what's going on? on. He's like, hey, listen, man. I know you live with Anthony, you know, the million dollar kid. So I was like, yeah, what's going on? He's like, listen, you know, he set up a robbery. You know, my brother was in on it and a bunch of other guys. A robbery on the street? A robbery on the street. So this kid, Chico and Mi Jung was called. He's the million dollar kid. He would set up robberies on the outside. You know, he had connections for like banks and brings trucks and he would just know when the money.

he's getting moved, who's moving it, where's it going, all these things. I don't know how he got the info, but he would get it. Now, he would set up the robberies from inside the prison because he's doing his own prison term, but he would have people on the outside go hit these banks or bring trucks or whatever the case may be. Now, he sets up this robbery and about eight people go to do it. Now, they do the robbery and they make it to the stash house with the money. Now, when they get to the stash house with the money, it's surrounded by police officers. They just didn't know it.

So once they go into the stash house with all the bags of money, the police raid the place, go inside, and they basically torture everybody in there, right? And this came out on the paper. It was like a huge thing. You know, it's like ex-cons coming out of Penal Garcia Moreno, you know, got found in this stash house. There was money. There was, you know, they like tore off their fingernails. It was insane, like straight up torture. Now, the police were known to do this back in the day.

They had like hit squads that would go after. after these thieves because they're basically cleaning the streets all right all right so lizard tells me I know you know what went down

and you know my brother was one of the guys that died so what I need you to do is tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. you're going to open up the door as soon as the locks pop and Giovanni's going to come in and he's going to take care of Anthony

so I said all right you got it but you're going to bolt right you're not going to be there No, I'm not going to. What else can I say? The thing is that I live in the cell with him, right? So he's on the bottom bunk. I'm on the top bunk. It's only a two-man cell. And at 6 a.m., when the door's open, I got to open up and leave. So this guy Giovanni's going to be outside. He's going to come in and take care of him. Not that I want to do it, but I have to. So it's either him or me. Because if I say no, it's going to be both of us, right? All right. So, you know, that night I'm sitting there and I'm looking at him at the mirror, because like I told you, I had a mirror on the. the other side of the cell on the wall where I could see him at the bottom and we're smoking a jay on the bed watching TV and passing the joint looking at him like man you don't even know

right tomorrow's you know the last day on earth but you can't say anything you know I got to stick to the plan so the next day bam like clockwork the locks you know you hear when the guys coming through with the keys and the locks as soon as it opens I'm like all right let's go so I jumped down you know he's still sleeping jump down open the door because we have our own locks on the inside But I have to, you know, even though the door's open on the outside, no one can get in. Right. Because I have it locked on the inside. So I just got to open up that lock and walk out.

Now, my heart's thumping. I open up the door. I walk out and I look, and there's nobody there. So I'm like, what the hell? So I go upstairs to the guy's cell. I'm like, Giovanni, what's up, bro? You're not doing it? He's like, no, man, I thought about it.

He's like, I don't think I want to do this. I don't want to be this guy's robot anymore. he's like i don't know let me think about it he wasn't too sure right so i was like all right we got a call from lizard that day again what happened but he's not talking to me he's talking to giovanni i'm like listen i open the door here's giovanni jivani he's like bro i don't know i want to do it today he's like i'll do it tomorrow all right i got you now the hitman he's a hitman like he got three guards on the outside when he escaped and this guy's the real deal so he's not scared or anything. He's just, you know, contemplating on if the reason is good enough to take

this kid out. Right. Because remember, we're all in the same block and we were close to each other. We would sit down and eat together at the same table. So, you know, you're going to take out somebody who just had dinner with last night. Right. It's crazy. No, he didn't necessarily, he didn't get the guys. He set up a robbery. He didn't know it was going to go wrong. But Lizard is saying that he set him up for everybody to get killed there because there's no way that they would have known where the stash house is. But then why would you set it up at all? Like that doesn't make sense I mean, the thing is that

They were saying that this million dollar kid Was working with the cops To set up people that were coming out of the prison To take him out That's what Lizard was trying to say Okay So that was his reason behind taking him out Or maybe just his justification

Whether it's true or not Exactly So next day it comes Again, heart thumping I'm like geez, it's about to happen Open up the door, walk out And there's nobody Now my heart really drops

I'm like, oh, shit, now we're in trouble. You're going to get me? Yeah, bro. I'm like, what's going on? I go upstairs. And he's like, nah, bro, forget. I'm not doing it. Now we're going to be sworn enemies.

That's it. He's like, you know what? If he sends anybody here to take care of me, bro, he's like, you got to help me out. You know, he's like, you help me out. I'll take the charge because that's the way it goes down there. There could be two or three people that take care of somebody. But one guy says, I did it. And then they were like, all right, he did it, even though two or three people might have stabbed you.

You know what I mean? I mean, that sounds like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, not a we problem on how are you involved? Like, how am I involved? I'm involved. I'm involved. You know, I'm, I'm there. So I'm like, all right, man. What are we going to do? I'm like, all right, it is what it is. Now, the hitman had a brother in a different jail. And Lizard had people in a bunch of jails in Ecuador in prisons. So he makes a call to a different prison and gets this guy's brother in a different prison. Okay. Crazy. But that's it. So nothing ever happens with your guy? No, nothing ever happened.

Okay. He got transferred later on and got in a different prison, but. Oh, okay. Okay, okay. So Lizard had, he had one brother in one prison, and then later your cellib gets moved and have him there to. Yes, correct. Well, you got lucky, right? Yeah.

that no is our way to avoid problems when you're in this type of prison or problems will find you even if you're keeping to yourself yeah like yeah i mean in this prison it's pretty hard man especially for me like i was a young white kid white green eyes and then visits would come in i would have girls flirt with me and they have boyfriends inside the prison like i would have to like lock myself you know somewhere it was insane like my mother would tell me don't look at me yeah no no because you know think about it you're in ecuador and everybody's thinking oh he's got a blue passport, women just want to give themselves to you, like immediately, you know, and it was hard. I mean, that's one thing.

Another thing is, oh, this guy lives well. Oh, this guy has a lot of visits. His mother and father come to see him. He's got two, three girlfriends. Because sometimes, you know, like, at the end, when I was almost free, like, my father would come visit me, and one of my friends would go away from at the door because my father would come in with, you know, supermarket, bring me all kinds of stuff, food to eat and everything. So my friend would be waiting for him, and then he'd grab them and he'd grab the bags and

take him to a cell that I had for my father. Meanwhile, I have one of my girlfriends in one cell and then another girlfriend in another cell. So I see my dad, he'd be like, you're right? You're busy today? I'm like, a little bit. You know, I got two girls. He's like, all right, man, don't worry. He just want to bring you some food. You need some cash, something. I'm like, no, no, I'm good. I'm good. He's like, all right. So I had one of my boys. He's like, you know, maybe you could get me a joint or something. Like, yeah, sure, dad, don't worry. I'd call one of my boys. He'd go get my dad some because he's always been diabetic, arthritis, things like that. So over there he started, you know, testing dad out.

It would help him. You know, we'd give him an appetite. He would eat. We had restaurants on my block. He'd sit down and have some soup or whatever. So it was just insane, man. When people see that you have that kind of support, you know, and see that you have visit, you know, see that maybe you dress a little bit better because, remember, there's no uniforms. Right.

So it's not my fault. You know, my parents send me a pair of Nike's or something. No one else has a pair of nikes. But, yeah, problems just look for you. It's very hard to stay neutral. Back then, there wasn't too many gangs, but there was groups of people. Like, you know, these group of trafficantes, this group of robbers, you know. But it wasn't, like, gang like it is now.

Like, now they're all, like, cartels. And these gangs are ran by the cartels. So. You said you escaped. Yeah, two prison escapes. Like, one was the one in 2005? Was there another one or was it the one that you, that the other jail? It was in the small, in the smaller jail before my year was up.

Okay. So on the 2005 prison escape, the tunnel, like how close were you to the wall? Like, what was the time frame? Like, were you almost there? Yeah, I would say when we were almost finished. So I would say like two to three hours we would pop up on the other side of the double walls. And that was just like a calculation. It could have been less.

It could have been more, but we were pretty close because we could walk from the window of my cell all the way to the first exterior wall. And then underneath in the tunnel, you could do the same thing. We'd walk and we'd count the steps. We'd measure it. So, you know, we knew we were just about there. It was just popping up in the right spot. That's all. And you couldn't escape during the prison riot because there's police and stuff outside.

Yeah. During the riot, it was a lot more. A lot more risky because there was a lot of police officers outside. It was coverage outside the prison was insane. And inside there was nothing. So there's like gunshots going off. There's people getting killed. There's cells on fire.

I mean, madness going on inside. And outside, all the police officer there, and they're like playing volleyball. They're playing soccer on the on the field. So, you know, they don't care what's going on. As long as you guys don't escape, they're fine with it. You said you have to buy a cell when you get there? Yes. Okay, so what if you're broke and you have no money?

That's where they just pile them up. Yeah, if you're broke and you have no money when you get there, they usually send you to B Block. And B Block is for the people that, you know, poverty cases, hit men, people that don't have visits. And there you could fine sell with seven, eight people, ten people. You know, it's a cell full of drug addicts. So how are the guards being compensated? Obviously, it's money, but there's any specifics like, you know, I heard you kind of explain on another podcast. ask, like, every guard has to be paid if they're bringing in, whatever.

So, yeah, let me go into that. I'll give you a quick story. So one visit day, one of the times that my mother went to go visit us, I was making liquor with my cellies, right? So my mom's like, yeah, so she walks out, I'm like, mom, you ready? Today we're going to be making liquor. You know, don't worry, everything's paid off. You're going to see, the guards are going to be coming to the doors.

We're good. She's like, what, are you serious? I'm like, yeah. So I start pulling out the contraption from under the bed. You know, I had all in pieces, you know, the Home Depot bucket. and then, you know, we have these smaller bucket, and then we have the silicone, we have to seal everything, put it together, wait for it to dry, and we have this contraption which would heat up the hooch.

So we would get three kilos or three pounds of yeast, I don't remember, but it was 10 pounds with the yeast, and we would put it in a bucket, and we'd let it ferment for eight to 10 days. Anywhere between those eight to 10 days, we would pay off the guards, maybe bring me some pineapple skins, maybe some, you know, some grapes, some apples to give it some flavor, some fruitiness to it, right? And we would let that sit ferment. And once it did, you know, we would check it, it would open up the top. It would just be bubbling inside.

And then we know it's good to go. So then we would put this contraption in it, which would heat it up. The vapors would rise. And then we would have a funnel like you used to put the oil in your car. It's, you know, we had it inside the contraption. And then all the condensation would go up to the top. just start going into this funnel and coming out this hose like I showed you in the picture and we're making liquor throughout the whole day we got two watch guys one's at the front

door of the block and one's right at my door right so when the guards are coming in they would let us know you know we got one coming in we got two so I know to get one or two dollars ready if it's the head guard he gets 10 you know I believe there was like 26 guards on shift so $25 a dollar per each one and then the head guard would get 10 and this is every day and I'm not the only one but throughout the prison there's probably you know 20 or 30 other people doing the same thing just with liquor and then there's probably 20 or 30 other people doing this with and then another 2030 selling so you know it's a it's a different world inside everybody's got the own trap house the guards are making money off of that because at the time they were only making $200 a month

Yeah, I was going to say, what is their normal wage? Yeah, what's their normal wage? Yeah, their normal wage was $200 a month. That's what they were getting. So imagine, you know, you're going into the prison. These people live in cells that are better than their house, right? Right. They have TVs better than them.

You know, they're walking around with jewelry, right? They know they got guns inside. So the corruption is just, it's everywhere, right? So the guards would be like, hey, you need another knife? Let me know. You need another phone? Let me know. I know this guard charges 40.

Give me 35. Right. I'll bring them in. You know, if you got more than two, you know, let me know, I'll give you a better price. Things like that. So is that why they're doing the job for the money? Exactly. Yeah.

I mean, to be a guard in Ecuador, you don't need a high school diploma. I mean, most of them don't even know how to read and write. It's sad, man. Did you ever come back in contact with a guy who set you up? Yeah, what happened to that guy? Never saw him again. Okay. Yeah.

Wish I could have. Is there a hierarchy in the, Mexican or not Ecuador prison? Is there like a specific hierarchy, like top of the totem pole? Yeah, I mean, now the prisons are structured a lot more differently, like gang-wise. So now these gangs work for the cartels from Mexico. So, I mean, inside the prison, I could show you, you could see videos on YouTube, like this top guy, Colompico, and then he has another top guy called Fito. And these are people that were running the prisons.

And the other day, a drone landed on top of his maximum security cell with dynamite on it and exploded. And just so happens that luckily he wasn't in his cell or else he would have been dead. I mean, so this is the top guy for like one of the gangs. And then there's other top guys for different gangs. There's so many gangs in Ecuador right now. And they're all fighting over control of the seaports. You know, you got seaports like Guayaquil, Manta, Machala. that. You know, they're fighting over it because this is where the drugs are getting shipped out of the

country. Shipped out or or? No, they're shipped out. They're getting shipped. They're getting shipped to the states in Europe. So they're leaving these, these ports because the Mexican cartels are now in Colombia and Ecuador and they're producing the stuff in Colombia and they're transporting it and it's exiting the country or the South America from these ports. Yeah, because I know in Mexico, a lot of the cartels will get a hold of the port or control of the port to get the precursor materials to make the like methamphetamine and all these, all these choice. So they have to have it to be able to get it in. Okay.

And then they're shipping it. I mean, yeah, that could be the case as well, but I know that they're... Well, where Ecuador's, you know, from China, it would probably be coming in. Straight shot. Yeah. Yeah. So. Let's see.

So when you had to become an addict to, get into that program or get the you know get the years knocked off did you find yourself like actually becoming addicted oh of course full blown addict 100% was it easy to just to stop or do you feel like you're not at all not you feel like you have an addictive personality or no i definitely have an addictive personality that's what everything with everything i go into it's like i'm 100% or 120 right i mean that'd be work drugs whatever the case may be i've always been like that right so when you know i was told to, you know, become a drug addict to try to beat the case. That's what I did. But, you know, I went and then it was hard to come back. And I had moments where, you know,

I sold everything. Sold my cell, sold my store, sold the pool table, you know, smoked all my clothes, all my sneakers. I didn't have a dime, you know, so I lived through the worst of it. You know, drug addiction, I know all about it. I suffered through it. You know, my family suffered through it. And, um, you know, I'm just, I'm glad I'm here to be able to say, you know, it's not the end of the road if you become a drug, drug addict either. You know, everything is possible as long as you have the will to leave it behind. Um, okay, um, real quick. Sorry, your, your parents, like when you keep talking about them coming to see you, like, I mean, they live in, they live in, what, uh, New Jersey? Yes. They live in New Jersey. So,

when they're coming down, are they coming down and staying for like two weeks? Um, so we had a period. I think it was 2000, yeah, the tunnel 2005 where my father retired and they were able just to like move down there. And they stayed for like two years. So they were there in Quito with me throughout like two years of my sentence. Whoa. Yeah. Right? Like moving down there. No insane. Yeah. No, I had the best parents in the world, man. How without them, I don't think I would have made it. How, um, like how what's like is it was, is I know obviously it's less expensive. Yeah, of course. But they could go down there with a U.S. retirement.

Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, no, they were living like, you know, in a high rise paying like $300 a month. Okay. Yeah, it's insane. Yeah. No, straight up like first class, but very cheap. But they're still in. But they're still in Ecuador.

They got to get used to the Ecuadorian ways, you know. They've been in the United States for 40 some odd years. Yeah. And now they're down there because they're, you know, their son is in the prison. Right. So not only that, then they got aware, you know, every time they see you, you know, you don't get normal prices. And that's with everything, with a taxi, when you go out to get food, you go to the supermarket, you know, everybody wants to charge you extra for everything.

And in the prison, anything was money. For us, forget it was, it was insane. You know, any paperwork I needed, you know, my dad tried to get me out on parole, even though I had the two attempted escapes. And, you know, he was trying to pay money to certain people, but at the end of the day, it just never worked out. Have you ever been back? No, I've never been back to Ecuador. I never plan on going back to Ecuador either. Just, you know, made a lot of enemies there

and there's still people alive that I know about. And there's, you know, it's just a lot more dangerous now as well. My wife is from Ecuador. It's a crazy story how I met her. But, yeah, she's Ecuadorian. Did you read her there? No, I met her here. Yeah, I met her here.

So with the, like, legal issues, why couldn't you go back to the U.S.? Is that not a normal thing? Like if you like get talking to the U.S. embassy or something, like can they help? Because he broke the law in Ecuador. So if you, you know, as an American, then they want you to do the time in that. It's like the United States doesn't want someone from Canada to come here, break our laws, and just send them back. No, no.

You broke a law in the United States. You got to do your time in the United States. But they usually have. They actually allow, they were allowing it. So just a quick story. We're going to go back to when I was in Tulkan. and the embassy flies out there in a helicopter to meet me. Okay.

So my mother finds out, I'm officially in jail in Tulkan, and she tells the representative at the embassy, like, I want to go visit my son. Can I go see him? And she's like, no, you have to wait. There's a lot of guerrilla warfare going on at the border. It's too dangerous. And I'm going to fly out there next week with two bodyguards

to see how it is and we'll let you know. Meanwhile, I'm in the jail partying. You know, it's party time in there. It's end of the year. you know, it's Christmas, New Year's, it was just a movie. But once the embassy gets there and they call me, I go out to the office, she looks at me. She's like, you look good. I was like, here, why should I look bad?

She's like, well, I thought you would be, you know, like all black and blue and dirty in the jail here. But, you know, I came out, you know, gold chain, watch, Nike's on, you know, all smiles and giggles. And she's like, I thought it would be a lot worse. And so I explained to her the way it was inside. I was like, it's really another world. It's just, you know, like being at home, but you just can't leave the building. You know, we have everything inside. TVs, PlayStation, food, liquor.

You have everything. So she was like, okay, well, I guess I'll tell your mother, it's okay for her to come down. And she had two bodyguards with her, and they flew back in the helicopter. Yeah, it was crazy. Well, so I don't understand. So what, so you were saying you could go back. Yeah, so I, that, when they were there, I asked her, is there any way I can get back to the States? And she said, sure, that's not a problem.

we went through the process, you know, the embassy, when my mother traveled there the first time, she went to the embassy, got the paperwork, she brought it to me, I signed off on it, and then she took it back, and they were presenting it to the courts in Inquito, and Ecuador denied it. Oh, okay. Ecuador said, no, he has to stay here and pay his time. They didn't let me. The United States was going to receive me, no problem. So a lot of the countries, the United States will have, you know, they'll have like whatever treaties with, like extradition treaties, and they have like, you know, shared prosecution treaties, like all these different treaties.

But a lot of countries will say, like when they end up doing the 50 percent, a lot of them are like that. Like, I would be in prison with guys from Croatia or Russia or, what was the other one, or Canada. And they get, you know, first of all, they get 15 years in the United States and they get their same crime. They get five years in Canada. And they would do six months. And then they put them on an ankle monitor and tell them to go.

home. You can go to work. You can go shop. You can, like, they limit some of their movement, but not a lot. But what happens, so of course, the United States is furious about that. Obviously, they're disgusted by it. But these guys, if they got like 15 years in the United States, then what happens is they have to do 50% of their time in the United States. That's what the treaty says. Then they can apply to have their sentence moved to Canada. And they're a whole thing is they're like, listen, when as soon as I get to Canada, like, I won't do two weeks. They'll put me on an ankle monitor, send me home immediately because they'll be like, if you were charged here, you wouldn't even, you'd be done.

And so same thing with like, you know, it's Croatia or, you know, whatever, Lithuanian, you know what I'm saying? Like, these guys would sit there and they get, these gangsters would get 20 year sentences and they, they'd be like, I'm, I'm only going to do 10 years. They're like, as soon as I do 10 years, they're shipping me back and they'll let me go immediately because, like, some of these countries don't have conspiracy laws. So they're like, they get back and they just release them because they're like, look, you know, you committed a crime in the United States that we don't even have a crime for.

There was no such thing as conspiracy. Like, this guy told you, you guys talked about robbing the bank, and he arranged the whole thing, and then you went and robbed the bank. Like, yeah, yeah, but he's the one who planned it and knew everybody inside and told me where the money is. Yeah, okay, well, he didn't rob the bank. No, no, but he planned it. Like, that's conspiracy. You were a part of it.

No, there was no conspiracy. You robbed the bank. That's it. It ends with you. So a lot of these, the treaties are 50%. That's why, obviously, you could have got, if he had done it sooner, the president had been elected sooner than at 50%, they would have, you would have probably had to fill out some paperwork and gone through the same thing you went through.

Maybe, yep. But, yeah. And that's, that's funny because I thought I was going to go through some type of process when I got back to the States. When I got on the plane and I got back here, I just walked out like a normal person. Right. And nobody said anything to me. I didn't have to check in anywhere.

I didn't get anything, you know, no type of, you know, D.E.A. Interpol, nothing. I just walked back into the country like nothing. Would you wrap, what, would you would have rather been in a straight prison that wasn't corrupt without all the amenities and without all the crime? or do you feel like some of the amenities provided, like the girls or, you know, the extra things that you could do? Like, what's your just thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, so it's both sides to the table, right?

Would I want to do seven years and change in, like, the States or in Ecuador? I don't know, man. I couldn't answer that question. I've never been in prison in the States. I know it's a lot different. I mean, it's a lot more dangerous in Ecuador because, you know, you could get from a stray bullet inside the prison. Right.

But I would have to say I would stay with Ecuador. Yeah, I was going to tell you. Wow. I would stay. I almost said, I know the answer is going to be you'd rather not be in Ecuador because. I would stay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I was just curious because you hear all these things. Yeah, I would have stayed because, I mean, listen, we had visits Wednesday, Saturdays, and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And every 15 days, so twice a month, it was sleepover. Your visit would come in 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and she would leave Sunday at 5 p.m. So it's a sleepover. And at night, it's party time. No guards inside.

Everybody's doors open. Everybody's partying. There's liquor. There's, you know, weed. I mean... Is everybody in there respectful of visitors? Yes, the visits. Everybody respects the visits.

I mean, it's, it's another world, man. There's kids running around. Not like there's just kids running everybody that's, yeah. There's visits everywhere. There's grandmas, grandfathers, kids. I had my father spend the night with me in, you know, in an F block, Maximus Security was December 31st, 2006, my mother and my father in the cell with me, right? We celebrate the New Year's together.

The first night that they came to spend the night with you, like were they good? I mean, I guess they probably had already visited beforehand. Yeah, they had already visited prior, so they knew what it was like. But sleeping over was just something, you know, crazy. They never thought it could happen. But yeah, down there, anything's possible. Hey, sorry to interrupt the video. Just want to let you guys know that we're going to have an extra 15 or 20 minutes of content on my Patreon.

It's $10 a month for about an hour's worth of extra content every single week. Back to the podcast. You know, obviously, I would say probably most people or criminals would say their biggest lesson is just like it's not worth it. But is there anything that like your biggest takeaway from being. in that type of environment, that prison for so long, like something that you learned about yourself or just kind of the biggest lesson that you learned about anything. So being all those years in Ecuadorian prison, I think it made me the person I am today and I am able to read people a lot easier, a lot better.

I was in a lot of moments where, you know, tense moments or, you know, being able to sit down and talk with people that are basically serial. Right. And you have to live with these people and learn how to. to maneuver around them, you know, especially when you're living in a cell with them and you're a close proximity. I'm just able to relate to people a lot better, I feel. I'm able to pick up on situations differently. And what I took out of being in prison down there is, you know, anything is possible, you know, prison isn't the end of it. If you want to be somebody, you can.

Now, there's people that love prison. I saw it. I was there for seven years. People would leave. Come back. Leave. Come back. And I'm still sitting there. Like, what are you doing? I want to go home and you keep coming back here. But some people just don't have nothing to look forward to. Some people don't have a family. Some people just don't have, you know, the want or the will to become successful or to change their lives. You know, but I always wanted that. You know, since the day I stepped foot in that prison. I said, this is going to be the first and only time I'm ever in prison. right right because you know i learned my lesson you could say i was scared straight if you want but in prisons for suckers i don't want to be there you're losing your time you're losing your life you're missing out on your family and you're just you know you're a dead man walking in there nobody remembers you when you're in prison so the best thing is to be free you know just live by the law you know go to work do find whatever you love to do get up and do it every day be consistent with it and you're going to come out on top that's it yeah that's all i'll say

it's too good out here to be it's just too good being free is beautiful it's the best thing ever free people have no idea how good they have it yeah no no it's the best especially when I was over there and I would you know think about my life before I was just like man what an idiot and you had money saved and you had a lawsuit coming and you still chose to come down here and do this yeah um yeah I was going to say do you do you like you like just for as far as the visits, the visitation room, this is how insane what you're saying is, is that the visitation room in Coleman was about, I'd say it was as wide as including the kitchen wall, like this wide, and it would say it's two, like from that wall to what, two of these.

Okay. And it's a bunch of chairs that are hard-ass plastic chairs that are bolted to the ground that are on metal, it's just, and you're facing each other. Yep. Some of them you can slide around and there's just usually it's like rows and sometimes you can slide us. Some of them you're able to slide around. Maybe you have like a little chair that, I mean a little table that doesn't fit the chairs. Like it's like a it, you have to bend over and you can be, there's vending machines where they,

somebody can go get you some vending machines and heat up. Yeah, I heard about that. The vending machines are like it for a visit day. Everybody wants their sweets. Absolutely. And then like when you're allowed to, when your family comes in, you're allowed to give them a hug, a brief hug. brief contact brief hug yeah you sit down you talk to them and the guards are sitting there watching you the whole time so like if you lean over you were to hold your wife's hand the but hey yeah i catch

you again your your visit's gone did you ever have uh conjugal visits here no no no that's like i think that the there may be one or two states that still have them left and it's not what you think it's like it's like every six months you can have like they'll if you've earned it you'll have like a weekend where your family shows up like on a Saturday morning and leaves Sunday night. And it'd be like your wife have to be married. And you get like a, you get like a little trailer, right? Okay. But I mean, you'd have to be at a camp custody. You'd have to be, you know, super low, earn it. And it's not like people make it seem like, oh yeah, like they can come like once or twice a month. No, it's like once every six months or a year. And that's if any, that's any states to still

have it. That's just, and in the federal system, there is none. Nothing. Interesting. So it's so, the idea that someone could come to yourself or they would let kids in or they would let, like, they would never. They, they search you going into the visitation room and search you going out of the visitation as if you would sneak anything into visitation. Yeah.

You know, it's just so, you know, and I've seen guys where they, the guys like, puts his hand, you know, holds his wife's hand or puts his. hand on his, the girls, whatever. And the cops walk over and said, boom, she's got to go now, right now. Wow. And you can't say anything. Like, if you're like, no, bro, what the, but you just lost your visit. I'm going to write you a shot.

She may not be back for another year. And we'll ban her. What? Like, we can ban her. She'll never come back. And so you're just like, if they're like, hey, man, you know, she's got to go right now. You're like, okay. Like, you don't argue back.

Yeah. It's horrible. And then keep in mind, too, they're waiting like an hour, hour and a half to get in. They treat them like dog shit. They come in and if it gets crowded, they'll just randomly walk up and say, hey, you got to go. No, it's crowded. We got more people wait. You got to go.

You're like, waited an hour and a half to get. I drove two hours to get here. Waited an hour and a half in the visitation room. Got here. I've been here an hour and a half or an hour. And you're telling me I have to leave. Like, these people have been here for six hours. Like, that doesn't matter.

Go. Wow. And you can't say anything. You know? My visits went through the same thing. Lines of like three, 400 people outside. They have to get there early. You want to get there.

you want to be the first in line, five, six in the morning. You got to be there. You know, lines open up at eight. And then all these police officers are checking you at the front entrance, going through all your bags and stuff. And then the guards are checking you at the main entrance, making sure you're not bringing anything. I mean, it was just insane.

And yeah, you know, just, it's like a whole society outside. Because outside of that prison, there was a bunch of stores that would hold anything you can't take inside and they charge you a dollar. So you can't take in any, like, any book bags. You got to leave it there. You can't take any belts. All the mail visitors had to leave their belts there. It's a dollar to leave your belt.

Cell phones. You can't bring them in. You got to leave them out front. $5 to leave your cell phone for the day. So it was like a whole industry because of this prison there. What's it in the channel? Global lockdown. Is everything global lockdown?

Everything's global lockdown right here. All Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, it's global lockdown. I have all the links in my description on the YouTube channel as well. Yeah. You know, we're going to be posting there, trying to post as much as I can. you know, clips of stuff that I live, clips that are being sent to me now, stories of other prisoners that I was there locked up with at the same time, and other prisoners that have been locked up around the world.

Hey, I appreciate you guys watching. Do me a favor, hit the subscribe button, share the video. Also, we're going to leave the global lockdown links for YouTube, Instagram, you know, all the different social medias in the description box. Please consider joining my Patreon. We're putting special content or exclusive content on Patreon. It's $10 a month. check all that stuff out. Please consider subscribing. It really does help. Colby and I.

Thank you very much. See you.