Original subtitles

Whatever was going on, I'd be in, 100%. Two kilos, one bag.

That's it.

But I never thought I would be a drug smuggler.

I just had nothing left to lose.

Bag.

Was it a right decision?

Of course it was.

I found myself in one of the most extreme prisons in the world.

I'm not allowed to move.

I'm not allowed to speak.

How the hell did my life come to this?

My name's Stephen Beattie.

I'm just a normal working -class lad from the northwest of England.

People call me Steve, amongst other things.

I'd definitely say I was a joker.

I don't take life too seriously.

I like the excessive extremes, that little step more for the good or the

guess.

Around about 2004,

I guess I'd have been 34, I was more or less living in Thailand.

I just fell in love with the place, the old vibe about it.

Just wandering around, very carefree, and just going bar to bar.

It was just pure escapism. I just found a way of not dealing with realities of

what really I should have been dealing with.

Back in England, my relationship had fallen apart.

I had children, and unfortunately, it went quite wrong.

And I took it pretty bad.

It was quite horrific for me, and

then my mother passed away.

Didn't handle it well, and it was like trauma after trauma.

I had nothing left to lose.

Like many people, I'd moved on to Thailand, trying to escape life's

failure.

I do wish I'd have been a lot stronger, especially from my children and my

sisters and the rest of the family.

But I just buried my head in the Thai sands and just ignoring the pain.

Thailand is very cheap.

You wouldn't think you could spend that much money.

But I did.

It was a crazy lifestyle.

I'd met this guy, Joe.

He was a bit of a character, quite dodgy.

He made his money.

Steroid smuggling, cigarette smuggling, that was quite a big thing.

Hey, Joe, do you want a beer? I confess to him that my money was running out.

He started talking about this opportunity of making a bit of money

cannabis.

He said, there's quite a few people doing this.

Have a think about it. I'll go and grab you a beer.

OK? He told me everybody was getting away with it.

Even if you got caught, it was maybe one year, six -month sentence, because it

was only weed.

I thought it was really innocent.

You're not doing hard, class -A drugs.

Here you go, buddy.

Cheers, pal.

I felt at the time that it was worth the risk.

All right.

I'm in.

Cheers, buddy.

Cheers. I just didn't want to go home.

Going home was facing reality, and I just, I still wasn't, I wasn't prepared

face reality.

I just wanted to stay living this dream.

So I went with Joe to meet these Iranian guys that were smuggling the marijuana.

It was all quite a shift, if I'm honest.

And I'm just looking around thinking, are we being watched? I mean, we haven't

even done anything yet.

How scary.

Can I help you?

I'll be here to see Addy.

OK, follow me.

Stephen. Hi.

Take a seat.

I knew this guy was going to sweet -talk me.

What's up?

Well, you can say whatever you want. I just need to know what I'm carrying and

where I'm going to.

Relax.

Addy asked me to actually smuggle drugs to Japan.

Japan?

Where I'd never heard of people smuggling drugs to. But he did say that

was a lot more money.

The basic plan was to smuggle 4kg of cannabis, but the street value in Japan

very high, something like $120 ,000.

I was to get $8 ,000.

Adi's plan was for me to go to Nepal, pick up the marijuana,

fly to Taiwan, then get the ferry to Okinawa.

in Japan.

So, but what is the risk?

And he said, it is a higher risk because the Japanese are very strict.

I thought, well, obviously it's risky.

Don't worry about that.

You got it.

And he said to me, we've got a good cover story for you.

I was going to be a diver on like a sporting holiday.

So we had the golf clubs, all the diving equipment, and cleverly hidden amongst

all this was 4kg of marijuana.

And so basically it was an adventure holiday, which is what I would do

naturally.

The more it's something that I really would do, the story is believable in my

head as well.

Addy said it was a foolproof system.

The drugs were undetectable.

You know, just feeling your confidence.

OK. And I was just thinking, brilliant.

I kind of like the sound of that.

And that's me, safe, not going home for who knows, hopefully, a good while

anyway.

But, oh, my God, how can it be so stupid?

A couple of weeks after meeting Addy, I was off to Kathmandu.

To help the cover story, I made a holiday bit as well.

I flew around Everest, which was an amazing experience.

A small part of me was thinking, if it does go wrong, let's have fun while it

lasts.

I'd been there probably over a week.

Hello?

The bags with the rug got dropped off.

And I'm thinking, oh, my God.

Hi, sir. Good day.

I met this guy. He was like, yeah, he's the guy.

No?

No, no. Fine. OK.

Good day, mate. Cheers, mate.

I'm looking for any signs of the smell.

I can't smell anything.

I like a new bag smell.

What are you going to expect?

I'm thinking, right, it's getting real now, so let's have a look at these bags.

So obviously you couldn't see the drugs.

But I've been told inside the lining of the bag where a board would be.

That is basically changed to blocks of cannabis.

I couldn't believe that it was really in there.

It really gave me the confidence that I could actually get away with this.

It was the following day when the drama was going to start.

Adi had said everybody was paid off at the airport.

Everybody knew what was going on. But there's soldiers everywhere, all over

airport.

So I'm thinking, is this a big spanner in the works?

It turned out there was just a military coup in Nepal.

I'm thinking all this cover story, people paid off.

It's gone wrong straight away.

In Nepal, they have a scanning system for checking.

So this is the first real big test.

I'm trying to stay calm, but inside you're going like...

Next

minute, I've been fine, and I'm off towards

trekking.

And then out of nowhere, these guys just come up to me saying, hands up.

It's searching me everywhere.

I'm thinking, what's going on here?

It's like, on your waist there.

Right, here we go.

I'm

just

thinking, get these bags out of my sight.

And next minute, I've been fine.

They came jolly good.

From Taiwan, I was doing the overnight ferry to Okinawa.

The final stage of my drug smuggling.

The bags have passed every test so far and all I've got to do is hold my nerve.

Thank you.

I'm thinking I'm just going to walk through.

Bag.

Let's go.

There's absolutely no way out of that point.

I'm just thinking I'm done for.

These guys are going to find it.

My heart was beating.

Like mad.

They're going through all the bags. I can see them feeling every single bag.

My inner turmoil is just going, this isn't part of the plan.

Suddenly the head guy said, and that

was me, off.

Off with me bags and...

To the taxi.

When I got in the hotel, I just led there on the bed.

I thought, how have I just got through that without cracking up or stuttering?

I just couldn't believe how, I hate to say it, but how well I actually did it.

The guy came.

We do the swap.

Bag,

money. Next minute, I've got $8 ,000 on me.

I'm thinking, I've got away with it.

And then I'm back on the plane to Thailand and party time again.

Back home in England, I was having troubles with access to children.

But I'm just living in denial, really.

Just drinking and partying made things miles worse.

And what I was running away from, it's always going to be there.

And, you know, it's hard not to get too emotional about it all.

Eventually, my money was running out again.

But then I've got the old option of a quick little trip abroad, easy money,

start again.

I got hold of Addy and I said, what's going on with the smuggling?

I wanted back in.

There's that saying, you know, you learn from your failures way more than your

successes.

And it's so true.

But I just didn't want to go home.

Over the next six months, I'm off to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London,

smuggling cannabis.

Compared to the first time, it really was a walk in the park.

I was getting $5 ,000 per trip, bosh, bosh, bosh, either, bank four,

but the money.

I was spending it as quickly as I got it.

Or reached out to Adi.

Adi, how you been?

And he said it was the option of going back to Japan, which was a lot more

money.

Two kilos, one bag.

That's it.

Two kilos, one bag. Yeah.

The deal.

Thank you.

Little did I realize how long it all would go.

I flew to Mumbai, picked up the drugs, no problem.

I'm very confident with the bags now because I knew that the cannabis was so

cleverly hidden.

But when I got to Tokyo, the bag didn't come with me.

The airport told us the bags were going to be delivered to the hotel tomorrow.

So I'm thinking, surely it's got to be a good thing. Thank you very much.

Well, at least I know I'm going through customs with nothing.

My spider senses start to tingle.

Something doesn't feel right.

I can see another hotel, which is opposite me, a regional hotel.

I think if I can get in that hotel, I can see them bring the bag to the other

hotel.

I was just sat there watching for hours and hours and hours for anything dodgy

like the police bringing the bag.

I fell asleep.

The following morning, I wake up and I rang up the hotel opposite and I asked

them, has my bag came yet? They said, oh yes, Mr Beattie, your bag's here.

Excellent. Right, okay.

I've missed the drop -off.

And I think, right, do I just go and get the bag?

It's so strange.

Part of your brain is screaming, going, oh, my God, you're paranoid. You're

looking around, but the whole part of your brain is saying, just that normal,

it's that casual.

I thought, I'm just going to have to go for it.

I went into the hotel, got into the lift, got up to the second floor where

hotel foyer was.

Everything seemed really normal.

I'm thinking, this is

good.

Time for the bag with the marijuana in it.

I thought, oh, there's nobody jumping on me.

Because I'm here now, surely.

This is the point where they all jump on me.

Thinking, oh, God, I've got away with it.

I got to the lift, a sense of relief, and I press the lift button, and

as I press it, two Japanese guys come out of nowhere.

I go in the lift.

Guys coming with me.

I actually said to them, where are you guys going?

I said, I'm going down. And I pressed down.

The door's open and oh my God.

Some guy comes straight onto me.

Another guy says, what is your name?

Is this your bag?

Yep, this is my bag.

What is in your bag?

That's a close.

It was a little bit taken back by the confession, really.

But I just thought, at this point, I'd be as honest as I can make myself sound.

There was no point in me saying it wasn't my bag.

Inside the lining of the bag, where the board would be, was 2kg of candy.

I'm kind of in shock, even though I knew there was a good chance that this was

going to happen.

I felt not so protective.

No, not at all.

They take me to Narita Police Station.

Straight away I'm getting interviewed.

I don't know what you're saying.

The police officer wants to know, where did I get the drugs from? Who's your

supplier?

I've already got my story in my head, and I've spoken to Addy about how I

be giving his name in any way.

I don't really know him. All I know is his name is Addy.

And he would laugh about it, saying it's OK, because it's not my real name.

I met him in a bar in Bangkok.

It's from somewhere in the Middle East.

He just offered me this deal.

I was desperate.

I had no money.

I'm really sorry.

I won't do it again.

That's all I've got at that point.

I felt fairly confident that they believed my story.

So that was quite a big weight off my mind.

It's not the biggest drug bust.

Hopefully I can just get a bit of a slap on the wrist.

Get one year, maybe do six months.

I can do that. I can handle that.

They gave me five years, 100 days.

I'm on the way to Puchu prison, and it did sound quite daunting.

I didn't know the language, I didn't know the culture.

I couldn't imagine how I was going to handle living five years in a Japanese

prison.

Suddenly, there's two inmates carrying what could only be a dead body.

It did freak me out. I'm thinking, God, here we go.

As soon as I get there, I'm made to strip.

I'm in the prison uniform.

All my dignity's gone out the window.

I'm a Japanese prisoner then.

It was very sterile.

Quiet. Irremindably more the mental hospital.

The coldness.

It was just eerie.

I could feel that silence already, the feeling of strictness.

Nobody spoke English. You weren't allowed to speak English.

They have two really tough guards.

Tanto -san, he was the big boss.

He had that intimidating look.

He was a lot more stern.

Each prisoner's given you a number, and you were constantly being shouted at.

Bango! Your number.

And as they're getting to me, I'm thinking, oh, my God.

I do not want to mess this up.

My number, 4 ,328.

I could not get my head around it.

My God, it

was tough, really tough going.

I had to do two -week training with these other prisoners.

And we're all learning how to act and behave in the prison.

They had a big notebook of all these rules.

And they were saying, I have to learn these.

It's impossible to go straight into that system without...

Making a mistake and going to punishment, which is extreme isolation

moment. If you don't follow the rules, you

go here.

It wasn't like any other prison I'd have heard of.

I realised very quickly that this Japanese system was all about control

rules.

For many years, really, I've lived a crazy, wild life.

And nowadays, no more fun, no more... ..no more anything.

They're teaching you how to walk from A to B. Your thumb has to go down that

side like that.

When somebody else is coming the other way, you stop,

turn, face the wall,

close your eyes.

There was absolutely

no extras, no cigarettes.

There was zero phone calls.

Which, in a normal prison system, is how everybody gets through. For us, there

was just no option.

Also, you're not allowed to speak other than a whisper, really.

If you spoke when you weren't allowed to speak, you were off to punishment.

Takes a while to get used to.

I can assure you of that.

I was permanently starving.

The food, whatever it was, there wasn't enough.

The dinners tasted pretty good, and in many ways it made it worse, because...

I was used to being a big, fat, greedy Westerner.

The guy opposite me has left a little bit.

I look at him and say, can I have it, please?

And he's gone, OK.

I tried to swap really quick.

Well, one of the officers has seen me.

They can really just feel like stealing that little bit of food.

Out of nowhere, there's two of these officers.

They take me away.

This is going to be my first test of Japanese punishment.

I'm putting this little wooden box, almost like the size of the telephone

It's just about sitting here.

It's very quiet and...

claustrophobic.

I'm obviously very worried.

I'm thinking this is the start of the dreaded month's punishment.

And part of my brain is going, oh my God, how am I going to get through this?

Oh my God.

It's hard to say how long you're actually in there.

Losing all sense of time.

Well, they're like days later.

Tantor stands, opens the door.

He says, Stephen, do not ever do that again.

Again.

So I have to play the submissive game.

Never.

Oh, I didn't realise. I'm sorry.

I'll never ever do this again.

Sorry, sorry.

He said, I'm going to get you back to the prison.

I realised that this time I was lucky.

Just don't do it again.

I felt very small and lost in the whole system.

There was so much in the not knowing what the hell is going to happen next.

That's very scary.

After six months, I got a letter.

And it was a huge thing. It was a massive thing.

It was from my sisters.

They were worried sick about me.

You know, at the end of the day, I am the baby brother.

You know, I like to think of myself as a big, tough guy, but really, I'm just,

you know, the baby brother.

I regret what it did to my family, massively.

Yeah, I really miss my children.

I don't mind being emotional, but I feel I can't even speak. It gets that

emotional.

I don't really realise how mentally strong I would have to be to get through

with my sentence.

My first winter was so cold.

I've never known cold like it.

At shower time, we all went together in a group.

You have to point to the razor.

say the number, then they say yes, take the razor and go.

I'm absolutely freezing.

I just want to get shaved. I want to feel that warm water on me.

Hiya.

Bongo here.

I don't know what's happening to you guys.

He's shouting, Bongo.

I'm struggling how to say it. It was only 79.

And he's repeating, bango, bango, bango, and

I'm just trying to pan him.

I'm saying 79 is saying in Japanese.

And he's screaming at me.

Very aggressive.

He wants me to react.

He's trying to push me as far as he possibly can.

But I didn't want to break the rules.

I could feel the emotion coming. I was almost in tears.

I'm going there, I'm cracking.

I just think, don't hit him, don't do anything, but what am I going to do?

My head's going here, and I lost it.

I just start washing, and I know the whistle's been blown.

Everybody knows there that I'm in trouble.

After a few minutes later, I'm in a punishment cell.

You have to sit down,

hands on your knees, eight hours a day, eyes open.

Only going to the toilet when they tell you.

Sit there and just think about basically what you've done wrong.

Complete isolation.

For one month.

If you do anything wrong in that time, you go to the toilet where you're not

supposed to, or you relax, they will say, right.

Your month starts again from now.

I knew one inmate did five years in there.

I'm thinking, how am I going to get through this?

The lowest, darkest moment was...

The first few days is complete silence.

I'm constantly in a battle of working out how I can mentally get through it.

I'm just dying for anything to happen.

The thought of Kicking off with a guard and even getting beat up.

Sounds like fun.

But it's a no -no because if you kick off, you're back to square one.

Mentally, like breaking down, I really thought, wow, I'm losing

the plot.

It was either this was going to break me, or I was going to find a way how I

get through this.

The

way

I think I can get through this system is just to comply, not ultimately give

in, but take control.

I've always wanted to be in the Army when I was younger.

I wanted to do that test, what the Marines go through and the FAS.

And basically, I think at this point, the future is like being in the Marines,

being in the FAS.

I'll do it to the best of my ability, and that way, that's how I'm going to

through this, is just be a staunch British soldier.

After six weeks, trapped away in this dark, and the next minute you feel the

sun.

Oh, my God.

I'm not religious, but that's the nearest I've got to feeling spiritual.

gave me a lot of time to reflect, a lot of time to think about where it had gone

wrong in life to end up in this situation.

I actually wrote in my first diary the Bible according to Steve Beattie.

Everything's going to get better.

It's only up and up from now.

And it's all basically just positive words.

I'd repeat this to myself every morning.

This experience will make me a better person.

I'll use this time to my advantage.

I'll be strong, make a new life.

I've been in prison for almost two years.

Then one day, Tantosan came to see me, says, Stephen, says, tomorrow.

You're going to the airport.

I'm like, oh, my God.

I'm going home.

Oh, my God, I'm going home.

Hands off, Sam. He looked at me and he gave me a bit of a well done.

I just wanted to go home, really, and sort out the family problems.

I started doing voluntary work for prisoners abroad.

They're an amazing charity that help the British people locked up in all

different countries all over the world.

What they do, it really is truly heartwarming.

You know, it felt good to give something back.

I truly do regret what I've done to my children.

But looking back... I definitely respect the Japanese prison system, all the

discipline. They're trying to rehabilitate you.

I can assure you, I came out there as a better person.