All language subtitles for Banged Up Abroad - Season 9 Episode 2 Raving Arizona

I've always been like the Mick Jagger of
the reptile industry.

I sold all kinds of illegal stuff.

Crocodile, snakes, tarantulas.

My holy grail was the king cobra.

I elected to take the snake on the
plane.

Were there some apprehension?

Yes.

Deadly venomous, and a bite means almost
sure death.

There was no question I made a lot of
bad decisions.

Did you pack a King Cobra in your
luggage?

But the worst was yet to come.

I honestly thought I was going to die.

For years and years, Tom Crutchfield was
the big dog in the reptile trade in the

United States.

Suspect has been spotted with a cage in
his hand.

It was critical that we get Tom out of
circulation and into our custody.

My customers loved the rare stuff that
was illegal. They knew it was illegal,

and they stood in line to buy it.

Down by in second position.

But that fateful day, I knew I was
taking a great risk.

This is exactly what we've been looking
for.

Now! Move it now!

Now! Now!

And I thought, oh.

I was living in Fort Myers, Florida.

Life was pretty good for me at that
point.

I was newly married.

Only one thing went wrong with the whole
picture, though, and that was I really

hated my job.

I was working for a large department
store that was all over the U .S.

It was a really good -paying job.

But this is not what I want to do with
my life.

The first thing I did when I got home,
of course, was always go work with my

reptiles, which was really my passion.

I would always clean the cages and look
at the animals, and it gave me a great

deal of pleasure and satisfaction to do
so.

And somehow I had to figure a way to be
able to live my life the way that I

wanted to live it.

At an animal dealers in Miami, two
friends of mine had a lot of bimini boa.

It was a wonderful snake.

They told me that they could simply go
to the Bahamas and catch anything, and

then they could just bring it back into
the U .S.

I said, basically, just put them in your
suitcase, take them back.

I asked them, and he said, you sure?

And they said they've never ever had
anything confiscated.

And if someone found them, all you had
to do was tell them they were personal

pets. He said, even though the animals
required permits, no one really cared.

I decided I wanted to see if we could
catch some of those beautiful boas for

myself.

I had a little bit of trepidation that
it might be more of a problem than they

said. I'm thinking of this giant law
that made all this publicity in every

newspaper in the world that was going to
regulate all wildlife.

It was hard to believe that no one was
enforcing it.

All that were in my mind was what one of
these would look like actually in

nature, you know, in the sunlight.

I wanted to do it.

And that was it.

We were going to South Beeman.

For me, it was a huge, huge event.

It was exciting.

This was my very first international
trip.

A friend of mine, who also collected
reptiles, heard that we were planning to

go. We said, okay.

And he went with us.

Now, 50 yards in the woods is this old
deserted building, and inside that

building was a place I was told that
Boas could be found.

I proceed to the building like a
Tasmanian devil because I want to catch

snake immediately.

And I'm tearing it apart, trying to look
for snakes, and all the raptors down in

the holes.

All of a sudden...

Penny said, so I tell Penny she needs to
go to the restroom wherever she can

find a place.

I kept looking for the boas, shining
lights and holes, and I hear Penny

Tom, Tom, come here.

When she first started calling me, it
was irritating me.

I go, I don't have time for that. Just
go ahead. Any place is all right to go

the bathroom. She goes, no, no, I
already went. But she said, where I

said, it's a snake.

So I took off as fast as I could,
wanting to try to get to the spot where

was.

And when I got there, she had this
beautiful four, four and a half foot

bimini boa.

Isn't that beautiful?

Unbelievable.

Look at that.

I took the snake and my hands literally
shook holding it, even though I had seen

the snakes before.

It was my very first wild one.

It was a remarkable sight.

It made me very, very happy.

We caught a snake the first 20 minutes
we were there.

And I thought, well, wow, if we caught
one this quick, we're probably going to

find a lot of them.

If I turned over one rock, I probably
turned over metric tons of rocks looking

for snakes.

But unfortunately, we didn't find any
more. That was the only snake.

But we started hearing this click,
click, click, click, click, you know,

over the building.

Whoa.

It sounded like a little toes.

Click, click, click, click, click.

And it was tarantulas, lots of them.

They were on the floor, on the walls,
everywhere looking for food.

And my friend wasn't fortunate enough to
find any snakes.

So he thought he'd catch tarantulas.

He caught six or seven of the biggest
females.

As we were preparing to go back to
Miami, we packed the steak in our bag,

know, with clothes around it, on top of
it.

And my friend put the tarantulas in his
bag the same way we did ours, with

clothes to keep them cushioned.

No one would see anything. We wouldn't
open our bags, and they would just wave

us through.

That was my hope.

When we got to the customs shack, there
were these two sort of really bored

customs officers, like laying around, if
you will.

And now, I was terrified.

I didn't know what to expect.

You know, I mean, There I was smuggling
illegally.

Oh.

And that was it.

So we get on the plane.

Can I help you with your bag, sir?

What? Both of us were nervous. I mean, I
can never forget the snake is in the

bag.

Your bag.

Oh, no, no. It's okay.

Thank you.

And as we're coming in, I still had some
trepidation about what would happen at

U .S. Customs.

I'd never done it before, so I didn't
know what to expect.

We disembarked the plane along with the
other passengers.

They have United States Customs agents.

It's not like in BME.

These guys are real serious.

They're looking at things a little more
serious, I'm thinking, than the people

in the Bahamas were.

Still, you have to think that in the
back of your mind, is someone going to

something? Is there going to be a
problem?

My friend said, I'll go first.

Everything seems pretty smooth until the
guy says,

Excuse me, sir.

Can I look at your back, please?

Can I look at your back, please?

I thought.

This is not good.

When he opened the suitcase, he sees a
bag.

When he picked the bag up, I thought,
holy... What is this?

Nothing much.

Because I knew there were spiders in the
bag, and I knew that they're not going

to like the tarantulas.

So the customs guy decided to open the
bag.

And that's when I did like that, looked
at Penny. She looked at me, and we're

like, oh.

He sticks his hand in.

I was feeling around.

And then, pow!

And I thought, oh, God.

It's absolutely the worst thing that
could happen.

The customs guy looking at the blood,
and he's looking at my friend.

He didn't say anything for probably
about five or ten seconds.

It's like he can't believe that his hand
is bleeding from sticking it in the

back. He just doesn't believe it.

And we're going, what the hell is going
to happen?

For whatever reason, he says,

Do you have something sharp in your
back?

No. And a spider is crawling right up
with the legs almost to the top.

All I could see was the whites of his
eyes.

And he passes out.

Bam.

So at that point, every single customs
guy in that place came running over.

And they're looking at my friend. I
mean, they were not nice looks.

And I thought, oh, God.

Some of them still didn't really
understand what had bit him.

And my friend's trying to tell them that
the spider's not deadly. It's okay.

It's all right. Just a spider. It's not
going to kill you.

Immediately, one of the guys stomps the
spider.

And I was looking at Penny, and we still
had the snake in the bag, and I sort of

elbowed her, and I go, let's go outside,
nobody's watching.

We took our bag and the snake, and she
and I just nonchalantly walked out,

looking back, never looking at anybody,
because you don't want to attract

attention.

And we walked out the building without
clearing customs.

It was a huge relief.

but I was a little bit worried about my
friend still.

Really, if you think about it, with him
it was kind of serious. You got a guy in

customs who works for the United States
government.

He got bit with a spider that was
brought back illegally.

He's passed out.

I have no idea of the man's condition.

And we're all just thinking about that,
and then we saw my friend come walking

out.

And... He had the empty bag in his hand.

He walks up to us, and I look at the
bag, and I go, where are the spiders? He

goes, he flushed them down the toilet.

I said, what are they going to do to
you? He goes, nothing, but they told me

never, never, never do this again.

I said, all righty now.

That was the point where I figured, you
know, I'm going to do this a lot.

I'm thinking that was easy and those
beautiful snakes were worth about $50

in the U .S.

I thought I could do it as a living.

My first trips were to the Caribbean,
Bimini and to Eleuther Island in the

Bahamas.

At that point, the money wasn't the
hundreds or thousands of dollars.

And a lot of my trips financed other
trips.

And all this time, we weren't getting
permits for anything. We were just going

through customs.

And if they said, what are these for?

I said, they're for pets.

And he said, go on through.

So it was like carte blanche permission,
if you will, to do whatever you wanted.

So we decided on opening up a reptile
business.

I sold them all kinds of illegal stuff.

I sold crocodiles, snakes, tarantulas.

And the rarer animals I got, the more
business I seemed to have.

I think the first year we did $200 ,000
maybe.

It just got bigger and bigger and
bigger.

And as I had more money, I went to more
exotic places.

And I caught more and more exotic
reptiles.

But my holy grail was the king cobra.

The king cobra is the longest venomous
snake in the world.

When they stand up and spread a hood,
their head can be five feet off the

ground. and they can be looking at you
eye to eye, which is truly an

extraordinary thing to see and a
frightening thing to see if you're not

expecting it or used to it.

One of the most impressive reptiles
certainly in the world, and I had a deep

abiding passion to be able to catch one
in the wild.

So we make Chiang Mai our base in an
area called the Golden Triangle.

Now, Golden Triangle is a dangerous
place.

Most of the world's opium that's used to
make heroin and other illegal drugs was

grown up there.

There are huge narcotic warlords as
powerful as a tie -arm.

And, I mean, they would have real
military black battles.

We drove probably half a day, first on a
paved road.

Then on some really bad dirt roads, and
then the roads stopped.

I was super excited.

The only thing that we could see was
like a little trail.

Actually, it looked like an elephant
trail.

And we went down that trail miles and
miles and miles into the jungle.

So we kept walking and walking and
walking.

And all of a sudden, the guide made a
sound, something like this. And he

running.

My first thought was, what in the hell
did he see?

Because if he saw a tiger, I might want
to do the same thing and run.

I saw the movement in the underbrush,
and I could see the last half of a

and I knew immediately it was a king
cobra rapidly crawling away.

So I ran up and grabbed the king cobra
by the tail.

Now, this was a tough situation.

I had a huge adrenaline rush because you
realize that you don't know what's

going to happen.

It's deadly venomous, and a bite means
almost sure death.

By understanding the snake's abilities,
you can actually control what the snake

does, in my experience.

If I were to do my hand like this, the
king cobra will go like this and follow

it.

He'll simply turn and face me the whole
time because he's facing what he

considers something that's potentially
dangerous to him.

You cannot take your eyes off the snake
because to take your eyes off of it even

for a second can mean that you're
bitten.

I made him strike at me again and again
and again to get more tired until

I could pin his head down and grab it
behind the neck.

You know, I was ecstatic about catching
a king cobra. I mean, it's a lifelong

dream come true.

The king cobra could have easily been
shipped from Thailand, but it was so

valuable to me. I want to make sure
nothing happened to the snake.

So I elected to put the snake in the
suitcase and then take it back on the

plane.

Tom, no way.

And that was Penny's biggest concern.

Someone might open your suitcase, grab
the bag, and then be killed by a king

cobra.

But I elected to risk it anyway.

At that point, I had decided to put the
king cobra in the suitcase.

But we would put it in another bag to
make it even more secure, and they put

those bags inside of a cardboard box
that would fit inside the suitcase, so

someone touched it, it can't fight
through the box, so there's no problem.

Is that ready with you, sir?

Penny also found some more animals.

She found some boa and a rare monitor.

She put those in little camera cases.

And we packed them in our hand luggage,
and we drove to the airport.

The airport in Bangkok.

Were there some apprehension?

Yes.

But you can't think about things like
that if you're a good smuggler.

If you're having to go through customs
with the King Cobra.

You simply walk up there as a regular
customer.

And you don't act odd.

You don't sweat.

You don't jump around.

Because you'll get caught.

That's the bottom line. If you don't
have the balls to do it, don't do it.

And that was it.

Next

stop,

United States of America, Miami,
Florida.

I knew I was taking a great risk.

So once we landed at Miami International
Airport, we're all unbuckling and

everybody on the plane is getting ready
to disembark.

And there was an announcement.

Would Tom and Penny Crushfield report to
the front of the plane, please?

Well, I looked at Penny, and she looked
at me, and she goes, I said, it has to

be that.

I started to worry about someone being
accidentally bit by the snake.

remain seated.

Tom and Penny Crestfield, could you
identify yourselves and make your way to

front of the plane, please?

I thought, oh, God.

And at this point, I could see the
contingency of U .S. Space and Wildlife

Service agents.

But you can imagine all this stuff going
through your head.

We walked to the front of the plane with
everybody staring at us, of course, so

it was kind of embarrassing.

There's no great plans hatching in your
mind.

And now I'm starting to think, well, I'm
screwed now.

You're a cop. That's it. You've got to
go and see what the deal is.

I was terrified.

We're trying not to act afraid or show
any feelings.

but I knew that they had probably found
the King Cobra, probably.

That's the only thing I could think of.

At that point, we were scared, but I
knew it was a really big deal.

Bags on the table, please.

Customs guy looking at me, and probably
speaks up.

Mr. Crutchfield.

Did you pack a King Cobra in your
luggage?

My heart sank.

When he said that, my heart absolutely
sank.

Where's my suitcase?

In Amsterdam.

We had a stopover in Amsterdam where we
changed planes, and that's where the

luggage would have to change planes to
to go to the United States.

At that point, I began to worry about
someone being accidentally bit by the

snake.

A friend of mine was bitten by a King
Cobra.

And he died in 11 minutes with
paramedics there. There was nothing they

do.

I said, how did they know there was even
a snake in there?

The drug dogs, they smelled the snake in
the box.

It was a huge relief that no one was
bitten or hurt in some way. But then

go.

We're going to need to see what else
you're carrying with you.

I go, oh, good.

I'm standing there looking at Penny.

And both of us were nervous because we
had smuggled a few other things, too.

Some rare boas and a rare monitor that
Penny had put in little camera cases.

They started to go through everything.

They finally got around to Penny's
purse.

I thought, holy crap.

At this point, one of the agents looks
down at the bag, and then...

Oh, God.

And I'm thinking about what's going to
happen.

Nothing here.

And that was it.

They didn't find anything.

Customs in Holland are going to keep the
snake.

You're lucky we didn't catch you here in
America.

And of course I'm smiling like hell
because the idiots, I've smarted them

completely.

Moron.

I thought they were just so stupid in
those days.

Tom Crutchfield developed a persona of
being someone who, for the most part,

thought he was better than you are, knew
more things than you knew.

untouchable, couldn't be caught.

I was part of a special task force whose
job it was to identify and pursue the

biggest players in these smuggling
operations.

It was critical to tie Tom to these
smuggled reptiles.

We knew there were a group of German
smugglers bringing tree boas and ground

boas into the United States.

We needed to find a way to link those
Germans with Tom Crutchfield.

At this point, we were doing well over a
million dollars a year.

I was certainly one of the biggest
reptile dealers in the country, if not

biggest.

Hi, Tom Crutchfield.

I was the guy that everybody talked
about.

You want some Madagascan tree bones.

Well, you do know they're a restricted
species.

But after the Cobra incident, I decided
more and more it wasn't really worth

trying to bring stuff myself back.

I decided that it would be much safer if
I were going to smuggle something to do

it in a completely different way where I
personally wasn't involved at all.

Hello, Wolfgang.

Tom Crutchfield here.

It would be much safer buying stuff like
that that other people brought into the

U .S.

Yeah, listen, I have a proposition for
you.

I went to meet a German that I knew
called Wolfgang Cloy.

He was another reptile smuggler.

Suspect has been spotted.

A cage in your hand.

I went and set up surveillance.

It was critical that we establish a
positive link between the smuggled

Wolfgang Chloe, and Tom Crutchfield's
business.

Okay, move into position.

So listen, I found a buyer that's
looking for Madagascan tree bones.

Okay. Wolfgang had animals I wanted, so
we did a trade.

Down by in second position.

A few of my WOMAs were probably eight or
ten of his Madagascan freeboas, which

he brought into the U .S. without
permits.

Yeah? You got a deal, man.

Have a look.

This was tremendous.

It was exactly what we'd been looking
for.

It directly tied Tom Crutchfield into
the smuggling operation, linked him to

German team.

I was ecstatic.

Okay, we're set.

Ready to move in? I was extremely
pleased. I had

the Madagascan tree boas.

But then all of a sudden he said, Hey, I
think there's someone looking at you

with binoculars.

And I go, What?

Don't look. Don't look.

Get out of here.

Now, move in, now, now, now.

They all rushed in like they're
expecting gunfire exchange.

And I thought, oh.

Our team moved in and arrested Wolfgang
Cloy.

We already had probably enough
information to convict Tom for the

the reptiles, but what we really needed
was to build a bigger case against him.

Tom Crutchfield, I've got a warrant to
search your business.

Let's go.

Well, at this point, we're not liking
each other a whole lot.

We were looking for key bits of
information.

And it actually amazes me how some of
these crooks keep documents that

actually show their illegal activities.

Hey!

When you looked at the volume of the
smuggled animals, they were easily worth

hundreds of thousands of dollars.

His goose was cooked.

He certainly was going to jail.

for a long time.

At the end, I said to him, I know for a
fact we'll be seeing each other in court

before long.

I knew there was going to be more
trouble.

I thought if we stayed, certainly that I
would be indicted.

So I decided to pack up everything and
leave the U .S. and headed to Belize.

We already had a fair amount of money in
cash, so we decided on opening up a car

rental business and start a new life in
Belize.

Life was pretty good for me at that
point.

I found my problems were finished.

We were safe.

Hello, Nurse Meyer, Fish and Wildlife.

At first I was kind of shocked.

Really?

But then I realized...

This was probably the stupidest thing
that he could have done.

Forget the wildlife smuggling now. This
guy has really taken it to the next

level.

We knew that we would not get him
extradited for smuggling reptiles.

However, the type of crimes the Belize
government

did not...

tolerate was fleeing from justice to
avoid prosecution.

The plan was arrest Tom, put him

in jail, and hold him until we could get
the Belize Justice Department to have

him expelled from the country.

Thank you very much.

I was almost in shock that it happened.

I'm like, what the hell?

What are you holding me for? I haven't
broken any laws.

He says the U .S. is after the Belizean
government to deport you.

Then I knew what the plan was
immediately.

I didn't have time to talk to Penny.

I simply said, get an attorney and find
out where I am and come see me.

And then they say, you're going to
Hattieville Prison. I knew exactly where

was.

The last place that I probably wanted to
go in Belize was Hattieville Prison.

The last place.

It's something right out of that movie,
Midnight Express.

I mean, the place looks bad.

But the worst was yet to come.

They take me, and they put me in a cell
with four other people.

They're sleeping on the floor on pieces
of cardboard and covering themselves

with their clothes.

I mean, I'm in shock almost because it's
so horrible.

There is no electricity.

There is no plumbing.

There are no toilets.

There is no running water in any of the
cells.

And I go in there, and I'm thinking,
like, five people in this cell?

And the one guy starts to reach for my
bag.

I go, don't touch my bag, bro.

I said, don't do that.

He starts to reach for my bag again.

Again, I told him not to.

And then the guy did it again.

And I just grabbed his wrist.

And at that time, I just dropped down
with my knees.

And I just popped the capsule in his
elbow. He was so weak.

The guards came running over.

So they walked me over like 50 yards
away probably, and they put me in a

They open it up, and there's one guy in
that cell, just one guy.

And he had the most serious look on his
face.

And he's got one of those metal beds,
and he's got like foam rubber on top of

it. And there's another metal bed there,
but there's no foam rubber or mattress

or anything.

I knew he was dangerous or he wouldn't
be in the cell by himself.

Finally, he speaks up.

I said,

how come you're the only person in here
that I see that lives by themselves?

And he said,

So I'm like, they put me in with a
killer now because I hurt the other guy.

And he's looking at me.

And, I mean, they were not nice looks.

And then I saw he had a half a machete
that's broken off.

I certainly didn't sleep at all that
night.

I honestly thought I was going to die,
period.

For the first two weeks in Hattieville
Prison, I honestly thought I was going

die.

It's a violent place.

Weapons were freely held by almost
anybody there.

The most brutal thing I saw.

is that I was in the yard, and I hear
behind me this sound. It was a thunk,

that, a thunk.

And I spun around, not knowing what it
was, and just in time to see what

happened.

And

this

guy's guts just fell out on the ground.

All I want to do is get the hell out of
there. That's it.

It was about two weeks before my family
found out that I was in Hattieville.

I was very happy to see Penny.

Extremely happy.

She looks at me and she goes, they just
want you back in the U .S. All you have

to do is tell them you'll go and you can
fly back.

I said, yeah, but you know what? There's
a good chance we can win this.

I said, just because I'm committed a
crime in the United States does not

the Belizean authorities to put me in
jail.

It was decided that we would stay and
fight it, and that's what both of us

wanted to do, and that's what we did.

We had to wait quite a period of time
while the Belize court system processed

the request to have him extradited.

What I thought was going to be a fairly
quick process ended up dragging out for

several months.

The longer that delay went, the more I
began to have questions whether or not

this was going to be a successful
effort.

One day early on a Sunday, I was in the
cell with Camper, and Camper looks out

and he goes, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
man, you know, Babylon's just come, man.

Babylon, he come.

Babylon met cops.

And he goes, I think they come after you
now.

At that point, I knew that that battle
was lost.

It was the end.

Simple as that.

Actually, it was a huge relief.

I had no intention of fighting it. I
just wanted it over at that point.

As soon as he stepped foot on American
soil, he was arrested by federal

marshals. I felt vindicated that one of
the biggest people in the business could

actually be successfully prosecuted for
their crimes.

By getting Tom back into the United
States, we'd achieved one...

large goal in the overall investigation,
and that was getting Tom out of

circulation and into our custody.

I was elated.

We got him. We finally got him.

There's no question I made a lot of bad
decisions.

I should have just stayed in the U .S. I
should have never even went to Belize.

It wouldn't have put my wife through all
that stress.

Not a day goes by that I don't regret
Penny having to go through all that

And for that, I'm deeply, deeply sorry.

The toll that something like that takes
on you is a lot.

I think that's probably why Penny and I
aren't married. We destroyed our

marriage, basically, yes.

And that's terrible.