Original subtitles

My dad left when I was three years of age.

Dad? Hi son, how are you doing?

Fancy doing a bit of travelling?

This was going to be a really special trip.

A once in a lifetime opportunity.

Now we can pick start a relationship.

I hadn't put to my son the real reason behind it.

We were sitting on 20 kilos of cannabis.

Trust your dad, don't you?

I thought,

dad wouldn't have got me into it.

I was born in 1970 in the city of Glasgow in Scotland.

I was working in a hospital.

Very comfortable with a steady income, steady partner.

Life was good.

My dad left when I was three years of age and we just had a mum raising us.

There was an emptiness.

We never really spoke about my dad.

She probably didn't know where he was and I certainly didn't know where he

The phone call came out of the blue.

Hi son, how are you doing?

It was a shock, a really big shock.

I didn't realise he knew where I was.

And he said, listen son, I'm out in Pakistan and fancy doing a bit of

through Pakistan, up the Silk Road, overland, through China.

and he would cover my expenses.

I was stunned.

Dad, I'm a bit tied up at the moment. I've got a girlfriend, I've got a job.

He said, it's going to be out of this world, son.

So I had to just make a decision.

Stay in London or just get on the bloody plane.

Two weeks later, I was touching down on Islamabad.

I was very excited to meet this guy who was my dad.

Time had made me make up all these pictures in my mind.

My imagination ran wild.

My dad was waiting there for me.

We both had the only white man visible in the whole airport.

Excitement, adrenaline, but was released more than anything else.

He had actually showed up.

How you doing, son?

I was really impressed because he was kind of a fine looking young man and

looked good, dressed well, nice fashion and I was the same at that age.

I regretted not being with my son.

I was looking for some way of an excuse for not being a father to him.

So I thought the best way would be to give him something really memorable and

adventurous.

So my dad took me to a carpet shop where his friend Atola was sitting waiting

for us.

Hi, how are you doing?

We all sat down, got chatting.

Shortly afterward, he pulled out this big pipe.

Ah, Atola.

The hubbly bubbly.

Scott was a bit taken aback by that. It was a bit of a culture shock.

Sitting, you know, with the hookah and the hubbly -bubbly, smoking good

I thought, this is going to be a trip and a half, this one.

Running through my mind was, I'm going to have to put forward to my son This is

not only just a tourist trip.

I'm going to have to actually tell him the reason why I'm actually here.

I need to come clean when you come.

I said to him, look, Scott, besides doing this awesome trip over the

Highway and down the Silk Road, I'm also going to be taking 20 kilos of

cannabis.

I almost spat out morning juice. I thought, what the hell?

What?

What are you talking about, Dad?

I was quite unhappy.

That he had deceived me.

You're joking me! Listen, son.

I'm a smuggler.

Okay?

I was really angry at him.

I had no idea he was into this skullduggery, this smuggling lifestyle.

I hoped that Scott would join me and we'd become a team.

I told him, there's no possibility that we're going to get caught here. I've

been all around this country 10, 20 times.

I've never even been stopped.

That started to sort of soften up the fear.

I said, look, if anything did go wrong, then you just say, look, I don't know

nothing about this.

Just blame it on me, OK?

Which made me relax a bit and think, well, if he's going to be taking full

responsibility, I might be all right.

Trust your dad, don't you?

You're seeking approval.

You're seeking that pat on the back.

Well done, my son.

So we're going to go for 20 kilos, OK?

It's about a quarter of a million pounds.

How much?

I thought this could really change my life here and put me on easy speed.

Dad, I'm in.

Let's do it. I trust you.

You won't regret it, son.

A couple of days later, we got the call that the dope had arrived.

A toilet. And he emptied out this sack.

And it just brought something pouring out like gold nuggets.

When I've seen the 20 kilos there and knowing that it was mine, it's just a

great feeling.

I got Paul's bottom case made.

The only thing that gave it away was it was slightly heavy when it was empty.

We stuffed as much as we could into the bottom of the rucksack.

And we put some wood over the top of it, then some foam, and just threw lots of

pots, pans, smelly underwear, the stuff you wouldn't want to rifle through if

you were a customs officer.

The other parent had just decided to roll that up and just

place it in the bottom of a bag with shots, trousers wrapped around it.

He said, listen, this is...

Quite suspicious, Dad.

It was basically pretty well open for anybody that looked in this bag would

detect it right away.

What is that, Dad?

Dodgy. And I said to my son, it's not a sophisticated border into China.

I'd been through that border several times before.

Chinese fellas don't even look at us, let alone the baggage.

You just go to customs, you walk through.

Nine times out of ten, you continue walking.

They don't stop you, they don't search your bags.

I started to doubt my dad's confidence.

It was really suspicious, this bag, with a Frankenstein effort.

And frankly, it was hideous, but it was all we had.

The following morning, he decided we should make tracks towards the Chinese

border.

He said, Scott, you can take the case because there's no chance you're going

get caught with this one.

Trust me, it's 100 % safe.

My dad had the other two bags.

The big rucksack with the dope at the bottom and the Frankenstein case.

He produced this map and gave me a rough idea where we were going to be going.

The plan was to take us through Pakistan, up into the Chinese border,

we would walk through the border into China.

We travelled from Redford, China to Shanghai, and then we went to Japan.

Dad was watching lyrical, he was in his element, whistling and singing, saying,

here we go, son.

We're on the road now. It's time to relax.

And I felt the opposite.

I was deeply unnerved because if anybody sort of looked in this bag, we were

done for.

Arriving at the border of Pakistan and China, it was a ramshackle, run -down

place without x -rays and stuff like that.

My dad had reassured me that this was going to be a stroll in the park.

And it was anything but.

Half a dozen guards patting people down and rummaging through suitcases.

These Chinese guys were taking their job really seriously and they were giving

some of the locals a thorough turning over.

Thinking, what sort of treatment are they going to give us?

I'd been through that border on several occasions before.

And more than one occasion had done it for cannabis.

Never been stopped, never been checked.

This guy started waving in our direction.

And we're thinking, is he waving at us? He's looking at us. Surely, what does he

want us for?

Hey, you, how about for here?

A little bit of beer can do that.

Something might go on here.

We're walking towards him with dread in our heart, thinking, God, if this gets

looked into, we're in so much trouble.

And he's looking at us up and down,

sort of looking at the bag.

I thought this guy had taken a dislike to us because we're Westerners.

I expected us to be patted down and the bags to be turned upside down.

Thinking, if this Frankenstein bag gets looked into, this does, we're doomed.

The anticipation was torture.

Okay, been done.

Thank you very much. Just steps aside and says, carry on, sir.

Have a nice day.

We couldn't believe our looks.

It was vindicated me leaving London.

Thought, yeah, you've made the right decision.

You've had a few scares, but you're on top of the world now.

And the scenery's astonishing.

You're with your dad.

They're perfectly safe.

There's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Things couldn't have been better at that time.

We were getting a train to Shanghai, which was taking a week.

We had booked a cabin, a private cabin, and we just sat in the cabin.

It became boring, just the constant grind of the wheels turning and the

landscape never really changed.

And the two days felt like a week.

There's one thing that smugglers often talk about is you never get high on your

own supply.

But I broke that golden rule.

Dad gave me the joint and I had a couple of puffs on that and I thought, well,

this is something special, this stuff.

All the stress starts to leave my body and I thought, yeah, this is beginning

feel good.

It's very hot, it's a bit smoky and I decided to go outside the door and look

out the window from the other side.

It'd be nice and cool.

There was one guard who I saw when I entered onto the train and he came down

corridor.

And when he approached me, he pointed to his nose.

I just put it out.

And he continued to walk on.

I turned round and I just looked at him. He looked at me.

I had a rush of panic.

If they identified the smell of cannabis, that would have been enough to

them to search the cabin.

I started running with the guards. What?

One minute we're happily stoned, then the next minute the severity of the

situation sort of hits you.

We were sitting on 20 kilos of cannabis, and it was very easy to find.

And so we just waited in dread.

It was tense and uncomfortable and a lot of paranoia running through us.

Bang, bang, bang.

We thought, what the hell is this?

Then we heard an English, Chinese -English accent saying, you have to open

door. This is not allowed in our country.

And we said, what the hell are you talking about? It's only cigarettes.

You must open the door. I looked at Scott and we looked at each other.

I was sort of in a half panic whether to throw the stuff out the window or to

faith to guard at the door.

In my mind, if you get caught with drugs, there was always a way to get out

it with money.

Somebody stops me, I pay them a couple of hundred dollars and I'll just be

through.

I'll deal with that now. Right.

I was a bit dubious, but I let Dad sort of make that choice. I let him make that

call.

It was the same guard who had seen it in the corridor, and my heart started to

sort of palpitate a little bit.

What do you want?

Give me hot.

I know that he's just a train guy.

And so I handed him a pack of cigarettes.

He looked at them and pocketed them, but didn't leave.

And I thought to myself, well, what's going on here? What is he looking for,

money or what?

So I reached into my pocket.

I filled out a bit of really good quality Afghan pollen hajj.

And it's running through my head.

Well, if I hand him this over, he'll probably think this is the last of my

stash.

And I handed him that.

That's all I got.

Opium?

No, don't be silly. Opium? No, no way is this opium.

He said this looks like opium to me.

And we said, listen, no, not opium. Trust us, 100 % not opium.

Snipped it, put it into his pocket, and I thought, well, that's great. Now he's

happy with what he's got.

But didn't leave.

The only thing in my mind was, how can I get rid of this guy?

Do you want some cash?

No, no, no.

Take it.

And I just looked at him.

And we're thinking, wow, what the hell is going on here?

Give me ticket.

He really wanted that train ticket.

There was no other option.

I handed him over my ticket.

And he looked at the ticket and put that in his pocket and then left.

When we shut the door on it, it was like, wow, a massive sigh of relief.

But we started playing in our minds that this guy thinks it's okay.

He might pass that information on to the cops in Shanghai.

We thought, what's going to be waiting for us once we get to Shanghai?

I thought we were done for.

And it was at that point we had to make a decision.

Continue with this journey with the cannabis or should we dump it now?

Okay, give me a minute just one more time.

I realised the train began to slow down.

We said, look, the train's going to stop.

So why don't we just outsmart them all and we'll jump off at the next stop?

Then I realised we'd be going. Right, okay, okay.

You grab the suitcase, I'll take the daypack and the larger bag and we'll

the cannabis slippers.

My stomach was turning.

But you don't let your dad see you in skirts.

Ben, let's do it. Let's do it.

Act cool at all costs, even though trapping yourself.

Come on, you.

Go for it.

Nobody was there, it was more or less empty.

Further down there was some guard ticket collector at the end.

I looked back to see if the...

Guard was actually coming off the train to point us out to the ticket collector,

but there was nobody there.

So we felt scot -free.

There's no shouting.

Things are looking good.

We're just slowly getting towards this barrier.

And there's a queue, maybe about five people in it.

And slowly, slowly, the queue starts to go down and down.

Running through my head, that's it.

Just need to go through this gate here, and we're back into the streets again.

And we went towards the ticket barrier, thinking, right, okay, we've done it, we

haven't been noticed.

Scott's ticket sign handed it to the guy, and he just walked through the

and I was reaching into my pockets.

Where's my ticket?

And I just realised I'd given it to that ticket collector on the train.

The guy at the gate wouldn't let me through without a ticket.

And I was just dreading the fact that the train was still in the station.

So this guard could come out at any moment and expose the whole thing.

Then all of a sudden we heard this yell coming from the train.

I'd seen this head popping out. I thought, oh damn,

that's the guy. The guy that took the dope off us.

Before we knew it, these guys were upon us.

Then we thought, that's us.

We're in trouble now.

It was just a feeling of total horror and helplessness.

This guy's gone to search us.

We're busted.

That's us. We're done for.

We had two bags that we thought were pretty foolproof.

Five kilos of the 20 was packed into this case that I was being told was 100

safe.

Managed to squeeze seven kilos into the rucksack, as safely packed as possible.

But we had one bag that we thought, this is going to be a problem here.

Said to Scott, you need to distract this guard to get me the opportunity to try

and get rid of this hash that's in the little bag.

So, what are we going to do?

I mentioned to the guy, I need to go to the toilet.

I go to the toilet.

He's like, OK, come with me.

I had a quick look at survey around the room, but it was just an open, bare

-walled office.

The only place I could see where they could conceal anything was actually

underneath the bench where I was sitting.

I felt confident that me had disposed of it.

Just out of the blue, a woman came out of an office and turned around totally

surprised.

She just looked at me and I looked at her.

Then she walked towards the door.

She pointed to the seat where I was sitting.

At that point, I'd realised, well, something bad's going to go down here.

When I went to the waiting room, my dad was ghostly white. He just looked

terrible and I realised then something had went wrong.

My dad said, we're done for, sir. We've been caught.

The dope from the Frankenstein case all over the floor.

Well, that moment in time, your world just sort of crashes down.

They were in possession of at least seven and a half kilos of cannabis that

been carrying.

We still had our bags on us, the rucksack, the suitcase, which was

surreal because they were sort of full of drugs.

They're thinking, what the hell, they're going to take us into this place and

search us even more and realise that we're carrying even more drugs.

My dad said, keep your mouth shut.

Don't admit any responsibility.

You'll be alright. As long as you keep quiet, you'll be alright.

My freedom basically hinged on these other drugs not being detected.

Because there's no way in this earth would I have believed that I was totally

ignorant to not knowing anything about any of these cases.

Maybe one would have been feasible, but the whole three, surely not.

We thought we were going to get interrogated together, but Dad went one

went the next way.

Scott!

When you get over here, son, get me a lawyer.

Little did I know, I

wouldn't see my dad for a very, very long time.

And I immediately confessed to those seven and a half kilos.

The drugs.

They're mine.

And I just emphasised to them that Scott had nothing to do with this and I'm

responsible for that and hoped that they would be happy with that and not do it

any further.

My son, he knew nothing about it.

Running through my mind, I knew downstairs in the stories room, that I

another 12 kilos sitting there.

Just let my son go, eh?

As long as they didn't discover what was downstairs, there was hope that Scott

would be released soon.

Interrogation was really testing, really, really testing.

We know that you're guilty.

They kept asking me the same questions.

What was your partner?

You must tell us the truth. We know everything.

I just had to keep on saying I don't know anything.

Honestly, I don't know what you want from me.

I don't know anything.

Your dad has already signed papers saying you know everything, we know

everything, you have to tell us. If you want to go free, if you want leniency,

you must tell us the truth.

I'm giving you the chance to save yourself.

I didn't know what truth they were after. I didn't know whether they wanted

to confess to being part of the case that had been found or the whole three

cases.

You know all about your plans, where you're going, where you bought this

It was just on the edge of my tongue one night just to spit it out.

All the cases are full of dope.

Every one of them is full of dope. It was just a breaking point really.

But I contained myself one last time.

I did feel that they didn't.

believe anything that I was saying whatsoever.

They turned out the lights and the projector came on.

And they said, if you'd not made a true confession, this is going to be the

result for you and possibly for your son as well.

And a film started.

There was about six people, one woman, five men.

These police officers started to explain to me.

These people are drug offenders.

And they were all roped and tied with their hands bound at the back.

Then those people were pushed and bent down into a kneeling position.

Everyone had a guard standing behind them. And each were individually shot.

That terrified me. I'm going to die.

I'm going to be executed.

The only thing I could do is to stick to the story. I can't change it.

And that would possibly save my son.

The guard came and took me from this interrogation room and we came towards

these steps and we went down the steps into this basement.

My bags are there and I'm thinking, right.

They're going to open the bags and say, you've got dope in here, son. You've got

drugs in this one and you've got drugs in this one. You've been lying to us.

I thought, I'm done for.

I can't deny it any longer.

You'd better get down your hands and knees and beg for mercy, basically,

they've got you spot.

The gal asked me, which bag is yours?

Why?

And then he asked me again.

Mr. Cumber, which bag is yours?

I had no option. I had to choose one bag.

I thought the suitcase was 100 % foolproof, totally safe.

But if I chose the suitcase, it may have raised suspicion because there was my

dad's suits in it.

So I had to choose the bag that had mostly my contents in it and with the

at the bottom.

This one.

Hoping this wasn't a trap.

And they're going to open this bag and say, you've got dope in here, son, and

you've been lying to us.

And then they keep talking and talking, and the tension was just building up,

building up. I didn't know what was going on.

Then, out of nowhere, Mr Campbell, get your bag.

They're going to Hong Kong.

I felt their blood drain from my face and felt my legs turn to jelly and I

thought, my God, I'm free.

Free to go home, they're letting me go.

At the side there was a door and they opened it up.

I was so joyed to see real sunlight after being in under that artificial

I thought, this is the doorway to freedom for me, this is it, surely,

And I could feel it right at the bottom of the bag. The big, unmistakable lump

of hash that we'd packed a few weeks earlier was still there.

So this is just too surreal here.

They're actually sending me packing from a prison with seven kilos of dope.

But then I thought, your dad's still in there. He's still behind the bars. He's

probably still getting quizzed and heaven knows what's going to be in store

him.

Before I knew it, I was in Hong Kong.

It was like being in a dream. I couldn't believe I had just escaped this whole

nightmare.

But with this massive lump of dope in the bottom of this case, which I didn't

know what the hell to do with.

I got to the hostel. I had this massive dilemma about what to do with this case.

I could either dump it and chew at freedom, or I could take it to Japan and

a lot of money and pay for my dad's legal fees.

I was lying, staring at the fan.

I was in turmoil.

I was suffering from insomnia. I was getting anxiety attacks.

I thought, he's going to think I'm a wimp, flying back to the UK in the first

possible flight.

I decided to finish the journey as we started.

I was going to smuggle this dope on to Japan and get my dad released from that

Shanghai hellhole.

I wrapped it round my waist and I taped it up.

And I patted myself down and I thought, too suspicious.

Then I thought about ingesting it and I tried.

Tried swallowing some in a condom.

Then I've seen my boots there.

I thought, yeah.

Took out the insole, moulded a piece of dope in the shape of that insole,

wrapped it up in cling film, stuffed it into the shoe, put it on the boot.

There's enough room there for my toes to wiggle a bit.

I thought, this is insane, this plan's insane, but I thought your dad's freedom

could hinge on getting through Hong Kong and getting through customs in Japan.

The scariest part was the pat -down.

or the metal detector.

These guys are trained to read fear.

And I thought, you can't afford this to go off here, so more than ever I took

off every shred of steel, metal that was on me.

Didn't leave anything to Chan.

One guy ahead of me's got his shoes off and I'm thinking to myself, this is it,

you've left yourself wide open for this one.

Because you can't deny that this isn't yours.

You can't say, I don't know anything about it and these aren't my shoes.

I was worried that my body language was giving me away. I felt as if I was

setting off alarm bells just the way my heart was beating.

The alarm went off.

And I thought then that this is it.

You've messed it right up now, pal.

I continuously asked about Scott.

He's my son.

I need to know who he is.

Is he still here? What's happened? Did he confess? Do they know about the bag?

Are they just waiting? Is it a trick? Is it a trap?

It all fell on deaf ears.

Sometimes you'd hear guards going along the corridor and I started shouting at

them.

Basically cracked up.

Lost control.

And just basically folded. I folded up inside.

I collapsed.

So he's patting his way down to my feet.

And he's getting nearer the drugs. And I'm thinking, please, don't go any

further.

Please, please, please, stop where you are, move back up, please, come on,

that's enough.

And he keeps going down and down and down and he's in about my shoes and he's

putting his fingers down the ankle support and he's feeling about and I'm

shutting my eyes thinking, please, don't, don't, don't, no any further.

Just one more inch and this guy's going to feel this solid surface that's

definitely not an insult.

This couldn't get any scarier.

And then he fingered come back out my shoe and he started moving up my legs.

then that was the search over.

Moved me on.

So that's me.

I've got one more obstacle to go and that's Tokyo.

But deep inside I was thinking, wow, another close shave. How many more of

is it going to take?

Several hours later we arrive in Tokyo.

Adrenaline's pumping. I'm thinking, this is the last one.

Almost over the line.

The immigration officer's looking at me and he's looking at my passport and he's

flicking through the pages.

And he's taking his time.

I've been standing there a lot longer than anybody else previously.

Then, instead of dampening it, he takes it away into this booth.

And I'm thinking to myself, this passport's been marked.

I've been deported.

They've stamped something and it's saying, drug trafficker.

I was thinking, surely not now. After all these tight squeezes I've been

through.

With a narrow escape.

This is too much. I'm going to die of a heart attack.

This has just been too much for me this trip.

But five minutes later, he reappears with the passport.

Then just damps it.

And then waved me on.

Before I knew it, I was free again.

The feeling is just something that you just can't explain.

You know, from here in Japan, I've done it. Been through all these hurdles and

jumped through hoops of fire, escaped the clutches of death and doom, and I've

made it.

I knew my dad frequented this bar.

I knew these guys in there.

We're into sort of dealing with dope.

I take a listen to Kale, this stuff.

And I need to get rid of it ASAP.

But five minutes later, I had a wad of cash.

I would put it this way, it was more money than I'd ever seen in my lifetime.

It felt as though I had earned my stripes.

You can now finally sort of...

call yourself a man, because that was thumbtrap.

One day I was sitting in the cell, just bored, nothing to do, could hear the

guard coming along the corridor, and he beckoned me to come out, and just around

it to the left, I saw a white foreigner.

The gentleman said, British Consulate.

How's Scott?

They responded in a way that totally took me aback.

And I just said, Tokyo?

Said, your son Scott has sent £10 ,000 from Tokyo.

The fact that he had done it, I did feel a sense of pride, you know. I said to

myself, go on my son, you're mad, but God bless you.

Really shocked me.

15 years, it sort of echoed through my mind. 15 years in prison.

That was quite a terrifying moment.

I just felt totally dejected, sort of caved in in that respect.

I was allocated a cell, a cafe, it was very small, it was windowless.

All we could actually do was sit and stare at a wall and your imagination

or less got you by.

And that was a great learning curve for me to realise that I was the one who

made the mistakes. I made the decisions.

That actually, I was a bum.

There's a definite smell inside an airport.

It's the smell of... culture and mixtures, perfumes, and I don't know,

it's the smell of freedom.

The 12 years of anxiety and apprehension and tension building up to this moment,

I felt guilty because he had served all that time and I

would freeze a bird.

Would I be blamed?

Would there be any sort of animosity between us?

We just put our arms around each

other and really hugged very tight.

And I started crying.

Tears were running.

Tears, I'm going to cry, excuse me.

For him still to be here and to have survived it all makes me really proud

he's standing on his own two feet.

He's got his grandkids running about him.

He's really made me proud that he's making his mark in the world now and

put that horrendous past behind him.