Original subtitles

Fun with a quick one -week trip.

And I would make $20 ,000.

It's going to be awesome.

I'm a grass eater and my legs are, like, really rough.

Go! I'm afraid people can see straight through my clothes and hear my heart

pounding.

And the policeman says they want to sentence you to death. You could get the

death penalty for this.

Have you ever thought about that before you decide to smoke a heroin hop?

I'm 18 years old. I'd made straight A's in school, or pretty close to it, and I

was still stuck living at home.

My parents were constantly fighting with each other. There was a lot of

bickering and strife.

Money was always a problem. There was never enough money for anything.

What I really wanted to do was to go to business school, and it was like $8

,000. I didn't have $8, so I may as well have been a million.

For my own sanity, I had to get out of that house.

Go!

Finally, my best friend, Cindy, says, yeah, we're both going to go crazy.

move out together.

We're moving into our own place.

That's it. We're out of here.

Cindy was living a different life than I had. She kind of had a life of

privilege, but she was also really bored with the whole thing.

I kind of counted on her, trusted her for, you know, what to do next.

Here we are.

This apartment was nicer than any house my family had ever moved into.

Cheers. I may as well have moved into a mansion compared to where I was used to.

So as time rolled on, Cindy and I realized that the apartment was really

expensive than we accounted for.

So she took a job waitressing at a strip bar.

Then I came back from work one night.

Turn off the TV. You've got to hear this. What?

I've got it figured out.

We're going to make tons of money. I met this guy.

She met this guy, and he complimented her how smart she must be.

You know, you should work for me. What do I have to do?

And he goes, oh, I'm an importer -exporter.

I could get you a job. It'd take you maybe two weeks, and you could make $10

,000.

So she was like, really?

I said, what stuff are we talking about?

And she says, I think you said it was like jewels or something, like diamonds.

I was excited for her. I was, I guess, too naive to be scared.

She gets back to the States from Sofia, Bulgaria, glowing.

You have to go. It was so awesome.

She's pulling lots of cash out of her shirt.

She took off her shoe and she had money inside of her boot.

Call the guy sending. I have to do this. I'll call him right now. I'll be back.

I would say once I actually laid my eyes on that money, I was on my way to doing

what I was eventually going to do. We're all set.

We're going to meet him tomorrow.

I mean, that was the beginning.

The next day, Cindy drove us down to the Italian restaurant to meet this contact

she had.

I was as excited and nervous as you are at a job interview. I had to get this

job. You have nothing to worry about.

We walk up to the table, and it's the first time I've ever seen this guy.

Hey. Hey, and this is?

Leah. My God, you are something special.

He smiled at me and shook my hand and said he was really happy to finally meet

me. Great. Yeah.

He knew that I was the kind of person he was looking for.

18 years old and he's ordering me wine.

He starts talking about, you know, what he needs me to do.

Now, Cindy went to Bulgaria.

But you, I'm thinking something different.

Bangladesh to be exact.

When he said where I was going to be going was not going to be the same

as Cindy.

The alarm bell started to go off.

It's going to be okay.

I started asking him questions. I said, so, is it diamonds?

And he goes... Well, not exactly.

And he's like, Mal, it's actually heroin.

Heroin.

You may as well have lit a fire under my chair. And I looked at Cindy and I

said, is that what you did?

Just sit down, Leah.

I was furious for so many things. Among them was the fact that Cindy had already

done it.

She brought heroin into the country.

It wasn't diamonds.

I was shocked and scared and disappointed.

He starts talking to me and telling me, look. I'll double the money.

Right here, right now, I'll give you twice as much.

$20 ,000.

I kind of knew in my deepest, innermost self that I was going to do this, and I

decided to take this chance to get myself out of the rut I was in and to

parents and get into business school.

The fact that it was heroin I was agreeing to do it with pretty much

everything.

We drove out to this parking lot to meet with the contact again.

And he pulls up in his Mercedes Benz, really fancy car.

Hey, Tim.

Hey. How you doing, Leah?

How are you? He says, take the shopping bag.

I reach in to pull out what it is. I'm like, what is this? Don't worry about

They're just girdles.

Girdles? Yeah.

Well, I need girdles for it. And he goes, just in case, you need to strap

heroin onto your body.

Excuse me?

Yeah, strap it to your body.

There's no way. I'm sorry. I'm not going to do that. Leah, take the damn

girdles, pack them with your stuff.

I was like, okay, fine. If it makes you happy, I'll pack them. I'm not wearing

hair.

So then he handed me an envelope with $1 ,500 in cash, like spending money.

I need to get my passport, and I'm on my way.

The next day, I had to go to my parents' house because in order to get a

passport, I have to have my birth certificate.

Hey, Jacob.

Hey, Leah. My little brothers were outside playing with their friends

any idea.

I'm walking out the door, and my little brother sees me, and he wants to hug me

goodbye.

He just had this sense that it might be better if he could somehow keep me and

not let me go.

I love you, sis.

I love you, too.

That was the last big hug I got from anyone in my family until I got back.

Pretty big moment.

On the drive to the airport, thinking about Bangladesh, maybe I'll see an

elephant while I'm there. It'd be a big adventure.

I'm completely unaware that in two weeks' time, I'm going to be facing the

penalty on the other side of the planet.

I get into Bangladesh, and as I'm walking out of the airport, I was a

scared.

I have absolutely no idea what people do here or how it works.

I've never left the country.

All these people start coming up to me trying to grab my bag, and they're all

right in my face.

They're grabbing my stuff. I'm kind of freaking out.

This person says, do you need some help, ma 'am? And he rescued me from all

these people.

He said, so where do you need to go? And I said, I think I'm going to go stay at

the nice hotel, live it up a little bit before I get out.

Compared to the madness around me, this car was like sanctuary.

He took me to the five -star hotel.

This is familiar.

This is going to be great.

I couldn't wait to get in my room.

Guy comes up to me and introduces himself.

Hello, I'm the marketing director here. If you need anything, you let me know.

He picked me up on the floor and he goes, I'd love to get dinner. And I was

like, okay, sure.

Yeah, things are looking up, you know. Suddenly my horizons, my outlook was a

little bit better.

I'm just kind of in a state of mind that everything's coming up roses, and it's

going to work out.

The plan was a quick one -week trip, and a contact will be in touch. He was

going to give me the drugs to take with me on the plane.

And I'd fly it from Bangladesh directly into Zurich, Switzerland, and go home

and get $20 ,000.

So I had to just wait for my guy to show up.

Hello. Hi. That night, the marketing director brings me, you know, roses.

Thank you.

And they're beautiful.

Didn't even occur to me that those roses were going to play such a deciding

factor in the way the rest of the trip played out.

So we get to the restaurant, and we had a nice little dinner.

I wasn't looking to get romantic, but I was certainly enjoying the attention.

I guess

it

was food poisoning, but I'd never had it before, so I just thought I was going

to die.

Here I am, sick, sweating with this fever, and it's stuck.

I didn't know it at the time, but the guy coming with the heroin was delayed.

So it actually worked out to their advantage that I was sick.

The days are dragging on, and I could sit up and look around and realize I'm

looking at being here I don't know how much longer.

Almost two weeks I've been in Bangladesh.

The money I had budgeted to be able to afford to stay in a hotel has been

exhausted, and it's dragged on to enough days now that I can't even afford to

pay the bill to get out.

I mean, my visa's going to expire tomorrow.

I'm starting to really worry.

I don't know what happens when your visa expires, but I can only imagine it's

something bad, or you wouldn't have to have a visa.

Something has to happen tomorrow.

It was Tony, my contact.

Yeah, I'm here. This guy was on edge and tense, and I got this feeling of being

uneasy. I want you to meet me by the elevator.

In two hours, exactly.

Don't be late.

Okay. This guy was obviously a different personality than the one I had first

encountered back home.

I realized I was actually definitely going to be leaving tonight, so I'm just

going to start packing.

I decided I...

I really liked the flowers.

I said, I'm going to take this home with me. They're really beautiful.

I took off like half my suitcase.

I went out and I waited for him by the elevator.

He took forever to show up.

Are you Leon?

Yeah, Tony?

Come, let's go to your room.

Let's go.

Okay.

I automatically felt like I was walking on eggshells with this guy. I didn't

want to upset him.

I just wanted everything to go through and just get through this.

Right.

This is what's going to happen.

I'm going to come back later, take you to my hotel.

Obviously, I cannot bring it here.

This guy's kind of scary, and maybe I kind of want to just get out of here.

I was hoping that if he actually would give me the money to pay my bill now,

that I could maybe even skip out of here and not have to do it.

Okay, well, do you have money? No.

You're not going anywhere.

There was no questioning his authority.

He was the one making the decisions, and that was it.

What time? Because my flight leaves at 6 o 'clock. I'll be back by 4.

Once he left, I had this uneasy feeling on my stomach. I was just like, you

know, what should I do?

I'm starting to feel trapped.

He didn't give me the money. I can't pay my bill.

If anything goes wrong, I'm going to miss my flight, and it's the last day of

visa.

I decided if he's not here on time, then that'll be my sign, and I'm going to

back out. I'm not going to do this.

Four o 'clock comes and goes.

I need to get out of here without anybody seeing me. And I'm going to make

dash to get to the airport.

I'm leaving.

I look out the hall. Coast is clear.

The door closes.

And I'm afraid someone's going to hear me.

Nobody? Nobody? All right.

Run.

Get into the jail. And I'm looking at stairs.

It's a little daunting, but I've got to get out of here.

Whatever it takes.

I can do this.

I'm so close. I'm going to get in a rickshaw.

and be gone, and this whole nightmare will be over.

I go down the last couple of black stairs, push the door open, and I lean

around.

It's the middle of the lobby.

I can't pay my bill.

And I'm trying to scramble, just hoping to get through this. If I could still

maybe just get out of the hotel.

All of a sudden, there's like three or four bellboys running to my aid.

Oh, oh, oh, can we help you, ma 'am? I want to take my own back. No, no, no,

it's fine. Really, it's okay. I'm okay. Please. My heart's still racing. I'm

still optimistic. If I could just get them to calm down and let me go.

Really, it's okay. I'm okay. Please, please.

And in the middle of this, I look up across the lobby, and it's the worst

possible thing that could have happened.

Tony has just arrived.

My stomach just sank. There's no way he's going to not notice the commotion.

He looked at me.

I'm really, really screwed.

The whole time I'm making my mad dash, I've been clinging to my ticket and my

passport.

You cannot go! And he looked at me like I was some little bug. This is

happening. You are doing this.

Go and pay your bill. Go!

I paid the bill and they said, are you okay? And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.

But I wasn't fine.

I was, you know, about to make the biggest mistake of my life and really

couldn't see any way out of it.

And there's Tony.

with my luggage and he's like, get it.

I just remember being really nervous and not wanting to touch him because I knew

he was mad.

He's already scary enough and he's already made threats about not going

anywhere.

He's going to have to go through with it.

So we finally pull up to his guest house.

We walk into the room, and I can see all of his stuff kind of strewn around, and

I realize this is it.

He gets my suitcase, and he opens it up to pack the heroin and see my flowers.

What is this?

I mean, I could just feel how mad he was.

They were a gift. I said, they're staying.

I'm keeping them, okay? If those flowers stay, you're going to have to wear the

product. It's not going to fit in there.

And I said, fine.

Stupid. He goes, well, here, put one of these girdles on.

Put it on.

Go on.

Go! Hurry up!

Get him!

In the middle of being mortified out of my mind, I've pretty much lost control

of the situation.

He's got these four packets.

I was like, there we go. This is it.

Lift up the... Hold it up.

Shut up!

Hey! Open!

He's wrapping it around my leg like really rough.

He wants it tied. He doesn't want it to move.

My breathing is getting fast.

My hands are sweating.

I leaned on his shoulder. He's got moisture on his shirt. What the hell is

matter with you?

I'm sorry.

I'm just scared. I've never... Don't you laugh!

We do it all the time!

He finishes wrapping the package and he goes and he gets the other girl and

says, put it on. Don't!

The tape's so tight, and there's just no give.

I said, what if I want to take it off? You want to go to the bathroom?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I can cut a piece for you. No, no, no, no.

You're going nowhere near that.

I'm just trying to help you. It's a long flight, you know.

In the back of my mind, I'm really thinking how awkward I feel and how

impossible it is going to be to pull this off.

Go!

I put my rain jacket on over it.

Hey, hey, hey, that's a little bit obvious, isn't it?

I said, well, I'm going somewhere really cold. It's a little cold, isn't it?

Practice walking!

I could really feel the packages on my legs were bumping into the packages on

stomach. This is really kind of bulky. It's really awkward.

I was still very, very nervous and very scared about what I was doing and

missing my flight.

I'm getting out of the rickshaw. I mean, realize this doesn't look natural. This

doesn't fit, and we're late.

I absolutely have to make this plane because it's the last flight out, and

today's the last day on my visa, and I'm just kind of panicking.

This scary guy is watching me, and I'm about to do something horribly illegal.

I'm getting out of the rickshaw. He says, look, don't get any ideas.

But he was a scary enough guy that I was sure something really horrible was

quite possible.

I know that he's back there watching me.

I'm going to have to go through with it.

I'm walking across the airport. I'm realizing that time is running out. My

flight is supposed to be leaving any minute.

I'm trying to hurry to check in, and I know that there's people in the airport

that are watching.

I'm four inches bigger all the way around, and I'm trying to look natural

maintain my composure.

I'm literally smuggling right at this moment, and I'm just trying not to.

break out into a sweat and let everybody know and see on my face that I am

petrified.

So I finally make it up to the gate to check in.

It's almost time for the plane to leave. It's almost even too late to check

luggage. Ma 'am, you're very late.

You need to get moving now.

You have to get your back scanned right there.

And at this moment, I'm actually glad it's not in my suitcase.

And they let my suitcase go through.

The airport didn't seem that big. I just had to walk 100 yards.

Okay, maybe I feel a little bit relaxed, just a little.

I'm almost through this. I'm going to walk onto the plane and fly home. I'm

almost there.

I start to realize that there's other huge problems ahead of me.

Hands on, physically searching everywhere.

And my heart starts pounding.

It's impossible to do it now. I have to back out.

There's no way I'm going to get caught wearing all this stuff, trying to get on

the plane.

It's suicide, basically. I have to go, and I have to run to the bathroom. I

to take these packages off.

I get into the bathroom stall, and I pull up my dress.

So I'm, like, reaching around. I'm trying to find the beginning of the

The tape's so tight, and there's just no give. There's no way I can get this

off.

Literally, I'm praying in the bathroom.

I just have to get through this airport, and then I'll be good. I'll never do

anything bad again.

I hear them calling last call for my flight.

I can't not get on the plane because I have to go home.

And if I can't get this stuff off, then that means I'm wearing this stuff home.

I'm afraid people can see straight through my clothes and can see and hear

heart pounding when I'm trying to rein in my own panic and rein in my own

hysteria so that no one else can pick up on it.

I look up and I realize that the woman who's doing the searches can't see me.

Okay, this is it. This is my moment. I'm going to make a break for it. I'm just

going to go.

I walk past one guard and he doesn't say anything to me.

I'm going down the stairs like, okay, I'm down. I'm going. Six more steps. I'm

counting the steps until I'm at the bottom.

I'm almost there.

And I hear the curtain slide back.

Excuse me, ma 'am.

Ma 'am, I have not searched you yet.

Please come back.

And my heart just froze. I was like, oh, crap.

Okay.

Why are you wearing raincoat? And I said, you know, I had my story.

It's so that whenever I get to Switzerland... Okay, well, take it off.

So I took off my jacket and assumed the position.

I really am nervous. I really am scared. And she's about to know why.

What is it?

I've just gained a little weight.

That was my really brilliant, in the heat of the moment, scared out of my

This is my response.

Oh, yeah, I'm fat.

Oh, no.

I don't feel like this.

We need to go washroom.

I knew I was caught, and it was a matter of am I going to be able to talk my way

out of this.

Security, education.

Dress up.

They razored open the tape around my legs and on my waist.

And I was, like, kind of relieved to have them off.

And this really tough female comes waltzing in.

She does the dab and tastes in our mouth.

She's the... Yeah, that's heroin.

I hear my flight's going to leave.

They were, like, closing the gate. I said, I, um, that's my flight.

I have to go. I can't be here anymore.

No, no, no, no. You're not going anywhere.

And my heart starts racing. I mean, this is my, the door is closing. And I'm

like, no, you don't understand.

My visa expires today. I, I can't be here anymore.

She says, you don't need a visa to go to jail, young lady.

And at that moment, I realized, I'm going to jail.

I'm going to jail.

Hands put together.

They put him on tight and they tied a rope.

Come along.

Like a cow rope, like for cattle.

Between them.

And they walked me out of the bathroom.

And of course there's more people there.

I just remember being so embarrassed.

good my whole life.

I was an honor student.

I kept all my friends out of trouble.

And now I'm going to jail.

That was so stupid.

I got greedy and stubborn.

And here I was.

I remember going into what they called a TANA, which was, I guess, a little

police station.

It's like registering.

I'm in jail right now.

Okay, we have some questions.

We need to know what was going on.

Write it down.

I tried to be cooperative, but at the same time, I'm trying to protect myself

and not say too much too soon.

This policeman's trying to convey the severity of what was going on.

Miss McCord.

He goes, you do realize what you've done.

You could get the death penalty for this.

No, I can't. I can't get the death penalty. Miss McCord, you can.

At that moment, I thought, no.

There's no way I'm going to die for this. No.

So I spent, you know, hours writing down every phone number, every name.

And they finally said, okay, well, we're going to take you to where you're going

to spend the night.

They take me down this hall, and I can smell, smells like a...

Open sewer.

There you go.

Have a nice night.

And it was feces spread across the wall. People were riding with it. And it

smelled just god awful.

I noticed the locks.

I'm sinking.

I don't want to be here.

I don't belong here.

Lisa, well, you should have thought about that before you decided to smuggle

heroin up.

And walked off.

Apparently I could be sentenced to die.

I pretty much cried myself to sleep underneath my jacket.

The next morning, I hear a lot of noise outside.

Obviously, there's something exciting going on.

The guard said, we think we found your case partner.

I said, you found Tony?

And he says, yeah, we think so. So we're going to have to identify him.

I'm imagining in my mind a closed -off room where he can't see me, but I can

him.

I'm thinking, he can see me.

I'm like, of course he can see you. Is that him? Is that your case partner?

That's him.

He, like, launches himself at me. I don't know her!

No! Officer, please!

I've never seen her before in my life! Please!

I don't know that bitch. I don't know her.

I was like, um... Oh, no, you don't. Suddenly I'm filled with this, like,

righteous indignation. I don't know you! Why are you doing this? I don't know

you! I absolutely know you!

I know you! You forced me to do this! You strapped the...

So we had this argument going back and forth, and I was just scared, and I was

relieved because I was finally able to just kind of call him out and yell at

and tell him no.

And I'm looking at the policeman, and I'm just like, I don't want

to be in here anymore. I've told you what you needed to know.

The woman kind of rescued me from that scary scene.

Even though they'd caught him, they still didn't let me go.

You're going to central jail.

I don't know what else is going to happen, but you're going to the big

It was up to them what happened to me.

It wasn't up to me. Nothing I could do or say could really change what they

going to decide to do.

And they escorted me down into the women's ward.

Down into the next part of my life.

We passed one cell and all the people were like sardines on top of each other.

I remember it being just so out of place.

There was this woman, she's kind of antsy, and the policeman says, this is

This Kuku, death prisoner.

Death.

Death. She was convicted for killing her husband and she was sentenced to hang.

I'm not supposed to live next door to someone who's supposed to be dying.

The depression just got worse.

Puke yellow walls on every side weighing me down.

It was just a sad, sad place.

I never once spoke to my parents or heard from my parents. There was

no communication with anybody on the outside world except the embassy guy who

came to see me once a month.

So I finally get the call that there's a visitor.

The gentleman from the embassy is actually there to see me.

He was my ticket out. He was going to help me out.

And I'm like, okay, so let's discuss how I'm going to get out of here. How am I

going to get out of here?

He's unnervingly calm and not catching my level of energy. She says,

um, yeah.

Ms. McCord, there's nothing we can do to intervene on your behalf except to

ensure that you're not being starved or abused while in their custody.

I'm getting really sick. Like, my mouth is, like, starting to water, and I'm

just feeling like this is not happening.

It was about two or three weeks before my birthday.

I said, I will kill myself before I will spend another day beyond my birthday in

here. You have to get me out of here.

Mr. McCord, I'm sorry.

There's nothing we can do to help you.

He's basically crushed my whole mental facade that I'm

actually going to be able to get out of this.

And I could be facing...

Years. My life.

Death. Like Cuckoo.

I was broken.

I was trapped.

I was in prison.

Pretty soon after that,

they took Cuckoo out.

The night that they executed her, it was really strange because, I

mean, I'd seen her every day. I'd talked to her.

The practice was when they actually hung the person that they turned the lights

off and they turned it back on to let you know that it actually happened.

So we're in our cells and the lights went off.

It was so strange. It was so sad.

And I heard someone down in one of the cells kind of cry out.

It was one more nail in the coffin of the reality that

they carry out the sentences they give you.

Whatever they sentence me with, I'm going to have to do it.

My whole hopes for what might happen was just on the floor, in the gutter at

this point.

I was still just along for the ride until they finally made their decision.

And I could only hope it was somewhat lenient.

The judge reads out the sentence.

Eliana McCord is hereby sentenced.

To life in prison.

In the DACA central jail.

I just cried.

The way I felt. My life is gone. My youth is over.

Because I wanted $20 ,000.

Hey, good morning.

He gave me the convict's uniform.

It's all real.

But that's just one of those things that really just drives it home.

I'm one of the rank and file with all the other criminals.

I've got the longest sentence you can have.

They all kind of took pride in how long their sentences were. I've got 14 years.

I've got seven years.

Yeah, well, I beat them all.

It's all over.

No one can save me now.

Once I realized the embassy wasn't going to help me, I decided I'm going to make

the most of this.

There was a schoolmaster that came in. She had these books of learning to read

and write Bengali, so I grabbed one of those so that I could practice the

letters and learn how to write it.

I learned their culture. I learned about their religion. I learned about my own

and what I had at my disposal. I grabbed onto and embraced and focused on those

things.

At this point, I really just let go of all hope.

In the middle of all this, I'm handed this postcard from Congressman Bill

Richardson saying, you know, he's been in the country, he's heard about me, and

he's doing everything he can to secure my release.

You know, don't worry.

How effective can it be? The American government hasn't done anything for me

far. It's been pretty clear that they're not going to do anything for me.

I didn't put much hope or expectation based on this one postcard.

So I'm having this emotional explosion on the inside.

Just shocked and excited and couldn't really believe it.

This woman comes running down.

Your release is here.

And she's holding up this scrap of paper scribbled in Bengali.

This is my official word that I'm out of here.

I mean, my whole body is like, it's almost like it's numb and tingling and

complete mayhem on the inside.

I wanted to hug everyone. I mean, suddenly I was filled with all this

and... And affection towards everybody.

That's like, I love all of you people. You've all been amazing. And I'll never

forget you.

I get into this truck.

And this time when those doors blocked and that big ka -chunk happened, the

darkness was behind me.

Unbelievable.

It's the last time I saw that place.

Driving away, looking over my shoulder out the window.

That was the end.

I drove away.

I drove away from my nightmare.

I was stupid and I messed up horribly.

But people say when you go to jail, you find your soul.

It kind of colors every part of who I am and how I look at things now.

I wouldn't want to repeat it, but I wouldn't necessarily change it either.

There's no other way.

No other way I'd be who I am, where I am, without it.

The police interceptors go after a gang of would -be jewel thieves next, and a

burglar leads them on a high -speed chase.