Original subtitles

He said, I've heard you're looking for work. Would you be interested in

travelling overseas?

Yeah, definitely.

I thought it was the new start to my life.

Where's the goal?

He says, you're carrying cocaine.

What an idiot.

How stupid could I have been?

I've never touched drugs, never smoked a joint, and now I'm smuggling cocaine.

September 2002 wasn't exactly the greatest moment of my life.

I was working in a chicken factory, ended up doing my back in, and I was in

lot of pain.

And the specialist had turned around and said, I have to give up this position,

otherwise you're going to end up getting worse.

I had no choice but to give up the job.

I had to look for something else.

Every day I was looking for work.

I'd go through the newspapers, try on the internet.

I'd go door to door.

Nothing.

I just went on for about six months.

I've got a pretty close family.

I was closer to my brother called Alan, but I didn't want to involve family.

I was too proud.

I didn't want him to think I was a failure.

The bar I went to, it was called the Shark Bar.

Business people would go there just to have a drink and relax.

I went there so I could ask people for any positions vacant.

Still nothing available.

So I'm sitting out in the bar, just looking out the window, you know, just

wondering what I'm going to do.

Just off the left side of my eye, I saw somebody walking towards me. Hi, I'm

Roland.

He was dressed casually, but smart.

I think he was wearing some type of gold jewellery, expansive jewellery.

He seemed very friendly.

He said, I've heard you're looking for work.

Then all of a sudden my ears clicked.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

He said, would you be interested in travelling overseas?

Argentina?

Argentina? Never been there, never even been out of the country. Yeah, of course

I'll be interested.

So he said, yep, OK, give me your details, then I'll contact you a little

later. That only lasted a couple of minutes, that was about it.

To be honest, I wasn't even expecting him to call me back.

because nobody's ever called me back.

Two weeks later, phone call.

That's Roland.

Mate met the shark bar.

He was sat at one of the little tables there, and we sit down, and he starts

saying to me, are you still interested in travel to Argentina?

At this point in time, I'll go anywhere.

He said, you'll be picking up two suitcases and they will have gold in

It seemed a little bit funny, but I didn't really think much on it because I

so desperate.

And I'd ask him, have you got the correct documentation?

He came out, like, so positive.

Everything's all done, all signed, sealed and delivered.

I asked him how much he was going to pay me.

$15 ,000.

My jaw just hit the ground.

$15 ,000?

When you've got nothing there, and $15 ,000, and you hear that coming towards

you, what are you going to do? You're not going to say no, not when you're

desperate. I said,

well, yeah, no problem. You've got a deal.

I'm thinking, well, $15 ,000.

I'm going to be a lot better off. I'm not going on the street.

I suppose that's what you would call naivety.

Well, things moved very quickly from then on.

I made the decision to leave the apartment, end the lease, and with the

got from the job, get another apartment.

I did mention to my brother Alan that I was going overseas collecting gold.

And he says, just be careful.

And the next morning, the car pulls up.

And then we head off to the airport.

Roland was still friendly, still had that charisma about him.

Roland told me that there'd be a person in Buenos Aires to meet me.

He shook his hand.

We said goodbye.

I thought it was the new start to my life.

When we first land, I'm walking through the airport and there's a sign with my

name on it.

He introduced himself as Pepe.

Hi, I'm Pepe.

A young bloke, around about 20 years of age.

He was going to be like my guide.

organize the gold, and he's going to just generally look after me while I'm

there.

We got into the taxi.

You see all these beautiful old buildings.

Wow.

This place is so awesome, so big.

Pepe said to me that... The gold was going to be ready tomorrow sometime.

We got to the hotel.

I go upstairs.

I'm knackered by that time, you know, with jet lag.

Everything is going as it should be going.

Next day, Pepe come round to the hotel.

I'm expecting the cases of gold, and there's nothing there.

Where's the gold?

He says, well, it's not going to be ready for another four days.

There's something not right, but I can't put my finger on it at this point in

time.

Peppa said to me, look, it will be ready for you.

I said, well, if you're guaranteeing me that, well, then fair enough.

In hindsight, I think I should have taken it more seriously.

I should have listened to the inner voice and known from that point there

something wrong.

The next four days, I'd go walking around Buenos Aires, looking in the shop

windows.

Just general sightseeing.

And then you start seeing all the people.

Argentinian girls, you'd have blamed the word.

I was just sort of like a little boy in a candy store with his eyes wide open,

which way, what, you know?

But now it was time to start, actually, to start to work.

On the fifth day, I get a phone call from Pepe, and...

He's coming to the hotel with the gold.

I really was excited because now my job did actually begin.

Pepe comes into my room with two big suitcases, plastic suitcases.

He picks them up and he puts them onto the bed.

They look normal.

I open them up.

You know, I'm expecting to see something like gold ingots.

And there's nothing there.

At this point I'm in shock.

He says it's in the plastic of the case itself.

So nobody sees it, so they don't want to kill you for it.

I only picked one up to have a look, and it did seem a little bit heavier than

what I think a normal suitcase would feel.

At that point, I absolutely thought it was plausible. It made sense.

I was feeling a hell of a lot of responsibility

now.

I definitely was taking it very, very seriously.

The next day...

Pepe's come to the hotel to help me load the bags into the taxi so we can go off

to the airport.

He seemed totally relaxed, whereas on the other hand, I was worried to

just in case somebody wanted to rob us with the gold.

Every stop, every red light.

I've got to keep watching just to make sure nobody's going to break into the

boot or something like that.

I was glad to get to the airport.

I've got the two bags and I'm walking up to the check -in.

I'm hanging on to them like death itself, just to make sure nobody takes

I handed my ticket, passport, put the bags on there.

She put the tag on.

and sent them through.

Once I got on that conveyor, I was feeling more relaxed.

Everything's just going smooth.

When I got back to Sydney, I was feeling actually quite good, because I'm at

home now.

I've nearly got my job finished.

All I had to do was start waiting for all these bags to come round and through

and offloaded off the plane.

I'm waiting.

15 minutes.

Bags are slowly disappearing.

Still no sign of my bags yet.

25 minutes.

Still nothing.

30 minutes.

Starting to get worried.

40 minutes.

Where are the bags?

Why are they not there on that plane? They should have been on that plane.

Well, it's been an hour and the carousel's absolutely empty.

What am I going to do?

If I can't find them, I'm knackered.

I am really stressed.

I'm starting to panic.

I had no choice but to go see the lady at lost baggage.

I said, look, my baggage isn't there. I don't know where it's gone.

All I could do was just go to the hotel and pray to God that they found the

bags.

I'm starting to think, what can I tell Roland?

Because there's maybe $100 ,000 worth of gold there.

If they didn't turn up, how the hell am I going to pay him?

I just get to the hotel, try and relax, and

then... Hello?

That's Roland.

I'm thinking, oh, what am I going to say?

Yeah, Roland.

Have you got the bags?

Well, I... Don't worry.

I'm going to get back tonight or tomorrow.

Denny hung up.

Rolling.

I'm just so stressed, so worried. What the hell's going to happen?

In the morning, I'm starting to get more and more stressed again.

I'm looking out the window. I'm pacing.

That's reception.

Mr Sutton, can you come down and pick up your luggage?

It's arrived from the airport.

Well,

I tell you, that was one of the best phone calls I've ever had.

I'm trying to hurry the elevator up mentally. Come on, hurry up, hurry up so

can get down there and get them.

Then I see the bags.

I think, that's my life back again.

I wanted to put my arms around them and give them a big hug, you know. It might

sound stupid, but that's exactly what I wanted to do.

So I grab them, race them upstairs, and just check them out, make sure there's

been no interference whatsoever.

Everything seemed pretty much right.

Thank God for that.

All the stress just seemed to flow away.

Within about 20 minutes... Hello?

And it's Roland.

Yeah, hello, Roland. Have the bags arrived yet?

Yeah, they're here.

Meet me downstairs across the road.

Come out of the hotel, I see Roland across the road.

There's a car parked five, ten feet away.

I pass the bags to him.

shuts the boot down, and then the car's gone.

I'm thinking, what the hell's going on?

I said, look, the car's gone with my clothes in it.

Roland pulls me to one side, and he says, look, you've done a good job.

So I said, OK, Roland, when do I get paid?

And he says, I can't pay you just yet.

Why can't you pay me just yet?

I've got all these other people that I've got to pay first.

They've got to process the gold and get it sold.

I was thinking, well, what the hell am I going to do?

I've got no money. I've got no place to stay.

I'm on the street again, back at square one.

So then Roland turns around and says, well, I've got an apartment and it's not

far from here. Until we sort the money out, you can stay there.

The little voice inside was saying for me to just go. It doesn't matter what

happens, just go and leave everything.

But I was desperate.

We arrive at the apartment.

It's so dingy.

Nobody had lived in here for a while with the looks of it.

It's absolutely filthy.

He gave me...

I think it was about $100 just so I can get some food.

He promised me that later on he'd come back and pay me the rest of what he owed

me.

But he just keeps saying excuses one after the other. He had to pay somebody

else.

I'm starting to get very pissed off with him.

I've kept my word to him and he hasn't kept his word to me.

But I've got to keep it in check because I didn't have enough funds to get out

and get my own place.

I felt very trapped.

One night, Roland comes round to the apartment.

Steve,

I've got another job for you.

The plan is to go to Sao Paulo, Brazil, pick up the gold and go back to Sydney.

and this job will pay you what I owe you completely.

I'm thinking, he still owes me.

I'm still stuck.

I've got no place to go.

However, if I do the one more job, get out and be finished with it altogether.

I was thinking, well, I'll go and pick up the gold, but you won't be getting

gold. until you've paid me.

You want this, I want what's owed to me.

Looking back now, that was one of the worst decisions I've ever made.

Sao Paulo was a very big city.

Buenos Aires felt more relaxed, whereas Sao Paulo, You had that sense

that there was a lot of tension in the air there somewhere.

I could see, you know, a lot of people that were on the street.

I mean, literally on the street.

First time, you know, I was overwhelmed with everything.

But the second trip, I just wanted it done and finished with.

I'm looking around and...

It's just a whole mood of it. It just didn't feel safe. So I thought, well,

no way in hell I'm going out. I'm staying here. That's it.

About three in the afternoon.

This is Jose.

I'm a friend of Roland's.

He said, I've got the cases.

Can you come and pick them up?

Jose is downstairs waiting for me.

He gives me a hand with the bags.

When I walk into the room, I can see two suitcases.

Then I just have to unload my bags and put my clothes into the two suitcases.

Jose gave me a ticket and $3 ,000.

The ticket was to get me from Sao Paulo to Buenos Aires.

The money was to buy a ticket from Buenos Aires to Sydney.

I was getting bad vibes there, considerably bad vibes.

And then all of a sudden, Jose turns around and says, Do you know what you're

carrying?

He says, No, you're not.

I said, what do you mean, no, I'm not?

He said, you're carrying cocaine.

My heart stopped, my jaw dropped.

I honestly didn't know what to do then.

And I thought, what an idiot.

How stupid could I have been?

All the way along, there was something wrong.

The $15 ,000, the empty cases, the car at the hotel.

I've never touched drugs, never smoked a joint, and now I'm smuggling cocaine.

I'm caught up in a massive crime syndicate thousands of miles from home.

My first thought was to get the hell out of there while I got the chance.

My family.

No way did I want that to happen.

I'd rather take the consequences myself.

I didn't feel like I had any other choice.

I'd made the decision to go ahead with it.

Walked back into the room and I said, look, I'm going back to take these back

my hotel now.

So I just grabbed the bags, got out of there as quickly as possible.

I put the cases in the back seat with me, and it feels like there's a heavy

burden strapped to my back. It feels so heavy.

That night, I'm back at the hotel room, looking at these two suitcases at the

end of the bed, wishing them away.

I was very frightened and scared at the prospect that I could get locked up for

taking this stuff across the border.

It's a lot of weight on a person.

Well, next day I check out, catch the taxi to go to the airport.

The plan is to get from the airport at Sao Paulo, then pass the customs in

Argentina airport, then go from there through towards Sydney for security

to get through.

When we arrive at the airport, got the two bags out,

I've committed myself 100 % now.

I've got no choice.

I've got to go through with it no matter what.

Nervous wasn't the word.

Going towards check -in.

You know it's close, but it looks like it's a million miles away.

At this stage, I'm still just checking if somebody's going to come and tap me

the shoulder at any moment.

Get to the check -in, and I'm looking at him. I'm trying to keep calm inside,

talk calmly as possible.

Are they your bags?

And I said, yes.

Can you put your bags up onto the conveyor system?

My heart rate's just phenomenally high.

like it felt like my chest was about to explode.

Then the bags were on the conveyor belt and I started to feel a bit of relief.

But the feeling of that relief didn't last very long at all.

I go down to where the gate is for the aircraft, I sit down there, I'd wait.

I'm telling myself, act normal, be as calm as possible, but then in the back

your mind, just waiting for that person to grab you on the shoulder and then go

clunk with the handcuffs.

At this point in time, there was no possibility of walking away.

committed to being the drug mule.

I'm saying to myself, don't panic.

Just act as normal as you possibly can.

But what I'm feeling is something totally different.

I was just petrified.

Glancing left, glancing right.

Then I heard them call my flight.

Pass the ticket to the man at the boarding area.

At this point, I'm thinking, I've made it through.

If I can get through from Sao Paulo, then maybe I can get through Argentina,

then through to Sydney.

It might just work.

had landed in Buenos Aires, all the fear starts to come back again. All the

anxiety, the nauseousness, the panic.

I'm trying to suppress every feeling I could possibly suppress.

It seemed like it was forever that he was looking at the passport.

I don't know whether he could hear my heartbeat, but I know I could hear my

heartbeat like 100 times faster than it normally should.

All of a sudden, that stamp just sounded so loud.

I started walking down with the other passengers towards the carousel.

It seemed like for eternity, I'm waiting to pick up my bag.

I'm waiting, waiting.

Then all of a sudden, the bag comes around the corner.

That was a sigh of relief.

I'll grab the other one.

Start the long process of walking out again, down towards the customs.

There's a heap of people, so you've got to wait in line.

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

I'm telling myself, relax, be calm, just take it easy.

The customs officials, they're working the computer and the monitor and they're

looking at all the luggage.

It looked like a lot of these people were sort of looking at me and it was

one of the biggest nightmares you could ever have.

Then, the customs lady comes up to me, touched me on the shoulder, oh my god.

She says, I picked your bag up and put it up where the x -ray machine is.

I thought that was it, I'm gone.

So I grab it, felt like it weighed a thousand kilos.

As they were going through that machine, it was just like it was slow motion.

And I'm thinking, they must be able to pick it up.

I'm telling myself, just breathe slowly.

Oh, I'm praying it goes through.

First one's gone through.

I'm thinking this is it.

The second one's going through.

Grab the bag off the conveyor.

And then off I go.

That was one of the biggest sigh of relief you could ever have.

I couldn't believe I'd got through.

It was just so unbelievable.

Well, the next morning,

I've got to make a phone call to Roland.

I felt personally betrayed.

He'd lied to me, cheated me out of money that was owed to me.

But I wanted to confront him face to face.

But while I had the bags, that was my ace in the hole.

I've told him I have the bags and I'll be on my way soon to Sydney.

He says, well, I've got a New Zealand guy there waiting for you so he can pick

the bags up and bring them through to Sydney. You can come through on another

flight.

Well, part of me was feeling relieved because now I don't have to shift any

cocaine onto Australia.

But the other part of me was feeling pissed off because I've lost leverage

Rollins well and truly stitched me up completely.

Well, about three, four hours later, I get a knock on the motel door.

A Kiwi guy introduces himself.

He's a young guy.

He might not know what's in the bag.

And personally, I think he's got the right to know.

I didn't want him to go through the same process I went through.

I look at him and say, do you know what's in these bags?

He turns around and said, yeah, I know what's in the bags.

It's cocaine.

And I've done it before.

It's your responsibility.

You know what you're doing?

It's up to you.

He asked me, can I come with him and take the bag to his hotel with him?

I said, yeah, sure, no problem.

We get to his hotel, then he makes a phone call to Roland.

And about five minutes later, he comes out the phone booth and he says,

he wants you to help me get a ticket to come back to Australia.

Now, I need this money, this $3 ,000, for myself to get a ticket.

I said, well, Roland's going to wire you through some money later.

It was a very odd request, but I've just had enough.

I just didn't give a damn anymore.

I just wanted it over with.

So I turn around and say to him, yep, OK, we'll go and we'll go and try and

you a ticket.

Tried about four different airlines, asking them have they got any flights

available to Sydney.

Nothing in economy, nothing in business, but there's one seat available in first

class.

And it's going to cost about $2 ,800.

That's all I've got left.

I'm thinking, well, I want to get rid of him and I want to get rid of the bags.

The best thing I can do is to buy this damn ticket.

Got my money out, counted $2 ,700, gave her the money, put the other $300 in her

pocket, then she gave him the ticket.

and told him he's got to be on the flight the next morning.

Well, now while I'm in Buenos Aires, I've just got to wait for Roland to send

some more money through so I can sort my flight out to go home.

I've just got to sit back and just wait for that now.

Next day...

go for a walk to the laundromat and pick up my clothes.

Well, as I'd come out of the laundromat, I looked at my watch and it turned

exactly 12 o 'clock.

And this whopping great hand comes onto my left side of my shoulder.

As I turn, I see this badge.

I knew straight away.

I was being arrested.

It might sound strange, but I just felt a big relief.

I was just glad that I had all this weight off my shoulders.

We go into the police interrogation room.

The police officer said, the amount of walking you've done, you see what you've

caused me? He picked up his foot, took his shoe off, and his feet were covered

in blisters.

He said, do you know you've been under surveillance since you left Sydney?

They've been watching, like, watching me from day one.

Meeting Roland at the hotel in Sao Paulo with the cases.

Even handing over the stuff to the Kiwi guy.

They've seen everything and know everything.

It was a shock.

I couldn't believe it.

But now I know I'm going to go to prison. There's no two ways about that.

Then the van arrives.

Hands behind my back, cuffed.

One door closed, then the other door closed.

And that's when the reality of it starts to hit you.

This is going to be hell, for sure.

Two officers marched me down the stairs, down underground.

It felt like I was going down into the depths of hell.

It was pitch black.

I could feel myself trembling.

You don't know what to expect.

It was a tiny little cell.

There was a small window and you could...

Just see a little bit of light coming in.

Well, the first night was freezing.

You feel like your teeth were going to come out of your head, which is from

chattering.

I was just being so scared.

I was thinking, well, how am I going to get through this?

I've lost my freedom.

But the biggest thing is I've destroyed my family's name.

It was very painful.

Two weeks later, I got moved to one of the big prisons called Marcus Pass.

Fences all around it.

Armed guards.

This is the big boys' prison.

This is going to be hell.

These guards take me into this corridor, passageway.

I get pushed against the wall, told not to talk.

And then I hear the other prisoners getting marched in and put against the

wall.

Facing the wall continuously, not allowed to look anywhere else.

The vibe was so tense.

They were very strict.

Very strict.

And then I hear these other prisoners start talking.

Nothing's happening.

And all of a sudden...

Oh, jeez, it just felt like a hammer coming down.

I want to turn around and I want to confront him.

However, if I do that, I'm going to cop a bigger beating.

I think he was trying to provoke a response, which he wasn't going to get

out of me.

You know, I'm in prison now. I've got to think about my surroundings, where I

am.

I had to adapt to survive.

You're starting to think about what could happen in prison, like getting

stabbed, murdered or even raped.

Well, I started thinking, well, I want to live in prison now. I've got to focus

on being here.

I was the only Westerner there.

Most of the other prisoners were what they call robbos.

They commit robbery.

Some might have even committed murder.

One particular prisoner, skinny bloke, he'd constantly give me a bit of a

Just that in itself was intimidating.

I was fearing that he would come and try to either stab me or do something like

that.

One day he comes up and he says,

I want money from you.

I want your family to send you some money. Otherwise, I'm going to kill you.

My instant thought was, well, my family can't do it.

No way.

If I start giving you money, you're going to be wanting it all the time.

And that's not going to happen.

One thing you don't show is weakness.

If I hadn't stood up to face him, I could have been a target.

So I turn around and say to him, let him know

I wasn't going to just sit there.

He backed off.

But from that moment on, I was just petrified.

11 years.

That's a long time.

I was devastated.

I've done two and a half years, so what's that leave me?

Eight and a half years.

I was physically and mentally exhausted.

I started to get hot and cold sweats, which I thought was only the flu at the

time.

It just didn't disappear.

I'm starting to lose weight.

I've been trying and trying for quite a while to see the doctor.

It took them eight months to even attempt to see me.

By this time, I'm in my cell and I can't get out of bed. I can hardly breathe.

My whole little mattress that's that thick is saturated in sweat.

I didn't have strength to lift myself up even to go to the bathroom.

Well, eventually the guard came in and wheeled me off on the trolley.

We get across into the hospital and they could see straight away that I was in a

really bad way.

Then they told me I had tuberculosis.

And I thought, well, I'm going to die in a prison, thousands of miles.

away from home.

The spirit had been broken and the prison had won.

It took about three months of medication before I was well enough to go back to

prison.

One day I'm sitting in the cell. The guard calls out to me.

There's a letter for you.

I see my brother's handwriting and all of a sudden I just want to burst into

tears.

I didn't know what to expect.

He said that your family forgives you for what you've done.

Your family will always love you, no matter what.

It just bowled me completely over.

Just let everything there, just everything go.

I knew then, you know, my family still loved me and still cared for me.

Until that letter, I'd never forgiven myself.

But knowing my family had forgiven me for what I'd done, that was one of the

greatest releases I could possibly have.

It was about 11 o 'clock at night.

The guard calls me over.

He tells me to pack your stuff.

And before I knew it, I was in a car and I was going out of the prison.

Get to the airport.

They take the handcuffs off.

Just sat there. I was told to wait there until the flight's ready to go.

I just couldn't grasp that I was going free.

When I first got back to Australia, I was absolutely overwhelmed.

I've made it. I'm alive.

I was a free man.

All I remember seeing is my niece and my brother for the first time in nearly

six years.

I just felt so good inside that somebody was there.

My family was there.

First thing I said to my brother, I said, I love you.

I think we just hugged.

And he said, you won't be so stupid next time, will you?

And I said, no, no bloody way, I will be.

Some experiences open my eyes up considerably.

I've seen what life's like in prison.

So if anybody asks what's it like in prison, I can tell them straight off the

bat, that's the last place on earth you ever want to go.

If I can scare somebody out of doing something wrong and do the right thing,

then at least I know I've done something right.

Just think of you're in a...

You're in a voice. If it's saying it's too good to be true, then don't do it.