> money, brazil, fun, take stuff to europe. easily do it. i'm now packed up with a ton of cocaine. this is a ghetto. the slums in brazil are vicious. i was now in the worse place in south america. if it means killing somebody, that's the job to have. >> i thought of my dad.

how in god's name am i going to tell him? >> when i was 23, my life was pretty much a party. it was that care-free, who cares, nothing makes a difference, what is happening right now is what we are going to worry about, which was the parties and haig fun and work wasn't isle that much of the equation. the club promoters of those times would notice the go-getters. and the guys that would hustle. we hustled it so well that we ended up running the vip rooms for some of the, one of the best

clubs, actually in hollywood. loved it. we were running with the in-crowd. had all these celebrities all around. it was very exciting. feel like a king. it was the a-list of hollywood. cocaine was the drug of choice. i never took cocaine or used it because of the effect that it has on people. the devil. it takes your soul. my group of friends, we were young, fun, we were unstoppable and we were on top of the world at that time. sebastian was in with the ladies. julio was the ugly duckling of the crowd. we used to make a lot of fun of him. guy was the funny guy always cracking jokes. i was more of the leader in the pack than the follower.

we felt we were bullets at that time. we could do anything and that was pretty much -- there was no consequence to anything. one day we're approached by a gentleman that had a proposition. my first impression of john, well-dressed, well-groomed, flashy, ways more than just a business man. i sat with him and the offer was put on the table, would you think about making extra money? one of those things. he just may have seen something in us that we were wild and crazy enough and he came with the offer. pay for to you go good to brassy. stay a few days and have fun. we'll get to you hungary. take it and go. what kind of money? 50 grand. a lot of money. let's do it.

brazil. the hottest girls in the world. didn't think of the consequence. drugs didn't factor in. he could have said it 100 times, i probably wouldn't i've heard it. he said he would pay them $5,000 apiece. could he find anybody? i said yes. before i went away, i called my father. >> pop, it's me. >> and told him i was going to be in san diego working, doing construction. a couple of days, i guess. that's it. yeah. i felt really bad lying to him. but i went ahead and did it anyways. i felt really cool like i'm going somewhere. there was not the, oh, my god,

look at what we're going to do. it was, we're going to brazil, a trip, a vacation and exporting of illegal material wasn't really part of it. first thing getting out of the airport was the smell, the scent of brazil. the mixture of alcohol burning cars, jet fuel, tropical weather, gasoline, fumes, pollution, i can still smell it to this day. and being away, being out of the country. being not where my parents were. feeling like we're the kings. the hotel was ready for us with he we got there, but was a little bit different than what

i've been used to seeing in hotels. it was more of an apartment. we got up to the top floor to see what the city looked like. there was a pool and 360 degree view of sao paulo. i felt confident that everything was okay. it seemed to be all going as they planned it for us. the thought of what was coming next didn't really -- we were more concerned where we were going to go and try to meet girls and have fun. waiting around for a little while. john showed up. me and him then went down to a corner bakery and he kind of explained a little bit of what's going to happen over the next day or so.

he gave me a lot of money. go have fun with your friends. do what you want to do, and we'll be back in touch. went back to the hotel with this feeling of, wow, a lot of money in the pocket. you're in brazil. the country that never sleeps and the parties and beautiful women everywhere. and -- >> let's have fun, guys. >> the first night we were noticed the moment we walked in there. it's like wearing bright, orange suits because of the way we were dressed and speaking english. having a real good time. i guess could you say the rock style lifestyle. the night clubs, party and not thinking about what tomorrow is going to bring.

it was living that moment. third day, john showed up at the hotel. >> we're leaving here. >> asked us to get all our stuff. >> where is santos? >> the beach. >> what? >> going to take you guys down there right now. come on. move. >> i got a little bit suspicious and nervous he was moving us somewhere. it was such a quick thing, showed up, let's go. disintegrate have any time to ask him why. just follow the rules. don't ask questions. just do what you're told. things just seemed different. it wasn't the simple go to brazil, go to the hotel, have some fun, meet the europe. we didn't have control. i didn't have control of the situation. it struck me as odd as to why he would be taking us somewhere else.

it made me nervous. i'm sure they had somebody watching us. the next day, john showed up to the hotel and told us to gather our things. that we're going back to sao paulo. and we're back in the original hotel. a few hours later, john came in with a duffel bag. >> tomorrow fly out. tomorrow. okay? >> get the stuff separated, packed up. and he left. judging by the size of the duffel bag, you could tell there was quite a bit of dope. when i opened this thing up and saw the amount of cocaine in there, it became a huge reality what we were going to do. it's no longer, here's a little bit of money and have fun now you smack into the wall. is there a strong realization what we were about to do.

the first thing is, run, run, get out of here. this is crazy. dealing with drug traffickers, you don't take their money and let you go places and bail out of the deal. flipping this thing over on to the bed, it was like a never-ending waterfall of drugs, one after another. on to the bed. it bounced out, just created this lump of bricks. i'm thinking to myself, how in god's name am i going to get this stuff packaged up and put on to us? sebastian, julio and guy left it on to me. i had to cut it and package it into small bags. i tried to complete what i had to do as quick as possible. as time progressed, i could start feeling myself being more jittery and shaking and

sweating. my heart racing. i was in a room with a bunch of cocaine, feeling a type of cocaine high. when i finished packing it up, there was a huge sense of relief, but i literally was wired for a few hours. i was going 1,000 miles an hour. it took a little bit of time for me to finally bring myself down to a level where i could think. what were you thinking? it was a bust from day one.

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next day john comes to the hotel. move -- >> with a very different attitude. >> now. >> get your stuff, we're leaving. >> move. we are leaving now. >> no asking. >> now! >> we're not leaving for hours, man. >> it wasn't time to go to the airport. we still had hours to go. we don't have the stuff packaged up on us. >> now. >> we're leaving. >> we got scared. at that point in time, it was an immediate click of this is totally different than what we're expecting. he put the bag of cocaine in the taxi. all four of us got in the cab. he put his own car. not one word spoken to the taxi driver. he just drove. now you're pulling off a paved road to a semi paved road. a chicken run across the street.

now we are going into an environment where this is ghetto. the slums in brazil are vicious. i didn't want to get out of the car because it was such a nasty-looking neighborhood. it was so intense and so rushed that i had a sense of disbelief. we got out of the car and rushed us up into a room in the hotel.

the taxi driver stayed outside the hotel at whole time and was going to be taking us to the airport. that's where we all made it clear to each other that we were now very nervous and very scared. it was just, get yourself packed up and ready. i did the taping. we put it under each arm and taped it on to each leg. the most nerve-racking and scariest part was john wasn't saying anything. it was probably the most nervous silence i ever felt.

he was now in drug trafficker, i'm the boss mode. it was time for them to tape it on to me. i didn't put it up under my arms. i just had it on my legs. i wore a pair of shorts so i didn't look as conspicuous. i only had it on my legs. why is a guy in shorts going to strap drugs to his legs? to me, you couldn't tell we were anything out of the normal. now that this stuff is now taped on to my body, it was like when you lock a door. reality is i'm now packed up with a ton of cocaine. the whole time in the car there

was not one word spoken between us, not one. there was a very foul sense of what was happening. this was big time. this was it. we're now on the way. when we arrived at the airport, the taxi driver opened the door for us. he didn't leave. he stayed there until we were all the way in and the doors were closed in the airport. we got to the airport three hours before our flight. i can't say that we looked like just the average person walking through the airport because i

truly don't know, but we did our best to blend in and do whatever we needed to to try to not get caught. we were trying to act like nothing was happening. that we were just like the rest of everybody else in the airport. >> joke, man. >> but we weren't. two hours to go. went to a restaurant and sat down and ordered some burgers. tried to eat them and just act normal. i thought we were. we were definitely nervous. definitely scared. maybe looking back on it, trying to blend in too much. the drugs, i definitely knew the drugs were on our body. >> don't make it obvious, man.

>> you have to adjust it because the tape would pull on your hair. you try to do it as inconspicuous as possible. >> conversation got struck up about maybe we should just get rid of this stuff. >> sit down. sit down. >> this is now into a very crazy, crazy situation that we had no control of. you first think, get rid of it, then you start to realize you can't get rid of this stuff. there is no possible way. it was now just one hour before our flight was due to go. you're counting, looking at your watch. counting when your flight's going to leave.

when you have to go in through the customs area. it was very real and it was very scary. it came time that our flight was going to be leaving. we had to get through the passport area to where you leave the country. we decided to get in line separately. guy and sebastian, myself and julio. as we're in line, i noticed a lot of people in suits. silky, nice-looking italian suits. more and more of them were around. this is all obviously because you're in the federal police air why where they are going to stamp you. there was just too many of these guys. now that i look at it, they were police officers. standing in line, we are keeping an eye out of each other. i was able to see guy and noticed one of the police officers was walking straight towards him.

the only feeling i can describe is being knocked out or losing consciousness. he got right up next to guy and put his hand on his shoulder and tapped him right under his arm. exactly where the drugs were. just the surprise in guy's face was, um, i don't understand. i knew right then and there we were done. it was almost like passing out that it goes black. just like a black --. sebastian was next to guy. you come, too. you take that deep breath. are they going to come to me next? i was hoping they wouldn't know i was american, too. this was all in seconds.

again beings it could have been five years. i wouldn't have known the difference in time at this point. maybe i could get through. just maybe. it was over. that was it. it was a very scary, scary thing. i knew we were in trouble. i didn't know if we would ever go home. i felt my dad -- i knew i was going to break his heart. with doing what i did. yeah. i thought of my dad. i thought a lot about my dad and how in god's name am i going to tell him and call him and tell him what i did?

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we weren't believing what was actually happening, that a this was actually taking place. this a few weeks before i was telling some guy, yeah. now i'm going to prison for it. >> you take off your shirt. >> guy lifted up his shirt and took it off. it was right there. >> take off your shirts. >> i took off my shirt and i didn't have any drugs under my arms. i was hoping maybe, i don't have it. >> put your shirt back on and you can go, but you guys's got to stay. until they said, take off your pants.

i didn't want to take them off. >> you want me to take them off for you? >> you're seeing millimeter by millimeter vividly as i'm pulling down my pants, you get down to a certain level and the tape shows. and then it's down to the ankles and you're standing there with a bunch of cops looking at you and the glow in their eyes about what they just succeeded to do. it was a deathfully frightening experience. they pretty much walked us through the airport handcuffs with everybody looking at you. i don't think there was one

person that didn't look at us. we left the airport and went to the federal police station with all the drugs still on our body. when we arrived at the federal police station in downtown sao paulo, they let us know there were no rooms available. we would have to be locked in the elevator. they led us into the elevator, closed the doors, dropped us down in between two floors and left all four of us in there. common knowledge is my dad's an attorney. first thing that was out of their mouths was -- >> you have to call your dad. >> the first thing out movie mouth was, i'm not calling my pop.

my mind was made up that i was basically going to disappear. and not know how long it was going to be for. i was not calling my father. i'm not calling anybody, period. period. after a few hours of being in the elevator, all of a sudden you here that and the elevator comes on. you rise up and the doors open and they call us out. to walk into a little laboratory-looking area. all these big desks and scales and chemicals to test things. they made us take off all of our clothes. except underwear, obviously, thank god. proceeded to take about 10 to 15 pictures.

the moment they removed the drugs was like removing a million pounds off your shoulders. it was like getting rid of the devil that was attached to you. very strange feeling, very uplifting. i knew we weren't getting away, but to have it finally away from me and away from my person was, it was a weight off my shoulders. and then they moved us again. they took us to another place where they said there was room in the cells. there's not a single word that can really fill in how i felt. empty. dead. i pretty much saw an end, an end to life.

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hi, i'm richard lui with the hour's top stories. u.s. officials believe that taliban leader muqtada al sadr was killed in a drone strike. and hillary clinton is speaking about gun control at the trayvon martin foundation's circle of mothers dinner. it comes a day after donald trump received an endorsement from the nra. now back to "lockup abroad."

i got the life scared out of me not knowing what brazilian prisons were like, period. not knowing that, maybe i should have known before deciding to say yes. pretty horrible, horrible place to think you are going to have to spend some time in. mold everywhere and bugs flying around. cockroaches. it was like a very smelly, crowded cave. the other prisoners went all the way from asians, a few europeans and there was plenty of

nigerians and brazilians. >> welcome. >> nigerians were the first ones to speak with us about what we did. since they're kind of the drug traffickers -- >> drugs, yeah. >> they automatically had a kind of a tie with us. >> you know what i mean? >> once we got to know the nigerians, people didn't bother us after that. we're in jail for close to a week already. the question now was, what are we going to do? >> look at this place. >> guy and sebastian, were you need to call your dad. it's not an option. >> what is still on that point, i disappeared. >> you have to call your dad.

>> i lied to my father where i was going. now how am i going to tell him i'm in prison in brazil? i knew the only person really that could help was my father. >> guard. >> so i called my dad. the first thing out of his mouth was, why do you sound so far away? >> i'm not in san diego. >> where the hell are you? >> in prison in brazil. >> silence. a lot of silence. seemed like hours. it was probably two seconds.

what's your father going to say to his kid in another country in prison, let alone for drug trafficking? i'll be down there and get you. we'll be down there as soon as we can. we are calling the american consulate right now and my friends. his words of advice to me were, you're tough as nails. suck it up. i'll be down there in a week. don't let anything happen to you. a few days after, the nigerians basically said they were going to be escaping. they had taken care of one of the guards and they had a bunch of tools and a bunch of hand drills and picks somebody brought in for them. they would slowly chip around the concrete. day by day that progressed and they would keep it up with a poster. the guards never came inside the cell really to check on

anything. so they had all the time they wanted to create this hole. the offer was put on the table, you guys want to do this with us? everybody wanted to go. the night of the escape, the nigerians, we are going to supply food and drink for everybody in the jail. they made a big bucket of punch to drink. we were told not to drink it. it was going to be mixed with sleeping medicine. this was a very vivid, vivid memory. the atmosphere just became very relaxed because everybody was falling asleep. literally out of the 126 people,

there was only about 25 so, 30 people now actually awake. they pulled the poster off the wall, the moments hole was open it was like rats fleeing out of a sewer, one after the other. boom, boom, boom. the taught in my mind was run, run, run, run. as fast and as far as you can. i'm thinking, i'm going to go home. i'm on my way. i basically climbed up and stuck my head out of the hole and looked up and there's the sky. there's the sky and there is no longer that rancid smell.

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go ahead, embrace those beautiful moments. flonase changes everything. the smell of freedom. it was that same beautiful smell of pollution. gas cars mixed with alcohol-burning cars with just that beautiful smell of tropical downtown sao paulo. it was there. it was within my reach, but no. the only thing i could think about was if you run, you are going to run the rest of your life. that's not how my dad raised me.

>> we want my dad to help? we've got to stay. we did wrong so face the responsibility. next morning after the escape, the doors slamming open. and a rush of cops realizing there had been an escape. 10 or 12 came in with these hard rubber and wooden billy clubs. it took a toll on us mentally to see what possibly lays ahead for many more years. with now first hand experience of what the brazilian prisons are like, it felt like hell and i wondered if i'd ever see my family again. we were taken from the federal

prison to the courthouse and so began the long judicial process. the attorney started speaking with the judge. judge speaking to the attorney, but speaking with a very stern, very angry voice. you can tell that he was not one bit happy with who we are and what we were doing in his country. after the first court date when our lawyer came back to see us, the judge off the bat told him, we are going to give them 25 years each. they are going to be made an example of -- >> you can do better than that. >> it was one of the scariest things i ever heard in my life

to possibly get 25 years in prison. i think it was a complete breakdown on everybody. our souls dropped. life was done. five or six days later, come here. the first thing i saw was my pop. i'll never forget the look on his face. it was like being born, like seeing an angel, i guess. just looking through the walls and seeing my dad there. he said he was coming and he was there.

he just gave me a hug. we sat there about five minutes without even talking. slapped me. what the hell is wrong with you? and we're going to get you out. the last drop of my blood, i'm going to get you home safe. i have a suitcase of money and we'll figure it out. my father wasn't going to pay a lot of money to have police officers give us tools to break a hole in the wall to run. either you're paying and i'm walking out the front door and getting on the plane somewhere or we've got to go about this the legal way. so this suitcase of money became the lawyers' suitcase of money.

after two days of waiting, we were called. 25 years we knew is what they wanted to give us. it was a very tense moment for all of us. there was an uncertainty in the air. the attorney's kind of smiling. so we looked at him and say, what's the deal? he said, i have news for you, which got your sentence. right there you feel, now it's confirmed. the next few seconds, our fate is going to be sealed. and he looked up at us, four years, six months. my thought was, this is brazil.

the amount of money that was given to you -- >> you should be getting us out. there should be a way of getting us out of jail. >> i got you the minimum sentence possible. we were notified we would be transferred from the jail that we're at to the most dangerous, largest, most overpopulated prison in all of south america. where nine months prior, there was a massacre of 111 prisoners. i was scared because now we were going to the most notorious

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i was scared because now we were going to the most notorious

prison in south america. one of the first things we noticed was passing pavilion 9 which is where the pass being aer of 111 prisoners took place. not knowing what lies ahead for us. as i was being checked in, they checked in another prisoner who was known as a child molester. the guards and other prisoners proceeded to put lipstick on

him, put a dress on him, pierce his ears, put cigarettes out on his head. give him quite the working over. i caught that first hand as you my first experience being booked into the prison. now you are running the risk of danger. you're in an open environment where there is no control. who runs the jail are the prisoners. the guards there are to make sure you don't walk out the front door. the daily routine in prison, you look and you try to find things that occupy your time and your brain because if not, you'll consistently think of freedom.

i drew a lot. i read hundreds of books. i learned to speak portuguese. lots of letter writing. lots of contemplating life and just generally where my life had been taken up to this point in time. what i learned in prison was no amount of money for freedom. period. no. you couldn't give me $100 million to give up one day of freedom. one minute of freedom. no. it's just not worth it. at all. am i a criminal?

no. punk? without a doubt. i consider myself a person that made a very wrong decision and has learned from it. a few months after getting out, i was invited to a party at the beach where a friend of mine said there was going to be a bunch of brazilians. i ended up going and meeting this beautiful brazilian girl that a few months later i asked her to marry me. her mom flew up to meet me the first thing she said was, how in the hell do you speak portuguese so good?

in 1990, saddam invaded kuwait. >> we had to get out of iraq. it's at that moment that the nightmare really started. >> we have to head back. >> no, tom. >> we were now in a very very dangerous situation.