All language subtitles for Banged Up Abroad - S07E09 - Brazil

I'm a Catholic Orthodox Jew.

Drugs were not known in our community.

What is cocaine?

It's not mentioned in the Jewish
religion.

That you are allowed or you're not
allowed to deal in drugs. That was going

be the Jewish Pavlesko.

Life is full of crime.

A bullet or something will end up in
billions of dollars.

But there's going to be a time you're
going to fall.

The game is over.

You will die.

I'm a Hasidic Orthodox Jew.

Where I was brought up in London, it's a
very strict home.

Very rarely that we should mix with the
outside world.

We were brought up in our own schools,
segregated.

There was a lot of times, you know, we
got bullied by the neighborhood kids.

Because we were different.

My parents decided to me when I was 17
that I should get married.

I said, Dad, I'm not interested to get
married yet.

I was told I'm engaged to some girl.

Got married.

Wasn't very happy.

Got separated.

Finally, I'm getting divorced.

That's when I decided I'm moving away
from England.

In 1992, I was 24 years old and I lived
in Antwerp.

Antwerp is a very nice place, very big
Jewish community.

I worked with my friend in a
greengrocer, waking up early every

with him to the market to get the fruits
and vegetables for his shop.

I was there to start a new page in life.

One day, some guy who I knew approached
me.

His name is Husky.

He was in the diamond trade.

Out to the blue.

He says, do you fancy doing a holiday?

Who doesn't want to go on a holiday?

He says, okay, do you want to go to
Brazil?

Sao Paulo, 10 days.

All fully paid for.

I was working very hard.

I thought maybe he's so kind to me
because he sees me working so hard.

Did I ask any questions? No.

Okay. He said, okay, I'll go.

He

told

me, my friend will

meet you in the airport.

And obviously my friend means another
Jew.

I met this guy.

So he took me from the international
airport all the way into Sao Paulo.

He was kind of a tour guide.

Took me around like an evening to see
places.

People are so friendly.

Brazil is an amazing country.

The day before I was going back home,
the guy comes to me to say goodbye to

How are you? He took out this bag and
said to me, all right, just take this

for Chesky.

A thing about this big.

I would guess it's about the size of a
kilo of sugar wrapped up in some brown

tape.

Make sure you get it.

I thought it was just a present or
something.

Okay, I will.

Did I ask any questions? No. I didn't
think that I have in my possession

something that could be classily legal.

I put it in my hand luggage.

I went to the airport.

In Brussels.

I came off the plane.

Called my friend up.

He was just telling him that I arrived.

Shalom, it's me.

He says to me, make sure nobody's
following you.

I said, what's going on with you? Are
you all right? Did you sleep good at

night? What's your problem?

Why should anyone follow me?

And she says, don't go home. Meet me in
this big cinema complex.

The cinema?

Why? I don't know.

He wants to meet me right now.

And she says, I'll meet you in the car
park.

No, no, don't ask any questions. Make
sure nobody follows you. Are you nuts?

Are you nuts?

He was waiting for me.

Didn't come up to me, shake my hands or
whatever.

He says, he got the package.

I don't even know what the package is.

He says, throw that thing into me.

I just threw it into his car.

What's going on?

Now, a lady came over to my place.

And he opened up this packet.

And I see, like, a flower.

Maybe it's a special flower, like to
make bread or something.

Or cake. I didn't know.

I thought to myself, why the heck did I
have to travel 16 hours to get you some

flower?

He just took out a bit, made like a kind
of a test with it, did it between his

fingers.

I thought maybe that's the flower. He's
testing if it's good flower or not.

He took out an envelope from his pocket
and gave it to me. I have something for

you.

Thank you.

I look at the envelope, it was $10 ,000.

You must be joking.

I thought Santa Claus came early.

I said, are you sure? This must be a
mistake.

He goes, no, no, no, it's fine, it's
fine, it's fine.

I'm Jewish.

I mean, after all, we have a Jewish
nose, so we try to smell things, we try

be nosy.

Why do you send me all the way to Brazil
to bring you flour?

He says to me, let me tell you, it's not
flour.

It's not flour.

This is cocaine.

What is cocaine?

Drugs were not known in our community.

I'm a young man, 24 years old, had never
seen drugs before.

The only drug I saw before was
cigarettes.

You eat it, you cook it, what do you do
with it?

No, you sniff it.

It makes you feel good.

It makes you feel like a king.

So, why do you have to bring cocaine
from Brazil?

But is that to mean each packet you
bring back gets sold for 60 ,000 francs?

I think that 60 ,000 francs was about,
well, 55 ,000, 56 ,000 dollars.

What do you, what did you pay for it
over there?

I said, for how much does it cost you
out there?

He said, peanuts.

From peanuts, you make 60 ,000 francs.

It's good business.

But I had no idea that's illegal.

I thought to myself, it must be some
kind of a gold mine.

And it came back to me a few weeks
later.

And he asked me if I wanted to go out
again.

He said, I want to get two or three
bags.

I was just basically the courier,
literally like the postman.

Where should I be a courier if I can
make more money out of it?

I said to Chesky, I don't mind going out
again, but this time I want to make a

deal with you.

I said, how about it?

Give me the opportunity to make some
money as well.

I'm willing to fly out again.

You want three bags?

I'll bring back four.

One for myself.

So are you sure about that?

I didn't know that if I got caught, I
might end up in prison because he didn't

tell me anything about it.

He did not warn me at all.

I said, yes.

And he says, no problem. You're ready
and prepared.

I'd open the way.

I thought to myself, I'm going to become
a millionaire.

Same thing again, I flew out, and the
same gentleman met me, gave me the four

bags.

Same thing, same routine again, exactly
the same way.

I got back into that hospital with four
bags.

He comes to my place, takes three off
me, leaves me with one.

I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, stop it.

Don't worry.

In an hour or so, I'll send somebody
over to show you what to do.

Ringing the bell.

I open the door, there's a Moroccan kid.

He says to me, Chesky sent me.

He comes in, he takes out a tray, starts
with a knife.

And makes them into small, tiny sachets.

I was just standing there like this,
watching him doing it.

He's got a scale and weighs them into
grams.

He takes ten of them, ten small packets,
and goes up.

About 20 minutes to half an hour later,
he comes back and gives me 600 francs. I

think that is just over $500.

I said, wow.

And then he took a few more.

Every few hours he came back, he took
some more.

It's nice, you know, like, hey, we're
going up the stairs now.

Within a week, he got everything sold to
me.

I'm sitting in my dining room, and
there's...

60 ,000 Belgian francs on the table.

I still had no idea that's illegal.

It was the weekend that we went out.

Why not? The husky says to me, you know
what you just sold?

I said, yeah, cocaine.

Yeah, cocaine.

You might end up in prison.

So why should I end up in prison?

That's illegal, you're not allowed.

I was never associated with crime in my
life before.

Shocked. It's illegal.

You're not allowed.

You know, everything comes in, you start
thinking of everything in life at that

moment.

I didn't have much what to lose anyway.

I don't have a family, I don't have a
wife and kids.

Was I afraid to get caught? Not really.

You're not allowed to show what?

Now I'm making money from it. What do I
care what's going to happen tomorrow?

I did another couple of trips for myself
where I brought drugs back for myself

to sell.

I continue the same way. My hand luggage
is normal.

Even though I know that I'm bringing
something that is 100 % illegal.

My appearance as a religious orthodox
Jew.

Helped me a lot to get through.

These Jews are all good.

You know, they're all good boys.

I've seen loads of times other people
getting stopped in a bag, third.

I was invisible.

So I thought...

I came into Brazil on Monday, and then
just literally a couple of days later,

I'm leaving the country.

It was by the check -in.

Suddenly, whoops.

What were you doing for such a short
visit?

Looking at her, she's looking at me.
What was the purpose of my trip?

You panic when you know what you've got.

You can't show anyone in body language
that you're carrying something.

So I said, well, I don't live here.

And I just came for a wedding with my
friend.

Basically, you need the balls to do it.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I said,

okay, thank you very much.

But I wasn't, we call it a schlep
anymore.

I was coming up to a higher stage.

In Yiddish, we call it a ganzer macher,
which was a good feeling.

In my apartment, we watched a movie
about Pavlo Skobar.

Pablo Escobar was basically the father
of the drug cartels in Colombia.

The number one drug trader.

He was worth billions of dollars.

He owned everything.

That's what I want to be one day.

That's going to be me one day.

decided to go for it.

I decided I don't want to live in
Antwerp anymore.

I packed my bag and moved down to
Brazil.

I was going to be the Jewish Pavles
Koba.

When I moved physically over to Brazil,
I got much more involved in the drug

trade.

Now, there was one Jewish guy, the
godfather.

He owned loads of coke fields.

He was in charge of the drug trafficking
out of Brazil.

I have to meet him.

The drug pushers within the Jewish
community, they told me there's a few

to go through to meet the main person.

You need to gain a kind of a trust.

But one day, this guy, he asked me to
come with him.

I said, why is that?

To meet the Godfather.

Now, I have to start worrying.

We went downtown Sao Paulo to this club.

He told me, wait here, and I'll tell him
that we're here. He knows you're

coming.

I had a gun on my neck.

That's what he searched.

To see if I'm wired or if I carry
weapons.

I thought, yeah, maybe then he's afraid
I'm going to steal his business.

All the time I was so afraid.

The way he was sitting there like, let's
go by himself.

He's modern, but he's still Catholic,
like a religious boy.

So you are some.

He knew I am coming to Brazil.

He said for me to build up trust, I do
tests, my soldiers.

So, I need you to do something for me.

You're going to drive my money into
Campo Grande.

St. Paul at Campo Grande is about 9
hours, 9, 10 hours drive.

He took out this traveler's bag, fully
loaded with money.

It went through my head, what will
happen on the other end?

Maybe after I gave them the money, then
I'd get shot.

The thing with him, you couldn't say no.

You live today, you come back tomorrow,
and you have to go home to pick up

something that's most precious to me.

My wife.

You are taking my wife with you.

If I got stopped by the police on the
way, if anything happens, I'm going to

have his wife with me.

He's going to kill me.

There was nothing I could do.

So I drove in by the driveway.

It's a beautiful, huge house.

But then, she's there.

She's looking at me, which is beautiful.

Very fancy, very rich clothes, jewelry.

Like a typical lady that would go down
to the horse racing here in England.

She's like really tan skin, blonde hair,
Brazilian.

She just sat straight in the back.

And off we went.

Well, we had to stop.

We had to go in to pay for the petrol.

And when I came back to the car, she was
sitting in the front.

She said, OK, for now I can sit in the
front seat. Because nobody sees, you

know.

Nobody's close to us.

Geez, she's trying to get closer.

Once his wife was next to me, one thing
was in my mind all the time. I don't

know. I've only ever, you know, my wife.
I mean, she is... She

is a beautiful lady.

I just feel much more relaxed now.

She was very flirty.

So what kind of girls do you like?

You know, nice Jewish girl.

But do you have a type?

I mean, well, you know, could I be your
type?

Oh, my God.

We stopped overnight in a hotel.

Traveled to two separate rooms. You're a
very good -looking boy, you know.

She kept on building my hopes up a lot,
you know, good -looking, this, that, you

know. You are amazing.

My blood starts boiling.

And when my blood starts boiling, it
gets very hot and I get very sweaty.

I turned around. She became much closer.

I was afraid.

You don't... You don't mess with a
boss's wife.

You try to touch her and she goes back
and tell the eight, you know, he touched

me then he gets shot Thank you

But then the way she was

talking to me It's next door

If anything is gonna happen who has to
know it's just between me and her and

The Godfather.

Maybe he sent her with me just, you
know, to test me out, to try me.

But I just had to hold myself back.

I can't do it.

And everything went as it should. Money
got delivered and everything went.

As planned.

But then I stopped thinking about it.

When we got back to the house, he came
out, greeted us and said hello.

Then he asked me, how was your trip?

Did she behave?

Is she going to tell him that I tried to
touch her?

You two cast a gun.

Was anything going on between you and my
wife?

There was nothing going on.

You are nervous.

You feel guilty.

So if you did nothing wrong... Why are
you nervous?

He goes to me like, what? You don't find
my wife attractive?

I'm so afraid.

Welcome to the family.

I felt like a stone went off my chest.

Passed my test.

What about starting to come and work for
me?

I was straight open, upfront with him
and I said, I don't work for anyone, I

work for myself.

He says to me, I like your attitude.

And so we became partners in selling the
drugs.

Started dealing with his people
directly.

Drugs were stopped at the borders every
now and then.

So we have to come up with an idea that
it won't look suspicious.

So I got introduced to a specialist in
these things, Ramon.

He showed me a plate.

The souvenir thing to be hung up on the
wall.

What is this?

This is pure cocaine.

Just looked amazing. I was so happy
about it.

Cocaine has quite a bad smell.

So the varnish took away the smell of
it.

I would never suspect that this could be
a drug.

It was immaculate.

Then I showed it to the godfather that
has a lot of experience in drugs.

Cocaine.

Pure.

Is that what that said?

You would have had to be tipped off that
this plate is cocaine. If not, you

wouldn't realize it.

There are different ways how to do it.

Food cans.

It wasn't in the cans.

We had it on the sticker.

We put paste.

Even though it's a tiny drop, if you
make a million stickers, a million cans,

you get quite a nice amount.

Stuff came in from Bolivia and was
delivered to a warehouse.

The work was done.

And then it got shipped out from the
warehouse.

Figures are huge.

Profits, three to four million dollars.

Talking about big money.

Never mind.

Let's not think about that.

My life has changed totally.

Brazil is three things.

Nice girls, drugs, and rock and roll.

My apartment was, wow, I can't believe
it. This is my flat.

I'm dreaming.

Because there was so much money.

I just feel great for what I have.

I was very happy.

I kind of remembered how I felt when I
was a kid being pushed around, bullied

around.

Well, I got to a stage where I don't
have to worry like in the past because I

was respected, I had money, so I felt
good.

But you can't always stay on the top.

We weren't the only people in St. Paul
dealing in drugs.

One day we found out that stuff got
stolen from us.

We had to go down there.

I knew that I should be afraid that our
container got opened by another group.

We had no choice.

It started going down.

I am not carrying a gun.

I was so afraid.

We were in a war with them.

That's it to myself.

You will die.

All the time I was so afraid.

And after that was very cautious.

We kept a very low profile.

We never mentioned the word drug or
cocaine.

It was all done in code.

The word flower, we would use the word
in Yiddish, which we called it male.

It was working very well for a period of
time.

But there's going to be a time you're
going to fall.

And one day a friend of mine came up to
me, was preparing a long trip by car,

begging me, I need the car, I want to go
and pick up my wife from the airport.

I told her, I'm off on a long trip.

Sam, please, they really need it.

No, Sam, please, I promise you I'll be
back within an hour. Sam.

You managed to persuade me.

And he just said to me, goodbye.

Thank you, Tom. Goodbye.

I was about ten steps away from the car.

He puts the key into the ignition.

Oh, my God.

This was a message from God.

We made enough money out of it, let's
pack it up.

That's the game.

You know, sometimes you lose.

The life is full of crime.

A bullet or something will end up in
you.

It's alright. You don't have to break
down at all.

Go back.

Go out.

They were federal police.

They paid into the rooms and searched
everything.

We got you now. We got you for weapons
and for drugs.

We have six months of bailing in front
of you.

Oh my God. The game is over.

He said to me, we know you are a part of
a group.

We want the whole group.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Where are they?

We're going to make sure you get 90
years, huh?

They told me we've got loads of
conversations recorded from your phones.

Okay, they've got me now.

How much do they know?

What time?

We have to meet. Not a problem, Sam. No,
no, no. By seven. By seven. They told

me for sure, Sam. By seven.

Is the mail there?

No.

Is the mail there?

In Yiddish, talking about flour, there

was nothing there.

They had no proof.

I was charged with possession of coke
and three guns.

The judge sentenced me to four years.

I thought that I was lucky.

This is classed as the worst prison in
the world.

I'm standing by that gate.

They just press a button.

And he says to me, go and find yourself
a room.

It was much worse than I expected.

There was a group in prison.

The satanic cult.

They were known in Brazilian prisons as
being very bad, evil people.

They did ugly, disgusting things.

Cannibals, basically.

I just bowed down and walked away.

Everybody's shouting, fresh meat, come
here, fresh meat, come here, fresh meat,

come here.

Do I have to be afraid of these people
because I'm Jewish?

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder.

I look around.

It's just a gringo.

Follow me. Don't look left. Don't look
right.

Just follow me.

There was no trace.

It was worse than an old dungeon.

I see blood coming out from their back.

Could it be a human being?

I can't believe it.

It took me to his room.

He says to me, this is going to be your
bed for as long as you're here.

What does he want from me now?

That's it. When I came in, they were...
Pulling out bags, and there was, like,

blood coming out. Coming from it?

I said, yeah, there was a fight. A
couple of inmates were killed.

Happens every day.

What are you in here for?

Murder.

If I get about four years, I wouldn't
survive in that four minutes.

You're in prison now.

If you see anything happen, just stay
away from it.

All right?

I didn't want trouble.

I don't even want to think about it.

I wasn't expecting what happened.

We're just sitting there in the garden,
minding my own business. People are

playing football.

You hardly see any guards over there.

The inmates, they rule the place.

I had an argument with one of the
prisoners.

Give me a cigarette.

He was asking for figures.

Everyone on the wing was afraid of him.

He pulled out a shank.

I was scared.

He's getting really angry.

He came towards me.

He said, I want to kill you.

The other inmate, he had no idea what
I'm capable of doing.

Being bullied as a kid.

My father put me into classes of Aikido.

So I knew how to defend myself.

I had no choice.

All I did, grabbed his two hands,
twisted around so he lost balance.

Shank was touching him just right there.

I said, stop moving.

Open your arm and let it fall. He
wouldn't do it.

Hello.

went in there came out from his bag and
i saw his eyes starting to whoops

oh my god i just killed someone

I pray every day.

You shouldn't take someone's life.

Why did you have to do this?

Why? It hurts, but there's nothing you
can do.

Then please help me get out of here.

The federal police drove me to San Paolo
International Airport,

took the cuff off me and said,

you're on, you're on, hit the road.

I had been released.

Wow, I can't believe that I've made it
through.

That made me proud.

And that's what pushed me to do it
again.

Just continue the same.

Drugs. Loads of money.

Girls.

Fight.

Sex.

It's a mistake. And again, I got to
prison.

I really got...

It hit in the face hard when I was in
prison in Israel.

There was one prisoner, a teenager, who
used drugs on a wing.

I never was close to a junkie.

No one in the wing wanted him to come
into their room.

He was sleeping on the corridor.

I want to help him.

I told him, I'm willing to take you into
my room in one condition.

This is a room that we don't use drugs.

If you do, you're just going to be back
out in the corridor.

He said, we want to become clean.

I helped him.

In Brazil, when I was all the way up
there, I felt great.

And I felt a thousand times better.

In Israel, seeing him stop using drugs,
he got clean.

I was so proud.

So one day, when I came back in the
afternoon, he was in the corner.

His eyes started to turn over.

He must have managed to get hold of some
drugs.

He wasn't strong enough.

His head was on my arm when he died from
an overdose.

That was one of the only times in my
life I shed a tear.

All this coke that I supplied, that's
what it does.

That is the moment that I stopped and I
thought to myself, never ever

will I be close with drug trafficking,
with drug dealers.

I will try to get people to stop using
drugs.

And that's what I will do the rest of my
life.

My dream is now to manage to see some
others not using drugs.

To have a stream of people behind me,
one, two, three, four, five, seven, and

on, that do not use drugs now because of
me.

That would make me feel really good.

All these flashy cars and everything,
being in the limelights, being on the

Who needs that? Life is so good without
it.