Original subtitles

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 drink drugs. That was going

the Jewish Pavleskov.

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 lots of times, you know, we got bullied by the neighbourhood 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 Chesky.

He was in the diamond trade.

Out to the blue.

The offense is during the holiday.

Who doesn't want to go on a holiday?

So he goes, 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.

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, this guy comes to say goodbye to me. How

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

Just give it to him. Make sure he gets 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 classed as illegal.

I put it in my hand luggage.

I went to the airport.

In Brussels.

I came off the plane.

Called my friend up.

I'm just telling him that I arrived.

Hello, 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 he 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 he 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.

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

He says, here's 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 package.

And I see, like, a flower.

It was 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 a 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 looked 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

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.

I ask him, why do you send me all the way to Brazil to bring you flour?

He says, just 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?

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 it's up to me. Each packet you bring back gets sold for 60 ,000 francs.

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

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

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

He said, peanuts.

From peanuts you make 60 ,000 francs.

It's a good business.

But I had no idea that's illegal.

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

And he 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, 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

tell me anything about it.

He did not warn me at all.

I said, yes.

And he says, no problem, if 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.

Gives me the four bags.

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

I got back into that hunt with four bags.

He comes to my place.

Takes three of them and leaves me with one.

I said, oh, stop a minute.

What am I supposed to do?

Don't worry.

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

Ring the bell.

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

He says to me, Chesky, send 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, watching him doing it.

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

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

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

that it's just over $500.

I said, wow.

And then it took a few more.

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

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

Within a week, he got everything sold to me.

I'm sitting in my dining room and it's... 60 ,000 Belgian francs on the

I still had no idea that's illegal.

It was the weekend that we went out.

The husky says to me, do 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.

They'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. So 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. In 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, heard.

I never got stopped.

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.

Tell me 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 higher things.

In Yiddish, we call it agantza macha, 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 on 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.

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 San Paolo 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.

Pablo Escobar himself.

He's modern.

But he's still catholic from.

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 test my soldiers.

So, I need you to do something for me.

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

Some pilot to compromise about nine hours nine ten hours drive He

took out this travelers bag fully loaded the money It went through my

head. What will happen on the other end?

Maybe after giving the money and I get shot The thing with him you couldn't say

no you live today 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's 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.

It should have sat straight in the back.

And off we went.

We had to stop.

We had to go in to pay for the petrol.

And when I came back to coffee, we were 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.

Jeez, she's trying to get close.

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 girl do you like?

You know, a 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

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 and touch her, and she goes back and tells you, hey, you know, you

touched me. Then you get shot.

Thank you.

But then, the way she was talking to me... She was just next door.

If anything is going to happen, who has to know? It's just between me and her

and God.

The Godfather.

Maybe he sent her with me just, you know, to try to pass 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 just stopped thinking about it.

When we got back to the house, he came out, greeted us, 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?

And he took out the gun.

Was anything going on between you and my wife?

There was nothing going on.

You are nervous. You feel guilty.

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 up my chest.

Passed my test.

What about starting to come and work for me?

I was straight up, open, up front 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.

You show me the 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 it?

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

wouldn't realize it.

There are different ways out of it.

Food cans.

It wasn't in the cans.

You had it on the sticker where you 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.

Profit, between three to four million dollars.

Talk about big money.

Never mind.

That's what I think about that.

My life has changed totally.

Brazil is a dream. Nice girls, drugs, and the rock and roll.

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

I'm dreaming.

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. Pauli dealing with 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.

People started going down.

I am not carrying a gun.

I was so afraid.

We were in a war with them.

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.

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, I really need it.

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

He managed to persuade me.

And he just said to me goodbye.

Thank you, Sam.

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.

A son, see now.

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.

We got you now.

We got you for weapons and for drugs.

We have six months to bail you from here.

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 to record from your

Okay, they've got me now.

How much do they know?

What time?

We have to meet. It's not a problem, Sam.

By seven. By seven. They told me for sure, Sam. By seven.

Is the mail there?

So, what is this?

Is the mail there?

In Yiddish, we're 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 you said 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.

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

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder.

To look around.

It's just to be gringo.

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

Just follow me.

There was no choice.

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.

And I 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 happening, 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.

I was just sitting there in the garden, minding my own business. People were

playing football.

You hardly see any guards over there.

The inmates, they were... I had an argument with one of the prisoners.

Give me a cigarette.

He was asking for cigarettes.

Cigarettes?

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 says, 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.

What 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.

Let it fall.

He wouldn't do it.

Hello.

Shank went in there, came out of his bag.

And I saw his eyes starting to show. Oops.

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 Sao Paulo International Airport,

took the cuff off me and said,

you're on your own, 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...

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

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

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.

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 turned a tear.

All this coke that I applied, 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.

Those flashy cars and everything, being in the limelight, being on the top, who

needs that? Life is so good without it.

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