American Drug Smuggler Reveals INSANE Story Of Surviving 7 Years In An Ecuador Prison | Oscar Castro

the day before I'm supposed to leave I get a phone call and it's the person that was bringing the drugs from Colombia to keto Ecuador and he says I should be there in about 2 hours I'll meet you in the lobby so I said all right no problem so two hours pass by I go downstairs to the lobby and I'm sitting there waiting and this gentleman walks in you know he says hey I'm Diego how's it going everything I'm like hey man what's going on you know we act like we're old buddies like everything's all right he hands me a bag where I think you know the shoes and stuff are coming in and next thing you know I go to get up and just everybody is all over me they throw me to the ground you know they handcuff me they pick me up they put me in the elevator they take me upstairs to my room when we walk in there's already police inside my room going through everything they got the safe open they're they're you know looking at my jewelry they're looking at my you know my passport they're like oh this passport is [Music] fake ladies and gentlemen I have to warn you this is going to be one of those stories that will keep you at the edge of your seat today I have Oscar Castro here to share how a failed drug smuggling operation in Ecuador landed him in an Ecuadorian Maximum Security Prison for seven years we get all the behind the-scenes details of life in prison in a foreign country and how different it truly is from the American justice system Oscar's story deserves to be a movie and I'm honored and excited to share it with you today now sit back relax and get ready to lock into this roller coaster Ren episode with Oscar Castro Oscar welcome to Locked In man thank you man Ian it's a pleasure to be here I'm so happy you know you giving me the the chance to uh tell my story dude I love your energy you know it's always good you know it's going to be a good episode when a guest comes in all hyped up thank you for the gift uh I'll have it on my uh YouTube Community wall literally the coolest thingone gotten for me describe what it is so people know so basically you know it's a Funko Pop you know you pop yourself go online you can make um a character you can make anybody you want so I thought about it um you know what could I bring you you know something to show just you know you know how I feel you know just the appreciation so basically you know went online found it you know tried to make a an exact Mark like you are and um it it came out pretty good I think what do you think it's spot on man um when I was at dinner with chy last night he had like this little painting and it's like me with the glasses now anyone anytime anyone sees a kid with glasses or whatever they send it to me like look at your twin but that thing is literally spot-on coolest thing ever perfect man I'm so happy you liked it thank you man but I appreciate you coming out here today um glad we got to your episode before our good friend Johnny Mitchell that's tease him yeah we love Johnny and um excited to dive into your episode today you're our first person on the show that's been to a foreign prison and that's incredible um everyone's always asking about like out of the country prisons uh a lot of like you know like Russia Europe everything like that and so you you bring a an interesting perspective on it today um but before we get to that part let's start with your story where are you from where did you grow up all right so basically uh grew up small town in Jersey um you know just got with the wrong crowd around the teenage you know era um wasn't doing good in school really didn't like to go to school didn't do homework none of that stuff um got into smoking weed with the wrong crowd early and um I guess that was like my Gateway entrance was marijuana into the game um I was in uh seventh grade you know selling weed you know people would come from the high schools to come you know grab you know five for 20 from me it was insane you know the teacher would be like why are these people waiting outside for you and I'd be like oh no we're going to you know going to go play football at the field you know but it was crazy man um good childhood you know my parents were great amazing you know it's not always the parents fault when the kid goes off track you know that's that's number one you know my family was great they always gave me everything I wanted um hardworking you know immigrant family and um I had great examples you know my mother hardworking also my father and that examples that I just didn't you know follow through with at the end of the day I liked making money easily so you know I was always hustling something from a young age I would hustle anything from you know basketball cards you know baseball cards football cards autographed plaques like Jordan Patrick Ying you know I would buy him at One Price sell them for another to friends at school and um I guess that just grew with me and then I just took it and used it somewhere else but um I dropped out of school at 17 and um my father told me you know if you want to drop out you're going to have to get a job immediately so basically um got a job and my first job ever was working at a Barnes & Noble's warehouse now this is where the story basically begins because this is where I meet my contact into basically a Colombian drug family okay um I'm working at this Warehouse I meet this kid we'll call him G and um we he invites me to a party show up at the party and there's a bunch of people you know well-dressed you know you could tell they're you know upper level drug traffickers there you know big cars a lot of gold you know a lot of beautiful women and um end up speaking with a gentleman that actually tells me you know you'd be great to um bring up drugs from South America so I tell him all right you know what is it what do we do he said basically you just catch a flight you know you'll go on vacation we'll give you money you know you you could have whatever you want women you want you know on drugs cocaine marijuana whatever you want down there you'll stay maybe a month or so then you come back now in those days I'm talking pre 911 so you know airports were a lot different there wasn't the scanner machines there was none of that so basically um I went down you know had my vacation you know had a good time went out to all the clubs and um had a had fun and then when it was time to come back you know they'll give you a pair of shoes each shoe has 400 grams in it you know and then maybe they might give you another pair of shoes that you could throw in your bag so this is what I brought back my first time coming from uh Colombia straight to JFK um landed you know the people that I was connected with here basically pick me up at the airport you know we go back to an apartment um take all the drugs out they take everything out of the shoes they unpack everything you know they weigh it and uh they pay me $20 a gram so um first score was a kilo right so basically $20 a gram you're making 20 grand um after that you know I get more involved with them um basically you know helping them go charge money spots where you know people that owe them basically they would give you know couple bricks of heroin maybe to say one of the project dealers we would have to go pick up this money bring it back to them um just little by little getting more involved and deeper into the drug game with them so this is about 98 um 1999 I decided to go on another trip once again uh flying to metagene this time Colombia and I was there for about 15 days not too long same thing you know partying going out every night and um when it's time to come back you know just grab your pair of shoes and hop on the plane there was no problems you know I thought it was the easiest way to make money ever I couldn't believe it was happening and I was so young you know and um just thinking about the money you were going to get when you come back and then you know young and stupid not thinking about maybe putting money away saving it you're coming back you're splurging on everything you know you're going out best best food you know let's get a Mercedes let's get a gold chain you know you know the drug dealer kit you know you know the way it is and um little by little you know the money goes away you know if you don't have a plan you know and the drug came it's the money as soon as you get it just it goes away like water so you know another trip comes up let's do the third trip this one we're going to Ecuador Kito because you know I already had two trips in Colombia so you know let's go to Kito now when I fly to Ecuador we're supposed to meet up with somebody that never arrived never showed up I never met anyone you know and from day one it was just bad I had a bad Vibe you know the whole way um the whole way down I was just like nervous so um I just knew something was off the guy never called me when he had to show up you know he never sent any any signals you know I was calling back to New York saying I need help nobody's coming to the hotel you know my bag got lost at the airport I didn't have any clothes and I had to go to the mall buy clothes so from day one it was horrible now finally on the day before I'm supposed to leave I get a phone call and it's the person that was bringing the drugs from Colombia to keto Ecuador and he says I should be there in about 2 hours all right and um I'll meet you in the lobby so I said all right no problem so two hours pass by I go downstairs to the lobby and I'm sitting there waiting and this gentleman walks in you know he says hey I'm Diego how's it going everything I'm like hey man what's going on you know we act like we're all buddies like everything's all right and um he hands me a bag where I think you know the shoes and and stuff are coming in and next thing you know I go to get up and just everybody is all over me they throw me to the ground you know they handcuff me they pick me up they put me in the elevator they take me upstairs to my room when we walk in there's already police inside my room going through everything they got the safe open they're they're you know looking at my jewelry they're looking at my you know my passport they're like oh this passport is fake I had traveled a lot you know prior to going to Colombia and my passport was a little old so the plastic was like unfolding it was like ripping up where the picture was everybody thought it was fake so you know the police officer smacked me said you're not American where are you from what are you Colombian I was like no I'm American you know call the Embassy I'm American and they were like what do you have there I said no it's just money oh okay well we know it's heroin I said no um I thought it was just coming to pick up money well no it's heroin you're going to be in jail here for the next 25 years I said okay so you know basically they put me in the elevator take me downstairs and um now we're on our way to interpo so when I arrive in interpo I walk past the room where I see the person that brought me the bag he was sitting down speaking to some agents and then you know obviously you already know he gave me up um from from there was just like the worst night of my life you know young kid in a foreign country um you know didn't know what was going to happen had no idea what my future was like they uh they put me in a holding cell this was on December 18th and um I didn't talk to anyone till like December 23rd they came up to me and said you know it's time to go you know we're going to be taking you to a small jail in the border with Colombia I asked why and they said this is where your case starts the person that was bringing the drugs got caught coming through the border and gave me up basically so he travels to keto with the police they do an operation on me they lock me up and now they're taking me back to this small jail so six-hour ride you know all the way to this small jail in the back of a truck with no no top on in it anything we're going through the mountains I mean it was insane we arrive at tulan which is a city in Ecuador that is border with Colombia and um they put me in this holding cell with about three other people they were there for you know local crimes like robbery or whatever and um they immediately you know they talk to me and I speak to him back in Spanish and they're like oh my God you speak Spanish and I was like yeah they're like oh don't worry about it you're going to be fine F this jail over here is great you're going to love it so immediately I'm thinking like where am I what do you mean it's going to be great they're like yeah don't worry it's going to be a party so a day later which is December 24th they walk me from the cell this is basically like the police station where they have some holding cell it's like outside like wooden metal you know thing ofama jig that they just made to hold some prisoners there you're in like basically the quartel of of the police so you can't go anywhere there's no way you're going to escape there's 500 cops all around you they walk me down to the prison which is a small prison as I'm walking I hear music in the background real loud like somebody's having a party so as we get to the front entrance you know they open the doors and the music's even louder all I see is a bunch of guards and the guards are like hey how's it going you know speaking to me in Spanish I reply back and they're like oh you ready I was like ready for what they're like it's time to party inside man you're going to love it here and I'm just like you know everybody's so nice there's this lady guard that looks at me and she's like oh don't worry you're going to be fine here everything's going to be all right said okay once they walk me through like these these hallways I see at the end of the hallway a bunch of faces like moving around trying to look down the hall and this is the entrance to I would say you know like the basketball courts the patio once I get to the door I see that there's women inside dancing and I'm like what is this you know they got salsa music there's women dancing there's kids okay they open up the doors I walk in everybody's like hey fresh meat yay everybody's yelling you know how it is when you walk in looking at this this white boy you know little young kid everybody's like fresh meat fresh meat and then uh this one guy walks up to me tall white boy green eyes and he speaks to me with no accident at all he's like what's up white boy come with me I look at him I'm like what you speak I'm like yeah yeah yeah come on let's go so he takes me we're going to the the guy that's in charge of the jail going to a cell so they walk me up the steps you know I'm looking around I see people dancing sou I mean full-blown dancing together women and men there's kids running around playing soccer you know I see three wooden Huts which I didn't know what was at the time time later on I would own one of those wooden Huts it was a store one of the stores inside the jail all right so I walk up the stairs we go into the cell and it's basically it's visit day and everybody's there you can have your family inside with you so I walk in and it's this guy which is what they call Caporal so it means he's like he's the head honcho there so I walk in he's like hey how's it going have a seat this is my wife these are my kids you know this is my home for the next uh 8 years so he's like tell me your story why are you here explain everything to him and he's like all right you know you got set up right and I was like yeah of course he's like okay where's the other guy and I said I don't know they just transferred Me by myself here he said okay he's like don't worry eventually I think they'll bring him here and he's like then you could see your friend again I was like all right sounds good so he's like you need anything I was like I really um I need to make a phone call I was like I haven't talked to my family in days so he was like all right no problem cell phone guy pulls out a star Tac I'm talking you know the year 2001 he's flip cell phone inside the cell plop here you go I'm like I can make an international call with this he's like yeah yeah go ahead called my mother now this is this is funny because you know I it was the a funny moment and a very sad moment at the same time because you know I call her up there's music in the background we got kids yelling and crying you hear everything I'm like Mom are you are you sitting down right now and this is December 24th she hasn't heard from me and you know and I'm the person that speaks to his mother every day even now you know even if she's not living with me maybe she's on vacation somewhere I speak to my mom every day because you know she's everything to me she's always been like that so I haven't spoken to them you know my mother and my father in days so they're really worried so she picks up she's like oh my God I thought you were dead what's going on why don't you call and I'm like listen you need to sit down all right I'm in an Ecuadorian jail and you know it's not looking good and she starts going she's like you're such a liar I hear the music in the background what is wrong with you why are you lying to me where are you I'm like Mom listen I'm telling you the truth all right what you have to do right now hang up call an embassy all right call the American Embassy and find out I'm telling you the truth write down this number I asked the guy for the number he told me we gave her the phone number and she said all right I'm going to find out and it was like that the next day she called me back you know it was it was horrible you know she was crying you know very upset but um those were the first moments walking into the jail you know one of the most um craziest moments of my life because who would think inside of a jail you know people are dancing there's women there's kids you know there's stores there's pool tables um you know there's people playing pool you know there's you know people standing there with a Coke can just drinking Coke you know like in the middle of the day you know I've never been locked up here you know I've been arrested never made it to a jail but you know they're way different down there it's just crazy so I can't believe that like this is just insane like it's literally wild all for how much did you make off of those three runs um basically uh 20 to 22,000 each run and and does it matter the weight or is it just a run like could they give you more than one on one trip it was basically $20 a grand they were paying back in the day um around that time the key was going for like 60 to 65 depending where you sold it around New York or Jersey you it was a little bit more expensive in Jersey so we would actually move weight from Queens to like Elizabeth or Newark and we could get it say uh 52 a gram and we could sell it like 62 so we'd make 10 grand just for transporting it so you were selling it too of course yes yes so you were getting it for them and also being their dealer on the street of course yes so you're double dipping a little I mean it was it was a good group of us you know we were about five um we all worked together we all did different things but we all sold heroin and and cocaine and and you know a bunch of other things besides that that's crazy that's a lot of money too it was good money for back in those days it was very good money nowadays not really but well what what what do you think that that group of individuals would have titled you as like within their organization are you like a Smuggler or is there a different word yeah probably I mean I was I was more of the of The Smuggler you know we had the people you know I had my boy that had the connects where we could go sell it like we had um a couple connects in Elizabeth another connect in Newark you know and um once we got it here to um Queens we would just have to transport it and of course get the money and you know it's it's it's not only just transporting it but then you know you have to go through with the the whole deal which is always risky at the end as well all right so you're in this jail how's the legal process in Ecuador not good at all man I mean they're backed up right they got tons of um traffickers in jails they had just um gotten rid of the two for one law so I got I got arrested December 18th 2001 they just took it off in November basically anybody locked up before before November they were getting two for one so if you got a eight-year sentence You' do four now a funny thing is listen to this people were charged with murder they would get 16 years they would get the two for one so they'd be out in eight for a life that's insane now when I got locked up you know they charged me with International drug trafficking so they gave me eight flat and um I mean it was just like one of the worst days of my life you know just to get to you get the door shut on you at such a young age is there a trial or or course yeah it it lasted for more than a year so basically we would go to trial come back you know present evidence a yearl long trial yeah it was a little bit more than a year some people people were there with for two years without being sentenced yes really so this is way different than the United States Justice syst are you assigned an attorney um no you don't get you don't there's no public defender over there if you don't have an attorney you're screwed um you have to get your own and um those are thousands especially when they're you're talking about you know I need help to get my American son out of jail you can imagine how that goes what about the embassy are they coming to visit to check on conditions at all so basically this is um when my mother called the embassy and found out they told her no you can't come down yet because at the time there was a lot of gorilla Warfare going on at the border of Colombia and Ecuador with um these people called lasar which are their gorillas um they they traffic they kidnap you know they rob they steal they rape they do everything um so she the the the embassy from the embassy they actually came to visit me in a helicopter they took a helicopter from Kito all the way to the to the Border um they went to go see the jail how it was obviously once they went inside and saw me I'm all smiles and Giggles you know they were like oh you seem like you're pretty good here you know dress like the way I am you know no problem watch on sneakers hat glasses you know it's all there's no prison uniform inside you know and and I didn't look bad I mean no one's beating you in that jail so I mean that jail was it was amazing compared to where I went later so The Outfits how does that work then if there's no uniform are there other clothes or are you in the same pair of clothes the entire time you you use whatever you have so but you didn't have any oh just the clothes that I your hotel clo just the clothes I had in my hotel that's all I had so I had you know change of clothes um but then you know you have to buy right luckily there's people there they have visits come in I'm like hey here's 200 bucks can you buy me you know underwear socks sneakers you know things all all kinds of stuff because uh everything I had got robbed you know watches chains the money you know I had uh Canon cameras with huge lenses because when I came down you know I was taking pictures I was going to the volcanoes you know like a tourist right you know so I got I got the whole setup but they stole everything are you worried that the people you're working for are going to thinking that you're you're cooperating or anything of course yeah that's always a worry um at any time you get caught you know be wherever it be but I mean what what could I do I couldn't do anything I mean technically their employee it up right the first guy that got caught the guy that was coming to bring the stuff gets caught he got nervous he got caught and then he sets up the operation with the police they call ahead to Interpol in Kito so they're keeping an eye on me for a whole day before because they have to travel from the from the border remember it's like a six to eight hour trip so they call ahead and even the hotel knew cuz then later on when I go to trial I hear all the evidence evidence you know the evidence of you know they saw me when I left the hotel that day they were watching me where I went when I came back I went into the Cino that was you know across the street you know um they knew everything they were watching me is there any chance of winning in a Venezuelan court or no in an Ecuadorian equadorian yeah Ecuadorian um with a lot of money okay so I don't know if you've seen the news lately but in Ecuador there's corruption all the way to the top and it's always been like that now when I got locked up there was you know Tales of oh pay 10,000 here they'll transfer you to this jail then you pay another 20 there you might get out you know things of that nature but I mean can you really trust you know giving someone that amount of money and and then they don't let you out I mean I don't know I've heard Tales I never knew n anybody that did it I never knew of anybody that actually paid and got out and I I knew him and I was like Wow let's do it and I'm sure I would have if if that was the case but yeah know Ecuador is is the the judicial system is horrible so you get found guilty is it by one judge a panel judge it was just one judge okay one judge looks at looks at uh the evidence here's the case and basically sentenced me to eight years flat and is everything in Spanish all the proceedings everything is in Spanish yes everything I couldn't imagine being there andan yeah if you that's like I look at these people that are in Russian Court yes that we see on the news and they have headphones on that translate luckily but what about back in the day who knows yeah that's very that's literally my biggest fear like foreign traveling imagine you're just in a foreign country and then like something goes wrong something goes wrong like those stories are devastating about the the murders with the roommates like in and overseas and and this and that like that one girl what's her name that's popular which one um her her roommate was like murdered and they they put the blame on her and she went through a whole Tri overseas I forgot her name Amanda Knox is that her story I think oh I think so yes yeah it just it's just so scary yeah no it's terrifying man so I mean luckily when my first day and first year in the jail I was in was not bad you know besides the fact that you're locked up you can't go anywhere I mean we had it all you know the cells you have your own TV you know I had PlayStation you know I mean I would spend all day paying playing PlayStation you know things that you could never even imagine you know and pay a guard $20 to go bring you in some liquor wow so that's like what we hear about European prisons some European prisons yeah I mean basically I think everywhere around the world there's going to be corruption there was just a lot of corruption in Ecuador the guards were making $180 a month by the government by the government so they needed to so imagine making $180 a month and then you got to go take care of these drug traffickers that make more money in jail you know sitting there even selling drugs inside the jail than you do working every day you know so corruption is just everywhere from the you know the director of the of the jails to like you know the guards you know um psychiatrists that that are in the jail that you can pay for them they will send you a letter so you can come out you know and relax and not be inside for a couple hours you know things like that everything had to do with money you know you could get drugs you could get guns knives anything you could think of now when you're found guilty do they sentence you the same day yes automatic sentence that same day so um since after a year I tried to escape they sent me to the big jail after so you went back you got sentenced to eight years seven years yes and they sent you the first jail so I got sentenced to to eight years but before getting sentenced I tried to escape at the original jail the original smaller jail okay just tell us that so basically uh it the cell there were six of us in the cell all right um one of them was a Spaniard which was he weighed about 400 lb so this guy couldn't go with us so what we did was every night we would make it accustomed to when we get locked in ourselves at 700 p.m. we would have like chocolate and bread with ham and cheese you know like sandwiches you know so we would sleep this guy we would put something that would make him go to sleep you know in his chocolate milk or his coffee and then we would go to work you know on the top bunk we had a huge dresser cuz even that we could have you know it was basically set up like you know if you're in an academy and there's two bed bunks on each side you know the everything's made out of wood and then you could make dressers so we all had our own dresser where we could put our stuff you know we had all our clothes all our you know cosmetical stuff and all that but um we would bring down this dresser that was attached to the to the roof and we would start cutting so little by little every day we do a little bit of work to make this hole now once we cut through the entire wall on the top of our wall there was a cage it was basically all all like threaded Rod basically it was just all throughout the entire the entire top you could stick your head out through the top of the hole and you could see that there was just rods everywhere so now now we need a a saw all that you know cut that that metal and um obviously there's a workshop there so um we pay somebody to to get us get us these blades and little by little we're cutting and this is this goes on for about four or five months um every day we would cut and then put it back secure it in the meantime there's guards coming to do searches and CS you know because they want to check and make sure we're secure so every time they're coming in your heart's beating you never know what's going to happen you know first floor cells were even worse they would come in with these huge metal bars and just start banging on the ground because they know you know people want to make tunnels they could make tunnels from the inside out and if you got a lot of money you could have it done from the outside in you know like like Chapo did so we um we finished doing the cutting everything set you know we're waiting to go we have a search the police coming in and do a search and there's about I don't know 200 police officers all masked up they look the Ninja Turtles you know black these these black things on with the all the vests and you know everything possible and they're running through the cells they're throwing you know everything out you know they're hitting us as we're coming out you know kicking you know batons there's no human rights over there I mean it's it's serious so they find the hole and immediately begin to beat us I mean they beat us for I would say a good five minutes without stopping um after that we're all put in the hole everyone in the cell uh they took us to the hole you know they immediately closed the cell they put their own locks on it and um the next day you know basically they told me you know get ready because you know you're going to be transferred soon so about a week later 3:00 in the morning morning you know you hear the the the rattling of the keys and the locks when they're open up doors so immediately I go to the to my door I stick out the mirror I'm looking and I see that they're coming so oh boy here we go 3:00 a.m. I'm on my way to Kito to the big jail so that was another you know six seven hour drive got there it was early morning we stopped somewhere to get breakfast and um about 10 minutes later we're walking into the big prison now this is the big leagues you know this is not where I was and nothing I've ever seen before or even thought of in my life um soon as we walk in you know they're like these are the guys that tried to escape they already know why you're coming and immediately start getting beaten and um the hole in that big prison was about four floors up so you'd have to go up the steps and they had a line of officers and guards all the way up the steps just with waiting with batons to hit us so we're running you know I'm I'm gunning it from the first floor up they're like move move move you know they're all screaming at you in Spanish go go go you're just running you're just feeling all these hits left right you don't know where it's coming from you know I fell a couple times got kicked got back up ran crazy so finally get to the hole they open up the door now th this is like the movies gloomy dirty the lights like flickering it's like it's like a horror movie when they open up the door to the hole you know I go in I see there's like five or six people on the floor on these little thin mats and then we have six Beds which are like bunk beds they're made out of concrete first thing I hear is white boy and I look and it's it's another white boy just like me I'm like what's up bro he's like hey man what's going on he's like finally an American I'm like oh my God bro you don't know how happy I am I was like what's your name so immediately you know I go to his bed sit down he's like bro come here come here he made a little spot for me you know he's like bro you good you need you want some yogurt Coca-Cola he had everything you know snacks all that good stuff cigarette I'm like bro let me get a cigarette man please I'm stressed out he's like all he's like what are you here for so tell him my story he was like oh man he's like you Tred to escape too he's like what do you think I'm here for I was like you tried to escape he's like yeah he's like I was banging the psychiatrist upstairs you know I got her to bring me in a police uniform and he walked out the front door with it he went through three three spots three Security checks and they didn't notice him now when he's walking down the street cuz the jail was like on a hill he's walking down the street this is the change of like you know the duty change they're coming you know they work from 12 to 12 so now it's the shift change the other shift's walking up the hill while this shift's walking down and he's walking down he was a tall kid like me and he's you know he's white you know Ecuador ain't too many white people you know I mean you could find them but it's very rare and then one of the guards looks up and sees him and he's with another guard and they tackle him to the ground they catch him dressed up with the whole uniform the boots everything now the psychiatrist got she was she they threw her in jail obviously because you know they knew that he had gone out on a pass to see the psychi psychiatrist cuz it has to get signed by a couple people and then the guard goes and gets you and says you have a pass to go so obviously she went to jail I never heard about her again but um yeah that was my first moment walking into the hole which was crazy holy cow What's um what's the food like in the max the smack Security One what are they feeding you and are you in a Cell all day or is it more free so if it's um if yeah the max max part is um 22 hours closed and two hours outside but you got a bunk mate you get a bunk mate all right um some some people have they live by themselves they're lifers you know they don't want anybody and they're not going to put anybody in there so you know the lifers you respect and these are the people that are running the jails um yeah I mean it's just crazy there's a lot of rules you know I can imagine same rules as here here you know lifers you know you have to know somebody to talk to him you know you can't just you know go and talk to anybody and plus back in the day over there there was you know a lot of big Mobsters you know they're big traffickers you know they have walls around them where you know you can't get too close to him you know um and then I mean it was just it's like out of the movies you can't believe it now doesn't the cartel have a lot of influence in these prisons like couldn't they have helped you out so I didn't work for a cartel that's the thing I just worked for a bunch of guys that were you know doing their thing you don't think they were connected at all we all worked together but no no no no I don't think they were connected to the cartel in any way so they just happen to have foreign connects they have foreign connects because I mean the the guys I was working with like one of them had his brother down there so you know his brother could get the connect to get the drugs cheap you know he could fly some people down you know get them to bring it back so I mean it was just a small group of people just doing their thing yeah yeah so how what about the food aspect of it food was horrible I mean just think about you know we have food in jail where they're making food for you know I think it was 2,800 people when I arrived at the jail on a visit day there could be anywhere between 3 and 4,000 people with all the people that are coming in visits mothers fathers you know but the food that is made at the jail is the worst you don't want to eat that now if you don't have a choice you have to if you're in uh in the max you have to eat that food you can't eat anything else if you're in general po population you have your choices you have stores you have restaurants you can even send um send to buy things outside like I could send uh go get me Pizza Hut you know bring me McDonald's you know where does that money come from if you um money I had money that would uh be sent by my my family you know you know you could hustle in jail you could make make your own you know but is there like an electronic system or are they everything is cash so they're sending you an envelope to the to the prison no basically Western Union okay so Western Union somebody that visit or if it's your girlfriend your wife they'll bring in that money for you you know they could bring you food so you know like my visit would go go to the supermarket bring me all the stuff you know meat you know cheese milk yogurts Coca-Cola and I had a fridge in myself where I could put everything and this is even in the Mac no in the Mac no this is in general population and okay maximum security you don't have anything it's just you and your cell but General pop is where you served the majority of your sentence correct okay now now um I'm I'm so grateful for you that you were able to speak Spanish CU I couldn't imagine dealing with this if you couldn't speak Spanish if you couldn't speak Spanish it was going to be very difficult and I had the chance to deal with people that didn't know how to speak Spanish Delta you know I was a translator just like my friend Lenny that's outside he you know he he was a translator sometimes for some people that didn't know how to speak Spanish you know we knew people that came in from England you know he got locked up with his father for trafficking they didn't know a word of Spanish and the Mobsters were calling me and calling him translate for us you know let him know are the majority of the people there for smuggling um I would say everyone that's a foreigner in that jail is there for smuggling so like we had Africans Haitians you know Americans people from Sweden people from England the everybody in in the Globe was over there you know but um everybody that's Ecuadorian they're mostly there for murder um robbery you know they love to rob banks they love to to rob the Brinks trucks down there yeah they're big on that and they're big gangs you know when I was down there that's what the gangs would do to fuel their their gang to buy more guns to buy more drugs you know they would go into a bank 10 11 of them you know and stick up everybody starts shooting you know and it was like the Wild Wild West were their uniforms in this one the second prison you were in no uniforms still using the same clothes everybody everybody uses their own clothes but you can go you buy clothes you have clothes brought in I would call my mom m you could send me a pair of Nikes yeah yeah sure no problem she send me a little gift package you know t-shirt some sneakers you know a cologne whatever you could bring anything into the jail are they making you work do you have to have a prison job there's no jobs there nothing nothing this place it's funny because it's called the center of Rehabilitation right but there's no rehabilitation in there all there was was murder extortion you know drug dealing um that's it there was no rehab there at all is now is it like a clean place or is it like dirt floor cells what is what does this look like so basically it's all concrete um this was the barracks for a fighter that freed Ecuador back in the day his name is Eloy alado you can look him up on Google they basically this was like their um base now years later it was turned into a jail so it's all concrete and metal all right inside I remember I would wake up sometimes 6:00 a.m. and open up the door and you could breathe and see your breath like if you were in Jersey like if it's about to snow cuz it's all concrete and it's all metal so it was really cold in the morning you know but um dirty Place wires hanging everywhere you know now when you buy your sell because obviously you have to buy your cell over there that's another thing you don't just get a sign to sell you know you have to buy your own so I bought my cell you could fix it up any way you'd like you paint it you could put separations in it you know you could uh have someone from outside bring you in some wood you know and the tools you need to do like separations where there's a door between where you sleep and the bathroom you know which I had made you could have a shower put in you know brought in a TV a microwave your stove you know we had everything there this is just mindblowing like just uh wow yeah and another thing is um we used to make liquor there Hooch what would they call it like we called it Hooch in prison and white lightning basically it was like Hooch but what we would do is we would get yeast like um two or three pounds and then we'd get 10 pounds of sugar and then we'd pay the guards to bring us in some fruits like oranges grapes and all that stuff and I'd put in like those Home Depot buckets and we'd stick them under the bed and just cover with plastic and put the top on and we leave it for like 8 to 10 days and that's just bubbling it's all bubbling inside turning into liquor then we created a Contraption where we could actually put something inside the bucket that would heat up this Hooch and it would bring all the you know condensation up condensation is the actual 100% liquor and it's just coming out of Hose you know I have pictures I forgot to bring but I could send them to you it was amazing you know we were making liquor inside the cell I have pictures with my mother inside the cell she's on a cell phone we're making liquor you know she just allowed to come in she's inside the cell with me we would have visits you know we would um every 15 days there was sleepover so you got your girl your girl walks in the jail at 8:00 a.m. and she walks out Sunday at 5:00 p.m and she's sleeping in the jail she sleeping in the jail and we're partying at night did you have a girlfriend of course many wait these are just ones you met in uh out there or in the jail yes when you know this guy's wife would come and she'd bring along a friend and oh let me meet her or you know there was girls you could call up you know the prepaid girls you know there was prostitutes coming to the jail just to look for work holy C I'm shocked you haven't been on like a 100 podcasts yet it was it was a party man yeah it was a party this is fascinating what how are the people that are from there treating Americans that are housed in jail there so let me tell you not too friendly all right um number one because you know I I never like to uh you can't show Too Much number one and that's with that's a rule I have anywhere in life you know because sometimes the people don't like to see you doing well sometimes people don't like to see that you have visit but I'm a lifer and I don't you know that was difficult because you know I visit that's half of your jail time when you have someone or something to look forward to you know every Wednesday Saturday and Sunday those are three days out of the week where I'm chilling you know I'm not worrying about the gang banging that's going outside you know I'm not worrying about the stabbings or because when it's visit day 100% the visits are respected and you cannot do anything on a visit day you know it's everybody's in their own world you know every there's kids running around you know there's restaurants open there's family sitting down eating you know and and you just got to be careful it's a delicate situation you know you can't get into trouble because the mob will have your head and what about is there like gambling and and card playing course every day everywhere I mean everywhere you looked you know I told you I had I had a pool table there was multiple pool tables in that jail I had one um I had it for about two years I mean it's not like you're making a ton of money because you're renting out for a dollar an hour right but the thing is that that's the gambling spot so you're making more money off it because you're going to gamble you know what I mean everybody's going to gamble we're playing cards we're playing par cheesy we're playing you guys had par cheesy we're playing everything we're playing with the guards love that g the guards were coming in sitting down with us playing outside on the courts because we had like um basketball or soccer courts everything's concrete but we're outside and they would walk the the yard with us and they would sit down and play they' be like hey you guys when you're done I got 10 you I want to play all right no problem come back in like 10 minutes is do you think the prison is still like that today have you talked to guys that are still there let me tell you this um the jail I was in shut down because they built new Jails of the American style so now everybody's wearing uniforms you know now the cells are all bars there's no doors or walls where I was I had a wall in the door and I could even lock my door from the inside if I don't want you coming in my cell you're not coming in you know like I if if I see the police coming in in the yard I'm running to myself I'm gonna lock the door I'm gonna hide and get rid of everything before you even get there you know the new jails you can't do that anymore everything's just bars you could see right through it and it's just horrible it's even worse than before I got to say that's actually a very smart thing that you could lock from the inside it I think prisons in the US would be a lot safer if you could do that and then obviously there could be an override for like if a prison guard of but think about in these penitentiaries they the cells in the morning yes how many stabbings like we read about these uh famous people getting stabbed up and whatnot that's because they're popping all the doors and it's a free-for-all so I have a story that has something to do with that okay so basically my first time I was in Max you know I met this guy we're GNA call him lizard lizard all right um he was a top dog out there and later on when I got out of that super Max and got back in the general population I got put in the cell with this kid called um he was called Chico mijon which means the million dooll kid now this kid was known for setting up robberies on the outside he had the connect to people that worked in Banks and Brink trucks so he would get the drop on the trucks or the bank the info on how much money's getting pushed through that day who's going to have it where it's going to go down and he would get together groups that would go and you know take over take these bags of money and um when I got at super max I just so happened to land in his cell now about two months prior a group of about 10 got tortured and killed so I'm saying a group of about 10 this is this is a small gang and he put together the robbery So within that group of 10 was one of lizard's brothers so since I'm living in the cell with this kid now you know someone approaches me and it's like hey lizard wants to talk to you got to call him now on this number he gives me the cell phone I call him up so lizard basically says you know we know you're living with uh you know the million-dollar kid you know so I know you already know what happened the other day my brother was involved and I need you to open the door at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow because giavanni's going to come in and he's going to take care of him you know I'm not a lifer you know I have something to look forward to and a family that I want to get home to so obviously this situation for me was tough you know I've already been living with the kid for like two weeks you know you become friendly once you're living with somebody in a Cell you know your stories your friends I knew this guy I knew that guy you know we eat together you know it's it's it's hard and um but you have to make that decision is it going to be him or is it going to be both of us so at the end of the day day you know I agreed and um 6:00 a.m. comes the next day and I open up the door and luckily there was nobody there so the guy that was supposed to come and do the hit he didn't want to do it we get a call from Lizard again what happened and um basically he's like you guys got till tomorrow it better happen so tomorrow the next day I'm you know that night I'm you know I'm on my my bed I was on the top bunk he was on the bottom bunk but on the wall on the other side of us we had a huge mirror so you know we're watching TV at night you know smoking a Jay and I'm I'm looking at him in the mirror like you don't know this is going to be your last moments you know and I'm sorry to say but I'm I'm opening that door you know and um the next day I open the door I walk out he's not there again my heart dropped I'm like now we're in trouble because now lizard's not going to be happy you know and now we're both in it so basically um I go up to the kid sell I'm like what's going on man are you going to do this or what and he's like I'm not doing it I'm not going to be a robot for this guy anymore I'm done with it you know if anything you know he sends anybody to this block to take care of me he's like you got to help me I'll take the charge you know because over there there could be multiple people that go in and you know take care of somebody as long as there's one person that say I did it they'll be like all right he did it so that's why there's people in there that'll take charge for a murder easily because they're lifers you know once you get a life sentence you know they could take care of you know three four five 10 people they don't really care because they're not going anywhere so this kid was a lifer and he said I'm not being a robot anymore you know I'm not doing it and um this kid lizard had had um the hitman's brother killed in another jail this is how much power the kid had lizard had a lot of power he was a young kid just like us I think he was like 27 28 I was probably 25 at the time but he was running a gang of about 3,000 people easily in the streets in other jails in Ecuador and in the jail I was and he was in the max but he would send the kite he would send you know a text message and you would have a lot of problems you know once he got to any jail he would call the drug dealers I'm here what are you sending me you know until um everybody got tired of that and then one day they took care of them wow yeah nuts crazy story man now you know what's interesting about all this is that you probably would have gotten the same amount of time in the United States really for for for that much weight you know it probably would have been a 5year mandatory minimum okay it probably would have been you know 5 to 10 First Defense you probably would have gotten seven so it's kind of interesting how on par their system was at the time with ours cuz I know in other countries it's nowhere near that it's a lot stricter yeah you weren't actually caught with the weight kind of though you were I mean you almost exchanged it that was more I don't know it's complicated in that aspect if I was in the states I probably would have won the case I'll tell you why because I did not have a hold of the full key okay right when they gave me whatever was in that bag it wasn't all the of the merchandise so you know that should have played a big part but obviously we're in Ecuador and they're not hearing it um you know it's just it's just crazy did you get any word to your partners over those seven years do you get to talk to them uh I spoke to them you know probably first three months I was uh locked up they sent a couple care packages but after that man they didn't take care of you the whole time if you're not around it's like a you're a dead man walking nobody cares how do you become The Smuggler why why couldn't any of them do it what made you special I was the only American the these guys are all yeah I was the only one with the blue passport man you know new English new Spanish you know um it was a young kid um and I was willing you know at that age I was scared of nothing you know I wanted to do it all and um I had to just you know find out the hard way did you ever talk to them again never are you ever curious about what they're up to not at all at all man yeah because you know once I came out I was just you know happy to be alive number one and um happy to have uh you know a family to come home to and then you know the moral of the story is you know you could have gone through whatever you went through but if you want to you can be successful you can be whatever you want in this life you know you don't have to sell drugs you know you don't want to end up in a jail like I did in a foreign country you don't want to traffic do you was there when you look back on it now was there another thing that you were kind of leaning towards like maybe going to college starting a career was there anything like that no I I wanted to be in the life okay that's what I wanted from a young age where does that come from though I would say it has a lot to do with uh movies you know listen to the music it was just you know like Scarface Good Fellas you know it's just something that like it captured me captured you know the power you get or when you walk in somewhere and they know know you you know the presence that they feel when you're in the room you know something like that it's just you know it's like an adrenaline rush and when you're trafficking that's another one when you got keys on you you know you're going to sell some keys you're bringing back 150,000 back in the in those days you know you get an adrenaline rush you know and you're walking around with a gun on you you know it's all these things you know you make you feel powerful okay so that stirs the debate up with people though about our video games our movies our is music a bad influence is it those things themselves or is it the person that's consuming that no yeah it's all it's all about the person everybody's different you know like I said you know a lot of people say oh blame the parents but it's not like that you know it's it's it's all about that person everybody's different so The Day You released you do a full straight seven years there's no good time nothing like that there's nothing I did six years 10 months and 26 days so you get out what that day like do they give you a plane ticket or you so basically I was free for like 3 months while I was still in jail because immigration was backed up I was in the supermax for the last nine months of my prison stay and um basically one day they just showed up and said immigration's here they're going to take you I was like all right then they took me to an immigration jail that I was there for about two weeks until uh my beautiful sister bought me a plane ticket and got me back over to the states what do the United dates say to you when you come back after s like your passport hasn't been stamped in in seven years right so no I didn't have a passport that's funny um so when I went to leave obviously I need a passport to travel so I go to the US Embassy and they're like sure yeah we could get you a passport it's going to be $250 I said lady I've been in jail for the past seven years where do you expect me to get $250 and she was like oh okay I'm sorry I'm sorry we'll get you a temporary passport so that's what they did it's a passport like this thin with like two pages on it and it was temporary it had holes in it they punched holes through it you know and um and that's it I I got back on the flight are you ever going to go back to Ecuador never are you ever going to step foot outside the country yes I have already um flying back is a hassle you know you know your red flag with interpole every time I come back with of course yeah really for the rest of your life I would say I mean every time I you know come back from a intern trip you know they get sent to the to to the room they're like oh follow that line sir so I have to go that way are there countries you can't travel to um I couldn't travel to Ecuador for the first five years when I came out not that you would want to yeah they said I couldn't travel there I couldn't do any money transactions and that's about it but I can go anywhere in the world luckily uh I was arrested over there and went to prison over there so over here there's no record yeah I guess that's the other end of the foot that's another you know to that cuz it would be more detrimental if it's ruined over here so how does that work when you get back with taxes with everything like how is your life affected by being in a foreign prison just like from a a regular standpoint not even a psychological standpoint just like what the way you know the structure is of your life yeah so I mean what can I say I lost a lot of years over there you know and when you get back you know obviously you're not the same person you know I know jail changed me a lot it change it'll change anybody um especially where I was and the way you have to handle yourself the way you you know the things you see you know it's it's a lot different so coming back was a challenge you know um getting an your first job was a challenge I came back in 2008 we were in the middle of a recession you know there was really no work um you know no resume because I've been out of the country you know for the past seven years um it was a it was a challenge but you know I like challenges so basically you know no car nothing just you know I had my family that was there for me my mother my father you know my sisters um you know she was great soon as I got back you know took me to buy me all new clothes you know it's like starting over again so basically that's what I did you know got a job and just started little by little you know um now thank God you know I'm successful and I'm I'm proud of where I am you know I'm happy to be alive I'm happy to be able to tell my story you know um I want to share it not only just to share the stories but to also let everybody know that you know like you said I'm always the guy that walks in the room and says yeah I was in prison I lived through all this stuff that's what made me who I am and I'm here you know and and and I'm going to make it you know no matter what you know be it here be it in in China you can put me anywhere on the planet you know I'm going to come out on top so you know that's the goal just to push that message you know and um just let you know you know any mistake you make you know you could overcome them just don't to make the same mistake twice you got to learn from your mistakes you know what did it take for you to get to that point though because you know most people when they get out of prison they don't have that that mentality they don't want to talk about I'm sure there was a ton of people in your case that were curious about your time in prison so when did you finally overcome being able to talk about about it um I'll tell you since I've gotten out you know people that I get close to or you know people I've known especially everybody in my family or you know co-workers that I get close with you know I let them know you know this is where I was you know that this is what I went through um I really have no shame in it you know I have no shame in what I went through I think it's may be the man I am you know I just think you know everybody has different life experiences you just got to learn from them yeah I I really can see your you you I you're launching a YouTube channel um I could see you telling because you have seven or eight years worth of stories you know just because people are fascinated with this type of stuff yes I I could see you building a very successful YouTube channel social media present just telling stories from there because it's so unique in a world where you know kind of like the prison content genre is like it's it's a very you know wide and big and Broad now and and a lot of people are doing it you have a very very unique perspective that you could get into that I feel like if you do it right you could really hit it home and blow it up and you're well spoken and you know that's why I just let you go for the first half of it because you have it like you're a good Storyteller and you knew how to put the the pieces together like with the hooks and what to say and this and that like it didn't you know it it flowed really good um and I think it'll hopefully it'll help your story get out there because you told it so perfectly where other people can watch it and expand on it and you know it's just in a world where they're making TV shows about people in prison and this and that that's right man I mean let's make our mistakes our success that's all I say you know I I love what you've done you know you're an inspiration to me and many people um and yeah you know just cuz you got locked up doesn't mean it's the end of your life you know you could make something of yourself you know you could be successful especially in this country right you know other countries it's a lot harder but here we got it all man you know what do you do now now for work what's your life like now right now I own a commercial cleaning company with my wife um we're also getting to the FBA Amazon um you know we're just you know surviving man you know just living life day by day I'm happy you know I have a beautiful wife I have my mother at home with me you know I take care of you know she deserves it after all those years of pain I put her through you know Mom I love you you're the best and um that's it man I just thank you for everything I hope we could work together in the future I'm really happy to meet you and you you know I can't wait to um to just continue what does your wife think about this um she loves the fact that you know I'm open to to doing this she loves the fact that you know I have the push I have the want and I just feel like you know you know don't listen to anybody what they tell you you know do what you want to do and if you get up and do it every single day you're going to be successful at it that's that's that's going to be it how did you tell her about your experience cuz it's not like she needed to search like you could have probably gotten away with not even telling her ever like that you could have kept that whole Venezuelan thing a secret right so I not Venezuelan I don't know why I keep saying Venezuelan so let me tell you this is another crazy story which you're going to love okay so this is how I meet my wife I was working as a manager at a at a tower company you know that works for cell phone towers you know um so one of the workers was taking the van home now his van gets stolen he calls me at 5:00 a.m. the work van got stolen I don't know what's going on I got to get to the office to go track the van so I'm hustling get to the office you know I'm looking on on the computer the van's gone it's somewhere in Orange New Jersey you know I'm like gez it's stolen call the cops everything now the kid that got the van stolen he has footage from his apartment building and there's a van that pulls up next to our van and the guy jumps out and steals it now the van that they jumped out of had a name on it so I look up the name them on Google and it's like a place where you could send money to foreign countries or you could send packages to foreign countries like Ecuador Columbia Venezuela so I call up this company you know and somebody picks up the young lady picks up I'm like yeah I'm just calling because you know one of your Vans stole one of my vehicles um she's like what do you mean I'm like yeah so we have footage of someone using your company vehicle pulling up next to my vehicle getting out shimming the door and stealing it I was like um you know what are we going to do about this she's like hold on one second and she goes outside and their van is gone so someone stole their van then drove around and saw our van stole that van as well and then took off now I'm in com communication with the police telling them look you know I'm looking at the tracker it's here so they're like all right we're on our way I'm like all right I'm on my way too so boom I'm heading down the Parkway I'm going to where the van is you know and she calls me up she's like did you see our van I'm like yeah your Van's right here so I end up continuing the conversation because now we're mixed in with this you know her van was stolen mine stole hers we're getting the police reports all this stuff and um end up talking to this young lady and I end up asking her out and she is my wife now wow yeah and then you had to tell her about and yeah as soon as I met her you know she was Ecuadorian so I'm like jeez I told her I was I can't get away from you people what's going on she like what you back to your home country I was like Ecuador and she's like why I was like oh God it's a long story she's like tell me I was like all right I did seven years in prison there she was like what no she thought I was lying because who's going to believe you you know what I mean young kid you know you don't look like you've been in prison all your life I mean prison life isn't like it is here everybody's tatted up nobody's Tattooing in the jails down there really yeah in Ecuador was even with the gangs and stuff I mean it's very odd I mean it's not like up here I mean I got a tattoo down there and a bunch of people got tatto but in the prison yeah in the prison with like your prison with like a pen well they call po they used to call me Casper you know white boy so I got a Casper with the you know the Flames Casper I could see Casper yeah so I mean that was a crazy eight hour tattoo you know just horribly you know what's cool though is that you could look back on it and you could tell the story with excitement after being through something so miserable and it could keep you alive and you know you have this excitement to it and you're ready to share it and get out there and and you know own it you know and I think that's great and I think that's what the message is of the show that's right man you know and you just you take it you run with it and you wear it like a badge and you know it what can anyone say after that that's it man I lived it nobody else did you know yeah well Oscar thank you so much man for the gift for coming on the show I think this is going to be a huge episode thank you and uh if you need anything let me know and I'm excited to see you get that YouTube channel out there thanks a lot Ian I'm definitely going to hit you up for some help on that all right absolutely thanks [Music] brother

Channel: Ian Bick

Views: 151,284

Keywords: podcast, ianbick, prison, crime, show, interview, entertainment

Id: P3Gk8BGJdlA

Length: 69min 18sec (4158 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2024