My name is Pieter Tritton, aka Posh Pete. I smuggled over 5 million pounds' worth of cocaine internationally. This is how crime works. I've been in prison with people there, capos from the Sinaloa cartel, bosses from the Colombian cartels. And even when they were in
their heyday, making millions, the amount of fear and paranoia that they had to contend with, people trying to kill them, people trying to take
their business from them. And then the end, what
did they end up with? They ended up going to
prison for a long time and losing all of it, pretty much. I am extremely lucky to be alive. In my opinion, the risk
is not worth the reward. Cocaine is farmed in, well, farmed and produced in Peru, Bolivia, and Colombia. The farms will generally
be in rural locations out in the countryside, where they will grow the coca bushes. They will crop the coca leaves. They will then be taken
to another location, which is the laboratory where
they will process the leaves. The cocaine, once it's
been processed in the lab, will be transported
probably down to the coast, normally, or to the ports. Also the capital, should we say, for sale. The farmers themselves
are paid quite poorly. They have to farm an acre of bushes for 1 kilo of cocaine. Once the cocaine is processed, I know in Peru you can
buy it for as little as, should we say, $700 up
to $1,200 for a kilo. The chemicals that we needed to buy in order to process the cocaine were quite difficult to get, because they were controlled things like methanol, which is a pure alcohol, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acids, activated carbon, acetone. We had to basically make a fake company, a fake profile, have a number in order to be able to go to
these big chemical companies to then buy the chemicals from them. Because they wouldn't sell to
just anyone from the public. You had to be from a business. Ether is one that's
very highly controlled. Acetone as well, in South America. Ether is the big one,
because the ether washes, it used to be the best type
of wash to make cocaine. Sourcing tanker-loads of
ethers produced the cocaine. It's virtually impossible there now, so they're having to use other chemicals, which aren't quite as good. And that's one reason cocaine, if anyone out there has been
doing cocaine for a long time, they will now be able to tell
that the cocaine these days is not the same as cocaine 20 years ago. Because I've been around cocaine so much, I can, without even taking it, I can just rub it between my fingers, look at the color, smell it, and I can tell you pretty
much which country it's from by the chemicals that
have been used in it. My most successful method of smuggling was a form of impregnating
the cocaine into rubber. Through a Colombian connection, someone in Cali would buy the cocaine. They would then give it to, like, a basic chemist over there. So the cocaine would be put into liquid, and then into liquid latex, which would then be set in
sheets, very thin sheets. We would then put those latex sheets into the ground sheets of tents. So we would employ passengers, basically, to go and collect the tent after it had been
impregnated with the cocaine to then bring that back through customs. I kind of set some ground rules when it came to recruiting passengers. I would try and find
people that had, obviously, no criminal record, or fairly collected, you know, reasonably well presented. And just people that were fairly sensible, preferably someone that
was working already. And then we would pay them
between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds on their return to Britain once the drugs had been extracted. Or sometimes, if it was enough
funds, enough cash available, we'd pay them as soon as
they came off the plane and handed the tent over. First tent that we brought in, I flew to Quito in Ecuador. The tents had already been manufactured and the cocaine impregnated into it. I'd managed to get through unscathed, got back to Britain, landed, it's done. Fully expecting to be
stopped by the police there. So, yeah, I mean, I arrived
and just collected the tent and walked straight
through, and that was it. I mean, I was, to be honest, I was in shock that nothing happened. There was nearly 5 kilos
of cocaine in that. And having gone through that experience, I realized that this
method that we were using, of impregnating the cocaine into rubber, was definitely a good method. Because it, you know, I'd
just been stopped by customs and got through three customs checks — one in Ecuador, one in
Holland, and one in Britain — and come through with it fine. During the time that we were trafficking, we never actually lost a single shipment. The great thing about that method was that it wasn't detectable by X-ray. You can't detect it by a scanner. The dogs couldn't detect it, because obviously the cocaine
has been changed into rubber. And we used to counteract
the reactive test, the liquid test that they'd do, by putting in another chemical. I mean, that pretty much
nullifies all the checks that they can do on you. But there were definitely countries that we avoided going
through or trafficking in. A lot of the South Americans
that I've spoken to try to avoid trafficking in America. The DEA have got powers to come down to Colombia or Ecuador,
wherever, basically, and arrest you and then
take you back to the States and try you there. Places like Thailand, Indonesia, where they have the death
sentence, always big no-nos. Saudi Arabia, anywhere that's got the death sentence for drugs. Also countries with really harsh laws, high sentences. As far as other forms
of smuggling cocaine, obviously the cartels use
containers, shipping containers, to bring in the largest
shipments of cocaine. Tons at a time. This is normally done using corrupt port officials at both ends who facilitate the
movement of the cocaine. I didn't like the idea, personally, because I'd realized, having seen other people do it, and when it went wrong, the police officer or the customs agent involved
would always roll over and inform on all of the
other people involved. Recently, I've seen newer methods of smuggling cocaine across borders. I had a Russian friend
when I was in Ecuador, when I was in prison in Ecuador, who was captured with 42 tons of cocaine, which was in barrels of molasses. It had been liquidized and
mixed into the molasses. I mean, there is just
a multitude of things it can be impregnated into. Once we managed to get the tents back through customs
and into Britain safely, we would then have to extract the cocaine using chemical processes. Any cut that was in there wouldn't come through in the process, so we were only left
with the pure cocaine. Once it was completely dry, we would cut it using phenacetin, which is what people call "magic." We would normally cut
it about 60% cocaine, 40% phenacetin, and then repackage it and sell it. An early associate with whom I'd traffic drugs within the UK, so he put me in contact
with a Colombian in London who was already importing
cocaine into Britain via a contact of his in Cali, Colombia, who was operating with the Cali cartel. That became our source of
cocaine in South America. All of the cocaine we'd pay for up front using various different
money-transfer agencies, like Western Union, MoneyGram. We would always try and keep the transfers under 1,000 pounds at a time. We would use various people
to facilitate the transfers, because obviously we couldn't. Really, you can't use one person more than two or three times in a month. We had some underground
money-transfer agencies that were a bit corrupt, should we say, that would allow us to send
more than was registered. I did some workings out on the train, on the train journey down
here today, to London. So, from every $100 or 100 pounds' worth of cocaine that you buy, I would estimate that
about 2%, 1.5% to 2%, goes to the farmer who's
growing the coca leaf. Probably 35% to 40% goes to the cartel. But the cartels are, really, they're controlling the lab and then the shipping
out of South America. The remainder, we'll just say around 60%, would probably go to the dealers on the street. Much the same as OPEC
controls the supply of oil, the cartels control the
supply and flow of cocaine. The problem with drug trafficking is you're only going to be
able to do it for so long before you get caught. In the operation that I was carrying out, we tried to keep the
number of people involved to as small as possible,
because obviously, the less people know,
the less chance of it that somebody's going to
turn informant or betray you. The group that we had,
that was me, a Colombian, and a Chilean who were the key players. And then, obviously, we
would employ passengers to bring the tents back in. Well, after the Colombian
and the Chilean were arrested in a laboratory that was
raided in Crystal Palace, the Colombian was turned
by the British police and became an informant. We then started to see police activity around us quite frequently. So it became very much
a game of cat and mouse between them and us. I was arrested in Ecuador in 2005 and ended up getting sentenced to 12 years in prison in Ecuador. I was diagnosed with complex PTSD, which is post-traumatic stress disorder, after having seen so much mayhem and death and destruction
in prison in Ecuador. I would say that the levels
of cocaine being produced are greater than ever these days. Even though there's
ever-greater demand for cocaine, the purity of cocaine has also increased, I think, because of the
increased production levels. We're now in the internet era. Encrypted technologies,
encrypted telephones, encrypted messaging services, and dozens of them. Nowadays, there's so
many ways, better ways, of transferring money around the world, such as bitcoin, ethereum. These are definitely being
used in the drug trade for facilitating large movements of cash. So it's a lot harder for the authorities to keep on top of all of this. In order to keep up with it,
the cartels have realized that you're always
going to be able to sell pure cocaine quicker
than you are cut cocaine. The sort of mafias, like the Albanians and the Russians and the Chinese, they are now sending their own
people out to South America to just buy the cocaine
from the cartels there, and then basically say goodbye to them and then facilitate
their own shipping back. So then that means they, then, have the whole share of the profit. The Albanian Mafia's
now very much in control of the whole trafficking
enterprise in Britain and Europe. And I think it's become
very much more controlled, very much more monopolized
than it used to be. There used to be smaller
people, like myself. Those smaller players have
been forced out of the market by the fact that the Albanians and the like of the Albanians have just got it stitched up. In my opinion, the government
can't win the war on drugs, and they're fully aware that they can't win the war on drugs. And if you talk to a lot
of high-ranking police, they will definitely tell you that the war on drugs is unwinnable. And in my personal opinion, the only way that the war on drugs will be won is to legalize all drugs, manufacture them under
license and strict control, and then tax them heavily in order to offset the
detrimental cost to society. Really, the key element in this is the financial gain of criminals. If you can take out the financial gain from the whole equation, then there's no incentive for
criminals to traffic drugs. So I don't think that
throwing more and more money at a border force and
trying to control it — and, say, eradication of crops. I mean, they've tried eradicating crops, and that only had a detrimental effect on the people on the ground, because it destroyed other crops as well and led to disease and illness
and contaminated water. It's huge business, it being kept illegal, because it actually
creates more employment and more monetary gain, overall, for law enforcement, for
prisons, for the judiciary, for healthcare, for these drug companies making drugs that help with treatments. I got into selling drugs at an early age. I always had sort of an
entrepreneurial streak, but drugs was, at that
time, quite easy to do, and a lot of people seemed to be doing it. There were illegal raves every weekend, and loads of the people
at the opposite school started going to these parties. So, you know, instantly
there was a huge marketplace. Until I was arrested at 17, when I was at college, which put a stop to everything. You know, I saw how upset my family were, and I was worried about
not getting into university and jeopardizing my future. Trying to survive on a student loan, I realized that they don't go very far. That's when I first came
into contact with cocaine. Started selling cocaine
to a couple of students. Before I knew it, I was then selling cocaine
to the locals in Cardiff, and then I was selling to their dealers, and then I was selling
to their dealers in turn, and before I know it, I'm
supplying half of South Wales. And then ended up fanning out and spreading out into
the Bristol party scene and supplying loads of people there. The first time that I went
to prison, in England, I — I mean, yeah, I did
make contacts in prison. But, yeah, I suppose you
do make contacts in prison. I mean, they are the
finishing school of crime. Anywhere you go into prison,
anywhere on the planet, you will end up making contacts, because that's the nature
of the places that they are. I'm now going into schools,
colleges and universities, trying to educate people on the harm that cocaine, and drugs in general, do. It'll only end up with you
being captured or killed. And the effect that that will have on your family and friends is devastating. Since getting released from prison, I wrote a book called "El Infierno," which is published by Ebury Penguin, which is all about my
time in prison in Ecuador. I'm currently writing the
prequel to that first book, and I'm hoping to get the two
of them made into a screenplay in order to make a Netflix
series or possibly a film. I have set up my own company with a view to making my
own chocolate products, chocolate drinks and bars, importing cacao from Ecuador. Not cocaine, cacao. So, yeah, we're going straight this time.
His russian friend got caught with 42 tons of Cocaine-infused Molasses!!
That's like a billion dollars worth!!
PTSD from 12 years in an Ecuadorian prison, not surprising!
I bet that dude has seen some shit.
What is a tent? Like a sleeping tent?
Super interesting. Thanks for sharing
Good find
Is cocaine a super stable molecule or something? How do you extract it out of latex rubber? That's crazy
One thing I'll never forget hearing regarding cocaine was something I believe an economist said; 'You see this pencil right here? If you can manufacture this pencil for 7 cents and turn around and sell it for $7,000, you will never be able to stop the production of pencils.'
Watched this yesterday, good solid content!
If you want more organized crime related stuff.. check out:
The Underworld Podcast
The Mob Reporter
JCS - Criminal Psychology
The war on drugs is not meant to be won, it’s meant feed and benefit corrupt politicians who don’t want to tax their rich friends.