There were about 15 of us on the tour and 5 other lads had joined a rival "curiosity killed the cat" tour. When we got there - after giving Pepe 50 Bs each (about €6) - we weren't even checked for anything we might have been smuggling in! Cost for the tour was 400Bs each (about €50) which is a lot in Bolivia but prison guards, police all had to be bribed to get in and that doesn't come cheap!
Tour was split into three as there were so many of us - i went with ten others on the loser tour with a fukked up South African who's been there 18 months of an 8 yr term. He was caught in La Paz airport with 14kilos of cocaine! Turns out he'd smuggled a few times before and said that he will do again when he gets out! Said he would've made $180k for that shipment - rewards are too great not to do it again. Ah but no next time everything is going to be different! Next time he has a fool proof way of smuggling, something about getting an old lady to carry the goods and he'll just pick up her bag when they land off the luggage belt. Foolproof... sure!
He was interesting enough in fairness to him, married with two kids back in SA but only his parents, brother know he's in prison in Bolivia. His wife's mother works for police in SA so he can't tell the wife. He seemed to think nothing unusual about not contacting them for five or six years while he's in prison on a different continent! One of his many bizarre tales.
He told us how the prison population is divided into two groups, those who have money and those poor b&stards who don't. If you have it, life is pretty good, we were in 3 different "cells" - bedrooms basically - which were all quite nice, no locks on the door, no guards around, lads can come and go as they please. Those who don't have money live in the "population" where lads can easily get knifed for equivalent of 50c! Crazy. Entry for families into those areas was after a strict strip search. Strict. Awful.
The rooms in the plush section we went to go for about $300 up to the $15,000 split level one we couldn't get access to see. Saffer dude who was running our tour was a pro boxer for 4 years so can look after himself. Gets in a lot of fights, showed scars of when he was stabbed recently. Scars on his hands where he knocked out a lad's teeth and got another caught in a eyeball. Nasty enough gash. Said he'd killed a few people when he was in the saffer army but not since. I don't believe that - though in fairness he said that if he does murder someone in a fight he'll end up getting life and nothing's worth that. So who knows!
Next a big Don came in, he'd been in there for 15 yrs, longest serving inmate. Studied law inside and now is a qualified lawyer. Can pretty much come and go as he pleases now as at the end of his stretch. He tried to fly 4 tonnes of coke out of Bolivia on his private planes - planes he'd bought on the back of profits of previous coke deals. This one went sour though and he got caught. The deal would have made him $25m, and this was back in 1995! Weird thing about this lad was how calm serene and likeable he was. This from a ruthless drug trafficker! Also he was only about 5'4" but you could tell he had very real presence, he was very sharp, very intelligent.
Next, we moved on to see a few rooms including the gym the sauna, even the dentist's surgery (!) and the rest of the lads on my tour left then and I went over to join the main tour led by the head guy. Jose. The guy I talked to on the phone. Jose was something else. He was the very embodiment of Tony Soprano. His family has been in the drugs trade for generations - his grandfather started in 1969 with weed he said. Then they moved into cocaine. His father and grandfather worked closely with the infamous Pablo Escobar for decades. He even said that Escobar's third in command is his godfather! When he was a kid, his father didn't want him involved in the drugs trade but he eventually was allowed. He's adamant though that his own kids won't be involved. Sure Jose... cos that'll never happen!
While all this chat was going on a number of the backpackers in the group were snorting coke - the inmates sell it to the tourists! Bottles of rum also being downed and I had a few cans of the local beer! Sitting in a drug traffickers prison cell, drinking beer, shooting the breeze with a billionaire mafioso. This was surreal.
Here´s Jose (3rd from the right) with us backpackers.
Anyway, back to Jose - he claims never to have killed anyone himself (me arse - as he's never been charged with murder, to admit it at any stage would be extremely naive) but he did admit to ordering numerous hits. Kill or be killed was the justification.
He had a million stories not all of which checked out. He claimed that Pablo Escobar's no 3 was his godfather. Then later he claimed that Pablo himself was his godfather. Then he claimed that he had a 19 yr old son who he had when he was 16. That'd make him 35, but he told us later that he is 38. I think the thing is that he likes to embellish his stories to sound as cool as possible. Even mafiosos just want to be loved too I suppose! What he doesn't realise is that if he just told the truth the tales would still have been so outlandish to regular backpackers that we'd have still lapped it up! But I digress...
His stories in general were brilliant though. He says the worst thing about the drug trade is it's made him inhuman. He said that violence comes with the territory and he's now desensitised to it. He can chat to someone today, find out that they've been whacked tomorrow and feel zero emotion. All his acquaintances are just that, acquaintances, business partners. None are friends. He also justified his involvement in drugs by saying that if he got out, there'd be ten lads to replace him. Well that's not really a good enough excuse is it?
He was asked what motivates him to do what he does. Money and power are pretty obvious answers and that's what he said. The feeling of going anywhere and being able to buy anything you want is intoxicating. Walking into a showroom in LA and buying Maserattis and Ferraris off the shelf. Spending $15k on a drug/booze/women filled wkend and not to have to even see it as a drop in the ocean. He said all drug dealers will say the same. He then turned to a Dutch inmate (drug dealer) who led another of the tours and had just come into the room. Jose asked him what motivated him. "Money? Oh no. I simply wish to change change society by non-violent means!" Gas man!
I asked Jose how much money he had. He hummed and hawed so I suggested $100 million and he said at least that yeah. But that money is for his kids apparently to keep them out of the drug trade for life. He then said that he's going to work for a yr when he gets out and make $10m and then retire. To brazil. Later he changed that to Greece or italy. Though it was obvious to me that he'll never leave the business - he loves it and rewards that come with it! He said he was born in LA but not sure I believe him. His English was excellent though. Also claimed to have spent 4 yrs in Taiwan from ages 10 to 14 so speaks mandarin.
He said that in his family there are rules. Only men allowed in the trade. All must have at least a master's degree, all must speak at least 3 languages.
One interesting qn was asked about who do they think are the kings of the underworld. Dutch inmate suggested Chinese triads but Jose reckons it's the Russian mafia. Highly trained ex KGB agents and clever people.
I asked him why he did the tours. Boredom was his reason. I reckon he also absolutely loves being the centre of attention - think he's a bit insecure - so it feeds his ego nicely as well. And he's a very intelligent, very charismatic man. Being in prison must be hard for anyone but for him I'd say it's especially hard. Well he's now my friend on Facebook so I suppose he can follow my progress around the continent! Hello Jose!
Oh and Pepe who met us outside the prison earlier that morning? He recently got out of San Pedro. Few years ago he was in prison in Sweden and wanted to be sent to Bolivia where he could better control his biker gang, Los Banditos - even from inside... He's the president of the whole of the South America branch. Anyway Swedish authorities refused to send him to Bolivia so he sliced off half his own ear with a plastic knife and sewed his own lips shut. This lad was hardcore. Sweden immediately sent him back to Bolivia. He kept the half ear and had an operation to put it into his stomach where it could grow nerve endings etc and when ready will be sewn back on to his ear!
An amazing day, an amazing experience. Something I'll never forget.
Back to hostel and watched a superb American Football match, then to bed - tomorrow: cycling the World's Most Dangerous Road!
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