ShesOpinionated.com

 
I started watching this show called “Locked Up Abroad“. It comes on the National Geographic channel (what? I like that channel).

Its about these everyday people who get locked up for trying to smuggle illegal drugs out of a foreign country. The drug dealers usually seek out white (English) people who look like tourists, because they figure that the local authorities won’t give them a second look as they leave Chili, Thailand, Costa Rica, etc. with these bags of dope.

These people are promised thousands of dollars and a dream vacation to an exotic place with all expenses paid, in exchange for carrying drugs in their luggage or on their bodies.

At first, I guess the “easy” money and the vaycay sounds like a great trade-off, especially if you have no money or are looking for a free getaway. However, after the naive marks get to the dream vacation, they are greeted with the grim face of reality……the villainous drug smugglers who mean business. Suddenly, the “tourists” get this gut-wrenching feeling that maybe they shouldn’t do this (uh, ya think?) and they wanna back out of the deal. Problem is, by then its too late because they’ve already accepted the terms of the agreement, and these scary drug lords are threatening their lives if they don’t follow through. For extra insurance, the druggies usually take their passports as collateral so they can’t exactly up and leave.

Needless to say, things go bad, and these people end up in jail. No, not the 4-star resorts we have here in America; but REAL jails, where rights and humanity don’t exist behind the walls. Lawyer? Ha! You wanna make a phone call? Please. Your ass is just STUCK. For 10+ yrs. Miles away from home and your sanity. All because of some silly bullshit ass “dream vacation”, and a couple a dollas.

SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.

 
This is part of the reason I’m weary of traveling outside of the U.S. Not that I plan on doing anything illegal, but not knowing the laws of the foreign country……I don’t wanna mess around and do something they deem unlawful (like spitting out a piece of gum), and get sentenced to 5 years in hell behind it. Fuck that!

 
But my question is……

did they REALLY think they’d get away with it???

 
I mean, I guess they did (at some point). But WOW, that’s a helluva gamble.