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- BANGED UP ABROAD: HELLHOLE -

drugs right there, and I hated the sight of it, absolutely hated it.

Another cop sliced open one of the fat packages of drugs with his knife and put some of the contents on his tongue to test it, just like you see them do in the movies. He abruptly left the room and I thought, ‘What’s up with him?’ It turned out that the stuff was so strong, it had instantly numbed his entire mouth and he couldn’t speak. Obviously, we had been carrying some seriously powerful gear.

They sat me and Paul in opposite corners of the room with our backs facing so we couldn’t see each other, and bizarrely started showing us photos of girls, shouting, ‘Which of these prostitutes have you been with? We’ve seen you with these bitches!’

It occurred to me right then that the police had been watching our every move – we had seen some of these women at the El Paradiso hotel. We’d thought the hotel was our safe house. We later learned that we’d been staying right in the middle of a National Guard compound.

All our paranoia checked out – we’d definitely been watched all along: we hadn’t been imagining it after all. It was just that we were being watched by the other side, too.

I desperately tried to piece things together in my mind. Had the Russian grassed us up from the very outset? Or had somebody in the hotel itself thrown us to the dogs? Had one of the blokes who’d fitted us with the vests grassed us up for cash?