This is the second episode of the BANGED UP ABROAD and the first to feature both male subjects and Britons . It features Paul and James two 19 year old lads who live in Leicester and fed up of their humdrum lifestyle want to escape their humdrum existence and see the world . Being white and of no confessed religious conviction joining Al Quada isn't really an option unlike some young men in the English East Midlands so get caught up in a fool proof plan to smuggle drugs out of Venezuela
From the outset you're struck by the homo-erotic tone of the episode where Paul states he spots a guy in a nightclub " something stuck out about this guy , he looks like something special " Hmmm not something I think about fellow males on the rare occasions when I'm out partying but hey I'm not a international drugs smuggler and who am I to judge . Very quickly Paul and Jim who describe themselves as " gullible children " find themselves on board a plane to Venezuela for an all expenses paid holiday away
There is small price for this and that is they have to smuggle cocaine through customs on the way back . There is of course no way they'll get caught and they'll get $16,000 when they get back to England . Don't worry about getting caught because that isn't going to happen no siree and in the mean time they party " it was like being a film star everyone was whistling at us and wanted to know us " I shouldn't get self righteous but this sounds like perfect preparation for a South American jail
The two lads go to a shanty town to collect the cocaine " It looked like a third world city " exclaims Paul and that statement alone should deter anyone from taking drugs or at the very least not to recruit people from Leicester to be drug mules . Paul and James almost get away with it but walking past passport control down to the tunnel to their plane they get stopped by a couple of plainclothes cops who search them and the two lads soon find themselves in a crowded police station in Caracas for eight months
This isn't the type of police station you'd find in a Western country and is a little bit nasty . The two manage to paint a vivid picture of life here for eight months . Things also work different here in legal terms and defendants aren't present at their trial and Paul and James get sentenced to four years . Interestingly the British government make a demand that two convicted drug smugglers be kept in the police station for their own protection but after two and a half years the lads are transferred to a state prison . Out of the frying in to the deep hot fryer where there's several murders a week and gangs run the prison and yet no matter what happens to Paul and James the sympathy gland remains unstimulated
That said this is one of the better episodes from the series simply because it's got a slightly more sadistic edge where you don't feel there's much embellishment . It also contains some very good editing both visually and on sound where the action constantly cuts between the talking head interviews of the real life Paul and James and the reconstructions
From the outset you're struck by the homo-erotic tone of the episode where Paul states he spots a guy in a nightclub " something stuck out about this guy , he looks like something special " Hmmm not something I think about fellow males on the rare occasions when I'm out partying but hey I'm not a international drugs smuggler and who am I to judge . Very quickly Paul and Jim who describe themselves as " gullible children " find themselves on board a plane to Venezuela for an all expenses paid holiday away
There is small price for this and that is they have to smuggle cocaine through customs on the way back . There is of course no way they'll get caught and they'll get $16,000 when they get back to England . Don't worry about getting caught because that isn't going to happen no siree and in the mean time they party " it was like being a film star everyone was whistling at us and wanted to know us " I shouldn't get self righteous but this sounds like perfect preparation for a South American jail
The two lads go to a shanty town to collect the cocaine " It looked like a third world city " exclaims Paul and that statement alone should deter anyone from taking drugs or at the very least not to recruit people from Leicester to be drug mules . Paul and James almost get away with it but walking past passport control down to the tunnel to their plane they get stopped by a couple of plainclothes cops who search them and the two lads soon find themselves in a crowded police station in Caracas for eight months
This isn't the type of police station you'd find in a Western country and is a little bit nasty . The two manage to paint a vivid picture of life here for eight months . Things also work different here in legal terms and defendants aren't present at their trial and Paul and James get sentenced to four years . Interestingly the British government make a demand that two convicted drug smugglers be kept in the police station for their own protection but after two and a half years the lads are transferred to a state prison . Out of the frying in to the deep hot fryer where there's several murders a week and gangs run the prison and yet no matter what happens to Paul and James the sympathy gland remains unstimulated
That said this is one of the better episodes from the series simply because it's got a slightly more sadistic edge where you don't feel there's much embellishment . It also contains some very good editing both visually and on sound where the action constantly cuts between the talking head interviews of the real life Paul and James and the reconstructions
