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- BANGED UP ABROAD: HELLHOLE -

It was like we were in the middle of the Gulf War. Men were on fire, desperately trying to climb barbed wire fences to escape rampaging gangs of armed-to-the-teeth murderers. But the guards were just shooting them through the head – they were on the fence, so it was fair game to them. It was open warfare, a total massacre. And what was the cause of this killing spree? The whereabouts of a £1,000 Desert Eagle pistol all the top daddies wanted to own.

It was like the most savage movie you've ever seen, only it was real and, worse, it was happening to us.

I want to tell this story because if it deters even one silly kid, like we were, from drug smuggling, it will have been worth it. The world needs to know about the horrors that go on in Venezuelan jails, and jails like these all over the world, because until people find out, it will never be changed.

We were caught smuggling ten kilos of cocaine out of Venezuela on November 6th, 1996, and we didn't get back to England until December 6th, 2000.

What came in between was the stuff of nightmares.

Paul and I have written this book together, but it's from my point of view. Paul was my rock in jail and found ways to keep himself sane, while I'll be the first to admit that I went completely crazy.

'I could see what was going on from the outside, kid,' Paul said when we talked about doing this book. 'But