New York drug smuggler Oscar Castro spent seven years in one of Ecuador’s most notorious jails but, he says, it was much more relaxed than most US or UK penal institutions. As long as you can afford to pay.
Oscar got roped into ferrying drugs from South America up to New York after meeting a drug gang boss at a party. It was easy, well-paid work, he told podcaster Ian Bick, for a young white boy who spoke good Spanish.
Oscar recalled how he was recruited: “He said ‘Basically you just catch a flight, you’ll go on vacation, we’ll give you money. You could have whatever you want; women, drugs, cocaine, marijuana,whatever you want down there you’ll stay maybe a month or so then you come back’.”
He explained: “I’m talking pre 9/11 so you know airports were a lot different. There weren’t the scanner machines, there was none of that. So I went down, had my vacation, had a good time went out to all the clubs and had a had fun and then when it was time to come back they’ll give you a pair of shoes and each shoe has 400 grams in it. Maybe they might give you another pair of shoes that you could throw in your bag – so this is what I brought back my first time.”
