What’s it’s like to be Locked Up Abroad? Usually it’s your worst nightmare.
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But if you’re a crime/true crime fan, this show is an absolute dream.
If you’ve ever seen National Geographic’s longstanding series Locked Up Abroad you know it’s not only fascinating and gritty – it’s also extremely addicting. While it’s an oldie but a goodie, here’s a reminder for you to not miss the new season. Airing weekly on Wednesdays at 8PM CST on the Nat Geo channel, the new season for 2019 has rolled out and it’s looking better than ever.
“I knew immediately that I’d been set up”
Erik Audé
The documentary series delves into the hellish experiences from those who were/are imprisoned in other countries, typically for moving drugs, and what they had to do to get out. While the series features firsthand accounts, they also add re-enactments as well. Here’s a quick trailer of an episode that brings us the story of an everyday American guy, Erik Audé from California, looking to make some cash only to realize that he’d been duped & used by his associates and ultimately thrown in a Pakistani prison for opium possession. Erik states that he was told that he would be smuggling leather goods, not drugs.
All episodes feature direct accounts from those thrown in jail – sometimes for life – in a foreign country when they are thousands of miles for home. The show goes on to detail their backstories, why they were in another country and what did they do get arrested?
Many of these stories come from venal individuals who knew exactly what they were doing and simply were in it for some quick cash. Five thousand dollars to fly to Guatemala, stay at a 5-star resort for a few days and fly back home with a couple pounds? Sounds great – until you get to the airport, constantly telling yourself to act normal and everything’s okay. Then while your checking in, the woman behind the counter notices something is off about you and alerts security. The next thing you know you’re pulled into a small room, strip-searched and questioned. Then, just like that, all that you know is that you are in a foreign prison where nobody speaks your language, you’re sharing a cell with 10 other people and a boatload of cockroaches without any hope in sight.
Some manage to escape, some have to serve out their sentences. For each account, there’s a lesson well learned – there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Locked Up Abroad airs weekly on Wednesdays at 8PM CST.
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