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William Roger Reaves is a former pilot, boat captain, and prolific drug smuggler. He was an associate of Barry Seal (played by Tom Cruise in "American Made") and flew from Colombia to the US for the Medellín cartel.
Reaves claims to have ferried 20-ton loads of cocaine and marijuana over a career spanning several decades. He speaks with Business Insider about meeting Pablo Escobar, working with Barry Seal and Howard Marks (aka Mr. Nice), and how drugs can pass international borders.
He was imprisoned in Mexico, Australia, Germany, Spain, and the United States for over 33 years.
In 2016, he published a memoir from prison, "Smuggler." He now lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, Marie.
For more:
http://roger-reaves.com/
Reaves claims to have ferried 20-ton loads of cocaine and marijuana over a career spanning several decades. He speaks with Business Insider about meeting Pablo Escobar, working with Barry Seal and Howard Marks (aka Mr. Nice), and how drugs can pass international borders.
He was imprisoned in Mexico, Australia, Germany, Spain, and the United States for over 33 years.
In 2016, he published a memoir from prison, "Smuggler." He now lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife, Marie.
For more:
http://roger-reaves.com/
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FunTranscript
00:00Hello, I'm Roger Reeves. I was a former drug pilot and sea captain carrying drugs,
00:06and I made untold millions importing drugs into the United States and other countries too.
00:12This is how crime works.
00:16I hauled over 100 loads of marijuana from Mexico and Central America into California.
00:22I did 20 ton loads of hashish out of Pakistan and 20 ton loads of Thai weed out of Thailand,
00:28and I was rewarded for that with 33 years in prison.
00:32If I had a chance to do my life over again, I definitely would not do this.
00:37You wouldn't do it. You knew what was going to happen to you.
00:45I went on to start to work with the Medellin cartel with Pablo Escobar, Jorge Ochoa.
00:51I went on down to Columbia to find some work,
00:53and I met up with Mr. Robert Davila, a lawyer from Bogota,
00:59and he introduced me to some people in Jorge Ochoa.
01:03And I liked Jorge, a nice-looking young man, spoke a little English and spoke a lot of English.
01:08So he asked me what kind of airplanes I had and what kind of experience I had flying across the border.
01:14So I told you, I had a DC-3, a Beach-18, a turbojet air commander.
01:19So he was impressed.
01:20He said, well, we got all the work that you can do at $5,000 a kilo.
01:25Wow.
01:27How many kilos you put on there?
01:28He said, oh, 300, 500.
01:30That's one and a half or two and a half million dollars for an eight-hour trip.
01:33And I said, okay, I'm ready to go to work.
01:35So he called his partner in, Pablo Escobar.
01:40He was just a nice man.
01:42He shook hands and asked me the same thing that Ochoa had asked me,
01:45and I told him what I had.
01:47He said, well, we got all the work you can ever do.
01:50We got tons of it stacked up here in the movement.
01:52I went back and got my airplane just started hauling.
01:56So after I believe some loads, I had $7 million, and I thought, wow, that did pretty good.
02:02That was just like in a few weeks.
02:04And it was so easy.
02:07He'd just say Thursday.
02:09And then there was a radio station there at El Paco.
02:12It was at Forks of the Magdalena River, inland from Cartagena.
02:17And I'd fly there, and I'd be at 10,000 feet coming in.
02:21And they would have a smaller plane at 5,000 feet circling.
02:25Sometimes I'd be able to find it.
02:27Then I'd fall in beside it, and we'd go some 200 miles, maybe another hour,
02:31until land at some jungle script.
02:34So I didn't have to know.
02:35Nobody had to know where we were going, what we were doing.
02:38So I'd land there.
02:38Sometimes I'd leave one motor running and open the air stair door,
02:42and there'd be a lot of men with a bucket brigade,
02:46and one of them was in there, and he'd stack and stack.
02:48Like the cocaine came always in duffel bags, like the military duffel bag had a lock on it.
02:53And they had, oh, three X's or a rattlesnake or something,
02:59just like their brands or their gala.
03:01Some went to New York.
03:02Some went to Scargo.
03:03Seattle had just went all over the United States after we got it to Miami.
03:06In Columbia, they kept moving the labs, the drug labs, the cocaine labs,
03:12further and further down into the Amazon until it was stretching our gasoline like,
03:16wow, a little bit of headwind.
03:17We might not make it.
03:19So I complained to the heifers of Pablo Escobar and George Ochoa,
03:25and the runways got longer.
03:28I landed there one time, and Pablo Escobar landed in a brand-new helicopter,
03:32and he came over, and we shook hands, and he had a pilot there named Benjamin Ben.
03:40And he put him, and he said, he's going to show you something.
03:43So we flew north.
03:45I didn't know where we was going.
03:46So we went to Nicaragua, went to a military base and landed there.
03:49He introduced me to the general or whatever it was of the people,
03:52and it was in charge of it.
03:53It says, land here and stay as long as you want to all day, night, week,
03:58whatever you need, repairs.
04:00They'll wash your airplane, fill it up fuel,
04:02and be on your way.
04:04So that started that, and they paid for all that.
04:12DEA didn't even have any eye deep that anybody would come from South America,
04:18come across the Gulf of Mexico, 700 miles, drop down.
04:21I would slow down, and they had sometimes, I don't know,
04:2330, 40, 50 helicopters coming in from the oil wells off the coast of Louisiana.
04:28I just slowed down and came in with them.
04:29And they just had no idea that they were bringing tons of cocaine.
04:33So that's when I was dead up, coming in north, and the whole world was fogged in.
04:44It just come in quickly, and I didn't have anywhere to go to.
04:48So I came down the glide slope, blind, into New Orleans International Airport with a load of cocaine.
04:55I sat there all night long in that fog, and I was afraid of a little car or somebody to come around and find me.
05:01The next morning, about 8 o'clock, I couldn't stand it anymore.
05:04I could see the sun coming through.
05:06So I cracked it up and took off.
05:08I still had a mile out of it, about halfway down the runway.
05:10And I went across Lake Pontchartrain to St. Timothy Aviation.
05:15That was where I was going to.
05:17And I could see it broken down there.
05:18So I just pulled the power and almost straight down landed.
05:21And it had scared me.
05:24Scared, yes.
05:25I was afraid for my life.
05:26I thought, I might die that night.
05:28And I told them, I'm hanging it up.
05:29So I told the fellas in Miami, this is my last.
05:32I'm through with it.
05:34Oh, Roger, please, please.
05:36Well, that was how they was making a living, the Colombians that was up there.
05:38Don't you know anybody that would fly?
05:42And so I said, maybe.
05:44So I asked Barry Seedle.
05:45I met him.
05:51Barry Seedle was an employee of mine.
05:56I took my wife and children down to Honduras.
06:00I was looking for a ranch that had a runway on it.
06:02We could buy, refuel all the way and keep my airplane there in a hand.
06:06We got flights back to New Orleans.
06:09It was a nice looking man sitting beside the window.
06:13And I looked at him and I said, he looked pressily.
06:17He looked different.
06:18He looked like sharp.
06:19Then they got a little bit further.
06:20They had a little click, click.
06:22And I said, he just switched on his autopilot.
06:24The guy in Reno said, you fly these too?
06:27Yes, sir.
06:28I got a few hours.
06:29My name is Barry Seedle.
06:30How you do?
06:31Gave him my address and phone number.
06:33I said, come out to Santa Barbara, Barry.
06:34I may have some work for you.
06:36We went flying without Air Commander and a hot airplane.
06:40He got in it like it was his everyday forward that he was flying.
06:44Click, click, click, click.
06:45Zoom, we took off.
06:47And I said, show me your stuff.
06:48Well, he rung me up like Bob Hoover, the national champion.
06:53But I said, whoa, whoa, that's enough.
06:56And he cut the engine until we went flying this way sideways.
06:59And we came in called the falling leaf until we land.
07:02Stopped that plane right on it.
07:04I paid him a million dollars a trip.
07:06He became my friend.
07:08I really like Perry.
07:09He told.
07:25He turned evidence, which I don't blame him.
07:28He had certain people, strong men in mean Arkansas behind him in the CIA.
07:32And when they let him hold in the bag, he was facing a life prison.
07:37And he just cried and said, Roger, I can't do it.
07:44Me learning to fly was so ironic.
07:47I learned to fly.
07:48And as I was learning to fly, I thought that I would be a missionary aviation fellowship pilot.
07:52I was working the fire department in Los Angeles in Redondo Beach.
07:57And we worked every other day.
08:00And then we had three days.
08:02And we had four days off.
08:03Well, my little airplane, I fly down to Mexico and Mario and the children.
08:07So I started in the antique business.
08:09And it was really, really nice.
08:11I was the very first pickers out there.
08:15And me and this fellow would go back to Missouri, where he was from.
08:18And so I would buy him.
08:19And he had his other firemen that would buy him for me.
08:21And I'd go back.
08:21And we'd rent a big truck and bring him back.
08:23And he'd only go down and give you a load of marijuana.
08:27He said, that stuff's hotter than pancakes or whatever.
08:29And so he introduced me to a fellow.
08:31And he introduced me to a man, a really nice fellow.
08:33He said, you might do it.
08:35I said, I don't know.
08:35What are you going to pay?
08:36He said, pay you $10,000.
08:37I said, throw some of that hay in there.
08:41So I brought him home with nothing to it.
08:44Absolutely just nothing.
08:46I gave it to him.
08:46They gave me $10,000 in a paper bag.
08:49And I took it home and shook it on the bed.
08:50And Marty put her hand over her mouth.
08:53And the baby grabbed a $100 bill and was crawling away.
08:55And it was just really flowing.
08:57So I went to see a lawyer that was a criminal lawyer that took care of cases like that.
09:02And I said, Mr. Lawyer, here's $100.
09:05What would happen if I got caught for any marijuana back from Mexico in my airplane?
09:09He said, what's your criminal history?
09:11I said, I don't have one.
09:13I've never had a speeding ticket.
09:14I've never had a parking ticket.
09:15He said, you work on the fire department there in Redondo Beach?
09:17I said, yes, sir.
09:19He said, for sure you will get probation.
09:23And the worst, the worst you get one year, spend four months raking lease, some military base.
09:30And I thought, boy, I have found my profession.
09:33So I went and bought a bigger airplane.
09:35I bought one that would carry.
09:36I could make $40,000 a day.
09:37So I invited my mother and baby sister to come out from Georgia.
09:44And I took them to Disneyland in my new Cadillac, like I was showing off.
09:50And so she said, what are you doing, boy?
09:52I said, I'm hauling pot.
09:54And she said, how much are you making?
09:55I said, I'm making $40,000 any day I want to go down there.
09:59And I told her what the lawyer said.
10:01And I said, what do you think, mom?
10:03She said, do you need a co-pilot, son?
10:05And that's how it was in 1973.
10:15I'll tell you about how I escaped 1974 somewhere along the way, yes.
10:19I was over in Baja, California and got locked up.
10:22I had knocked an immigration officer down.
10:24And so, oh, boy, I was in trouble.
10:26Two little girls and my wife.
10:27We sat at a little table in a restaurant.
10:29And a guy came up with some shoes under his arm.
10:32And I wanted to know what we were doing there.
10:36Papers.
10:37He was really rude.
10:38And he was looking at my wife very rudely.
10:41He didn't tell me who he was or nothing.
10:42He just said, I'm chief of the immigration.
10:44So we got out the street.
10:46And I hit him on his listener.
10:47And he went down.
10:48A few hours later, here come the Marines.
10:50With their M-16s and bathing nets.
10:53And they arrested me on the boat.
10:56And put me into a little jail.
10:57See, some children came up.
10:59And I had candy and Coca-Cola's in the cell.
11:02And I passed it through the bars.
11:04And they handed me rocks.
11:06And I pulled the door out and banged it till my hands were bloody.
11:09And I got the door pulled down enough I could get out.
11:12And I kicked the front door off of that.
11:14That jailhouse.
11:16And we went through town and got on my sailboat.
11:18And got away for a while.
11:20They got me the next spot down.
11:22And the second one, I was arrested in Mexico.
11:27And I was tortured almost to death in that prison.
11:29In a cell there in Mazatlan Prison.
11:32It was filthy.
11:33I mean, filthy.
11:35There was one bucket in the back.
11:37For all about 20 men to use.
11:39And it run over.
11:40And in the morning, sitting on that hard ground.
11:43On that hard.
11:43Me seeing that floor was miserable.
11:46Then they took me and took me down the back.
11:48And it was in a torture place.
11:50It was, I was in a room about five feet square.
11:53You couldn't, you had to go hang or lay on the floor.
11:57And they take me out and beat me up.
12:00And finally, they put my head under water.
12:03Gaseous water.
12:05And I mean, if you take a whiff of that, you will explode.
12:08So they hit, they beat me from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head.
12:13And I don't know how long I was back there.
12:15You couldn't tell day or night.
12:16It had a light in there.
12:17It was really hot.
12:18I think it was July.
12:19And I, there was a little, little spot, maybe that much.
12:21I put my head face under that door and would suck fresh air.
12:26And I went to sleep.
12:28And when I did, I had the most vivid visions or dreams.
12:34The animals and pink flying fish.
12:37They were just with their wings on flying all over.
12:39I know where Disney got his.
12:40He was on formaldehyde.
12:41So I, uh, I passed out.
12:46And the next thing I knew, I was in the hospital with a, with a doctor over me telling me to breathe.
12:50And my wife got some money to somebody.
12:53And by three o'clock in the morning, I was laying on the cement floor.
12:56And they shook me awake and took me through a little tiny back door of the prison and, uh, put me in a pickup truck and swept me away.
13:04So that, it was an escape, but it was made to get out.
13:07I hauled over a hundred loads within my airplane from Mexico and Central America into the United States.
13:19So I was hauling, uh, hauling marijuana bottle to a place called Pichilinque and, uh, just about 50 miles north of Mazatlan.
13:28It was a poor poverty little village and starving donkeys and had a little tiny short runway there, 900 feet long.
13:36It took all I could do to get off empty.
13:38I had a Cessna 207th large.
13:40So just as I cranked the engine up, pow, I thought I blew a tire out.
13:46I was looking.
13:47And Pedro was punching me saying, policia, policia, policia.
13:51And it dawned on me.
13:52Uh-oh.
13:53And I just pushed the throttle to the firewall and I went tearing off down that little dusty script.
13:57It was only about 400 feet in front of me.
13:59And when I got right to the end of it, they just, uh, it was on both sides of the runway.
14:06They just riddled that airplane with bullets.
14:08Later on, they counted 80 bullet holes that went in there.
14:10And here I am sitting in a seat right up on top of nothing.
14:14And we jumped out and, uh, there was four Federales coming down the, down that runway running.
14:22And they were still shooting.
14:23And a couple of bullets hit the airplane.
14:25Bang, bang, real loud.
14:27Pedro and I started running up the hill through the cactus.
14:31There was an old white donkey.
14:33She must have been 30 years old, a big donkey.
14:35We'd jump on that donkey and get away.
14:38And we go about, I understand, later on, seven miles.
14:41And we found a man and he was plowing a mule and a little cow.
14:44Pedro, of course, knew him.
14:45And they talked a little bit.
14:47And the man put us in his house with his wife and a daughter.
14:50And about night, the man came back with a really nice young man that spoke English.
14:54He said, I'm Dr. Benjamin Soso with a red cross.
14:57But he gave us pain pills and tetanus shots and bandaged Pedro up pretty good.
15:03And he said, he has got to get to the hospital.
15:05He'll die with this.
15:07And he said, with you, they're looking for an American pilot that's maybe dead or shots.
15:12The plane was just full of blood.
15:14And I must have bathed 20 times to get the blood and the dirt and the grub off of me.
15:17They called for a taxi.
15:20And they propped me up with pillows and blankets in the backseat of that car.
15:25And we went, we was going to Guadalajara, I guess it was eight or ten hours, I don't remember.
15:29I got on the plane in Guadalajara, tore up the papers I had and said I didn't have any.
15:36Called my wife and told her I had lead poisoning.
15:38And we flew to Los Angeles and she picked me up and took me to Wilmington to a hospital where I knew a doctor.
15:44And he worked on me.
15:47It was the last marijuana I'm doing.
15:51I had a DC-3, that's a big airplane.
15:53So I went to Columbia in 1981.
15:56And I was looking and I hauled a load or two of marijuana out of there, but it wasn't worth the effort.
16:00I was down over guerrilla territory.
16:03And the man that had me hooked up took me too far.
16:06I couldn't make it back.
16:07So we had to go to a staging place and wait.
16:11The guerrilla says, you come here just at dark, come here at dark.
16:14You can't come here in the daytime.
16:15We have military planes flying this area.
16:17We went back 400 miles and parked at the ranch where we had staged and fueled up.
16:25And I was laying under a tree in a hammock.
16:28And boy, two jets came down the runway just tearing it up with machine guns.
16:33The jet swarmed a couple of times and I got in there and fired it up without even, and I took off without even warming it up at all.
16:40And so the jets got under me and looked like tracers coming up and 20 millimeter cannon, boom, boom, boom.
16:47And they shot the wing up and they come back from machine gun to the tail.
16:51I had like 10 or 12 barrels of 130 octane fuel inside the plane with me.
16:56And the thing, if one of those tracers would hit that, we'd have just went up in a fireball.
17:01I couldn't go very fast because I couldn't get the wheels up.
17:03So I put it down in a pasture straight ahead.
17:06And the wings buckled, I mean, they buckled and the fuel caps flew off.
17:12I took off and they kept the two jets.
17:14And finally one of them went off and I thought, I got to get away from these sellers.
17:18So I went into a thunderstorm upside of a mountain.
17:22And every time I'd come out from that lightning and thunder in there, there was that jet out there with his boom, boom, boom.
17:28I go right back into it.
17:29So I went back into it, put it up on this wing and did a fire off with town and got out from under and got away from the jet.
17:36And I thought, all right, we need somewhere to set this thing down.
17:38I done, my adrenaline's up and I feel bulletproof.
17:41And I said, all right, let's, let's make a runway here.
17:43The grass is four or five feet high and I just make it a half a mile long and just keep putting, putting the wheels down until it looked like a pretty good runway.
17:53Those tires, that thing weighs 30,000 pounds.
17:56They were breaking through the crust and it was soup underneath.
17:59So I just put full throttle and it wasn't enough.
18:04That big airplane just come and stood right on its head.
18:06It was 90 degrees up and then the nose of it just crushed in towards us.
18:11And we fell in between the seats and it stopped as the engines held it up.
18:15And I had the map.
18:16So I knew about 15 or 20 miles away was a, was a little town.
18:20So good.
18:21We'd go there and it was a thatched roof.
18:22That place looked real nice.
18:24We ordered Skokulers around and here come these guards, a bunch of soldiers with their guns.
18:30Who are you?
18:31There was no police in that town.
18:33This was a military base.
18:36So I know what an idiot.
18:39Well, they walk us in a house.
18:41And put a guard in front of the door and he sleeped the whole night.
18:45I knew he was asleep out there for some ways.
18:47He was hearing or something.
18:48So I stood on this fellow's shoulders and I took the tile off of the roof, handed it down one piece at a time, quietly.
18:56And then we called out through the roof and dropped down on the other side, very silently.
19:01And I see that there's a boat, a dugout boat there and a long motor with a long shaft upside of a house.
19:11And just as it got daylight, I went to bang on the door of the house with a man with a motor.
19:17And I told him, I don't know, give him money.
19:20So we broke down our boat down the river.
19:22So hurriedly, we put the motor on the boat and spit off down the river.
19:26So middle of the morning, he says, I can't go any further.
19:30Where are you?
19:32Where's your boat?
19:33And we told him, mister, you've got to go.
19:35We can't go back.
19:37So we took him all day long to, we got almost to San Jose Guavieri, run some rapids.
19:42And then we got out and I gave him a lot of money and told him to go home.
19:47We got away that way.
19:49So that's a kind of escape, too.
19:54It was an escape.
20:00I went to prison in 1982, taking a load of money down to the Grand Cayman Islands.
20:06And when I flew back in, I was arrested in Miami.
20:10And it was for, it wasn't for anything to do with cocaine.
20:14It was all for an old marijuana charge.
20:16So I did two years in prison for the marijuana and had 30 years of parole and probation left hanging.
20:24Gave up my home and property shortly after I got out of prison.
20:28I might have been up three or four days and I'd heard a Barry Seale had turned informant.
20:33I don't know how I heard it, but just a whisper, maybe he had.
20:40So the phone rang.
20:43Barry's voice was there.
20:44He said, I'm coming out tonight.
20:46Very little.
20:47Obviously, I showed up at 9 o'clock and Barry was sitting at the back of the restaurant.
20:51There was about 20 people in there.
20:53Ladies, 35, 40 years old with their leather skirts and their leather jackets and guys with their blue jeans.
20:59It didn't look like the crowd to be in that nice restaurant.
21:03So he said, I just couldn't do it.
21:04I just couldn't do it.
21:05I was facing three life sentences.
21:08And he said, I've told him everything.
21:09I've told him your part.
21:10I've told him everything.
21:11He put his hands up over his eyes and the tears ran down between his fingers.
21:15He said, I'm so sorry, Roger.
21:17I just couldn't do it.
21:18I said, these DEAs, every one of them.
21:21I said, well, bring your head on your oar.
21:23Jake Jacobson was his name.
21:25But anyhow, we had some Chavis Regal and got a little pie-eyed.
21:29And he told me that you're going to need to come down to Miami tomorrow and testify before a federal grand jury.
21:40If you don't and testify, the same thing that Barry says, the only place you're going to ever see your family again is in a federal penitentiary visiting room.
21:49I guarantee you.
21:51And I'm like, get out of here, man.
21:52So I went and talked to another lawyer, and he about told me the same thing.
21:56Like, you're either going to tell them everything you've ever done and your mama and everybody else, or you're going to go to prison for life.
22:04So I went to the courthouse.
22:05I believe it's 3 o'clock.
22:07I was supposed to meet Barry, and they're going to the court.
22:12I said, Barry, I just can't do it.
22:15But they're going to kid you, friend.
22:17And he said, oh, they won't, Barry.
22:19For sure they're going to kid you.
22:21So I gave him a big hug.
22:23I believe I even kissed him.
22:24I said, goodbye, Barry.
22:25They're going to kiss you.
22:26So I took Mario and the children, and we fled to Brazil.
22:29And we'd been down there about six months when I was chasing this $3.5 million that they owed me, Ochoa owed me.
22:43And I called the fellow, and he says, oh, I've got good news, good news, good news.
22:48All our troubles are over.
22:49Barry Seals was assassinated last night.
22:52So, yes, all the cocaine charges were dropped.
22:55So now I'm saved.
22:57But I've got 30 years of parole left in the United States, and I know they're going to burn me for it if I ever go back there because what they didn't get me with the Barry Seals case.
23:13Mallorca, Spain.
23:14It was famous for marijuana and hashish.
23:16So we went down and went to Mallorca and met Howard Marks.
23:27I thought I had found the man I needed.
23:30He knew people in Thailand and Pakistan, and so I started putting up money to haul hashish.
23:37And we hauled another load out of Thailand and 20 tons.
23:43And Howard put us up with unloaders in Canada and $7 million to unload us.
23:50And we took that to British Columbia, and it was being sold for, I believe, $1,400 a pound.
23:56So guys in Canada said, well, we can sell it.
23:58You don't need to take it down.
23:59We can sell it for more a year.
24:00So they were selling it and bringing my friend Jerry and Ron $2 million and $3 million and $5 million.
24:06Well, when the other boat came in, they were all arrested.
24:10The Mounties were watching them.
24:12So they kicked in my friend Jerry's door, and here's $2 million in the room, $3 million in the car.
24:17They got a little key with a tag on it with the storage place number on it.
24:22They were $5 or $6 million there.
24:24So all of it was just gone.
24:26So it didn't make anything.
24:28You don't make any money fooling with Howard Marks.
24:30He didn't use to pay me $2 million, and he just promptly turned me in.
24:35Straight out, instead of paying me, you go to jail.
24:38And that's why I was arrested in Spain.
24:40And Howard ripped me up all of those and turned me in so he wouldn't have to pay.
24:45So that's what I got for my dealings with that man.
24:53I was arrested in July of 88.
24:56They had me hand shook like this, my hands over my back,
24:59so I couldn't get to the handcuffs.
25:03Two leg irons on me.
25:05But to go into the courtroom, they had to take all that off and put the handcuffs in front of me.
25:09And I thought, oh, boy.
25:10And I looked around.
25:11I had a lawyer there, Vascones.
25:13And I looked out.
25:15I couldn't see any palm trees or any power lines.
25:17I just said, how far is it down?
25:19He said, it's so far you'll kill yourself.
25:22And I said, well, I'm a dead man anyway.
25:24I got 30 years in America.
25:25I'm wanted in Germany for something ridiculous.
25:29I'd hired a German citizen as a captain of the boat that hauled the hashish.
25:35So he told.
25:37So now I'm wanted in Germany for hiring a German citizen in an international crime.
25:42There's a stenographer over there by the window.
25:46And she was filing her nails, waiting on the judge to come.
25:50And the courtroom was completely full.
25:52When two of those fellows went to smoke for some reason and had two of them on me,
25:56I ran and jumped on her big desk, as big as a piano,
26:00and kicked that window out.
26:02I was on the third floor.
26:03And I looked down.
26:05Am I really going to do it?
26:06And I thought, I may kill myself.
26:08It was 31 feet down, or 11 meters, it said.
26:12And I thought, well, I'm facing life.
26:16Ain't no telling if I'm going to ever get out here.
26:17I'm almost a dead man anyway.
26:19So I jumped.
26:21And I hit the top of a car that was parked on the side door.
26:26It was a station wagon.
26:27And the roof of that car went all the way to the drive shaft.
26:31It looked like snow going up when the windows shattered.
26:34And the windshield popped over three or four cars.
26:38And I got out and got away.
26:39And I got out of there like Donald Duck.
26:41I could see a tweet, tweet, tweet, and ran down the street and got away.
26:46The next day, this L. Spector door magazine said,
26:49Spider-Man escapes.
26:51So it wasn't long.
26:53A policeman, I was still running.
26:55And he could come with his police car backwards.
26:58And a young policeman got out with a shotgun and came and ran me down.
27:02It hit me in the back.
27:03I still got a dead spot there that itches when it gets hot.
27:08They arrested me, and I was there in a Spanish prison.
27:11They kept me at night with no clothes on, so I couldn't escape.
27:14That was kind of funny.
27:15But they took me to Germany in a military airplane and put me in prison there.
27:20And I got eight years there.
27:22And then the United States was asking for me, and I had about 30 years waiting on me here.
27:27Then they was going to extradite me to the United States.
27:30I escaped from Lubeck Penitentiary.
27:32Now, in Germany, when you went somewhere with them or moved with them,
27:35they put the handcuffs on you.
27:36And one of them's got the Luger, and the other one's got the clip.
27:39And they show you the Luger, and they show you the bullets and say,
27:41we will shoot you, mister, and we're going to shoot you in the back if you get away.
27:45So that's the way they handle it.
27:47I called the lawyer and told him, I said,
27:49I'll give you $10,000 if you would get that crossbreed down there Friday afternoon at 5 o'clock.
27:54And he says, you can't get out of there.
27:57I believe everybody's ever got out of there.
27:59And I said, if I'm not there, you will get $10,000.
28:04And if I'm there, you will get $10,000.
28:07And he said, they may kill you.
28:08And I said, then you won't get the $10,000.
28:11Simple.
28:12He said, that's a mighty big bet on your part.
28:14I said, well, if you take it, he said, yes.
28:15And not before I was going to do it.
28:17It was only two days.
28:17I was planning two or three days.
28:19I still saw those big brass bullets going in my back.
28:23I thought maybe I would be shot to kill, and I really did.
28:25I mean, I knew there was a good chance of it.
28:28I did a daring escape, jumped on top of a guard tower, cut through the bars,
28:32and I almost died going through the bars.
28:35Took the skin all off my chest.
28:37Oh, it was a terrible mess.
28:40I wound up over the fence and got all cut up and went across the place.
28:43And I'm waiting to see about the lawyer.
28:45I can't go to him.
28:46Then I saw the lawyer coming down the road in his car, a blue combi.
28:50And I yelled, hey.
28:51And he stopped, and I got in, and it scared him so bad.
28:55He couldn't light a cigarette.
28:56I said, go, go, go.
28:58And the windows was all fogged up.
29:00And he stopped at the gas station.
29:01And I called my wife.
29:02I told her I'd escape.
29:03And she told me to go back.
29:07She was so upset.
29:10So that was quite a journey from there to Holland to get away from the German prison.
29:15I got to Holland, I guess, and I called the number for his wife and named Elizabeth.
29:20And she just cried and begged me to go back.
29:22And I said, lady, I am so sorry.
29:27Your husband's looking at a month, the three days or something for giving me a ride.
29:32I'm looking at nearly a life sentence, 30 years.
29:35I said, I just can't.
29:37And she cried.
29:37And I said, I am so sorry.
29:39And I really was.
29:40I sent her the $10,000.
29:42And they didn't give him any time.
29:44They gave probation.
29:44And he lost his lawyer license.
29:46And he told me that he didn't even want to be a lawyer.
29:49He was a professor before.
29:51That I feel really bad about.
29:53But, I mean, it's like gambling for $10,000.
29:54He took his chance.
29:55And I'm really, really sorry if that he did.
29:59And we choked all night and got down to Portugal.
30:02And I waited a week there and then got a flight to Venezuela.
30:05And then fly it over.
30:07And in a bus to the plumbing border, I got back down to Colombia.
30:142001, I believe, the guy asked, would I take a load to Australia?
30:22I bought an offshore supply vessel, like from Exxon.
30:25It's the one that goes out into the oil wells.
30:27And that thing was pristine.
30:29But when they get 40 years old, they have to sell them.
30:31We just buy them almost for the price of scrap.
30:34So I bought that one and took off around the world with it.
30:37And we went to Africa and reloaded it.
30:41And then I went back out and met an old tuna boat.
30:44They threw a ton on it.
30:45And we went on to Australia with it around the Cape of Goodhorn, way down below.
30:50And right in the southern ocean.
30:52And, boy, some waves that would just scare you to look behind you.
30:55It looked like a mouth.
30:56I came ashore and sunk the ship and came ashore of rubber boats.
31:01And was knocked in there and buried the stuff in the sand.
31:04And then we're surrounded by federal police and the military.
31:11And they knocked me in the head with a rifle and handcuffed me and took me to prison and put me in life.
31:18And I was betrayed completely.
31:21The people sent me off on the deal.
31:24And they had an informant that was waiting for me.
31:29Federal police all over the place.
31:31It was 1,000 kilos of pure cocaine.
31:34And the Colombians never said sorry, never said a word, never helped my family, never helped me with it.
31:39But the Colombians, they paid $200,000 for their lawyers.
31:43Yeah, I felt I'm really betrayed.
31:46I'm betrayed.
31:46So, the newspapers was full of it.
31:51About $400 million worth of cocaine, largest bust ever in Australia.
31:55And what had happened is they had found out about my other escapes from when they got my records.
32:00So, they put me in this terrible place.
32:04It looked like you see the movie, The Solace of the Lambs.
32:06It was a place just exactly like that, where they looked at you with one-way mirrors.
32:10So, I got 25 years.
32:16And I had to do 14 years before I could apply for parole.
32:19I hadn't been in long enough.
32:21I was called to the warden, the director's office.
32:24And he made me a cup of tea.
32:26He sat down in a wall and stuff.
32:27And he said, now, Mr. Reeves said, I want to just tell you, we're not here to punish you.
32:34We are here to keep you.
32:36When the judge gave you this sentence, that's your punishment.
32:39It's not for us to punish you.
32:41If you behave yourself, you will have a good life here.
32:44And I thought, wow.
32:46I got this time in America, all that parole.
32:51Got a life sentence here.
32:52I may never, ever get out of this place.
32:54Like, I don't usually get upset for that.
32:57A life sentence for that?
32:58That just upset me.
33:00So, I thought, you know, I should tell some of these stories.
33:05I should write them down for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
33:09Posterity.
33:10People that have never known that.
33:12While I was in Australia, I wrote a book called Smuggler.
33:16Mr. Jimmy Carter, wonderful president, a great man, was a neighbor of mine.
33:21He wrote a letter on the President of the United States Stationery and asked the attorney
33:26generally if he would consider me for parole.
33:28And he got it started, and I got back home.
33:30I was deported for Australia on July the 27th, 2020.
33:37And I was arrested when I came here for parole violations, where I was down there, Terminal
33:44Live in California.
33:46So, I stayed there nine months in isolation for no charge, no nothing, just nothing.
33:53Never saw a parole officer, nothing.
33:55And then I was released April the 26th, the following year, after being nine months in
34:04solitary confinement.
34:05If I had a chance to do my life over again, I most definitely would not do this.
34:11I'd have studied my lesson and done something.
34:13Some people say they don't want their children to play with my children because their daddy's
34:17a drug dealer.
34:18You talk to people, and it's like you've got leprosy.
34:23And Mari held her head up and raised those children, and they're all doing really well.
34:29So, she's the star of this show, and really and truly.
34:33Yeah, my mother, brothers and sisters, everybody was affected by it.
34:37Can you imagine spending 33 years in prison in cages, being beaten, treated bad, and your
34:44wife and children home alone, and without you, and crying, and visiting you, and terrible
34:49penitentiaries?
34:51No, it's just, it's just, it's just unthinkable.
34:54You wouldn't do it.
34:56You knew what was going to happen to you.
34:57Hi, I'm a producer and authorised account.
35:00If you enjoyed this video, then please subscribe and comment with more topics that you'd like
35:04us to cover in this series.
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