A notorious drugs smuggler who was locked up for nine years in an Ecuadorian jail says it had nothing on the state of UK prisons. While he was locked up in Ecuador, Pieter Tritton not only had a luxurious bed in his cell, but he enjoyed the “surreal” experience of watching a live football game from Cheltenham on his satellite TV. Pieter served a total of 10 years and 12 days in South American prisons after being busted with a tent that had been soaked in liquid cocaine.
But the Gloucestershire-born graduate had started trying to take advantage of Ecuador’s reputation for police corruption straight away. Speaking to podcaster Dodge Woodall , he recalled how he told the arresting officers: “I'll give you £25k now in cash, give me a phone I'll get you another £100k in an hour or whatever. I'll get it sent over – you can keep the tent we just forget this ever happened .
..you could say that you just didn't find anything.
” But while Pieter’s attempts at bribing the police and an Ecuadorian judge didn’t quite go to plan, he found that his massive wealth ensured him a very cushy ride in jail. He continued: “You can buy your sell over there. For about £2k what you can choose which cell you want.
” He described how he made sure he had a comfortable stay behind bars, adding: “I had the whole cell refurbed. I had black porcelain tiles put in there had it made up real nice. I had it re-plastered, rewired I had a TV in there, a fridge, new mattresses.
.. when we used to get raided by the police the police would come in and say you're living better than we are’.
” Pieter eventually bought five cells, and rented them out to other inmates in order to earn a little more day-to-day spending money. But despite his comfortable surroundings, Pieter considered escape more than once. One particularly dramatic escape plan involved using a rocket launcher to breach the prison walls.
He went on: “We talked about doing a helicopter lift off the roof, or blowing the wall with an RPG but we opted to dig a tunnel.” Peter had been warned by officers from the Metropolitan police that if his attempt to bribe the judge had been successful and he ended up with a minimum sentence in Ecuador, he’d have to serve additional jail time once he returned to the UK. That, he admitted, would be “hell” by contrast to the cushy conditions in Quito.
And he did get to experience life in UK jails as well, previously revealing how he played cards inside HMP Prison Gloucester with a lag who turned out to have a very dark prison..
