00:00:08 Speaker 1: When an American hunter got caught with forgotten ammunition in a Caribbean airport, authorities told him it was a simple matter of the law. He'd broken it and there would be consequences, no exceptions. But it wasn't simple, and it wasn't just the law. What he didn't know, what he couldn't have known, standing in that terminal with his wife and friends, was that he'd stumbled into something much bigger than a few forgotten cartridges. There was corruption on that island. There was a prison the Humanitarian Commission said shouldn't exist, and when he started talking, there were consequences that had nothing to do with any courtroom. Some of those consequences echoed around the world, but others, the assaults, the cruelty, the extortion, and the violence were hidden, forgotten, were ignored until now. This is Paradise Prison, a three part Blood Trails mini series that follows American hunters and gun owners who were trapped in Turks and Caicos in twenty twenty four. The story received international media attention. And you might think you know what happened, but trust me when I say you don't know the half of it. That's next on Blood trails. Even the most dedicated hunters need a tropical vacation every once in a while. In April of twenty twenty four, Ryan Watson was planning exactly that, a relaxing getaway in the Caribbean with his wife and a few close friends. 00:01:41 Speaker 2: I two fraternity brothers from college. We were all turning forty within a couple weeks of one another, and we had long talked about putting together a fortieth birthday trip for like a couple's trip for us and our wives. At some point, one of our buddies had been to Turks and Caicos in he was really lobbying for us to all go to Turks and Caicos, and we finally conceded just to make the trip happen. 00:02:06 Speaker 1: Ryan and his wife Valerie, packed their bags, left their two young children with grandparents, and boarded a plane for the picturesque Archipelago, six hundred miles southeast of Miami. When they arrived, everything went as smoothly as could be expected. Ryan even noticed that their bags had already been taken off the plane and were waiting for them on the carousel. 00:02:25 Speaker 2: I thought, Man, it's like a first country I've ever flown into where they don't inspect your bags or do anything like that. And my buddy Trey makes a passing comment and he said, hey man, it's the Caribbean, Watson. Everybody's carefree here, and those wards would continue to echo in my head. 00:02:42 Speaker 1: Airport officials didn't check those bags on the way in, but they did check them on the way out. After what Ryan says was a fun and yes, care free vacation, he Valerie, and their friends made their way to the airport to board their flight back to Oklahoma. 00:02:59 Speaker 2: When we pulled up to the airport, kind of panic sets in because the airport is a tiny airport and the airport is just in chaos. I mean, there had apparently been several flights before us that had been delayed, and it was everybody was pushing and shoving and screaming at one another. 00:03:17 Speaker 1: The panic Ryan describes wasn't anything more than what you'd expect at a hot, crowded airport on a tiny island nation. But that was about to change. Brian made it through the security line first, and as he turned to watch his wife and friends, he noticed that Valerie had been stopped by airport security. They were looking at one of their Duffel bags, a bag they'd packed at the last minute to keep another suitcase from going over the weight limit. 00:03:42 Speaker 2: So they go through tearing through this bag. They're looking for something. Clearly. They take all my wife's items out of the Duffel bag. They run all the items through the scanner individually. They're not satisfied, and we're all joking at this point. We think it's funny. I mean, you're with ends. Anytime TSA or the airport security is going through somebody's bag, everybody starts ribbing each other and oh, what are they going to find? 00:04:08 Speaker 1: Eventually they found something, but Ryan says they took it out of the bag so quickly it was hard to tell exactly what. 00:04:15 Speaker 2: And the lady just spun on a heel and walked right back over to the other security guards there and she's showing it to him and they're whispering, and my mom was like, did you see what they got? And I said, I didn't see it. The lady then walks over and holds it up and I recognize it immediately. It is a small package of six point five creedmore reloads. 00:04:41 Speaker 1: Ryan had purchased that ammunition from a local gun shop in Oklahoma City. It isn't uncommon for local shops to sell reloaded ammunition, and Ryan had been using it to hunt deer for several seasons. Loose AMMO in a small plastic bag isn't a great look for going through airport security, but Ryan expected to surrender it and get on his floor. If you're a hunter or a sports shooter, you've likely found yourself in the same position. You get a stern talking to and lose your ammo. But that's the extent of the penalty. 00:05:09 Speaker 2: So I'm negotiating, asking, Hey, you know, can we just throw it in the trash. I'm so sorry. I just a genuine, honest, freak accident. We had no idea what was in there. 00:05:22 Speaker 1: Ryan tried to play it cool, but Valerie had a sinking feeling. She couldn't quite explain. 00:05:28 Speaker 3: I look immediately looked at Ryan. I was like, what is that? I mean, it looked scary to me. They're big bullets, they're gold, and I am panicking. I mean, my heart sinked my stomach because I was like, I know you can't travel with ammunition. We know that, and I don't know how it got through multiple airports. 00:05:50 Speaker 1: Ryan says the airport officials weren't aggressive or accusatory, but they did say that Ryan and Valerie would have to talk to the police. And then they did something else. 00:06:00 Speaker 2: The first little like weird sign that something might be askew was she takes it over and the two other ladies that are watching the X ray screen, they all three take a selfie to hold it up and take a selfie with it. It was like a gripping grin. I was like, what is going on? 00:06:19 Speaker 1: Twenty minutes later, that uneasy feeling escalated to heart pounding concern. 00:06:25 Speaker 2: A guy walks up to me, no word spoken, nothing, He just rips the boarding pass out of my hand and he looks at it. He hands it back to him and he says, I just want you to know you're not going to make that fly. 00:06:34 Speaker 1: Ryan still expected to be on the next flight, so he told his friends to go ahead and get on the plane. 00:06:40 Speaker 2: My wife and I are escorted out of the airport, and about that time, a silver STV comes screeching up to the curve. I mean the bumpers hanging off of it, no markings, nothing on this car. And the man and a woman get out plane close, no badges, nothing right. They'd walk up to us and they start deterrogating us on the corner. Why do you have this? Are you licensed? I I was like, we don't have to have a license to possess ammunition back in the States. Like it was an accident. I'm a hunter. And next thing you know, they opened the door to the car and they shove us in and they say we're taking you with us, and then we're like where to and no badges have been shown. At this point, We're in the back of some beat up suv and I'm like, this doesn't seem Ryan. 00:07:37 Speaker 1: Thirty minutes earlier, Ryan and Valerie were expecting to beat in the air on the way back to their kids. Now they were stuck in the back of an unmarked suv being driven away from the airport in a foreign country by two people who, for all they knew, could be gang members, extortionists, or something worse. All Ryan could think about was whether he should take matters into his own hands. I'm looking for when do I start fighting? 00:08:03 Speaker 2: Do I start grabbing somebody or grabbing the wheel or hitting the emergency brake? And I'm talking to them, They're not responding to me. So Val starts to share our location with the Dyers, who are now boarding their plane, and they say, okay, we're tracking you. We're going to keep an eye on you. We're getting on the plane now. 00:08:24 Speaker 1: As the Dyers took off, the Watsons lost the only allies they had on Turks and Caicos. They didn't know where they were being taken, what would happen when they got there, or even if they'd been officially arrested. All they knew was from the moment that security guard pulled those four cartridges from their bag, their lives had been turned upside down. 00:08:43 Speaker 3: First thing I think of as our kids, because you know, our kids are expecting us home, and I'm sitting here thinking this cannot this can't be real. There's no way that our kids are going to have to grow up without both parents. This is not happening. 00:08:58 Speaker 1: But it was Happeningson's weren't the only ones. Turks and Kikos had recently passed new restrictions ostensibly aimed at curbing gun related crime on the crime ridden islands, but along with drug runners and gun traffickers, these laws had also been used to target tourists, sportsmen, gun owners, and Ryan and Valerie would later learn almost exclusively Americans. 00:09:21 Speaker 3: It was so innocent, and I think the airport security there, I think they probably knew that it was an innocent thing. But there was a lot revealed while we were there that made it seem like this was something that they were targeting. So we were caught in the bool of something much bigger. 00:09:40 Speaker 1: In this special Blood Trails miniseriies We're going on vacation, but not the fun kind. This is a tale of corruption, extortion, bomb threats, and assassination attempts just a few hundred miles from the American border. But it's also a story about perseverance, faith, sacrifice, and the kindness of strangers in a foreign land. At times it sounds like a movie or the most surreal nightmare you've ever had, But it's all true, and the truth is could have happened to any of us. None of these Americans were gun smugglers, none of them even had criminal records, and yet each of them faced decades behind bars in a prison that officials had deemed a human rights violation. How they got caught in that web of corruption and incompetence and how they tried to escape is what the next three episodes are all about. To find your passports and buckle your seat belts. Things only get crazier from here. I'm Jordan Siller's and this is Blood Trails Paradise Prison, Chapter one, Part one, Hunting m O. When I asked Ryan where those four cartridges came from, he didn't hesitate. He'd been using the rounds in that bag to hunt a ranch owned by the family of his friend Tanner Dyer. Over twenty years earlier. Tanner had reached out to Ryan and offered to bring him hunting during an especially dark period in Ryan's life. 00:11:14 Speaker 2: You know, my dad was unfortunately killed in a car accident when I was nineteen years old in the fall of that year, and he, you know, just being a good friend, he had reached out to me and said, hey, man, I want you to come to our family's ranch. We're gonna go hunt. I want you to get your mind off things. And so went out there. They have an incredible ranch out in West Texas, and then they just allowed me to go out there and sit with him, and I enjoyed that. 00:11:48 Speaker 1: That first bittersweet trip turned into an annual tradition, and over the last few years, Ryan has had the chance to take his son to the same ranch. 00:11:56 Speaker 2: So probably my best time ever in the field was a hunt probably two weeks before I was arrested. 00:12:06 Speaker 1: His son was nine years old at the time and he was excited to chase his first gobbler. Ryan took him to a creek he knew that was lined with cottonwood trees. 00:12:15 Speaker 2: I finally I let loose on an alcohol, and man, you can just hear those cottonwood shaken and they're vibrating because there's so many toms that are shot gobbling up in the trees. And I look over and my son was his eyeballs were about this big round. And to watch that morning come alive. Some of those sunrises in West Texas are the most vivid shades of like pink and orange. Watching that come up and watching those turkeys flat out of the roost and just put on a show and watch my son just in awe of it was hands down the coolest moment I've ever had in the field. 00:13:02 Speaker 1: Very few hunters have ever said this, but Ryan told me there were almost too many turkeys that morning, you know. 00:13:08 Speaker 2: Bless his heart. He couldn't look in one direction and her focus on one direction. I'd called a tom and there's probably two or three toms in, but one of them was dang near in his lap and I was like, all right, buddy, like are you gonna pull the trigger? And he's like, I don't know which one to aid, I don't know where to aim. 00:13:27 Speaker 4: I was like, buddy, if you pull a trigger right now, like we're harvesting something. I wrob that Ryan's son wasn't able to pull the trigger on those gobblers. But later that morning, Ryan called in two jakes that were strutting along a fence line. They were clearly on the alert, so Ryan decided to draw their attention in a different direction while he instructed his son to sneak up on them. 00:13:49 Speaker 2: I take off and I'm watching out over my shoulder the corner of my eye, and I hear his little four ten ring out and i'd turn around. He's nervous and shook in and I kind of go running over there and he's like, did I did I get Did I get one? And I was like, get one? I was like, you just smoked two jakes with one shot, buddy. 00:14:14 Speaker 1: For the Watsons, hunting has always been a family affair. Ryan's father trained duck dogs and pointers, and the younger Watson recalls walking the fields at an early age. 00:14:24 Speaker 2: I'd go out with them, walk fields, get to go on the annual pheasant hunt. I mean, as long as I could keep up, and then you know, by lunch, I was probably sleeping in the truck. 00:14:34 Speaker 1: Ryan started hunting deer when he was ten or eleven, and he's hunted every year since. He said there were twenty cartridges in that bag when he bought it from the local shop, which means he fired sixteen. At least a few of them were used on a crazy, non typical white tail that, in Ryan's words, had stories to tell. 00:14:52 Speaker 2: I'm I'm assuming this is the deer that I shot. Oh wow, when those rules got left? But the coolest brown times on a year that I'd ever seen, dude, that's crazy. Yeah, he had some he had some character. 00:15:07 Speaker 1: Yeah that is so cool man. I've never seen anything like that before. 00:15:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, I had neither. I knew he was. I could see a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, And when I got him on the ground, I got up to him and I was like, holy crap. I was like this this year has like some stories to tell. 00:15:34 Speaker 1: As it turned out, Ryan ended up with some stories of his own. But before we get to those, I know what you're thinking, how did those six or five creed More cartridges end up in Ryan's bag? 00:15:45 Speaker 2: That bag which my wife and I had had for over thirteen years. It was a wedding gift. It was a rolling duffel, so I had a hard bottom to the bag, But the lining of that bag, due to the where and hair over the years, had begun to separate. 00:16:02 Speaker 1: Brian told me that was the only bag they took to Turks and Caicos that had also been to the Dyer's ranch. He thinks the bag of cartridges fell through the lining and wedged itself between the cushion of the bag and the hard plastic bottom, so you could. 00:16:15 Speaker 2: Shake the bag all you wanted. It made no audible sounds, and so when they finally disassembled the bag and took the lining out and took the padding out, then they found the ammunition. 00:16:28 Speaker 1: Ran freely admits that he made a mistake and should have checked his bag more carefully. Still, it's hard to blame the guy for not noticing something. It took airport officials multiple attempts to find with the help of an X ray machine. The problem was the same circumstances that made Ryan's mistake more understandable also made it more suspicious. It looked like Ryan had hit in questionably packaged rifle cartridges in the lining of his bag. That didn't sit well with officials, which became terrifyingly obvious during the Watson's first interrogation Part two. Weekend bail, Ryan and Valerie didn't have to wait long to find out where they were being taken, but that knowledge was small comfort. 00:17:15 Speaker 2: I bet it was a ten minute car ride to where they took us. We pull up. It's an empty white building. It's a two story building. I'm like, I don't see a police station sign anywhere here. 00:17:28 Speaker 1: The Watsons weren't in handcuffs, but they still hadn't seen a badge, a crest, or any indication that they were being detained or kidnapped by legitimate authorities. Even the vehicle they were riding in didn't seem official. As they pulled up to the unmarked building, Ryan tried to let himself out. 00:17:45 Speaker 2: I go to reach for the handle and I grab a hold of the handle in the interior because I was gonna let myself out, and the officer, who's a bigger guy, he grabs a hold of the handle from the outside and jerks it open. When that happens, I snapped the handle from the inside of the car off, and so now this guy, who already doesn't want to be my friend, is like pissed. He grabs a handle, throws it in there, starts pushing me. The female officer gets val out and we get pushed upstairs opened the door. They opened the door to this office building and it's empty, like there's not a soul and there's not a poster on the wall. There's nothing. And I'm like, we're gonna get robbed here, like we're murdered, or they're going to do something to Valerie. 00:18:35 Speaker 1: The Americans were hustled into a small room and told to sit down. Ryan told me he was still carrying the luggage with the four cartridges inside, and both he and Valerie had their cell phones. 00:18:46 Speaker 2: About that time, the dyers start texting us and they were like, are you sure that these are police officers because we tracked your location to this random building in the middle of nowhere, and I was like, I'm not sure. This is sketchy at best. 00:19:04 Speaker 1: A few minutes later, the man and woman who had detained them walked into the room, but this time they were carrying badges. They introduced themselves as Sergeant Charles and Officer Markland. This helped ease Ryan's mind, but as it turned out, kidnappers may have been easier to deal with. 00:19:20 Speaker 2: And then the interrogation starts and they lay into us heavy, like what were we doing? What criminal activities were we up to? How long have we been on the island? Who had we dealt with the whole time. I'm like, guys, we were here to celebrate my fortieth birthday. They were convinced that we were drug runners or arms dealers of some sort. I'm like, guys, I'm a I'm a medical salesperson. My wife's a Christian school teacher. I'm a hunter. This is a just a terrible accident. I'm so sorry. They aren't They're not backing down for nothing. And the interrogation at this point has gone on for probably an hour and a half, and they're getting pretty heated and getting up and putting, you know, pushing fingers in my face. 00:20:09 Speaker 1: The absurdity of these accusations should have been obvious. The Watsons were clearly not gun smugglers, and more importantly, they hadn't been caught trying to take ammunition into the country. They'd been caught trying to take it out. If officials were so concerned about American tourists illegally importing ammunition, you'd think they'd check the bags on the way in. But when Ryan tried to argue this point to the officers across the table, it. 00:20:34 Speaker 2: Didn't even register to them. I mean, I might as well have been speaking Mandarin because they I mean, it did not have any impact or influence in our situation. 00:20:44 Speaker 1: Something else was going on here, something that went beyond regulating the possession of ammunition. These thoughts tickle the back of Ryan's brain, but in that moment, he had more pressing concerns. 00:20:56 Speaker 2: I say, hey, guys, you promised me that I could phone my mother whenever we got to this station. And they said, well, yes, but we're not going to allow you to call her yet. I said, well, I need to let her know, like she has my children at the house, she's watching our children at home, and she needs to know that we're delayed and we're gonna be late getting home. And that's whenever Officer Charles or Sergeant Charles leans back in his chair and just with the biggest, you know, shit eating grin ever starts laughing. He says, you two don't get it. You're both going to prison for twelve years, and it starts today. 00:21:40 Speaker 1: Brian guessed that this was an intimidation tactic, but the officers were clear that the couple was headed to jail to await their first hearing. 00:21:48 Speaker 3: When they told us that they were gonna take us to jail, that, I mean, I couldn't even fathom. I'm sitting here thinking, Okay, I'm in a foreign country and I am about to be arrested and put in a jail. I mean, I have no idea other than the tourist areas of this country, like what I'm getting into, and so I start crying. I'm very emotional. I'm thinking about our kids back home. I'm thinking about what in the world am I about to embark upon. 00:22:17 Speaker 2: Val is trying to collect yourself, and I'm trying my best to consoler. At some point, Valerie makes the statement, neither one of us have been in any type of trouble before is what I'm wearing. Okay to go to jail in will I be cold? And as a husband man, that like just ignited something in front of me, inside of me, and I was like, I am not, this is not going to happen. And I stood up and up until that point, i'd been very compliant, yes sir, no, ma'am, as I was answering questions, and I was like, this has to stop right now, Like my wife is not going to prison. I don't care what happens. I can promise you guys both one thing. It's not going to end with her being in a jail cell. 00:23:11 Speaker 1: The officers looked at each other and walked out of the room without saying anything. When they returned, they made the Watson's an offer that, if possible, made this situation even more surreal. 00:23:21 Speaker 2: About that time, the two officers walk back in the room. They say, hey, we've thought about it. We know you have kids at home. Real sad, real sad thing. So we're going to do our one good deed for the day. If you can find a local, like a local Turk Islander that is willing to put up an asset the equivalent of your bail, we'll let you out on what's called a week in bail. And I was like, I have to find a local willing to put up an asset, like I'm a tourist, been here for five days. And he said yep. He said, that's your one shot to be true. Affairs back at home in order, otherwise you guys are going to jail then on to prison. 00:24:02 Speaker 1: Throughout the interrogation, Ryan and Valerie had been texting with their friends back home trying to get help. They'd secured an attorney, but he hadn't arrived yet. When Ryan told his friend Trey about this latest development, Trey asks how valuable the asset had to be. 00:24:17 Speaker 2: I was like, I have no idea, Like they haven't told me anything. So I peek my head back out the interrogation room door and I'm like, hey, what's my bail? And guy like kind of clicks his tongue. Let's call it ten grand and clearly making this up. 00:24:30 Speaker 1: As he goes. Ryan had no idea how he'd find a local willing to risk an asset worth ten thousand American dollars. The only one he knew was a man named Ruben. The driver who'd been taxing them around during their five day vacation. Trey figured that was their best shot, so he sent Reuben a text explaining the situation. 00:24:50 Speaker 2: Ruben is just the sweetest man of all times. He sees this request from Trey coming in and drops his customers off at their location, spends his car around and drives directly to the police station and puts up the title to his car. Talk about just good heart man. That's the definition of doing it. I mean, he's we were passengers in his car at best right. 00:25:20 Speaker 1: Ryan and Valerie signed the bail paperwork and were forced to give up their passports. They were told they had to appear back at the police station on Monday, but thanks to Ruben, they had two days to find a hotel, get some sleep, and figure out what in the world was going on. 00:25:35 Speaker 2: I had to book a hotel in front of him. They had to know my room number, they had to know everything right then, right then and there. So I write that all down for him. Ruben takes us to the hotel, drops us off. We get in and I mean, you feel like a fugitive on the run. You know, we're checking blinds, we're checking we're double checking all the locks, and yeah, that's when we start phoning everybody we can back home, and it's just desperation, please for help, can you please please help us. We're in a situation. 00:26:11 Speaker 3: And that weekend was a weekend full of anxiety. I mean, we were both just sick at our stomachs, on edge alert. I mean, every time we'd hear helicopters, we felt like criminals, you know, we felt like people were watching us. We felt like people knew who we were, and not in a good way. You know. We felt like the locals were looking at us and may had been maybe tipped off or told, and we felt like we were being watched. We just, I mean, we didn't want to go anywhere. We couldn't eat. 00:26:42 Speaker 5: It was. 00:26:42 Speaker 3: It was a horrible, horrible feeling, not knowing our fate, not knowing if we would see our kids. 00:26:50 Speaker 1: As the Watsons ran through their address book looking for anyone who might be able to help, they soon discovered that they weren't as alone as they thought. Another American hunter had been attained for the same reason at the Turks and Caicos airport, but he didn't have good news. He'd already been on the island for two months, and he had no idea when or if he'd be allowed to leave. The hard truth was that there were larger forces at work on those small Caribbean islands, and it was anyone's guess whether those forces would release them or turn their lives upside down forever. That's next after the break part three. 00:27:41 Speaker 2: Brian, Yeah, I'll never forget it. 00:27:43 Speaker 6: It was February thirteenth, about one forty five in the afternoon. Yeah, that day came and it was essentially what I would call my doomsday. 00:27:53 Speaker 1: That's Brian Hagrich. Brian was thirty nine years old in twenty twenty four and he lived with his wife and two kids in western Pennsylvania. 00:28:01 Speaker 6: That was our fourth trip to Turks and Caicos. Beautiful island, beautiful water, great resort, you know, just the weather that time of year, just absolutely gorgeous, just the place that we felt pretty comfortable at. 00:28:15 Speaker 1: They'd been there five days and he told me they didn't want to leave, but the kids had to get back to school, so they packed their bags, made it through security at the airport and we're waiting for their departure time. 00:28:26 Speaker 6: It's probably forty five minutes before our flight departs, we're about ready to start boarding. It's a small, smaller airport, no air conditioning, so it's it's hot. People are crammed in. You don't have a seat to sit in. And I heard my wife's name called over the PA systems Ashley Hagritch, please come to check him, and that's odd, you know whatever. Then they called it again, so funny. You need to go see what they need, you know, it's something with the kids or whatever. So she walks over and they said, man, we want to check your bag and she said, okay, that's fine. 00:29:02 Speaker 1: The bag in question was a large Duffel they'd use to carry pool accessories. It was too big to carry on the plane, so they checked it prior to going through security. 00:29:11 Speaker 6: And they're searching through this bag for I don't know. It seemed like forever, but probably in reality it was ten minutes. And then all of a sudden, the security officer pulls out the box of sixty five PRC and I said, oh, yes, those are mine. I'm sorry, like those are there from the last hunting trip. 00:29:31 Speaker 1: Brian is a lifelong hunter. He lives in Western PA, so he enjoys whitetail hunting, especially during the state's traditional muzzleloader season, but he also travels out west to chase mule deer and elk with his bow. He'd taken that particular box of six five PRC cartridges as a backup. It was totally full in its original packaging and hadn't been opened. Like Ryan, Brian thought, airport security would confiscate the box and he'd be on his way. He had even more reason to believe that because in the US it's perfectly legal to transport package ammunition in a checked bag. But as the guard lifted that ammo from the Duffel, he knew right away he was in a world of trouble. 00:30:11 Speaker 6: The look on his face when he found that ammo was literally like he just hit the jackpot for fifty million dollars in the lottery, Just priceless. Like he held those up and was like waving them around to anybody that could see them in that area, and I'm thinking at that point, like what on earth that's going on here? And then all these people immediately just swarm in, and at that point I knew, all right, this this may not be as simple as hey just throw those in the trash and before I know it's multiple police and I said, you're going to jail. And I said, well, what do you mean I'm going to jail, Like, just throw them out. I don't have a firearm. There's nothing here that they can really do anything with this ammunition. And so they were very persistent that, you know, like you're going right here and right now. And I said, well, I have a wife and two kids, like I need to at least like talk to them, let them know, hey, like this is what's going on. And I had to literally plead with them for I don't know a few minutes, and finally they brought my wife to kids over. They wouldn't let the kids inside the room, and I told her what's going on. It was probably a thirty and a forty second conversation, and off I went. 00:31:26 Speaker 1: Brian's wife was, as you can imagine, extremely upset. His two kids were three and five, so all they knew was that they were getting on the plane and for some reason Dad wasn't there. Brian tried to reassure them that he'd be on the next flight, but as you've probably guessed, that didn't happen. He was taken to the same unmarked building as Ryan and Valerie, but for reasons that remain unclear, he wasn't given the option for weekend bail. After he was processed and surrendered his passport, he went straight to jail. 00:31:58 Speaker 6: I've never seen the inside of the cell, but this was not what I would expect, or not what you see in the movies. You're basically placed into one holding cell. It's nothing separating you, and I think I head up to seven other individuals in there at one time, people on drug charges, murder, you name it. You're right there. You're literally sleeping. I'll float away on a blanket in a dark area that you have no clue what's going on. 00:32:27 Speaker 1: The next morning, a guard handed a cell phone through the bars and said Brian's wife was on the line. 00:32:32 Speaker 6: It's just like completely elated, and you know, had probably a minute or two to talk, but she said, Hey, I've called every attorney on this island. This is the guy like you need him, Like he's going to come meet with you later on today. 00:32:46 Speaker 1: This attorney's name was Oliver Smith, and he plays a big role not only in Brian's story, but in Ryan's as well. He arrived later that day around four in the afternoon and delivered some troubling news. 00:33:00 Speaker 6: Yeah you're here, and he's a very I made a very few words, matter of fact, you know, you're gonna be here for a while, but we'll work through this. And that's not very encouraging when you've been well. At that point, it really was only a day, and I said, well, how long do you think I'll be here? It's like months, And when he said months, my heart just sank to the lowest of low places. You know, what I thought was, you know, maybe a day, a week, a month, and he says months. I know, it was very real. 00:33:38 Speaker 1: At that point, Brian was discouraged by Oliver's assessment, but he was still hopeful he wouldn't have to spend those months in jail. He did eventually get bail, but thanks to some ill timed holidays, he spent more time behind bars than he ever would have hoped. 00:33:53 Speaker 6: I was stuck in that jail cell for for eight nights. I mean, you have no concept of time. I mean the only concept of time I truly had was literally when the janitor would come in the morning, and I mean I slept. I don't even know if it was thirty minutes every night. I mean it was very very little, like sleep with one eye open, just people coming in, you know, people they're picking up off the streets. You don't know who this guy is, what he's going to do. I mean, I was terrified. 00:34:22 Speaker 1: None of the other inmates harassed or threatened him, and Brian even befriended one of the guards who helped him understand more about his situation. 00:34:30 Speaker 6: But the conditions were just horrific. The bathroom like you would go into an adjacent cell and they said, just pee in this floor drain and they'd dump some bleach on it or fabulous. So every day there was I caught like an old gymnastics mat that had probably been used for the last twenty years. Blankets that were never washed, had holes all through them, no pillows, bugs, roaches everywhere, just completely disgusting. 00:35:03 Speaker 1: Brian spent those eight days in night sitting by himself, wondering how in the world he ended up in a jail cell fourteen hundred miles from home. He was finally able to wire the money to pay his bail and get out, but the news that awaited him on the outside was worse than he could have ever imagined. 00:35:21 Speaker 6: And I quickly learned that you know, posess ammunition there that everybody's just said twelve years, twelve years, and that just got ingrained a your head over and over again and. 00:35:33 Speaker 2: Scarcely to death. 00:35:35 Speaker 1: The prison sentence Sergeant Charles mentioned to Ryan, the one he thought was just a bluff, was all too real. In twenty twenty two, the Turks and Caicos House of Assembly increased the mandatory minimum prison sentence to twelve years for possession of firearms and ammunition. They did so, they claimed to address a spike and gun related crime. Anyone found guilty of illegally possessing these prohibited items was in jeopardy, whether they were a hardened criminal or an American tourist. The law did allow judges to waive the mandatory minimum for what it described as exceptional circumstances. Brian's circumstances seemed to fit that description. He wasn't a criminal, and his cartridges posed no threat to the residence of Turks and Caicos. In fact, as he would later learn, officials weren't even able to find a gun on the island capable of test firing his six' five millimeters hunting. Rounds it was also true That americans had been caught with ammunition, before and many of these individuals had been given fines and allowed to return. Home this should have been, encouraging but according To, brian these more lenient sentences put him in a terrible. 00:36:45 Speaker 6: POSITION a lot of the locals felt that they were unfairly treated Because americans were what they called slap on the, risk given a, fine and they return home where these guys were going to jail for possessing a couple rounds of. Ammunition so there was a very large outcry among their local population that, hey you, Know americans should be in our jails for twelve years. 00:37:07 Speaker 1: Too around the same Time brian was, arrested A turks And caicos court of appeals was considering this. Issue brian's lawyer said they'd have to wait for that decision to come out before making their next, Move so the hunter spent his first three lonely weeks on the island dreading what that court would. 00:37:24 Speaker 2: Decide the ruling. 00:37:26 Speaker 6: Came, out which that essentially, said, hey, like you can't just get a, fine like they have to all be handled. Alike AND i never forget that day, either when that came out my heart is, saying because it's just it flat out said that there's jail. 00:37:44 Speaker 1: Time When ryan And valerie were arrested about a month, later THE Us embassy in The bahamas told them the same. 00:37:51 Speaker 2: Thing one of the embassy counsulors calls me. Back it, says, HEY i heard that you got caught in this. Situation we just learned of this about thirty minutes. Ago sorry for what you're going, through But i've got some bad news to tell. 00:38:05 Speaker 7: You. 00:38:06 Speaker 2: Ryan it is the law just recently changed in the last couple, months and they have truly implemented a twelve year minimum mandatory prison sentence for. This evense he, said, buddy you're going to prison for twelve. 00:38:22 Speaker 3: YEARS i felt LIKE i had just been punched in the Gut whenever they said, THAT i was, like there's no way our kids are going to grow up for twelve years without a mom and a dad because of four bullets that were lodged in the lining of a. 00:38:38 Speaker 6: BAG i forget my wife's comment on live air WITH abc that you, know my husband's a great. Person he made an honest. Mistake are we going to let an honest mistake that has not harmed anyone determined the next. 00:38:53 Speaker 2: Twelve years of his. 00:38:53 Speaker 6: Life my daughter at that point was ready to graduate. Kindergarten so when you here twelve, Years i'll watch your graduate high. School like that puts everything into perspective for a. 00:39:06 Speaker 1: Parent after the, break Another american gets trapped In turks And caicos and ends up in, Prison part Four. Marooned brian was arrested On february, thirteenth twenty twenty, four While ryan And valerie were taken in two months later On april. TWELFTH a week after, that their numbers grew. 00:39:35 Speaker 8: And mentally it was not. Easy one dad told me to get bail and we started going through that whole. Process that's when it started to get even harder because he had this hope of getting out of this miserable. Place AND i, THINK i don't know day like ten THAT i was in, THERE i was kind of a, wreck just ready to, leave like when is this going to? 00:39:57 Speaker 1: Happen That's Tyler wenrek speaking about his time inside the same prison the Other americans were afraid of being locked inside for the next twelve. Years How tyler ended up in that, hot, dirty mosquito infested concrete box will sound familiar but also bizarrely. 00:40:15 Speaker 8: Different one of our best friends wanted to do a bachelor party for his for his, wedding so and he wanted to do a cruise for. 00:40:23 Speaker 1: That so we're just stoked. 00:40:25 Speaker 8: About being able to go to this place that just looked super beautiful and it was supposed to be a lot of. 00:40:30 Speaker 1: Fun The Royal caribbean crews took them to several of the forty islands that make up the archipelago Of turks And. Caicos On, Saturday april, twentieth the ship was scheduled to make a stop at one of those, islands known As Grand. Turk Grand turk is the nation's, capital but despite its, name it's not the largest. Island that title goes To Providence yalis Or. Provo provo is home to all the touristy, resorts as well as the airport Where ryan And brian were. Arrested tyler and his friends disembarked the cruise ship to Explore Grand turk and hang out on the. Beach there was no security to get onto the, island but they had to put their bags through a scanner to get back on the, ship. 00:41:11 Speaker 8: And SO i put my backpack, through and one of the security guards flags me and stops, me and he asked if it's my, bag AND i told him it, was and he pulls he kind of digs through one of the really small half moon pockets on the top and he pulls out a nine millimeter, bullet and so at that POINT i kind of just kind of, froze and he puts it through the scanner again and digs through pulls out another. 00:41:40 Speaker 1: One it's important to note here that the security checkpoint was on the, ship not the, island and the guard was not a government. Official he worked for The Royal Caribbean Cruise. Line so he Told tyler that they'd have to search his room on the ship to make sure he didn't have any other prohibited, items. 00:41:57 Speaker 8: And they just kept saying the whole time that this is, routine we're trying to make sure everybody, safe and so we didn't really think it was super. Serious we still kind of felt, worried but it was just because we weren't sure what to. 00:42:11 Speaker 1: Expect security officials didn't find any other weapons or, ammunition but the guard said he was required to notify local. Police it's unclear whether this was actually. True The Royal Caribbean health And safety policy states that cruz personnel may contact local authorities if a guest conduct threatens the health and safety of other, passengers but it also says the items can simply be, confiscated which in the case of two nine millimeter, bullets seems like a more appropriate, response But tyler didn't have time to comb Through Royal caribbean. Policies when he got back down to the, pier he saw Four turks And caicos, officers two uniformed and two in plane. Clothes they asked him a few, questions Which tyler answered as best he, Could but as he glanced behind him towards the, ship he saw something that made his stomach. 00:43:00 Speaker 8: Drop there's two, rampsers one on the front and one in the, back AND i see the back ramp kind of go, up and so at that, Point i'm getting real, concerned and SO i asked the officer in front of me IF i was being, arrested and he didn't really say anything at, first and THEN i started to talk a little bit and told him about having a concealed carry permit back, home and one of the detectives in the back kind of perked up and kind of motioned to them that, that, like, yeah, okay let's take him. 00:43:29 Speaker 1: In rather than reassure the officers Of tyler's good character and proficiency with, firearms his concealed carry permit was instead further evidence of his. Guilt someone with a carry permit is more likely to own nine millimeter, bullets even though at that Point tyler wasn't sure how those cartridges ended up in his. Backpack but at. 00:43:48 Speaker 8: That, POINT i think the last ramp had gone up and the boat was starting to leave. Already so at that, Point i'm kind of freaking out in my head And i'm trying to figure out how to tell somebody because nobody knows what's going. 00:44:00 Speaker 1: On to add insult to, injury some of the other cruise passengers had caught wind of what was happening down on the. 00:44:07 Speaker 8: Pier all the crews people are on the deck of the cruise ship lined up kind of taunting and just they don't know what's going, on so they think it's you, know drug related or, whatever, like, oh this guy got in. 00:44:19 Speaker 1: Trouble tyler called one of his friends on the, ship but he didn't make it down before the boat sailed. 00:44:25 Speaker 8: Away he was trying to rush down to help, me but at that point the boat had already started to, leave and that's the last TIME i talked to him during the whole. 00:44:34 Speaker 1: Trip like the Other, Americans tyler had never been in trouble a day in his. Life he worked as a paramedic and had earned his commercial pilot's, license both of which require a pretty clean, record and now here he was alone in a foreign, country watching his ship sail away while he was hauled off to. Jail it, was in a very real, sense like being marooned on a deserted. Island the only silver line was, that Unlike Tom hanks And, Castaway tyler could still call for. 00:45:04 Speaker 5: HELP i got a text From tyler and it just simply, Said, Dad i've been arrested In Grand. Turk so that was you, know you sit back and you kind of, Wonder, okay is it our? Joke not a good, one but what's going? On so it was very nerve wracking right off the bat to try to figure out what's. Happening, tyler, luckily after he was brought off the, ship spoke with one of the officers who allowed him to use his phone to call, me and that was when we found out what was really going. 00:45:44 Speaker 1: On That's tyler's, Dad Michael. Wenrick tyler explained what was, happening and after learning more about the seriousness of his son's, Situation michael decided to fly. Down it wasn't an easy. Decision michael's, Wife tyler's, mother was experiencing health, problems And michael was afraid of leaving her at home by herself for who knows how. Long but The wenrix are a tight, family And Missus wenrix said her son would need somebody on the island to fight for. Him tyler also had a young wife and child who needed their husband and father to come. Home michael secured a lawyer On Grand turk and flew down On. Tuesday in the, Meantime tyler spent a difficult four days locked in a jail cell in the same kind of conditions you Heard brian. Describe When michael walked into the police station and saw his, son he, said both he And tyler broke. 00:46:34 Speaker 5: Down that was an emotional, time a tough, time senior, son you, know, imprisoned very, difficult very. Difficult if you Knew, tyler not just because he's my, son but he is the most, upright, honest by the books kind of guy you will ever meet him in that situation was super. 00:47:02 Speaker 1: Hard, unfortunately as their lawyer explained to them later that, day things weren't about to get any. 00:47:08 Speaker 8: Easier but she basically told, me there's Another american that's in trouble like, this and she's, like they just changed the law to where the judges don't have discretion. Anymore they have to at least give you a fine and time instead of just a fine or just. Time so she basically was, like you're going to go to. Prison it's just a matter of how much time you're going to. 00:47:31 Speaker 1: Go in none of these cases did The americans consider pleading not. Guilty they were unlikely to have, won first of, all considering the evidence against, them but they'd also be stuck on the island for years awaiting. Trial, instead As tyler's lawyer advised, him the best strategy was to plead guilty and hope for his lenient of a sentence as. Possible given the certainty of prison, Time tyler made another tough. Call if he went to prison right away instead of making, bail he'd get credit for time served when he was eventually. Sentenced his lawyer agreed that that would be a way to expedite his time on the. 00:48:06 Speaker 8: Island told, HER i don't know IF i can get out and then go back, in you, know that whole mental like back and. Forth SO i told, HER, I i'm just going to stay until we figure out what this is actually going to. 00:48:22 Speaker 1: MEAN i should clarify here, that like in THE, us The turks And caicos legal system distinguishes between jail and. Prison the jails are housed in local police stations and they serve as temporary holding sales until a suspect makes. Bail the, prison generally, speaking is for inmates who have been convicted and then sentenced to an extended stay behind. Bars turks And caicos has one prison located On Grand, turk and it's not a place you want to end. Up in, fact just a year Before tyler was, arrested The turks And Cakos Human Rights commission said that the prison should be. Condemned they said in a report that it's quote not fit for human. Habitation it's wide open to the. Elements rain gets in the cells and soaks the, mattresses and inmates are eaten by. Mosquitoes and. Sandflies the sanitation conditions are, atrocious with many of the cells not having working. Toilets they also noted high rates of, violence and specifically mentioned one inmate who'd been hospitalized after being. Stabbed they concluded that the prison breached many of THE un minimum standards for the treatment of, prisoners as well as the majority of the CORE Un human rights conventions unless something. Changed this is Where, Brian, Ryan, valerie And tyler were, headed and if their attorneys were, right they'd be there for over a. Decade tyler decided he might as well get a head start on his, sentence but once he got, there he realized he'd made a. Mistake whether he'd be able to get out was a question, that like everything else on the, island he didn't know how to. Answer part Five. Escape While tyler was making his way to The Grand Turk, prison The watsons were formulating a plan to Get valerie back home to their. Children she'd been charged, because While ryan admitted the rifle cartridges were, his they'd been found in the Bag valerie was. Carrying this seemed obviously unfair to, them but given the couple's experience With turks And, kikos law, enforcement they weren't willing to rely on the common sense of the legal. System the night after their, Arrest ryan, says they didn't sleep a. 00:50:31 Speaker 2: Wink my wife AND i stay up all, night and at which POINT i tell, HER i, Said, Babe i'm not gonna let you go to. PRISON i, said we've got to get our story. Straight and the story from here on out is THAT i was carrying the bag the whole. Time we craft this, story that we were trying to make room for two bottles of. Wine we moved my wife's stuff into the duffel, bag WHICH i was carrying the entire, time just to make room for the heavier wine. Bottles so we rehearsed the story all night, long and we knew we had to get good at, it AND i interrogated her for hours on. End my wife, says sweet as can. Be she's the most genuine soul on the, planet AND i knew that she couldn't lie, naturally and so we rehearsed it just to all hours of the. 00:51:24 Speaker 1: Night the next, day they met with their, Attorney Oliver, smith who agreed that the best way to Secure valerie's release was to shift all the blame Onto. Ryan when they were interrogated again. 00:51:35 Speaker 2: On, Monday he's, like demand to be interrogated. First i'm going to send the officer a message telling him to interrogate you. First he, Said so go, in get your interrogation. Done Then valerie's going to go in and just say not my, bag not my, bullets not my, bag not my. Bullets it was. 00:51:54 Speaker 3: Like they are going to try and get both of, you and if there's any slip up out, all and they think That valerie has something to do it that they could very easily charge her, Too and one of you needs to go home to your. 00:52:07 Speaker 1: Kids The watsons didn't know it at the, time but the stakes here were even higher than they. Realized about a month after they were, arrested An american woman Named Sharita greer was taken into custody for having pistol ammunition in her. PURSE A us congressman told me that Because turks And caicos didn't have a facility for, Women sharita was handcuffed to a chair in the police station for three. Days this incident became an important part of this, story And i'll explain why in a future, episode but it's safe to say that being detained In turks And caicos as a woman came with serious health and safety, risks so it was critical to Get valerie off the island as soon as. Possible When monday finally rolled, Around ryan was interviewed first and he stuck to his. Script then it Was valerie's. 00:52:53 Speaker 2: Turn they Take valerie back in the interrogation. Room oliver shows up just as they start to The valerie's interrogation and he. Goes he disappears into the room with. Him probably twenty minutes, Later valerie comes. Out she's With. Oliver oliver's got a real defeated look on his, face And i'm, like what's going? On and he, said, well they're not sure if they're going to release her. YET i was, like what are you talking. ABOUT i just went in there and, said my, bag my, bullets like they have me on. Video he, said, yeah but they're going to make a pass at trying to get charges to stick on both of. 00:53:27 Speaker 1: You The watsons had to re up their, bail so they Called, ruben who once again put up his car title as surety so the couple didn't have to go to. Jail ryan And valerie don't know exactly what transpired and government offices over the next. Week they don't know whether prosecutors were truly seeking to Send valerie to prison or we're just trying to make The american, sweat whatever the. Reason the Next, monday they received the first good news since being arrested at the, airport but it came with a different kind of. 00:53:58 Speaker 3: Heartbreak that Next, monday they dropped charge all charges against. Me they pulled me in, first, actually and it was pretty, quick AND i remember, FEELING i mean, AGAIN i hadn't probably eaten. ANYTHING i THINK i lost fourteen pounds in a, week And i've just been sick like, NonStop AND i, remember you, know THINKING i can't believe That i'm going. Home and then they told, me do not make eye, contact don't say anything To. Ryan you are not, allowed you, know you are not to say, Goodbye you're not to speak to. Him and, so, again being the rule follower THAT i, am and, terrified LIKE i don't want to make things worse on, him BECAUSE i know if they're letting me, go they're going to charge him with. Something and SO i do What i'm, told and you, know Later ryan AND i were able to talk about that, moment and he was, like what bothered me is that you didn't even look at. Me you didn't say. Anything and that just broke my heart BECAUSE I i love him AND i wanted to just hug him and not let him. 00:55:04 Speaker 1: Go we don't know why police officers added this layer of cruelty atop an already unbearable. Situation they Told ryan the same, thing but he figured since they were already threatening him with twelve years behind, bars he was willing to take the risk and say goodbye to his. 00:55:19 Speaker 2: Wife and so they, said, hey don't don't speak to, her don't don't look at, her don't do. Nothing we're gonna make it way worse on. You they're shoving me through the. LOBBY i, STOPPED i turned the valory AND i was, LIKE i love you like and next thing you, KNOW i get shoved from behind and they take me, off put me in a take me to a different. Location they put me in a. Cell i'm by, myself tiny, cell steel, door no, electricity there's no, lights there's no. Nothing his dar is pitch black in. There you, know at that point on it's Prisoner. Watson, this it's Prisoner. Watson That i'm Prisoner. 00:55:57 Speaker 1: Watson it took officials longer Than valerie would have liked to get her, passport but she soon found herself back in the same airport where this nightmare. 00:56:07 Speaker 3: BEGAN i, mean the amount of, anxiety AND i THOUGHT i was going to just be, sick like right there in the. AIRPORT i, MEAN i did not want to go. THROUGH i was terrified the entire time that they were going to find something or find another thing depend on me to keep me there. Longer and so the moment that we started driving taxing and then the MOMENT i could feel those wheels left, off was the biggest sigh of, relief but also the biggest like feeling of grief That i've ever, felt all at, once because Now i'm officially Leaving ryan, behind But i'm also on my way back to see my. 00:56:48 Speaker 1: Kids she couldn't wait to see her, kids but she also knew she'd be having some, difficult confusing. 00:56:54 Speaker 3: Conversations ryan's biggest thing during that entire time was please let the kids to know THAT i am not a bad. GUY i am not a bad. Person this was an innocent, mistake and it's because of my. Hobby you know that we're in this. Situation i'm but his biggest thing was just making sure THAT i conveyed that to the kids that he was a good guy and he's not a bad. 00:57:17 Speaker 1: Person ryan says getting home to his family is what kept him fighting through the misery that, followed but he also had to face the reality that he might not make it back To oklahoma for a long long. Time when he And brian spoke with Me eater Founder Steve vanella in twenty twenty, four the hunters had one simple. REQUEST i just. 00:57:37 Speaker 2: Want to get, home like with your, Kids LIKE i. Don't i'd give it all right, NOW i. PROMISE i don't know what's in there. MATTER i checked to whoever for it so that we all three can go. 00:57:47 Speaker 7: Home i'd like to see you guys come, Home LIKE i, said it just it, really, UH i, MEAN i got empathy for, you but also just an awareness of how something like this could happen to. 00:57:56 Speaker 1: Anyone we're all gonna be watching. 00:58:00 Speaker 2: Promise on. AIR i recorded this goes for both of. 00:58:04 Speaker 1: Us by the, Way, okay if we get locked up for twelve, years you have to take our boys. 00:58:09 Speaker 7: Hunting one hundred. Percent promise right. Now if it comes down to. That don't, Worry i'll, UH i will personally take them all out. 00:58:18 Speaker 1: Hunting let's hope it doesn't come to. 00:58:19 Speaker 2: That, yes, Sir, yeah appreciate the time you. 00:58:23 Speaker 1: Guys take care you. 00:58:24 Speaker 2: Too have thanks about the. 00:58:26 Speaker 1: Luck With valerie safely on her way, stateside the Remaining americans began the fight in, earnest but they quickly realized that The turks And kkos government was deadly. Serious their threats of prison time weren't a, bluff a scare tactic to make tourists check their luggage more, carefully because the terrifying truth was An american Named Michael grimm had already spent serious time behind bars In Grand Turk, prison and for exactly the same offense As, Brian ryan And. Tyler the judge at the time had said that he Sent michael to prison to make an example of, him to send a message to future. Offenders, well now those future offenders were, here and the legal system was dead set on sending another, message not just To american hunters and gun, owners but to the entire. World michael's harrowing account of his time In Grand Turk prison and how the Other americans sought help from The State department is next week on blood. Trails