Banged Up Abroad

American mother Ruthie Lambert turns to drug trafficking to help make ends meet. She makes numerous successful trips smuggling cocaine out of Peru, until she is finally caught and locked up in a tough South American prison. Here Ruthie tragically discovers she has incurable cancer, and flees the country in a desperate attempt to see her family before she dies.

Lucy Wright is a nursing student when her life goes from bad to worse to hell. Her boyfriend leaves, she becomes addicted to crack, and the bills keep piling up. To get out of debt, she smuggles cocaine from Argentina back to the U.K. But she's busted in Argentina — facing 16 to 25 years. She decides her only chance at freedom is escaping to Brazil. She makes a decision to jump bail, become a fugitive from the law and flee across the border. But without a passport, she must cross the old-fashioned way: swim. Emerging miraculously on the other side, she believes she is free and starts a new life back home. But two years later, police come knocking.

British gay nurse Stephen Comiskey has had a difficult year. He's come out about his sexuality and left his wife and children. Needing to support his ex-wife and kids and get himself out of the red, he takes a well-paid nursing job in Saudi Arabia. When he discovers that homosexuality is punishable by death, he decides to be celibate. However, his resolve weakens when he sees that there is a thriving gay scene there. He embarks on a series of affairs and thinks he can get away with it until one night he is beaten up by the religious police and thrown into jail.

Mark Greening has the easy life as a magician in Bali ... until he finds out he's going to be a dad. Needing fast cash for his new responsibilities, he smuggles a kilo of hash from Nepal inside pellets he actually swallows — which proves to be an easy act for this magician to perfect. He's saved more than $80,000 through his scheme and decides to make another (doomed) trip to Nepal. A bad bout of diahhrea means problems swallowing the pellets. He breaks the golden rule to never body-pack hash, and enhanced airport security for the soccer World Cup in Tokyo during a stop home gets him busted.

Iraqi soldier Latif Yahia is fighting in the Iran-Iraq War when he is summoned to the Palace. Here, Latif claims Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday demanded Latif become his body double. Latif is almost an exact physical match for Uday, virtually his twin. He doesn't want the role, but Uday has him thrown in prison until Latif accepts he has no choice but to do as he is commanded. He severs all ties with family, friends and his previous identity, and is trained to walk, talk, and behave exactly like his new master. While the position has its perks, Latif has to witness Uday's evil behavior--rape, murder, torture--on a continual basis. Although Latif narrowly survives several assassination attempts, it is only a matter of time before the devil turns on his 'brother,' and Latif has to choose between death or escape...

A gym friend offers Erik Aude a free trip to Turkey and $800 to bring back leather goods. When the trip goes smoothly, Erik takes a similar trip to Pakistan. But this time, authorities discover opium in the lining of Erik's suitcase — a crime he didn't know he was committing. With nothing but his pride and innocence to hold on to, Erik endures months of torture and hostile inmates at Pakistan's largest prison, refusing to plead guilty. Erik describes his reaction to the brutal conditions and, in a Locked Up Abroad first, he even re-enacts the entire emotional saga himself.

Looking for adventure, Thomas Hamill takes a job as a civilian truck driver for the U.S. military in war-torn Iraq. When his convoy is attacked and he is taken hostage by insurgents, Thomas knows he could be killed at any moment. Will he find a way to survive captivity and make it home alive?

Dwight Worker decides to smuggle cocaine to America, concealed under a phony shoulder cast. But when he's busted in Mexico City and sent to the notorious 'Black Palace' prison, his life becomes a living hell. After fighting off a gang of rapists, a near fatal stabbing in the stomach and a stint in the psychiatric ward, he vows to get out or die trying. Falling in love with a visitor gives him the opportunity he's been waiting for, and on his wedding day, he makes an audacious attempt to escape while dressed as a woman...

Erez Eltawil and Reini Weigel are among eight backpackers who are snatched by guerrillas during a trek in remote northern Colombia. As weeks turn to months with no sign of release, the hostages become increasingly desperate and the group splits - each faction adopting a different survival strategy: cooperation with the kidnappers versus outright resistance. Both groups push their tactics to the limit: A defiant escape attempt is met with brutal retribution and the plan to cooperate leads to a controversial blurring of the distinction between victim and kidnapper.

Jayne Blaydon thought she had landed a dream job when she accepted an offer to teach lap dancing in a Caribbean nightclub. But soon after arriving in Guyana, she and her husband David were forced at gunpoint to smuggle multiple kilos of liquid cocaine back to England. They successfully get through two customs points before being arrested in Guadeloupe. Locked up in prison, David suffers physical attacks and is crippled before he and Jayne are finally released after almost two years.