KhanHaripur
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...d-Islam-21-years-worlds-toughest-prisons.html
One of Australia's most notorious drug smugglers, who has spent more than 20 years behind bars in some of the world's toughest prisons, has given a detailed and brutal account of his incarceration in a series of letters written from his jail cells.
Martin Garnett, now 47, a former luxury car dealer from Sydney who has been imprisoned in three different countries, was first arrested in 1993, aged 26, in Bangkok as he tried to smuggle 4.7kg of heroin out of the country.
He was put on death row and forced to survive horrific conditions - including attempts on his life by drug-crazed Samurai death squads.
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Nabbed: The moment Martin Garnett's life changed forever, arrested at a Bangkok airport in 1993 with 4.7kg of heroin strapped to his body
But even those experiences, which led to him attempting suicide numerous times, failed to completely break him and he began exporting drugs, with the help of corrupt guards, to a jail in Indiana, in the U.S., an operation which earned him yet more time behind bars.
Thanks to his handwritten letters, MailOnline can reveal the true horror of his past 20 years, a terrifying narrative which ends with Garnett claiming he has finally seen the error of his ways - and even converted to Islam.
Garnett, who is currently in Sydney's Silverwater jail after his mother raised enough money to secure a prison exchange with US authorities, first detailed the moment he was arrested in Bangkok with packets of heroin strapped to his body.
‘(It was) an out of body experience,' he wrote. 'I viewed it from up near the ceiling. I was already gone.
‘As soon as the heroin was placed on scales in front of me I began eating the corner of a block of pure heroin. I ate, I’d guess, 10 grams. More than enough to kill me.
‘I vomited all over a cop as he opened the mini-bus door…I ate the heroin to die. I knew I’d be in for life or get a death sentence anyway – so – why wait?’
Garnett, whose death sentence was 'reduced' to 40 years before he was eventually pardoned by Thailand's king in 2011, soon learned that money was power - and meant the difference between living or rotting in a cramped, stinking hell hole until disease or another inmate finished him off.
He said the death squads would kill instantly for coffee or drugs - and their method of choice was bashing a victim’s head in with barbells.
'The HIV rate among needle users is about 90 per cent,' he wrote. 'They inject heroin by sucking it up off the spoon with the ink tube of a ballpoint pen, with a needle attached to the end.
'Then they stick it in their friend's vein, suck up some blood and blow the heroin into their friend's arm or neck.'
‘For years I could not go near free weights. The sound of a skull crushing stays with you.
THE SAMURAI ASSASINS - Martin Garnett on the prison death squads
'The "Samurais" are prisoners, usually tattooed from head to foot, always drug addicts, who will happily kill for a few grams of heroin.
'The HIV rate among needle users is about 90 per cent. They inject heroin by sucking it up off the spoon with the ink tube of a ballpoint pen, with a needle attached to the end.
'Then they stick it in their friend's vein, suck up some blood and blow the heroin into their friend's arm or neck.
'Various Samurai have killed other prisoners and are quite happy to do so again.
'When you kill a prisoner in Thai prison, it's only a five year sentence. If you have AIDS and a 100 year life sentence, what does another five years on your sentence mean?
'From 2001 until 2004 they did all they could to have me killed or have me kill myself.
'Four or five men will converge on the victim, who usually will be asleep in a deck chair in the yard.
'Each killer comes from a different direction. One carries a home made cement dumbbell, the other four have knives.
'The man with the weight crushes the man's skull. The other four stab him many times each. Death is not quick like in the movies.'
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Hell on earth: The filthy corner that Garnett had to use as a toilet (left) and the tiny cell he shared with up to 35 other prisoners (right)
'When you kill a prisoner in Thai prison, it's only a five year sentence. If you have AIDS and a 100 year life sentence, what does another five years on your sentence mean?'
He eventually stopped becoming a target and began using the tricks he had learned on the streets of Sydney as a gun-toting drug dealer.
He got his hands on a mobile phone to access a dial-up internet connection in 1997 and started importing goods to sell at a profit to his fellow inmates.
+9
Happier times: Martin Garnett with his sister Holly, who committed suicide in 1998
‘Generally in Thai prison, prisoners are not referred to as human…But when you are a good earner – “Good morning big brother, how are you today? Have you eaten?”
With the help of crooked guards he then began exporting drugs from Thailand to a prison in the United States, 14,000km away.
American authorities found out what he was doing and added a further 57 months to his sentence - but only after he had served his time in Thailand.
‘I was indicted (by U.S. authorities) in 2001,’ he writes.
One of Australia's most notorious drug smugglers, who has spent more than 20 years behind bars in some of the world's toughest prisons, has given a detailed and brutal account of his incarceration in a series of letters written from his jail cells.
Martin Garnett, now 47, a former luxury car dealer from Sydney who has been imprisoned in three different countries, was first arrested in 1993, aged 26, in Bangkok as he tried to smuggle 4.7kg of heroin out of the country.
He was put on death row and forced to survive horrific conditions - including attempts on his life by drug-crazed Samurai death squads.
+9
Nabbed: The moment Martin Garnett's life changed forever, arrested at a Bangkok airport in 1993 with 4.7kg of heroin strapped to his body
But even those experiences, which led to him attempting suicide numerous times, failed to completely break him and he began exporting drugs, with the help of corrupt guards, to a jail in Indiana, in the U.S., an operation which earned him yet more time behind bars.
Thanks to his handwritten letters, MailOnline can reveal the true horror of his past 20 years, a terrifying narrative which ends with Garnett claiming he has finally seen the error of his ways - and even converted to Islam.
Garnett, who is currently in Sydney's Silverwater jail after his mother raised enough money to secure a prison exchange with US authorities, first detailed the moment he was arrested in Bangkok with packets of heroin strapped to his body.
‘(It was) an out of body experience,' he wrote. 'I viewed it from up near the ceiling. I was already gone.
‘As soon as the heroin was placed on scales in front of me I began eating the corner of a block of pure heroin. I ate, I’d guess, 10 grams. More than enough to kill me.
‘I vomited all over a cop as he opened the mini-bus door…I ate the heroin to die. I knew I’d be in for life or get a death sentence anyway – so – why wait?’
Garnett, whose death sentence was 'reduced' to 40 years before he was eventually pardoned by Thailand's king in 2011, soon learned that money was power - and meant the difference between living or rotting in a cramped, stinking hell hole until disease or another inmate finished him off.
He said the death squads would kill instantly for coffee or drugs - and their method of choice was bashing a victim’s head in with barbells.
'The HIV rate among needle users is about 90 per cent,' he wrote. 'They inject heroin by sucking it up off the spoon with the ink tube of a ballpoint pen, with a needle attached to the end.
'Then they stick it in their friend's vein, suck up some blood and blow the heroin into their friend's arm or neck.'
‘For years I could not go near free weights. The sound of a skull crushing stays with you.
THE SAMURAI ASSASINS - Martin Garnett on the prison death squads
'The "Samurais" are prisoners, usually tattooed from head to foot, always drug addicts, who will happily kill for a few grams of heroin.
'The HIV rate among needle users is about 90 per cent. They inject heroin by sucking it up off the spoon with the ink tube of a ballpoint pen, with a needle attached to the end.
'Then they stick it in their friend's vein, suck up some blood and blow the heroin into their friend's arm or neck.
'Various Samurai have killed other prisoners and are quite happy to do so again.
'When you kill a prisoner in Thai prison, it's only a five year sentence. If you have AIDS and a 100 year life sentence, what does another five years on your sentence mean?
'From 2001 until 2004 they did all they could to have me killed or have me kill myself.
'Four or five men will converge on the victim, who usually will be asleep in a deck chair in the yard.
'Each killer comes from a different direction. One carries a home made cement dumbbell, the other four have knives.
'The man with the weight crushes the man's skull. The other four stab him many times each. Death is not quick like in the movies.'
+9
Hell on earth: The filthy corner that Garnett had to use as a toilet (left) and the tiny cell he shared with up to 35 other prisoners (right)
'When you kill a prisoner in Thai prison, it's only a five year sentence. If you have AIDS and a 100 year life sentence, what does another five years on your sentence mean?'
He eventually stopped becoming a target and began using the tricks he had learned on the streets of Sydney as a gun-toting drug dealer.
He got his hands on a mobile phone to access a dial-up internet connection in 1997 and started importing goods to sell at a profit to his fellow inmates.
+9
Happier times: Martin Garnett with his sister Holly, who committed suicide in 1998
‘Generally in Thai prison, prisoners are not referred to as human…But when you are a good earner – “Good morning big brother, how are you today? Have you eaten?”
With the help of crooked guards he then began exporting drugs from Thailand to a prison in the United States, 14,000km away.
American authorities found out what he was doing and added a further 57 months to his sentence - but only after he had served his time in Thailand.
‘I was indicted (by U.S. authorities) in 2001,’ he writes.
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