The Cocaine Diaries: A Venezuelan Prison Nightmare

An unforgettable cocktail of drugs, riots, rape, beatings, murders, and kidnappings—the unbelievable true story of years spent in a South American jail

It won't happen to me. That’s what I thought when I got on the plane to Venezuela. But it did—I got caught.

Caught smuggling half a million euros' worth of cocaine, Paul Keany was sexually assaulted by Venezuelan antidrugs officers before being sentenced to eight years in the notorious Los Teques prison outside Caracas. There he was plunged into a nightmarish world of coke-fueled killings, gun battles, stabbings, extortion, and forced hunger strikes until finally, just over two years into his sentence, he gained early parole and embarked on a daring escape from South America. Aided by his extensive prison diaries, Keany reveals the true horror of life inside Los Teques: a shocking underworld behind bars where inmates pay protection money to stay alive, prostitutes do the rounds, and vast amounts of cocaine are smuggled in for cell-block bosses to sell on to prisoners for huge profits. This remarkable story is told by Keany with honesty, courage, and even humor, despite knowing that every day behind bars might have been his last.