Fellow Travelers,
Hoping to spread the word about some fairly bad characters operating out of the bus station in Tulcan, Ecuador, which is on the line between Quito, Ecuduador and Cali, Colombia.
Yesterday I was framed for drug possession in the bus terminal at Tulcan. To make a long story short, though I regard myself as fairly cautious traveler, some crooked cops somehow managed to plant what looked like a fairly sizeable bag of cocaine (or something, honestly wouldn´t be able to tell the difference between cocaine and cooking flower) in my suitcase.
Full story is as such:
Riding the bus from Quito, Ecuador to Cali, Colombia, I was informed that I would need to change busses in Tulcan. After arriving at the station in Tulcan myself and one other traveler (whom I did not know) were asked to follow two men to some building off to the side. The building was in the center of the parking lot and looked quite official. These guys were not dresed in uniforms but did produce documents identifying themselves as police officers. They took us to an official looking office off to the side were they searched through all of our possessions. In my jacket, which had been in a locked suitcase, one of the "cops" reached into my pocket and pulled out what looked to me to be a fairly large bag of illicit substances. As far as I can tell nothing was found in the other guy´s bag, and he was let go.
I have no idea as to how this could possibly have gotten in my bag because my bag had either been in my possession or locked in the bottom of the bus for several days worth of border crossings and bus rides from the orgin of my travels in Peru. I suspect a trick of slight of hand and that he had the bag up his sleeve and slipped it out of his sleeve and into my bag as he searched my belongings.
Obviously, foul play was afoot, but what to do about it? As these guys were searching my things in their office what appeared to uniformed officers were coming and going checking on the proceeedinsgs, and there I am with all of my belongings laid out and a bag of drugs sitting next to it.
Of course, it was obvious from the outset this was not to be the typical prosecution of a drug smuggling tourist as, instead of tearing my stuff apart looking for more illicit substances, they carefully put all of my things back, and handed my passport back, and packed my things up, with careful eye on things like my cell phone, questions of how well it worked, etc.. One of the guys then said ... "So now what?" in Spanish. Basically I told him that I needed a lawyer, and that what was next was up to him. After all he was the "detective."
So one guy wrote on a peice of paper "8 anos," and I asked if there was some kind of fine that could pay. Of course there, was ... but the $80 dollars that I had in my wallet was not to be enough, so they said that I could go to the bank and get some more money.
Luckily for me, the bank was not nearby and they said I would need to take a taxi to get the money. They then took my suitcase and put it in a local tienda, and told me that I should pay a tip to her when I returned. They they left me alone with the store owner for just a few seconds, and I asked her if these guys were Policia, and she said they were. So I followed them to where the taxis were and caught a taxi (by myself!) to the bank. On the way to the bank I told the taxi driver what was happening and if there was another bus station he could take me too, and he didn´t want to help me either... just dropped me off at the bank.
Feeling somewhat alone and bit helpless having asked two citizens for help and them having no interest, I was trying to decide between running for it or asking for more help. The only problem is who is going to believe a random stranger with a "the cops planted drugs on me!" story? What is going to happen if I go to the cops and they simply hand me over hoping to get peice of the cut?"
Not exactly sure of what the next few hours or minutes would hold I went to an internet cafe and sent a few notes to my family as to my whereabouts and what was happening.
I then found a guy working in an office who looked like he might be in a better position to help me... He advised that I could quite easily take a taxi to the next town and from there catch a bus to Quito. And thats what I ended up doing, the whole time a bit worried that these guys operation might be sophisticated enough to catch me fleeing. I passed a few nervous minutes as the taxi had to stop at a red light only a few yards away from these guys had detained me in the first place.
So that´s it, I am now (hopefully) safe and sound in Quito awaiting a flight out of here, and I am writing to share my story to as a word of warning to all other travelers. In the end I only lost one suitcase, but it did have all of my gifts for my folks back home and some books and what not. Not really that much, and a small price to pay for my freedom.
Things that I could possibly have done differently:
As far as the bags are concerned I really dont know because they were locked the whole time they were not in my possession. I think the only thing I could have done differently was immedieately and boisterously call BS on their operation, as they did seem a bit concerned that the whole issue would "go away" and that I would go on my way after they let me go. I knew that I absolutely was not going to get into a car with these guys and go anywhere... so perhaps I should have exercised that resolve sooner.
The other thing could be to demand witness for any searches, but if that had been the case then I would have looked even more guilty. Because the slight of hand or however they got the substances in my bag was so well orchestrated that even I thought, "how did that get in there?" The operation was so sophisticated that I looked guilty even to myself.
Another option might have been to get the authorites in the other town, San Gabriel, involved once I was there. But agian, I was unsure of the sophistication of these guys´operation and wasn´t sure that I would end up jumping from the frying pan back into the fryer.
In the end, I feel like I did the best that I could. I would recognize the scam in a minute if I saw it again, but for the first time, being so disoriented it was quite difficult.
Please, please, please be careful when travelling this route from Ecuador to Colombia, or any other.
- Safe Travels
PS I would be interested to hear any similiar stories and how you dealt with this difficult situation.
