12 years in prison for an honest mistake

In this explosive Blood Trails miniseries, a dream Caribbean vacation becomes every hunter's worst nightmare.

When Oklahoma hunter Ryan Watson is stopped at the Turks and Caicos airport after security discovers four forgotten rifle cartridges inside an old duffel bag, he expects to lose the ammunition and catch his flight home. Instead, he and his wife are taken away by plainclothes officers, threatened with 12 years in prison, and thrust into a justice system that will change their lives forever.

As more American hunters are caught in the same legal trap, a disturbing pattern begins to emerge. What initially appears to be a simple customs violation unfolds into a story of harsh mandatory sentencing, questionable law enforcement tactics, filthy jails, and a prison that human rights investigators say is unfit for human habitation.

In Chapter 1 of Blood Trails: Paradise Prison, host Jordan Sillars follows the first Americans caught in Turks and Caicos' sweeping firearms crackdown, revealing how an honest mistake became an international incident—and why what happened next was far more complicated than the headlines ever suggested.

How do a handful of forgotten hunting cartridges lead to a global diplomatic controversy? It all starts here.

Listen now: themeateater.com/listen/blood-trails/paradise-prison-chapter-1
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