An Interview with Christopher Kirk on Colombia Calling

I realise that I am hamming it up a bit for those regular readers of my blog and listeners to my Colombia Calling radio show but, building on the strength of my piece and episode with Colin Post of the Expat Chronicles and his Kickstarter campaign, I feel that it is important to follow-up and give you a teaser post regarding my interview with Christopher Kirk.

I touched all your stuff. Image courtesy of http://www.filmuforia.co.uk/i-touched-all-your-stuff-2014-fid-marseille/

You see, both interviews are fairly similar, far from being the same, but similar in that they present a clear context of the illegal in Colombia, and indeed present risks that not in my wildest imaginations would I consider doing. We have Colin Post’s blogs about moving a small amount cocaine and how he will be on the watch list for international flights for a long time to come and then in next Monday’s interview with Christopher Kirk, there are references to his Colombian girlfriend working as a mule and bringing cocaine up from Latin America through LAX with members of the baggage handling team there complicit in the act.

This is where the cocaine process starts, in ramshackle jungle labs

So, the interviews and therefore these blogs are similar, kind of creating a two-part series for Colombia Calling!

So, where to start really? Christopher Kirk is an interesting character not least because he has an amazing story to tell, the details and nitty-gritty of which will become clear in the podcast. His ability to recount a story and do so well was not lost on a documentary team visiting the Brazilian prison in Sao Paulo where he was interned at that time. In case you were wondering, I spoke to him via skype in the US, not on a line to a Brazilian prison.

Cocaine smuggled in coconut sweets

The result of his lengthy chat with the documentary makers was that he became the star of his own story “I Touched All Your Stuff” which has since received its worldwide premier at the Marseille International Film Festival this year.

cocaine in the base of a suitcase

But, when you reduce the interview with Christopher Kirk to its most basic elements, it’s a love story and the blindness that this can produce when an individual is so deeply wrapped up in it all. When you listen to the show, you’ll understand what I am getting at, basically, I let go and allow Christopher to chat away sharing with us the details which he sees fit to air, and even if he is self censoring, it’s hard to tell as the story is so gripping and involved.

If you don’t believe the authorities have seen it all before! Look at all the sulphuric acid smuggled in this truck. It is disguised as sheets of glass.

So, if you enjoyed “Kidnapped in Colombia” and “This Mick’s Life: Addiction and Underworld from Ireland to Colombia“, then you are going to revel in this interview with Christopher Kirk.

The images for this blog are only related in that they are sent to me on an almost daily basis by the Colombian police communications department showing what they destroy or capture regarding cocaine labs, people trying to smuggle the stuff out and so on.

Cocaine being smuggled in a false roof of a truck