Raw for National Geographic

Editor: Jayesh Lathia

Dream adventures turn into hellish nightmares for the travellers featured in this series, which recounts through first-hand interviews and drama reconstructions of being arrested in a foreign country, usually for drug smuggling, and how they coped with the resulting lengthy prison terms. 

This episode focuses on Rafael Arguelles . The Latin Kings dominate Chicago in the 1980s, and teenager Rafael joins them to protect himself. But after a stint in jail, he realises his gang is tearing his community apart. He decides to go undercover for the FBI against his former friends. He aims to take down the head of the organisation Lord Gino no matter what the risk.

Jayesh edited this episode which contains a mixture of interviews and actors reconstructing the events. He said “It was great to work on another season of Locked Up Abroad about ex-gang member Rafael Arguelles. The challenge was to keep Rafael’s emotional and conflicted journey at the forefront of the narrative whilst also weaving in the ongoing danger that Rafael and his family faced“.

Locked up Abroad: Declassified is streaming now on National Geographic