Former Cardiff University student jailed in Ecuador after drug trafficking charge

A former Cardiff University student was imprisoned in an Ecuadorian jail after becoming a drug trafficker.

Nicknamed “Posh Pete”, Pieter Tritton was caught trafficking cocaine disguised as tent groundsheets from the UK to South America.

The graduate studied archaeology at Cardiff University, but was jailed in Ecuador’s infamous Penitentiary Litoral de Guayaquil after police found him in possession of 5kg of cocaine, worth an estimated £500,000.

According to Wales Online, police found 5,127 ecstasy tablets, 1.4kg of cannabis resin, 7.7kg of herbal cannabis, alongside 102g of cocaine, 2.6 kg of amphetamine sulphate, and 163g of heroin in his Gloucestershire lock-up.

The 49-year-old was later arrested in Quito’s Garcia Moreno in 2005, and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, but was released after serving nine.

During an online interview with Tritton in 2018, he said he witnessed “mayhem and murder”, as inmates were “hacked to bits”, and “butchered” with kitchen knives in front of him.

Tritton added: “There was a crowd around a man being stabbed repeatedly. He was lying in a pool of blood – there was nothing you could do, or you’d be killed too.”

Penitentiary Litoral de Guayaquil via Google Maps

The 49-year-old went on to describe how children ran through pools of blood to reach their parents, and gunfire often echoed across the cell blocks: “You could hear bullets hitting the walls. It sounded like war.”

Before his arrest, Tritton had been running small businesses around Cardiff, Swansea, and the Valleys. However, when a period of economic hardship hit South Wales, he became embroiled in the world of drug smuggling.

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The convicted drug trafficker admitted that “it was easy money”, and that “everyone needed cash – for food, phones, cigarettes. You get trapped before you even realise it.”

Tritton revealed how Interpol raided his hotel room in Quito, and after six weeks in a holding cell, he was sent to prison, where he met a member of the Colombian cartel by the name of Gato.

Gato was later shot in the forehead as Tritton handed him a plate of spaghetti and said that “blood and bone went everywhere,” and that he ran “without looking back.”

After nearly a decade, Tritton was extradited to Britain and served the remainder of his sentence in a Gloucestershire prison, where police linked him to a wider drug operation involving ecstasy, cannabis, and heroin.

The 49-year-old said he has many regrets for his actions and the “hurt” he caused his family, especially his mother, since she died before the pair reconciled.

“I’m definitely a changed man from the person that was taken into prison. I was completely hooked on the whole buzz of drug trafficking.

“If I wanted to pick up the phone I could. But am I going to? No, I’m not. I’ve had enough of the whole lifestyle. I’m quite content just to be happy and free. I feel very lucky to be alive,” he added.

The Embassy of Ecuador has been contacted for comment.

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Featured image via Google Maps