It's visiting day at Lurigancho prison, 40 minutes outside Lima. A huge market has sprung up around the prison, as canny locals peddle their wares to visiting relatives. But for the fourteen South Africans being held inside the jail, it's a day like any other: they will not be seeing their families for a long time. They're serving sentences ranging from three to ten years, for trying to smuggle cocaine out of the country. Most were approached by Nigerian syndicates in South Africa, and felt it was an offer they couldn't refuse: "I was in dire financial problems in South Africa," explains one. "This was offered to me as a kind of quick-fix solution."

Conditions are dire: with 6500 prisoners crowded into a prison intended for just 1500 people, there are as many as three or four people crammed into a one-man cell. Everything here revolves around money - those who have it have an easy life, whilst those who don't are forced to survive as best they can. Many of them are unable to afford a proper cell, and spend their nights sleeping on the floor under someone else's bed.

Whatever their reasons for being there, they all agree that their brief flirtation with the drugs trade is a mistake they will not be making again: "I've done some stupid things in my life, but this has got to be the most stupid."

Produced by SABC Special Assignment