Tourist dad on floor with 30 inmates in prison 'run by cartels'

FAMILY RAISE FUNDS IN BID TO FREE BACKPACKER ARRESTED ON DRUG TRAFF ICKING CHARGES

- BENJAMIN BLOSSE

THE family of a dad who is stuck in a notorious 'hellhole' prison in South America are desperately pleading for help to get him home.

John Henshaw, from Atherton, was backpacking when he was reportedly arrested on a drug trafficking charge at La Paz International Airport in Bolivia on February 9. His family say he was detained for the alleged possession of a 'tiny' amount of cannabis.

The 39-year-old is incarcerated in San Pedro prison in La Paz - which was infamously featured on the TV show Behind Bars: The World's Toughest Prisons. San Pedro is notoriously almost entirely run by inmate 'cartels' and merely guarded by police, whose job is to keep the prisoners in, rather than regulate the activities of the prisoners inside.

John's worried daughter and expartner say he has no access to clean water, clean clothes, a consistent source of food or his own cell. He has also told his family that until he has the funds for a bed he is sleeping on the floor nightly, surrounded by up to 30 other prisoners and is forced to share two toilets with around 120 inmates.