Man , that's exactly it , before the assassination Ray was in jail doing 20 years and had made several unsuccessful attempts at escape.

The OS (Office of Security, same crowd that made attempts on Castro), paid the dixie mafia to bribe James Earl Ray's prison warden to allow perfect conditions for his escape; an empty breadbox with nobody watching , which he jumped inside of.

He got as far as Canada looking for a passport to flee to Africa to escape extradition for the escape when he got involved with this Raul guy, who promised him travel documents and cash in exchange for a couple of smuggling jobs. The rest after that is pretty wild.