📸 Photo

SNOWING IN BALI

Selling drugs gram by gram, the smallest amount he sold, was risky because it exposed him to many people, and entailed always riding his bike with stuff on him. To limit the risk, he usually carried 3 or 4 grams in his helmet, each rolled up tightly in a little plastic zip lock bag and taped - each the size of a 2-centimetre pencil - then tucked into the padded helmet strap.

On his bike, he’d sometimes glimpse a suspicious motorbike tailing him and do a few quick erratic turns to check. If they stuck, he’d ride like hell and outgun them, always losing them, but it would confirm his belief that the cops knew the island’s players.

They had people everywhere doing operations. It was hot. I always kept this in mind, that I could have been followed, so I always kept an eye on the mirror, always.

- Alberto

When he was busy, he used two phones, often riding his motorbike with an earpiece in each ear, mikes dangling, so he could talk on the road. Sometimes calls were from overseas - always cryptic, otherwise he’d hang up. ‘Good waves in Bali at the moment, good time to bring some surfboards for a surf?’

‘Yes, bring as many boards as you can, the surf is great.’

Those were kind of the most stressful days of my life, cos I was all the time riding the bike with two phones ringing. It was crazy.

As part of his business set-up, he also used the island’s myriad four-star hotels to store kilos of blow. He’d book a room, paying $150 to $200 cash a night, using a fake name, promising to bring