📸

SNOWING IN BALI

After Chino’s phone call, Rafael raced around to Ruggiero’s house to pass on the warning.

‘Ruggiero, be careful, man. Chino says they’re looking for you.’ But he spurned the tip.

‘Fuck off, I’m a street boy, you’re a family guy. I know what I’m doing, man; you’re just paranoid.’ Rafael left with a sense of foreboding. Chino didn’t issue gratuitous warnings. Chino had also alerted Andre, who zipped around to warn him.

I take my bike and go to Ruggiero’s house with my girlfriend. When I arrive, he’s sitting Ruggiero-style, legs spread, scratching his balls, and I say, ‘I come here just to tell you Chino says you must be careful.’ And Ruggiero says, ‘I don’t care if police come to me – I’ll kick their ass if they step in my house.’

– Andre

The next day, after watching a blazing sunset at a Seminyak beach bar, Ruggiero rode off on his motorbike. It would be the last ocean sunset he’d see for a long time. Two bikes with four men suddenly blocked his way and within seconds cops were leaping from the bikes and out of a car, surrounding him, screaming, ‘Police, police.’ They pushed him up against the car, pinned his hands behind his back, then searched him and found a plastic container of hash in his pocket. Ruggiero was in shock watching the police laughing and hugging each other. They held the hashish, taunting, ‘You see? What is this? You’re going to jail.’

I fell down from heaven to hell in a blink of an eye.

The police already knew where he kept his stash, and drove him to the hotel, where they allegedly found 146 grams of

📸