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SNOWING IN BALI

Rafael soon got more bad news. Chino was red hot and running for his life. Bali police had never bothered him, but Jakarta police were hunting him down due to a domino effect of snitches from the bottom right to the top.

The unravelling of Chino’s Bali-based drug empire started when Jakarta police busted a small-time dealer with 10 ecstasy pills. He snitched on his dealer, who was busted with 713 pills, who snitched on his dealer, a Taiwanese man named David, who was busted with 27,000 pills, who turned things international when he snitched on his dealer, Collin, in Singapore. Police followed Collin’s cash trail to a bank account in the name of Henry.

Henry, who was Chino’s trusted assistant, confessed everything and told the police about the secrets of their ecstasy business in Jakarta, Bali, Holland, and Singapore.

– Bali Post, 31 March 2005

Police traced $2 million to one of Chino’s accounts. As the Bali Post reported: ‘Chino supplied ecstasy pills which were worth 19 billion rupiah within the period of ten months.’ The story was headline news, splashed across the front pages of the island’s newspapers: ‘Unbelievable and shocking!’ ‘M3 Boss; Wealthy, cool, never had clear explanation about his business: The beggar who turned out to be a millionaire and a fugitive.’

Chino’s years of immunity were shattered, as Jakarta cops crawled all over his assets. Twenty police with dogs raided his M3 sunset car wash café and pit stop for four hours. They found nothing incriminating, but confiscated documents, made a record of assets, then sealed off the building. The front doors were padlocked, a security guard stationed out the front, and 130 employees blocked from entering. The usual frenetic