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CHAPTER TWENTY
SUA CASA CAI – YOUR HOUSE FALLS

Rafael wasn’t in Bali when Andre flew back. He’d had a long streak of bad luck, busts and rip-offs, which had sent him into a financial tailspin, unable to pay basics like his kids’ school fees. So when he’d got a call from his friend Lee, in Amsterdam, asking him to come and ‘play a game’, Rafael had jumped on a plane, desperately hoping for a win. ‘Everybody wanted to do it with me because I know the game.’

Lee was paying all operational costs, but needed someone he could trust to organise the buying, packing and sending. He’d pay Rafael in cocaine, giving him 2 of the 7 kilos being sent. In Amsterdam, he gave Rafael €45,000 to arrange things in Rio. In a few weeks, Rafael had it all set. A Brazilian girl was running with the 7 kilos of coke in Lee’s €3000 suitcase – with a false carbon fibre bottom – which he’d had tailor-made by an elderly Dutch specialist.

She flew to Brussels, avoiding Dutch customs, then was supposed to take a train to Amsterdam. But she failed to show up. She simply vanished and things turned sinister.

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