📸 Photo

SNOWING IN BALI

Rafael asked Andre, ‘You sure you can go?’

‘No problem, my passport’s so good, no worries.’

But Andre didn’t make it to Sweden. En route, he was busted in Amsterdam for flying on a false passport and slammed back in a cell. Bali beaches and sunsets were again a beautiful memory, but he expected to be back soon. He’d ostensibly confessed his real name to authorities – Luke Shakira Martins. It was another alias he’d set up with passport and ID papers. His lawyer sent them from Brazil and ‘Luke’ was sentenced to one month’s jail.

The day of his release, the police told him he was being sent back to Bali. They took him to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, walked him into a room and took off his handcuffs, saying, ‘Right, now you’re free.’

‘I turn my back to go and two guys come and say, “You are arrested under Interpol, Andre.”’ Another pair of bracelets was snapped around his wrists. It was a bitter blow.

Andre had checked Interpol’s website in Bali, so he knew it had issued a Red Notice for him, but thought he’d outsmarted the Dutch cops with his second false ID. He now guessed they’d taken fingerprints off a prison glass or plate and, through Interpol, discovered he was a Brazilian fugitive. It was in fact his nemesis who’d suspected his real identity. Chief Caieron had sent documents, fingerprints and photographs to the Netherlands’ embassy and Interpol to confirm it was Andre. ‘They confirmed that he was our guy – and we brought him back. I did all the papers to assure his coming back to Brazil and chain.’ It took another three months of legal red tape to fly him back home to start serving out the rest of his sentence. Of course, Andre had other plans.

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