📸

SNOWING IN BALI

stood helplessly watching. One of the gangsters then phoned their client Andre. ‘Okay, you can talk to the guy,’ he said, then held the phone to the guy's ear. Andre told him to pay up or die. With a mouth full of metal, he sat wide-eyed, terrified and unable to reply. But as soon as the thugs extracted the gun, he bolted upstairs and dug out as much cash as he could find. He delivered the rest to Andre the next day.

He was a little bit angry with me. He says, ‘You send Indonesian people to my house, my wife is there, they put the gun inside my mouth,’ and I say, ‘Yes, and good luck, hey? If you didn't have the money, he would have shot you. You rob my drugs, rob my money, you are asking to be shot. Next time think of your wife if you don't want her to see your bleeding body on the floor.’

– Andre

In every line of crime, cash and power were the driving forces and there were large numbers of westerners willing to step into the Bali underworld and make their inaugural drug run. Some moved up to be dealers, others invested in legitimate Bali businesses like restaurants, villas, clubs, clothes shops or furniture exporting, and others went straight to Kerobokan Prison.

Was so easy to find the people to do the job. I was surprised how easy. Many people, sometimes people I never expect, come and say, ‘You have a job for me?’ Fuck, you know, everybody wants to carry this shit . . . easy money. Well, they think it's easy, but the consequences can be dead.

– Rafael

📸