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SNOWING IN BALI

Selling to the Indonesians was a win win usually. For the westerners, it was safer than trafficking it further, or selling locally, which these bosses didn't like anyway. For the Indonesian bosses, they relied on the South Americans for the cocaine, as it was ubiquitous and cheap in their backyard and they had the contacts.

The Brazilians were the perfect suppliers, as it was safest to move the drugs across the border from the notorious coke countries - Peru, Colombia and Bolivia - to Brazil, and then fly out of one of its many bustling airports, easily camouflaged among the ceaseless throng of tourists. To buy coke in the three coke-producing countries was dirt cheap, usually $1000 a kilo.

In Peru and Brazil, cocaine is like sand in the Sahara, it's everywhere. There are a million places where you can buy a kilo of coke, it's like buying a kilo of sugar in the market.

- Alberto

Every time cocaine crossed a border, its price jumped. Across a single border to Brazil, a kilo cost $5000, and by the time it reached faraway party island Bali, prices hiked up to anything from $20,000 to $90,000 a kilo. The going rate was dictated by how much coke was on the island - that is, whether or not it was snowing in Bali. The cartels, like the Diaz brothers and Rafael, protected their sources, so the Indonesians had to rely on them to get the stuff.

If foreign dealers didn't play by their rules, the Indonesians got angry, as an Aussie rookie learnt. After months of partying on the club circuit, he came to know a couple of the Indonesian bosses. So when he met someone in the surf who'd arrived with 2 kilos in his bag, he acted as sales agent, offering it to Nanang