It’s snowing in Bali. What? Snowing? Never! Actually, when we are taking about snowing in Bali this is the code that is used by drug dealers when a very large cocaine shipment has landed in Bali. For the men who are in charge of Bali’s drug empires, it means it’s time for them to get rich.
This practice dates back to the 1980s, when smuggling cocaine to Bali entailed the use of South American surfers. This was certainly big business! The drug trafficker’s methods were alternated depending on what was being scrutinized by the authorities. A surfboard shaper would be paid $5,000 to embed the cocaine into the surfboard and then the surfer would travel to Bali with his/her board.
This method remained popular until the mid 1990’s when Frank de Castro Diaz, a South American surfer was arrested at Denpasar Airport in Bali with 4.3 kilos of cocaine hidden in his surfboards. The publicity around the case lead to a temporary halt in moving drugs this way.
However, that was short lived and before long, the cocaine was once again moving from South America to Asia using sports equipment, windsurfing equipment, surfboard bags and a blend of tourists. There’s no shortage of surfers that were willing to be a runner. That’s because it’s a lucrative business. The cost of the cocaine goes up with every border that it crosses.