This is the story of the world's most audacious drug runners and the police hunt, 'Operation Playboy', to track them down. These drug-running playboys travel the globe: they ski in Europe, surf in Bali, hook up with celebrity models and live in five-star hotels. These guys — mostly adrenaline junky surfers and paragliders from rich families on a little island in South Brazil — created one of the biggest drug links between South America, Europe and Bali, trafficking cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana through the world’s international airports. One was drug addicted Rodrigo Gularte, who was busted smuggling cocaine into Indonesia hidden in surfboards, and was executed alongside Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran. A ruthlessly cunning Brazilian cop, Fernando Caieron, became determined to close the net. With a small team, he battled corrupt colleagues and bent judges to learn the secrets of the playboys and bring about their downfall. Kathryn Bonella, who previously wrote Schapelle Corby’s autobiography and the books Hotel Kerobokan and Snowing in Bali, has talked to both sides – the enforcers and the criminals – to tell the fascinating story of the manhunt codenamed OPERATION PLAYBOY. “I’ve interviewed a lot of drug traffickers in jail,” she said. “They say, ‘I had an incredible life, I will go back to it.’ It’s the only way I can have that lifestyle.” “Drug trafficking is such a big business. They’re never going to stop it.”
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