Why the Bali Nine risked everything to smuggle heroin into Indonesia – but ended up wrecking their lives instead
The Bali Nine dreamed of enough wealth to buy brand new cars, pay their university fees and still have money left over when they were lured into a risky drug smuggling plot.
Instead, they ruined their lives by being locked up in Indonesian prisons for almost two decades, while two of them were executed by firing squad.
The stakes turned out to be even higher than the street value of the heroin the young Australians traded after being tempted to risk their lives for a small share of the profits.
The group – mostly teenagers at the time – had hoped that their role in the drug smuggling operation might get them a life sentence, or at least give them a kickstart.
The remaining five members, who are back in Australia after being released by the Indonesian government, have all since expressed remorse for their crimes.
Matthew Norman, 38, was just 18 years old when a friend asked if he would deal drugs in exchange for $15,000, and he immediately agreed.
Norman came from a good family and left school at the age of 16 having largely stayed out of trouble up to that point.
He hoped to use his budget cuts to buy a brand new car, but later admitted that his decision was “reckless, careless” and motivated by “wanting to economize on life.”
Matthew Norman says looking back, he realizes his actions were very reckless
Martin Stephens claims he was threatened to smuggle the drugs
Michael Czugaj (left) and Martin Stephens (right) were supported by their mothers
“I was thinking more about the money involved, which in retrospect wasn’t that much,” he said.
‘But at that moment I thought, “Oh wow, I could buy a car with that, I could speed up my life” … really cutting back.”
Norman, from Quakers Hill in Sydney’s northwest, was working with Wollongong bartender Martin Stephens, now 48, for a Sydney catering company at the time.
Stephens, along with Renae Lawrence, now 47, had been recruited by gang leader Andrew Chan, but has always insisted he only took part under duress – and was terrified of the consequences if he refused.
‘They threatened me. They threatened my family, my friends, my love – my girlfriend… they showed me pictures,” he said.
Teenage friends Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj, now both 39, met another drug lord Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen at a Fortitude Valley hotel in Brisbane.
They were promised a free, all-expenses-paid trip to Bali – and worker Rush and glazier Czugaj were lured by the excitement of their first-ever foreign holiday.
Rush later received $3,000 from the gang’s leader, Myuran Sukumaran, to purchase a package tour for himself and Czugaj.
The parents of the two teenagers were friends from their local church and were often seen supporting each other during their sons’ lengthy court case.
Si Yi Chen would prove a point to his strict father if he got his payday
Pictured above L-R: Myuran Sukumaran, Scott Rush, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Renae Lawrence, and below: Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephen and Andrew Chan
It is unclear how Si Yi Chen, 39, was connected to the rest of the gang.
Chen, from Doonside in Sydney’s west, said he became involved in the plot as an act of rebellion against his strict Chinese parents, who moved to Australia when he was 12.
He dreamed of becoming a pilot one day and signed up with the gang to use his promised $15,000 compensation to pay for his flying lessons and prove a point to his father.
Chen revealed, “The first thing he said to me when he found out I wanted to do aviation school was, ‘Are you crazy, where do you get that kind of money?’
‘I then had a meltdown at him: ‘You never let me do what I want, what I love. Fine, I’ll do it myself, I’ll find it myself.’
The five members of the Bali Nine flew back to Australia on a commercial flight on December 15 in a top-secret mission after weeks of negotiations between the two nations.
The men will not have to serve a prison sentence in Australia and can live freely in the community.
The development comes after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese requested the transfer during a recent meeting with new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the APEC summit last month, who agreed to allow the detainees to return home on humanitarian grounds.
The men are believed to be staying in Howard Springs, near Darwin.