Life put on the line for a mere $10,000

When news broke this week that nine young Australians had been charged with trying to smuggle heroin from Bali, the nation emitted a collective gasp. How could they be so stupid? For months Australia has been bombarded with images of the distraught Schapelle Corby, accused of importing cannabis, sobbing uncontrollably and jostled by Indonesian photographers and camera crews.

It seemed inconceivable that anyone else would try to smuggle drugs through Bali. But whether out of ignorance, greed, stupidity or all three, the nine Australians appear to have risked everything to smuggle heroin out of Bali into Australia. Five may pay with their lives and the other four could get jail sentences of up to 10 years.

It began on Sunday night, when Indonesian police swooped on Denpasar airport, arresting Andrew Chan, 21, the alleged ringleader, and Martin Stephens, 29, Michael Czugaj, 19, Scott Rush, 19, and Renae Lawrence, 27, the only woman.

They were led away from the main boarding area into cramped airport offices, where they were told to strip.

Video footage made public by Indonesian police shows four of the suspects standing semi-naked, fear etched on their faces as detectives remove bulky packets from around their waists and legs.

In contrast to their obvious shock at being caught, Chan, appears to joke with police officers, who ask him for a light. He was not in possession of any drugs.

Lawrence was teary-eyed as she gave Matthew Stephens a chilling warning not to reveal who was behind the attempt.

"If we dob them in, they'll kill our family," she said. "Don't tell [the police] and they'll just kill us instead."

This suggested the nine were part of a wider operation, with ruthless leaders.

Australian Federal Police hope to make further arrests. "This is not an insignificant amount," said Mike Phelan, the AFP's head of international operations. "In order to move or distribute that amount of heroin there has to be some sort of established network."

The video, which also showed the contents of the packets being positively identified as heroin, could hardly be more damning. A short time later, the other four members of the group - Matthew Norman, 18, Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, 27, Si Yi Chen, 20 and Myuran Sukumaran, 24 - were seized at a hotel in the resort town of Kuta. Police discovered in their room a blue suitcase containing 350g of heroin.

The arrests were the culmination of an AFP undercover sting that began in February. Posing as tourists, plain-clothes officers flew to Bali after a tip that a syndicate was planning to smuggle heroin into Sydney.

When the nine arrived in Kuta on April 6, police put surveillance cameras in their hotel rooms and monitored phones.

Within days they had enough evidence to pass to their Indonesian counterparts, who were brought into the operation about two weeks ago.

When the nine settled their hotel bills last Sunday, detectives swooped. None of the terrified suspects put up a struggle.

The picture that has emerged of eight of the group is of naive, gullible youngsters in low-paid jobs tempted to put their lives on the line by nothing more than a free holiday in Bali and A$10,000 to $15,000 ($10,600 to $15,900) cash - in other words, classic drug mules.

The eight, who come from Sydney, Brisbane and Wollongong, do not have serious criminal records and are not hard-drug users. They said they had no idea they faced the death penalty under Indonesian law for drug trafficking. Friends and relatives told reporters they had no idea the suspects owned passports, let alone had gone to Bali.

Chan, like the other suspects, is from a modest, working-class background. His parents retired after many years running a small Chinese restaurant in one of Sydney's blue-collar suburbs. But Indonesian police have labelled him the godfather of the operation. He reportedly blindfolded the other suspects and made threats about families. In jail, he has been separated from the others.

Chan allegedly recruited Lawrence, Norman and Stephens after meeting them through the Sydney catering firm where they all worked. A workmate told journalists: "Chan was telling certain people he had free trips to Bali and did they want to go. A few guys said no, but obviously others did go."

Lawyer Anggia Browne, who is representing two of the suspects, said they were promised a trifling amount, given that the heroin had a street value of A$4 million ($4.24 million).

"They are only couriers," Browne said. "It's a stupid thing they do it for that money. They could die. Can you imagine, for $15,000?"

Lawrence's father, Robert, described his daughter as "the most gullible person you would ever meet". Her car had recently broken down, he said, and she was desperate for money. She had a car loan to repay and a mounting credit-card debt. The lure of $10,000 for a quick trip to Bali and a few days by the beach apparently proved irresistible. "She was pretty desperate. She was upset when the car blew up."

The appeal of the offer would have been even greater for a young woman who had never left Australia. "Somebody bought her the plane ticket," Lawrence said. "Maybe somebody offered this to her and said, 'There's no risk'. She is not 27 at heart, she's probably 15. She's really just gullible, naive and stupid. She's not a bad kid, she's just got in with the wrong mob."

Gino Vumbaca, of the Australian National Council on Drugs, said traffickers tended to recruit mules from heroin addicts desperate for money, or poor people down on their luck.

Civil rights groups and opposition politicians have been fiercely critical of the decision to alert the Indonesian police rather than allowing the suspects to be arrested on Australian soil.

The government had "virtually signed the death warrant" of the nine suspects, the leader of the minority Democrat party, Lyn Allison, said.

But public opinion in Australia has been broadly supportive. Judging by talkback radio and letters to newspapers, there is little sympathy for people who attempt to import heroin.

"Dealers and couriers deserve all they get," wrote a Sydney Daily Telegraph reader.

Another said: "The bleeding-heart brigade who think that capital punishment is barbaric should concentrate on the effects of heroin on the lives of many Australians."

Conservative columnist Miranda Devine wrote that while she felt sorry for the "wasted lives" of the nine, "the first response for many people was good riddance."

Australian Federal Police head Mick Keelty said Australia co-operated with its Asian neighbours on such issues: "If you're going to co-operate on sexual servitude or child-sex tourism, you can't do so and not co-operate on drugs."

An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald argued that it would have been arrogant for Australia to have denied the Indonesian police the arrests when the alleged offences had occurred in Bali.

"To argue that Australian values, and the safety of our citizens, should be above Indonesian law betrays an unjustifiable sense of superiority."

Like Schapelle Corby, their case is likely to drag on for months before coming to trial.

As they swelter in the discomfort of a Balinese prison they will have plenty of time to reflect on their folly.