From living the high life alongside one of Australia's biggest drug manufacturers to
her 3-year stint in prison, here are 9 facts about Charlotte Lindstrom, model turned criminal:
Number 9 Who Is Charlotte Lindstrom?
According to some of the recent reports, Charlotte Lindstrom is living a quiet life in Sweden,
her native country.
Other sources claim she's changed her name and is still receiving death threats as a
result of her former life.
Since 2007, her story has been heavily featured in the media, both in Australia and Scandinavia.
This is because of her relationship with Ecstasy kingpin Steven Spaliviero and steps that led
to her being charged of conspiracy to commit murder.
Through the scandal that followed, their love affair made headlines around the world and
concluded with Lindstrom testifying against Spaliviero, after almost wasting away behind
bars.
Number 8 Who Is Steven Spaliviero?
The son of a suburban migrant family, Steven Spaliviero's story really took off towards
the late 80s.
At the time, the young Italian-Australian, who had a self-taught knack for mechanical
engineering, got a job fixing luxury cars in Los Angeles.
He was convicted in 1989 for running a stolen Porsche racket and sent to Avenal State Prison.
From that point on, his life read like the events of the hit TV series 'Breaking Bad'.
While in Avenal, Spaliviero met a Dutch chemical engineer named Igor.
In the beginning, Igor taught Spaliviero how to survive the gang stabbings in the prison
yard.
As time passed, Igor revealed that he had gotten into cooking ecstasy after his wife
died of cancer.
He reportedly did it to care for his daughter, Emily, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Igor was sent to prison after the DEA kicked his door down and found him cooking about
200 pounds of the drug.
After Igor's sister told him that he could no longer care for Emily, he made a pact with
Spaliviero.
Igor would teach him how to make and sell drugs and, in return, Spaliviero would take
care of Emily with the money he earned.
Over the course of the next 18 months, Spaliviero became Igor's student and learned how to
make ecstasy from precursor drugs like pseudoephedrine.
By the time he was extradited back to Australia, he was no longer a car thief but an ecstasy
cook eager to put his knowledge to practice.
Number 7 Becoming an Ecstasy Kingpin After his release from prison, Spaliviero
used what he'd learnt to become an Ecstasy kingpin.
He made good on his promise to take care of Igor's daughter and would frequently send
money to his sister.
Spaliviero was a hands-on cook who built gigantic reaction vessels, which were used to produce
copious amounts of pure ecstasy.
His business really took off once he learned how to make pills from an unwitting legal
vitamin producer, whom he met in Amsterdam through Igor's sister.
He built new reaction vessels, bought pill binding powder and pill presses capable of
producing 7500 pills per minute.
By 2001, the drug trade had earned him a $23 million profit.
The fact that his business had grown so quickly without detection from law enforcement made
him feel untouchable.
By his own account, he fell in love with the adrenaline.
However, the true highlight of his operation was achieved when Igor got out of prison.
Igor asked Spaliviero to meet him in Shanghai, where a Chinese company was willing to part
with a 550-ton stockpile of precursor chemical.
Once in the warehouse Spaliviero claimed he felt like the boy in 'Willie Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory'.
He and Igor calculated and deduced that, from the stockpile, they'd be able to make 3.5
billion pills and earn a profit of $21 billion.
The majority of the chemicals were shipped by Igor to Switzerland, but Spaliviero managed
to import enough to Australia to make 11 tons of ecstasy.
He would ship millions of dollars to China by stashing the money in foam boxes of live
lobsters.
When Charlotte Lindstrom became part of Spaliviero's world, he was one of the biggest ecstasy manufacturers
of the day.
Number 6 How Did Lindstrom and Spaliviero meet?
In 2002, Spaliviero owned a club in Sydney called Minx, where he laundered his drug money.
At the time, Lindstrom was a backpacker from Sweden working as a part-time model and hostess
for the exclusive Hemmesphere nightclub in Sydney.
She met Spaliviero, 18 years her senior, in 2003 during an interview for a job at Minx.
Their romance took off quickly and it wasn't long before Lindstrom learned that her boyfriend
was a large scale drug manufacturer.
This, however, wasn't a hindrance in their romantic relationship which was characterized
by a life of opulence and excess.
Number 5 Living the High Life With Spaliviero by her side, Lindstrom would
know a glamorous life complete with fast cars and extravagant yacht parties.
They lived in a $3 million waterfront property decorated with Chinese antiques.
At their home, Spaliviero hosted all-night parties where he served punch spiked with
ecstasy.
As a model, Lindstrom loved designer dresses and lavish jewellery and Spaliviero spared
no expense in making sure she was happy.
In their subsequent prison letters, they both made reference to the fairytale they wanted
to live together.
Yet, their lifestyle was all founded on Spaliviero's massive drug operation which soon came under
heavy investigation.
Number 4 End of the Fairytale In 2005, one of Spaliviero's shipments was
intercepted, his assets were seized and he was charged in connection to drug distribution.
While on bail he tried one final drug reaction, which he later claimed was the largest ever
attempted up to that point.
It involved half a ton of chemicals which produced an ecstasy pile measuring three feet
in height.
The process was too much for the reaction vessels to handle and a fire broke out at
his Riverstone factory, in the suburbs of Sydney.
As he fled the factory in a panic, he left an important clue behind in the form of his
Louis Vuitton sneakers.
By then, the authorities had bugged his house and car.
They also had two key witnesses.
They arrested Spaliviero but only charged him for the scraps discovered at the Riverstone
factory, almost 100 pounds of ecstasy.
Number 3 Hitman Contract The hitman contract represented Lindstrom's
transition from model to criminal.
The testimonies from the two witnesses reportedly had the potential of putting Spaliviero behind
bars for life.
While at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Center, Spaliviero allegedly met another inmate
who offered to kill the witnesses, for a price.
He phoned Lindstrom from prison and instructed her to meet with a hitman and pay him to make
his 'problems' disappear.
They agreed upon a price around $82,000 per hit.
The police were tipped of that the lives of the witnesses were in danger but, by that
time, they already had Lindstrom under surveillance.
In one of her phone conversations, she mentioned that she wanted them to be taken to the 'cemetery'.
It was the break in the case the authorities had been waiting for.
The supposed hitman that she met up with in May 2007 was actually an undercover police
officer.
As captured by several CCTV cameras, Lindstrom was arrested May 26 on conspiracy to commit
murder.
She'd be the only one convicted on that count, as Spaliviero's lawyers maintained
that she'd acted on her own motivated by love.
Spaliviero, along with two other defendants were found not guilty in the murder plot.
In the years since the hitman contract, public opinion has usually been mixed.
Some, including a judge on the case, stated that Lindstrom was naïve, that she romanticized
her relationship with Spaliviero and was manipulated by him.
Others believe that she was familiar with his business, that she acted in cold blood
and knew exactly what she was doing.
Number 2 Lindstrom Testifies Against Spaliviero On the inside, life wasn't easy for Lindstrom.
A beautiful woman, she caught the unwanted attention of other inmates who sought to take
advantage of her.
She developed anorexia on the inside and was slowly wasting away.
She eventually made a deal to testify against Spaliviero at his drug trial, in return for
a reduced sentence.
In one of the letters she wrote to him in prison, Lindstrom said 'I've tried to
block you out but I can't, the truth is I still love you with my whole heart and soul'.
She added 'But the only person who can help me now is me.
I'm not prepared to spend 5-8 years in jail for something I did for love.'
She was also concerned for her safety as she was reportedly receiving death threats.
Images, which made headlines around the world in 2009, showed Lindstrom arriving at Spaliviero's
trial wearing a bulletproof vest and only weighing around 80 pounds.
Number 1 Life after Prison Spaliviero and Lindstrom were reportedly still
in love when they went to prison and continued to write letters to each other.
However, it didn't last, and Lindstrom made parole on May 25, 2010.
For the crime of trying to have people killed, she only served 3 years in prison.
The very next day she was deported to Sweden, where she reportedly lives under an assumed
identity.
The once loving couple would cease to communicate.
Spaliviero wrote two books in prison.
One was a memoir/expose called 'Pills of God', dedicated to Lindstrom, which also
contained some of the letters she had written him in prison.
The other was called 'Narco X' and described how he became an ecstasy kingpin, that his
operation dwarfed that of the fictional Walter White and that the chemicals used to make
ecstasy are much more dangerous than those used to make methamphetamine.
For his drug-related crimes, he spent 11 years in prison.
He was released in 2017 and, according to the latest reports, has kept away from narcotics.
He was also committed to building a life alongside his new girlfriend, model Chelsea Coates,
whom he met on Tinder.
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For more infomation >> Princess Charlotte looks like Queen Elizabeth - Duration: 4:36. 
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