Bali Nine drug baron Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen told me his SECRET dying wish - after he became grief-stricken at the miserable fate of the hapless Aussie mules he recruited, reveals STEVE JACKSON, who illi

Desperately hoped the traffickers he enlisted would one day return home Ringleader revealed crushing guilt that haunted him over role in botched plot EXCLUSIVE Wasting away in a Javanese prison cell, Bali Nine drug runner Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen spent his final years wracked with grief for his family, and the young Aussie mules he recruited. One of the 'selfies' Bali Nine members Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and Martin Stephens sent from their jail cell in East Java via a mobile phone smuggled into the prison to prove their identities Nguyen was just 21 when he was arrested over his role 'supervising' the botched attempt to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin from Bali back into Australia in April 2005 Nguyen had enlisted 19-year-old drug mule Scott Rush to traffick the heroin on his body Nguyen also recruited Rush's 18-year-old schoolmate Michael Czugaj as a drug courier 'I live with that regret every single morning when I wake and every night in my noisy, bare jail cell as I try to sleep.' A youthful Nguyen refused to speak publicly about his role in the drug smuggling plot for 10 years for fear of further shaming his family before breaking his silence in a rare 2015 interview He was resigned to dying behind bars in Indonesia after Chan and Sukumaran were executed Nguyen shared a cell with fellow convicted Bali Nine member Martin Stephens 'I'm terrified for their situation, distraught for their loved ones and agonisingly certain I will be next. The baby-faced members of the Bali Nine after their arrest, top from left, Myuran Sukumaran, Scott Rush, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Renae Lawrence, and bottom from left, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephen and Andrew Chan The group's every step was being closely monitored by Indonesian police after being tipped off about the operation by the Australian Federal Police.