Clubbing with a Kingpin

This is a picture of me with Guillermo Coppola taken in the VIP area of the Terrazas del Este club, in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Your first question may be, "What was Ryan Bullock doing in the VIP area of a club in Buenos Aires?" Well, the explanation is that I was not Ryan Bullock that night - I was "Chip Duracell". That's right... of THE Duracell family. My great grandfather started the Duracell battery company, and I am the an "heir to the Duracell family fortune". Of course that is ridiculous - there is no Duracell family. But Chip Duracell gets to step into the VIP area.

The next question is who is Guillermo Coppola. Well, here in Argentina he is known as "El Rey de la Noche" (the King of the Night). Basically, he is a major socialite, politically-connected celebrity, and womanizer who many believe has had links to organized crime here in Argentina. Coppola was Diego Maradona's manager for years. For those of you who don't know, Diego Maradona is a former Argentine soccer player and the current manager of the Argentine national soccer team. Many people consider Maradona the best professional soccer player in the history of the game. He is certainly one of soccer's most controversial figures.

Coppola was arrested back in the mid 90s after police busted him with more than 500 grams of cocaine in his Buenos Aires apartment. He was initially charged with drug possession with intent to sell. Police claimed that he may have been part of a drug ring that sold drugs in resorts along Argentina's Atlantic coast, and Coppola was potentially facing up to 20 years in prison. Here is a New York Times article from about a week after the incident. After he spent over a year in prison, it turned out that the drugs may have been "planted" in Coppola's house by an undercover police officer. Anyway, they let him walk.

There is certainly a lot more to tell about Guillermo Coppola. Back in 2009, he released an autobiographical book full of stories and anecdotes about Maradona, power, drugs, jail, women, scandals, and nightlife. The book cover is pictured here:

Diego Maradona used to say that Guillermo
Coppola could "smoke under water", which is
an argentine expression that means that he
can do anything and everything. That explains
the picture on Coppola's book cover.