PHUKET: Assassination plots and a criminal mastermind have been revealed as details surrounding the capture of soldier of fortune and alleged killer Joseph Hunter on Phuket emerge.
Twelve months after Hunter was nabbed in a commando-style raid on a golf course estate villa in central Phuket, a New York Times special report lays out the evil empire he allegedly oversaw.
As reporter Alan Feuer says, The case against Mr. Hunter, nicknamed Rambo, seemed to have been lifted from the latest action thriller.
In a hit set to take place in Liberia, the Phuket-based group asked for latex masks to make them look of a different race and plotted to escape about a private chartered jet. Hunter and his team were caught on audio and video tapes plotting the murders, the newspaper says.
According to federal agents, Hunter's family and his lawyer, the person who set the authorities on Hunter's trail was his former boss, Paul Le Roux, a shadowy South African operator who, until recently, was one of the world's least known but most successful outlaws.
Le Roux, says the newspaper, was an enterprising criminal who had overseen an empire in illegal guns and drugs that spanned four continents before he turned on Hunter in an attempt to get a lighter sentence after his own arrest.
''Le Roux is a bad guy, a very bad guy,'' the agent said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because, he said, Le Roux's cooperation has been a secret. ''He's Viktor Bout on steroids.''
Hunter's lawyer, Marlon Kirton, contends that his client was entrapped and would never have recruited his team of former military men if the government had not launched a sting against him, after the tip from Le Roux.
Prosecutors contend, however, that Hunter was caught on tape boasting of having killed two people in the Philippines before the latest plot was hatched, which could complicate an entrapment defense.
After retiring from the Army in 2004, Hunter made use of the skills he had developed over two decades in uniform.
DynCorp International, a private security firm, sent him to Iraq, where he worked taking fingerprints and DNA swabs from company employees.
Two years later, he joined another firm in Iraq called Triple Canopy, protecting American embassy workers, she said.
Contract security work came when another soldier for hire introduced him to a charismatic businessman named Paul Le Roux, according to Hunter's sister.
Hunter accompanied Le Roux on business trips to Brazil, the Republic of Congo, Mali and the Philippines, making good money, his sister said.
''Le Roux's businesses were huge,'' said Lachlan McConnell, a security contractor, now based in the Philippines. ''He had operations in Manila, Hong Kong, Colombia, Africa, Brazil.
''It was guns, gold, drugs, you name it. It was big, really big.''
In September 2012, Le Roux was captured in a secret operation in Liberia, federal agents said, and was taken into custody by the DEA.
Four months later, Hunter's own troubles started when the DEA sent two undercover agents to meet him in Thailand, posing as members of a Colombian drug cartel.
Hunter's trial has been scheduled for March 9. He has denied guilt.
Twelve months after Hunter was nabbed in a commando-style raid on a golf course estate villa in central Phuket, a New York Times special report lays out the evil empire he allegedly oversaw.
As reporter Alan Feuer says, The case against Mr. Hunter, nicknamed Rambo, seemed to have been lifted from the latest action thriller.
In a hit set to take place in Liberia, the Phuket-based group asked for latex masks to make them look of a different race and plotted to escape about a private chartered jet. Hunter and his team were caught on audio and video tapes plotting the murders, the newspaper says.
According to federal agents, Hunter's family and his lawyer, the person who set the authorities on Hunter's trail was his former boss, Paul Le Roux, a shadowy South African operator who, until recently, was one of the world's least known but most successful outlaws.
Le Roux, says the newspaper, was an enterprising criminal who had overseen an empire in illegal guns and drugs that spanned four continents before he turned on Hunter in an attempt to get a lighter sentence after his own arrest.
''Le Roux is a bad guy, a very bad guy,'' the agent said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because, he said, Le Roux's cooperation has been a secret. ''He's Viktor Bout on steroids.''
Hunter's lawyer, Marlon Kirton, contends that his client was entrapped and would never have recruited his team of former military men if the government had not launched a sting against him, after the tip from Le Roux.
Prosecutors contend, however, that Hunter was caught on tape boasting of having killed two people in the Philippines before the latest plot was hatched, which could complicate an entrapment defense.
After retiring from the Army in 2004, Hunter made use of the skills he had developed over two decades in uniform.
DynCorp International, a private security firm, sent him to Iraq, where he worked taking fingerprints and DNA swabs from company employees.
Two years later, he joined another firm in Iraq called Triple Canopy, protecting American embassy workers, she said.
Contract security work came when another soldier for hire introduced him to a charismatic businessman named Paul Le Roux, according to Hunter's sister.
Hunter accompanied Le Roux on business trips to Brazil, the Republic of Congo, Mali and the Philippines, making good money, his sister said.
''Le Roux's businesses were huge,'' said Lachlan McConnell, a security contractor, now based in the Philippines. ''He had operations in Manila, Hong Kong, Colombia, Africa, Brazil.
''It was guns, gold, drugs, you name it. It was big, really big.''
In September 2012, Le Roux was captured in a secret operation in Liberia, federal agents said, and was taken into custody by the DEA.
Four months later, Hunter's own troubles started when the DEA sent two undercover agents to meet him in Thailand, posing as members of a Colombian drug cartel.
Hunter's trial has been scheduled for March 9. He has denied guilt.
Well, by the sound of it, if he's denied guilt, he's probably not guilty then......
Posted by phonus balonus on December 21, 2014 22:57