[VolandoVengoVolandoVoy]

I've quoted some of the best bits, but the whole article merits reading. TLDR - Army vet with 20 years experience and special forces training can't hack it in civilian life, ends up doing security work in Iraq. Hooks up with a South African guy who ran a multi national criminal empire, goes to work for the guy doing anything and everything. South African gets caught, fingers his employee (and everyone else he could possibly think of) as a hitman for hire to get a lighter sentence. DEA sets up a sting operation and the hitman is arrested in Thailand, now in USA and looking at life in prison.
Lesson to be learned here - no honor among thieves. If you are involved in crime and one of your coworkers gets caught, they will 100% for sure inform on you to get a lighter sentence. The only way this doesn't happen is if you are the Russian or Mexican mafia/cartel and can potentially murder someone's entire family back in Russia or Mexico.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/world/...-bars.html

Quote:

The hit was set for Liberia and, the Drug Enforcement Administration said, the plans were elaborate; the hired killers asked their employers for sophisticated latex masks to make them look as if they were of a different race and plotted to escape aboard a privately chartered jet. In a more shocking twist, at least for the gunmen, the supposed cartel members employing them were, in reality, D.E.A. agents setting up a sting.

Quote:

According to the federal agents, Mr. Le Roux was an enterprising criminal who had overseen an empire in illegal guns and drugs that spanned four continents before he turned on Mr. Hunter in an attempt to get a lighter sentence after his own arrest

Quote:

Not unlike many veterans, Mr. Hunter made a difficult discovery when he got home: It was hard to find civilian work he liked and that made use of the skills he had developed over two decades in uniform.

Quote:

Other authorities also had their eyes on Mr. Le Roux, who is believed to be in his 40s. In July 2011, the United Nations accused him of spending $3 million, including almost $1 million in militia salaries, in violation of an arms embargo in Somalia, adding that one of his partners was also involved in a plot to cultivate hallucinogenic plants at a secret compound near the Ethiopian border.

Quote:

“Le Roux’s businesses were huge,” said Lachlan McConnell, a security contractor, now based in the Philippines, who is facing charges of helping Mr. Le Roux with the painkiller scheme. “He had operations in Manila, Hong Kong, Colombia, Africa, Brazil. It was guns, gold, drugs, you name it. It was big, really big.”

Quote:

And so began a brainstorming session for the hit; Mr. Gogel and Mr. Vamvakias proposed using “machine guns, cyanide or a grenade,” according to the indictment. By midsummer, Mr. Hunter had also emailed the agents a wish list of military hardware: two submachine guns with silencers (he asked for “something small”), two .22-caliber pistols (“these are a must”) and a .308-caliber rifle with a scope.

[El Chinito loco]

The running joke in bangkok is that every fat man on a barstool claims to be ex special forces or former SAS guy. In this case it appears to be true, go figure. It's always amusing that Thailand always ends up as the crossroads were all this illegal shit goes down.

The yakuza, russian mob, iranian terrorists, Al Qaeda, gun czars (Victor Bout), boiler room operations, eastern european card skimmers, israeli MDMA cartel, cocaine cartel networks, and various other shady people all call Bangkok home and operate networks right in Pattaya, Phuket, BKK, etc..

It's amazing Thailand really is the underworld expo.

[Shrodax]

Quote:

After giving their recruits surveillance and security work, the undercover agents in May 2013 offered them what they described as “a bonus job” — a paid assignment to kill a D.E.A. agent and a troublesome informant. “They will handle both jobs,” Mr. Hunter wrote in an email, the indictment says. “They just need good tools.”

Here's where he first fucked up. The first rule of being a hitman is that you never meet the client yourself. Goddamn it, how hard is that?

Quote:

Two Liberian visas were obtained, and Mr. Hunter emailed his employers, saying that his men would arrive in Africa on Sept. 25.

And the second rule of being a hitman should be that you never tell the client your travel plans.

[Duke Castile]

"had special forces training" doesn't mean he was in Special Forces.

It could mean anything. He could have attended Special Forces selection (the tryout process) and then washed out.

If he was 38 years old and a sergeant and retired at that rank, that means he was SHIT.

I am very skeptical here. I think we have one of these barstool dickheads that tell everyone about their commando status that actually got a job somehow and this La roux character picked some nobody to rat on and fulfill some quota for the number of contacts to get a lighter sentence.

These morons then bought into their own characters by basically doing private eye work (takes almost zero training) and were gradually fed a "hit job".

I don't buy it at all. I doubt this guy Hunter was anybody of any significance and I doubt he ever even killed anyone. I'm guessing the nickname Rambo was more a nickname from his bullshitting than anything.

[weambulance]

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/presscon...emarks.pdf

The allegations against Hunter are at that link. He was a drill sergeant, sniper instructor, and was an SFC, not a SGT. I didn't see anything in there about special operations, so that bit is probably just from the usual high standard of media competence. It doesn't list his MOS. Maybe he was an 11B/C (infantry), maybe he was a 19D (cav scout), who knows.

[Phoenix]

Makes you wonder. Given the percentage of drugs that get seized, there's probably many many more of these guys at work.

[DVY]

This story is just pure amature sh-t all the way around.

Its actually a lol.

Who does shit like this by phone or email?

Props to Le Roux for skating through this and getting light jail. He probably bribed and hustled his way out of his problems.

[samsamsam]

(12-21-2014 03:48 PM)weambulance Wrote:  

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/presscon...emarks.pdf

The allegations against Hunter are at that link. He was a drill sergeant, sniper instructor, and was an SFC, not a SGT. I didn't see anything in there about special operations, so that bit is probably just from the usual high standard of media competence. It doesn't list his MOS. Maybe he was an 11B/C (infantry), maybe he was a 19D (cav scout), who knows.

So another well vetted article published by the media? Should have gone for it all and made the hitman a feminist who was raped by 7 guys on broken glass and she turned into an assassin because of it.

[Duke Castile]

(12-21-2014 03:48 PM)weambulance Wrote:  

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/presscon...emarks.pdf

The allegations against Hunter are at that link. He was a drill sergeant, sniper instructor, and was an SFC, not a SGT. I didn't see anything in there about special operations, so that bit is probably just from the usual high standard of media competence. It doesn't list his MOS. Maybe he was an 11B/C (infantry), maybe he was a 19D (cav scout), who knows.

SFC after retiring? Still a shit heel. Drill Instructor? That's what guys that can't hack Ranger School do.

I haven't been to sniper school but I'd be curious to know what his actual function in the school was.

[weambulance]

Who knows, but I doubt his military service really matters.

What do you learn in the military about being an assassin or facilitator? Some awareness of opsec principles, some mental and physical stress management, and possibly if killing people bothers you. How to plan a mission, but not in the context of a small unit or individual without any support. Useful stuff, but very basic.

If he really did this since 2004 as they claim, he couldn't have been too much of a shitbag or he would've been caught a long time ago. Or maybe the allegations are just wildly exaggerated.