The mastermind, p.40
The Mastermind, page 40
His prospective attorney, a local criminal defender assigned to the case named Xavier Donaldson, walked in half an hour late and had yet to be informed of Le Roux’s charges, or even his name.
The lead prosecutor, Michael Lockard, stepped up to summarize Le Roux’s situation for the judge. “Mr. Le Roux has pleaded guilty in this case, and has assisted law enforcement by, among other things, testifying in a trial,” he said. “The court was alerted and we were alerted to some…issues between Mr. Le Roux and his attorney.” In an aside to Donaldson, he characterized the issues as “a breakdown in attorney-client communications.” Le Roux’s cooperation with the government was now complete, Lockard continued, and the last of the defendants he’d testified against, Joseph Hunter, would be sentenced in the new year. The judge could sentence him as soon as the spring.
Sitting only a few feet away from me, Le Roux looked smaller up close, enveloped by his blue jail scrubs. He sat with his shoulders hunched at the defense table, polite and subdued in his answers to the judge’s questions. He asked for time to confer with Donaldson before completing the switch. The judge adjourned for two weeks to allow him to do so. “I appreciate it so much, believe me,” I heard him say to Donaldson, as he stood up.
Two U.S. marshals moved in to stand guard as he plodded out of the courtroom, glancing periodically over their shoulders to assess possible threats to the U.S. government’s once-prized asset. When I looked around the rows of the gallery, though, it was empty except for me.
PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE
Catherine Lee’s body, discovered in a pile of garbage in February 2012 in Taytay, Rizal, in the Philippines
Acmemeds.com, a typical website selling painkillers for Le Roux’s RX Limited network
CHAIWAT SUBPRASOM/REUTERS PICTURES
Joseph “Rambo” Hunter being escorted off a plane by Thai authorities in September 2013, following his arrest in Phuket for conspiracy to murder a DEA agent
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Five suspects arrested in Thailand in September 2013 for arranging the import of North Korean–made methamphetamine into the United States: (front row) Adrian Valkovic, Kelly Peralta, Philip Shackels, Ye Tiong Tan Lim; (back row) Scott Stammers
Paul Le Roux’s fake Zimbabwean passport, under the alias Bernard John Bowlins
Le Roux’s diplomatic passport from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, under the name Paul Solotshi Calder Le Roux
ROMEO RANOCO/REUTERS PICTURES
Philippine authorities examining some of the fifty assault weapons that were seized aboard the M/V Ufuk in August 2009. Most of the weapons were believed to have already been off-loaded.
PHILIPPINE NATIONAL POLICE
Bruce Jones’s body after his murder by tandem motorcycle assassins in Angeles City in September 2010
POLÍCIA FEDERAL, BRAZIL
Le Roux captured by a surveillance camera at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro, date unknown
POLÍCIA FEDERAL, BRAZIL
Immigration photos of Le Roux and his girlfriend, Cindy Cayanan, entering Brazil in 2012
POLÍCIA FEDERAL, BRAZIL
Le Roux and his phone captured on surveillance by the Brazilian federal police
POLÍCIA FEDERAL, BRAZIL
Shai Reuven and Le Roux, captured on surveillance in a mall in Rio in 2012. Reuven was accused of running drug trafficking operations for LeRoux.
ORGANIZED CRIME AND TRIAD BUREAU, HONG KONG
Some of the 160 gold bars seized from Le Roux’s employees in Hong Kong in May 2012
ORGANIZED CRIME AND TRIAD BUREAU, HONG KONG
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE
The wreck of the JeReVe, discovered off the coast of Tonga in November 2012
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE
Wrapped bricks of cocaine, totaling two hundred kilograms, that were discovered in the walls of the JeReVe. The body of one of its two crewmen was also found onboard.
DEA/U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
Scott Stammers and Philip Shackels, two of Le Roux’s deputies in his North Korean methamphetamine operation, captured on DEA surveillance in Phuket, Thailand, in 2013
PERSON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Adam Samia following his arrest in July 2015 in Roxboro, North Carolina, for murder
PERSON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
David Stillwell following his arrest in July 2015 in Roxboro, North Carolina, for murder
SHERBURNE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Photo from a fake arrest report for Paul Le Roux, generated in Minnesota in 2016. Le Roux was never arrested for cocaine distribution in Minnesota; the report was merely a cover for his arrival there.
For Bill Goggins (1963–2006)
Acknowledgments
This book required the patience and generosity of hundreds of people. That number includes many sources whom I cannot thank by name, due to the conditions under which they cooperated. I want to express my blanket appreciation to former members of Le Roux’s organization, law enforcement agents, attorneys, family members—especially family members, for whom the decision was often wrenching—and many others who provided information. I am more indebted still to those who were willing speak (even partly) on the record, no matter how I view their role in the events or how contentious the conversations. This book is built on their patient and often courageous assistance.
The original series behind this book, in The Atavist Magazine, was edited by Katia Bachko, who wrangled it into shape under inhuman deadline pressure. Joel Lovell provided additional editing and essential insights. Sean Cooper worked through the night to copyedit each installment. Thanks to Thomas Rhiel for his design, and Paul Kamuf for his video talents. Seyward Darby, in taking the reins at the magazine, gave me the space to finish this book. And none of it would have been possible without Jeff Rabb, my business partner—along with Nick Thompson—and the real mastermind behind Atavist and The Atavist Magazine.
Any close reader will recognize the crucial role played by Aurora Almendral, an exceptional reporter in her own right, in my research in the Philippines. Without her, the book would be a shadow of its final self. I also benefited from the keen reporting and translation assistance of two other journalists abroad: Daniel Estrin in Israel and Luiza Miguez in Brazil. (Thanks as well to Daniela Pinheiro in Rio.) In the United States, Natalie Lampert and Oliver Conroy provided invaluable research assistance along the way. I was lucky to work with exceptional fact-checkers: Queen Arsem-O’Malley and Riley Blanton on the original Atavist series, and Ben Phelan on the book manuscript. All of them saved me from a pile of embarrassing errors, and any that remain in the book are my own.
During my reporting I again and again encountered the generosity of other journalists, in situations when it would have been easy to be cutthroat and competitive. Damon Tabor shared with me the voluminous research he had conducted on Le Roux. Robyn Lee Kriel provided helpful background on Bulawayo and Zimbabwe. Patrick Radden Keefe advised me on how to approach this kind of work. Johnny Dwyer pointed me to details on Dave Smith that he had uncovered for his book on Chucky Taylor and Liberia, American Warlord. Thanks as well to the creators of Sqoop (sqoop.com), a service that enabled me to track a maddening number of federal case dockets.
My reporting owes a debt to—and I hope respectfully builds upon—great work done on Le Roux by other journalists. Most importantly, Alan Feuer at The New York Times broke critical information—no less than Le Roux’s name—and provided me insights on how to chase the rest of the story down. His colleague Ben Weiser did the first reporting on the Joseph Hunter arrest. Julian Rademeyer in South Africa carried out original and dangerous reporting on Le Roux back when no one else was looking. Shay Aspril in Israel was onto CSWW in 2012. Marco Antônio Martins in Brazil uncovered Le Roux’s 2012 arrest a year before anyone else. I am grateful to all of them for their work, and their willingness to discuss it with me. Likewise, in the Philippines Mar Supnad, Non Alquitran, and Vic Vizcocho all uncovered important pieces of Le Roux’s organization through their reporting. The Australian’s Mark Schliebs, in his own series on Le Roux, supplied facts about Le Roux’s time in Sydney that I otherwise would not have found. Jefferey Gettleman and Sahal Abdulle generously shared recollections of their time with Felix Klaussen, experiences that were minor footnotes to their courageous work in Somalia. Ronen Bergman provided counsel and assistance in Israel.
I couldn’t ask for a better advocate and friend through this process than my agent, David Kuhn, who not only shepherded this book to reality but also provided years of encouragement that gave me the confidence to attempt it. My thanks to the whole Aevitas team, especially Chelsey Heller, Kate Mack, and William LoTurco, for helping make it happen. At Creative Artists Agency, Michelle Kroes and Tiffany Ward have been tireless advocates for The Atavist Magazine, as have the management team at Circle of Confusion, and Darren Trattner. I would be lost in LA without Rick Jacobs at Skybound.
I benefited enormously from the input of readers and advisers along the way. Ali Kazemi let me borrow his legal mind countless times to understand my own research. Jon Mooallem not only preserved my sanity with his good humor and wisdom by phone every other week for years, he also helped me access an early draft. Max Linsky was a font of encouragement and thoughtful reflection about this book, and life. Robin Marantz Henig applied her experience and editing acumen to this manuscript with a thoroughness and intensity well beyond what I could have dared ask, improving it many, many times over. This book is also the culmination of years of wonderful editing at magazines that I received from the likes of Alex Heard, Katrina Heron, Charlie Homans, Tom McNichol, Jeff O’Brien, Jamie Shreeve, Nick Thompson, and Daniel Zalewski.
Andy Ward is an unparalleled editor. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the chance to work with him. He helped shape my thinking on this book from the very beginning, dug into the details at each step, and made every part of it immeasurably better. It was a joy to work with him. The same goes for Chayenne Skeete, Evan Camfield, Barbara Fillon, Melanie DeNardo, Katie Tull, Andrea DeWerd, Tom Perry, Leigh Marchant, Carlos Beltran, Matthew Martin, and everyone else on the Random House team who took this from a jumble of words to a book on the shelf.
My deepest appreciation goes finally to family and friends, too many to name, who supported me in countless ways—from listening to me recount the story’s details, to giving me a respite from thinking about them. To my parents and siblings, who have supported me over a lifetime. Lastly to my wife, reader, editor, and anchor, Samantha—and to our girls. I could not have done it without you, and I hope I’ve made you proud.
Notes
Readers should note that the following source notes contain potential spoilers for events in the book.
If a subject is quoted by name in the text, those quotes derive either from personal interviews conducted with the subject or a party to the conversation, or from documents and transcripts recounting the statements. Scenes or locations I describe in the first person, I witnessed myself. For all information specifically attributed to a document in the text—e.g., “according to company registration documents”—I viewed and/or possess those documents, unless otherwise noted. There are individuals described in this book who declined to speak on the record, or at all, for reasons personal and professional. Readers should not assume that because I have quoted a subject that that person necessarily spoke to me—often multiple accounts were available from other sources, including the subjects’ own recollections in court documents. Neither should a reader assume that if a subject is not quoted by name, I did not speak to them. No sources were compensated in any way, directly or indirectly, paid or promised, in the course of my reporting.
Only three names have been altered in this book for anonymity: Felix Klaussen, Patrick Donovan, and Marcus. Klaussen’s name I changed for what should now be obvious reasons: He was a high-level confidential informant against a murderous criminal cartel, and is involved in ongoing operations in that capacity. He argued persuasively that revealing his full identity could bring risk to his life. Other than the change of his name, he placed no conditions on my use of our interviews, but I have withheld (not changed) some biographical facts. Patrick Donovan was willing to explain firsthand how corruption in the Philippines operates and to describe his experiences with Paul Le Roux on the condition of anonymity. Because I quoted him often, it became unwieldy not to refer to him by some name rather than a generic honorific. He, too, placed no other conditions on my use of our interviews. And while “Marcus” is the name Le Roux used for his South African hit man, it is not the name that he is known by in his daily life. I used it due to an attribution agreement I made with him before discovering that he was Le Roux’s assassin.
No other facts in this book have been changed to protect sources, or for any reason.
In some online correspondence that I quote directly I have corrected minor punctuation, spelling, and syntax issues and cut unrelated asides—all for readability’s sake—without altering the meaning or context of the quoted statements. (Some of the interviews I conducted, and conversations I received copies of, involved very casual digital chats that can be confusing if left unadjusted in this fashion.) The chats are otherwise unchanged, and I have elected to avoid correcting other spelling mistakes or including repetitive instances of “[sic]” as long as the language is understandable.
Throughout this book I’ve tried to be as transparent as possible about my process—indeed, it’s the primary reason I appear as a character at all—and to reveal how my reporting came about. But I feel the need to reemphasize here that subjects often provided conflicting accounts of the same events. Memories fade and diverge, driven by time and motive. Given the nature of the events, most subjects did little to document their participation. Indeed, they often actively worked to erase any record of it. Others tried to inflate their role, for reasons clear only to them, or perhaps not even to them. To arrive at this account, I’ve triangulated subjects’ recollections against one another, and against tens of thousands of pages of documentation, wherever possible. At the same time, I’m mindful of the fact that documents also bring risk of bias and misdirection, as they are often the product of government agents looking to justify their work, or of defense attorneys seeking to minimize their clients’ crimes. In some cases I’ve had to judge the reliability of a description of events based on my experiences with the teller, checking and rechecking facts in an attempt to edge as close as possible to the truth of what happened.
There is, of course, one critical witness whose experience I learned about only indirectly: Paul Calder Le Roux. As noted in these pages, outside of his voluminous testimony he has so far remained silent, as have his attorneys, in response to dozens of my requests. What he would say about how I’ve conveyed his story, I can only infer.
FREQUENTLY CITED CASES AND REPORTS
In notes referencing legal cases, for easier identification I have provided the document number from the case docket (e.g., “Document 990-7,” rather than “Defense Sentencing Memorandum”) and the overall case citation (e.g., USA v. Berkman rather than USA v. Bezalel, a subset of the former case). I have dated court filings according to the date on which they were filed. I have dated transcripts of court hearings, including those of both grand jury and trial proceedings, according to the date on which they occurred.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) v. Shulman, Doron Zvi, Sentencing Hearing, May 12, 2014, HCCC 297/2013.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) v. Yoav Hen and Daniel Fadlon, Sentencing Hearing, June 6, 2013, DCCC 1033 & 1036/2012.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) v. Omer Gavish, Verdict, June 24, 2013, DCCC 1033 & 1036/2012 (A).
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) v. Omer Gavish, Court of Appeal, September 17, 2014, DCCC 1033 & 1036/2012 (A).
Internal Report of the Brazilian Federal Police, Grupo de Investigações Sensíveis (GISE), “Operation America,” on surveillance of Paul Calder Le Roux, Processso Criminal 0014974-53.2012.4.02.5101-7, Vara Criminal Federal, 2012.
