Crime

Revealed, the most successful criminal mastermind you've never heard of: The real-life Bond villain behind a cocaine and gun empire spanning four continents who's now turned super-snitch

·                     Paul Calder Le Roux is regarded by U.S. agents as 'a very bad guy'

·                     He did business in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Africa and Brazil 

·                     Le Roux was alleged to be behind an £80m drugs-running operation in 2012 and his name is linked to the 2009 seizure of arms in the Philippines 

·                     The South African was arrested in Liberia in 2012 over a huge cocaine deal

·                     It is believed he is under protection of US authorities after cutting a deal to inform on former associates in exchange for a lighter sentence

·                     He is alleged to have helped US DEA agents set up a sting to catch his former bodyguard with a fake Colombian cartel assassination job

·                     Former US Army sniper Joseph Hunter was arrested after he was caught on tape agreeing to the job in exchange for $800,000

By RICHARD SHEARS FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 16:15 GMT, 30 December 2014 | UPDATED: 16:48 GMT, 30 December 2014

A team of divers swimming around the coral in the South Pacific decided to check out a luxury yacht, apparently undamaged as it lay on its side on the reef. Their curiosity soon turned to shock and horror.

Inside, slumped at the controls was the decomposing body of a caucasian man with American dollars, European and South American money and passports scattered around him. In the hull were hundreds of packets of white powder that police soon confirmed was cocaine worth more than a cool £80million.

The 40ft yacht, JeReVe meaning I Dream, had been tracked across 6,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador by US and Australian drug enforcement agencies, but then they lost it - until the divers found it on the reef ten miles north of Tonga's main island on November 7, 2012.

The body was later identified as that of a 35-year-old Slovak national, Milan Rindzak, the cause of death uncertain. No-one has come forward to claim Ridsak's corpse.

While America's Drug Enforcement Agency has remained tight-lipped about who was behind the drug-running operation, involving the largest haul in Pacific history, MailOnline can reveal that at its head is allegedly a master criminal whose empire has stretched around the world for years.

Paul Calder Le Roux is regarded by US agents as 'a bad guy, a very bad guy'. In fact he is possibly the world's most successful criminal who no-one has heard of - a figure who could easily slip into the role of any James Bond villain.

He has ducked and weaved his way around the globe, keeping himself just about at arms-length from dangerous deals on four continents in cocaine, gold, diamonds, weapons, murder and even selling prescription drugs illegally over the internet.

He deals in 'anything, clean or dirty, that makes a bucket-load of money,' one source has told MailOnline. 

The New York Times has compared him to the infamous Russian arms dealer, Vicktor Bout, who was the inspiration for the movie Lord of War.

Le Roux is a chameleon, able to cunningly slip into any role that circumstance demands. He plays 'Mr Ordinary' to those who do not know him, his only outstanding features being his height and a strong gaze.

He studiously avoids having his photo taken and only a few grainy shots of him are known to exist beyond those captured on intelligence surveillance cameras.

In private, he exudes supreme confidence to those he has trusted to work with him, including a small group of former Israeli military conscripts. 

He has always been in total command as he plotted his next fantastic, daring, money-making venture.

But his latest role is that of prize snitch. Le Roux, a South African in his 40s, is understood to be in a secret location somewhere in the United States after cutting a deal with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency.

He was picked up in Liberia in late 2012 and handed over to DEA agents while he was running an operation in Africa, believed to be in relation to the voyage of the doomed yacht JeReVe.

Shocking discovery: Divers came across the 40ft yacht, JeReVe, and the body of 35-year-old Slovak national, Milan Rindzak surrounded by wads of cash


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2890164/Revealed-successful-criminal-mastermind-ve-never-heard-real-life-Bond-villain-cocaine-gun-empire-spanning-four-continents-s-turned-super-snitch.html#ixzz3NPGxfXzE