How skint computer geek Paul Le Roux took on Somali pirates, smuggled meth from North Korea and hired ‘hit-men to murder hit-men’ to become one of the most dangerous men in the world
A pudgy computer geek turned blood thirsty criminal mastermind is now awaiting charges after a decade of what has been described as a 'video game of violence'.
Dubbed the 'Jeff Bezos of the dark web' for his dealings in drugs, chemicals, cash, gold and military-grade weapons, ex-computer programmer Paul Le Roux is now one of the most prolific and dangerous cyber criminals in history.
Locked in darkness behind his computer screen for most hours of the day, Paul, now 46, launched a pharmaceutical company illegally dealing painkillers in 2004, before investing the hundreds of millions he earned into a web of criminal activity.
Using former US soldiers as criminal pawns, his dodgy enterprises included laundering gold through Ghana, trafficking meth from North Korea and bribing Somali pirates.
He operated private jets full of gold to engineer deals worth vast sums, raked in around $250 million-a-year and fathered 11 children across the countries he operated in.
Only now is his shocking story coming to light and a new biography, The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire.Murder. Betrayal by investigative journalist Evan Ratcliff reveals the true horror he orchestrated from behind a screen.
'Pudgy' computer geek Paul Le Roux was one of the biggest cyber criminals in the world
From chubby computer geek to international drug lord
Paul, who was born in Zimbabwe in 1972, was put up for adoption without receiving a name from his mother.
He was described as 'pudgy, sweet and good' by school friends and earned his first computer after washing someone's car in his early teens. But at 16, Paul was arrested for selling pornography.
By his mid-twenties, Paul had already become a tech mastermind and released an encryption programme called E4M in 1999.
However, the first hint of the anger that would go on to define his latter years came when other techies, who he had trusted to help improve his software, stole the technology and launched their own profitable companies.
Paul finally broke when a tech entrepreneur, who had profited millions from E4M, sacked him.
Vowing this would never happen again, he launched his own company in 2004, RX Limited - a pharmaceutical empire that would go on to earn him more money than he ever imagined.
At the time, he had been living in a tiny apartment with a beaten up car and had been struggling to make ends meet for his wife and child.
Through a web of deception, which included using a fake DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent to assure pharmacists that they could legally approve prescriptions for online buyers, RX limited quickly took over illegal online trading.
At its height, the company, based in the Philippines, was responsible for half of the painkillers being pumped into the US.
The website's targets were vulnerable US citizens who had been unable to gain prescriptions through their health insurance or patients who had become addicted to painkillers such as Tramadol.
Smuggling crystal meth from North Korea and hiring ex soldiers as hit men
Investigative journalist Evan explains: "At this point, Paul had more money than he had ever imagined and he had two choices - to make his business above board and probably earn less money or to carry on.
"He took the third choice - to grow and expand into new business."
Fuelled by greed Paul branched out into gold, crystal meth and cocaine trafficking.
But unlike his criminal predecessors like "El Chapo" Guzman and Pablo Escobar, Paul didn't care about his appearance, nor did he want to get his hands dirty at this stage.
He recruited Dave Smith, a former soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who specialised in personal security and was now based in the Philippines.
Calling it "the best sh**thole we could find" to bribe people who needed money and pay off officials, Paul used the Asian country as a hub for his organised crime.
With the help of Dave, he then recruited a team of mercenaries - mostly former soldiers - who he paid $10,000 dollars-a-week to fly over the world to engage in criminal activities.
He flitted between buying gold from the black market in Ghana, tuna fishing, bribing Somali pirates, smuggling meth from North Korea and even manufacturing weapon grade chemicals to ship to Iran.
He was also accused of conspiring to use mercenaries to overthrow the Seychelles government.
His vision was to create an online platform for every vice from drugs and weapons to hitmen-for-hire.
When later asked by courts who he would supply to, he replied: "Rebels, war lords, criminals - and essentially anyone who had the money."
He shot his hitman and wrapped him in cling-film
However Paul's charm could flick like a switch and Evan describes how around around 2011, he had become bloodthirsty and paranoid and for the first time, he took part in his own real-life, murderous video game.
Business deals were going wrong and at several points he flipped between trying to fake his own death certificate and obtaining his own missiles as defence.
"It wasn't just people who were threats to Paul, it was anyone who crossed him."
One victim of this violent tirade was Catherine Lee, an estate agent with a child who Paul accused of stealing from him and whom he ordered to be shot - twice below each eye.
As he felt like his empire was slowly closing in on him, he turned on his own.
Evan writes how Paul complained Dave had "a bigger yacht than me," and disgusted by his flashiness.
He then hired hit-men to lure Dave to a beachfront property in the Philippines.
"It was like a dark comedy. The gun jammed, and then when he was finally shot, Paul shot him again with an automatic he had no idea how to use," Evan says.
"He then turned to his hit-men with a plastic roll and said, 'Wrap up the body'. They couldn't sink it in the sea so Paul jumped in and had to cut holes in the plastic."
Bringing down his own mercenaries to avoid a life in jail
He was eventually arrested in 2012, when two government employees responsible for cracking down on illegal pharmaceutical websites chanced upon Paul's network of illegal activity.
Around the same time, a rookie who Paul had forced to fly from Somalia to Hong Kong for a deal in 2009 and then refused to feed, reported him out of sheer anger.
Evan reveals how several of his 'underlings' had allegedly tried to report him to the US government but none of their emails had ever been returned.
A sting was set up in Columbia, and an undercover DEA agent named Pepe posed as a South American drug lord who had set up a fake deal with Paul.
During their meeting, Paul was recorded confessing to manufacturing drugs, smuggling, corruption and even hinted at Dave's murder.
Amazingly, despite confessing to all of his crimes, Paul has now been in custody for seven years without conviction.
most read in world news
He has since begged to become a state witness and bring down the drug lords, criminals and mercenaries who were on his own payroll.
In a final twist befitting an evil genius, experts have predicted that due to his cooperation, he may be sentenced in the next few months to just ten years, and could be out of jail in just three.
The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal by Evan Ratliff. Published by Random House