Volume 44 - No. 07
February 13, 2014
by lyle e davis
They are out there.
These practitioners of a profession that goes back thousands of years. What’s more . . . they are geographically close to us. Assassins.
You can hire an assassin for as little as $35 in Sinaloa, Mexico, (one of the high activity areas of the Mexican narco-terrorists.) One other group of three assassins had contracted for $800,000 for a hit. They were caught before they completed their assignment (which was a sting, set up by the US Justice Department). We detail this story below.
The netherworld of assassins and their profession is not one we normally get too close to. It can get uncomfortable. And dangerous.
Let us, however, from the comfort of our easy chair, take a look at this phenomenon - one that you and I will never encounter. We hope.
Recently, a retired, heavily decorated, sharp-shooting former Army sergeant nicknamed Rambo was charged with recruiting ex-soldiers as globetrotting hitmen for drug traffickers in a scheme that prosecutors said could have been "ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel."
Three members of the gang were ready to assassinate a federal agent for an $800,000 payoff, and one of them boasted that murder-for-hire was "fun," according to court papers outlining an elaborate four-continent sting operation.
"The charges tell a tale of an international band of mercenary marksmen who enlisted their elite military training to serve as hired guns for evil The Paper - 760.747.7119
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Thai policemen escort American Joseph Hunter, 48, as he arrives at Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok
ends," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
"Three of the defendants were ready, willing and eager to take cold hard cash to commit the cold-blooded murders of a DEA agent and an informant." The accused ringleader was
Joseph "Rambo" Hunter, 48, whose family told NBC News he was mysterious about his international activities and they had no idea he had been arrested.
Hunter was in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 2004, serving as a sniper instructor and senior
The Assassin Continued on Page 2
drill sergeant, according to the indictment unsealed Friday.
After leaving the military, he launched a new career as a contract killer who "has arranged for the murders of multiple people," the court papers charge. "These were consummated, completed contract killings," Bharara said at a recent press