Crime boss hired ‘Rambo’ to run global hit squad

PHILIPPINES: Three Americans who became soldiers of fortune face life sentences for conspiring to murder a real estate agent in the Philippines on the orders of a South African crime lord.

Joseph Hunter, a former United States Army infantry sergeant who went by the name ‘‘Rambo’’, was serving as the head of the private army of Paul Le Roux, an international arms smuggler who also trafficked drugs, chemicals and gold.

Prosecutors in New York say Hunter arranged the murders of several victims, including the agent, Catherine Lee, whose body was found on a rubbish dump in 2012. They say he hired two men from North Carolina, Adam Samia, 43, and Carl Stillwell, 50, to fly to Manila and carry out the killing.

The three men were convicted with the help of their former boss, Le Roux, who was arrested by the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Liberia in 2012 and agreed to co-operate with agencies in the hope of lessening his sentence.

Le Roux told a court in New York that he admitted taking part in five murders, and employing a small army to protect his interests. This was headed, until 2010, by a man named David Smith. Le Roux said he became convinced that Smith was cheating him, and killed him with the aid of a hitman. After that, he hired Hunter.

According to court documents, Hunter led air assault and airborne infantry squads and served as a sniper instructor before leaving the army in 2004.

In late 2011, he emailed Samia from the Philippines. Prosecutors say Samia worked as an ‘‘independent contractor’’ there, and in China, Papua New Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

‘‘Boss says you are on standby until the other guy is ready and you guys will come here for Ninja stuff,’’ Hunter wrote, according to the documents. The ‘‘other guy’’ was Stillwell, an IT professional who worked for a company in North Carolina that provided weapons training.

Le Roux told the court that he had ordered the killing of Lee, believing she had stolen from him, and left it up to Hunter to arrange the details. Documents filed with the court included emails requesting guns and living expenses for Samia and Stillwell.

The pair were said to have carried out surveillance on Lee’s home before posing as customers, luring her to a remote location and shooting her. – The Times