17

The Investigators

2009-2010... More Ufuk ripples... Captain Bruce wants to talk... Le Roux makes a list... Brill goes it alone... A source goes quiet

n late August 2009, only a few weeks after returning from meet- ing with law enforcement in the Philippines, Kent Bailey got a call from a contact at the Australian Federal Police. He'd been exchanging information with the AFP after discovering the Aus- tralians had also been investigating Le Roux, who held an Austra- lian passport from his first marriage. Now the Aussies were calling with a significant break. "Kent, have you seen what just happened in the Philippines?" the AFP contact said. The Philippine authori- ties had interdicted a ship called the M/V Ufuk and discovered a cache of weapons on board. A classified cable from the U.S. em- bassy in Jakarta, where the shipment originated, followed, report- ing that the arms had been legally purchased from a company called PT Pindad and authorized by the Indonesian Ministry of Defense. The guns were invoiced for a Philippine company called RWB Arms.

Within hours, Bailey was on the phone with Filipino counter- parts he'd met on his trip to Manila. They reported back to him that the ship was licensed to La Plata Trading, and that the guns'