for what seemed like a leisurely gig. Soborski posed for photos on the beach, shirtless and holding a drink and a cigar. They scouted out a surveillance location behind a chain-link fence, off a runway at the Nassau airport, and watched through a car window as bags of cocaine were loaded onto a small private plane they were told was headed for New York.

After seeing off the plane, Vamvakias met with the Colombians at a hotel to discuss the upcoming bonus jobs. They had brought along photographs and dossiers on the DEA agent and snitch, as well as information on the location. They wanted the job done in Liberia.

On August 15, 2013, Hunter’s team met with the two cartel repre- sentatives one last time in Thailand to finalize arrangements for the assassination. Even though they’d worked together for eight months, Hunter had the Colombians searched, took their elec- tronic devices, and insisted that the meeting be held outdoors as an extra precaution against being recorded.

Hunter, Gögel, Vamvakias, and the Colombians—who by this point had paid Hunter a $480,000 down payment for the murders of the DEA agent and snitch—reviewed the assassination plan step by step. (Soborski and Filter had been deemed unready for bonus work; they traveled instead to Estonia to provide security on a staged weapons deal.) The crew studied photos of the intended hits, discussing how to enter and leave Liberia undetected. Gögel and Vamvakias would have both cars and motorcycles at their disposal. Hunter had purchased the “black guy masks” mentioned in his email: latex masks from a Hollywood special effects store, specially designed to conceal the wearer’s race. They’d tried them on, Gögel said, and even when they closed their eyes the masks “were blinking with us. . . . Even with real hairs and everything. That’s perfect stuff.”

Gögel would command the operation—“You run the show,” one of the Colombians told him—and suggested they could make