NOTES 407

152 an airstrip constructed . . . an island to facilitate shipments: Interview with Inspector R of the Philippine National Police.

152 sent to Colombia: Interview with an anonymous call center manager, con- firmed in USA v. Hunter, Document 587, April 12, 2018, at 1314.

152 another Israeli was rumored: Interview with Felix Klaussen.

152 Del Rosario was ordered to fly to Tehran: Interview with a former DEA agent in the Special Operations Division 960 group who worked on the Le Roux case. I always found this aspect of Le Roux’s business the hardest to believe: that he’d sent people like Del Rosario, cold, into places like Iran, and they’d come back with contacts with whom Le Roux could buy and sell weap- ons or drugs. I put the question to the former DEA agent, who was a party to extensive Le Roux debriefings.

“He wasn’t like a guy with Iranian contacts,” I said. “It was just ‘Nestor, go into Iran and find some people’? I mean, that’s a very enterprising person.”

“Correct,” the former DEA agent told me. “He’s a true entrepreneur. And the reason [Le Roux] sent them, he said, is that the Filipinos are very non- threatening people. They’ll talk to them. That was his thought. And he was right.”

152 an explosives formula he had perfected . . . missile-guidance . . . more than twenty engineers . . . underground mining: USA v. Hunter, Document 580, April 5, 2018, at 424, 572, 694, 697.

153 several through Craigslist: Interview with a former DEA agent in the SOD 960 group.

153 If you had an idea: The former employee who told me this had worked on drug deals for Le Roux and had direct knowledge of Le Roux’s wider narcot- ics operations.

153 stashed them for Le Roux: Joseph Hunter later claimed in conversations re- corded on surveillance tape that he and Chris De Meyer had helped Smith bury the gold under the hot tub. See USA v. Hunter, Document 411-5, July 31, 2017, at 12.

154 McConnell reluctantly agreed: USA v. Berkman, Document 774, January 17, 2017, at 41–43.

155 Le Roux was wiring millions: Copies of wire transfers and correspondence with Le Roux discussing them.

155 Nestor Del Rosario . . . purchased ten Yamaha outboard motors: Copy of the commercial invoice.

156 ZU-23 antiaircraft gun: Interview with Felix Klaussen, confirmed with pho- tos and video of the truck from employee Facebook pages. Range from “ZU- 23 23MM Antiaircraft Gun,” Federation of American Scientists, April 27, 2000.

156 Ahlu Sunna Waljama’a: Interview with Felix Klaussen. Also U.N. Monitor- ing Group Report, 267–72.

158 An accountant: The employee did not respond to requests for an interview.

158 had been traveling around the region: Details of Gettleman’s time in Galkayo