EVAN RATLIFF

The stories of how these mercenaries ended up in Le Roux's organization often followed the same pattern. They were former soldiers who had plied the waters of the international private secu- rity circuit, flush with gigs during the height of the Iraq and Af- ghanistan wars. As those conflicts wound down, the men suddenly found their military training a surplus commodity in a flooded labor market, just as a worldwide recession took hold. When they crossed paths with Dave Smith—or heard through their own net- works that a rich man was paying decent rates for “gray area” jobs—they jumped at the chance put their skills to work some- where other than a war zone. “Dave gave me a call and said he had work,” recalled a Manila-based former U.S. Navy sailor who, after leaving the service, had worked for the same contractor as Smith in Iraq. “He said there's this South African guy, he's got a shitload of money and he wants to do all sorts of crazy shit. He's got businesses all over the place and he also mines gold. He said what he wanted to do was move some of his gold from a mine in Zimbabwe, and then get it to the Philippines and hopefully to Hong Kong to sell it to some rich buyers. I'm like, okay.” The American met with Smith and Le Roux at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Makati the next evening. “He asked a few questions, my background, did I like traveling,” the contractor said. “The next day Dave said, 'You're in. You'll be on retainer and paid this much. You'll be on call with forty-eight hours' lead time, meaning you need to be on a plane forty-eight hours later.'”

Many of these recruits knew little or nothing about Le Roux or his business. Often they never met him at all, receiving instructions through Smith. Some knew the organization they were working for by the name of one of Le Roux's shell companies—Southern Ace or La Plata Trading—while others were hired by Echelon As- sociates, a security company that served as a front for Smith's teams. Most referred to their employer simply as “The Company.” When they did encounter the boss, it was often under another identity. Le Roux had a fake Zimbabwean birth certificate and passport under the name John Bernard Bowlins, and another for a