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From Programmer to Kingpin: The Psychology of Paul Le Roux · Inside The Criminal Mind

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  Speaker 1: September 26, 2012, Monrovia, Liberia. Paul Leroux has traveled to
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  Speaker 1: West Africa to discuss a drug deal. He believes he's
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  Speaker 1: meeting representatives of a Colombian trafficking organization. The arrangement involves
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  Speaker 1: chemicals for meth production with cocaine offered in exchange. Leroux
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  Speaker 1: has negotiated dangerous deals before. He has people operating across continents.
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  Speaker 1: He has money, weapons, and men willing to kill on
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  Speaker 1: his orders. But this one was a little bit different.
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  Speaker 1: It's a trap. Liberian authorities arrest him and turn him
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  Speaker 1: over to the USDA, and the man who has spent
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  Speaker 1: years controlling others is suddenly fighting to maintain control of
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  Speaker 1: his own future. To understand how he got to this point,
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  Speaker 1: we have to return to something far removed from drug trafficking.
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  Speaker 1: We have to go back to Leroux when he was
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  Speaker 1: a computer programmer. He was born in Zimbabwe in 1972.
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  Speaker 1: During the 90s and his early 20s, he helped create
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  Speaker 1: encryption software designed to protect sensitive information. But eventually, his
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  Speaker 1: technical expertise found another application, online pharmacies. Beginning in the
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  Speaker 1: early 2000s, Leroux built an enormous operation selling prescription medications
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  Speaker 1: through websites, frequently without legitimate prescriptions. The business generated extraordinary revenue.
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  Speaker 1: It has also revealed something important about Leroux. He understood
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  Speaker 1: how to coordinate complicated operations without being physically present. From
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  Speaker 1: his base in the Philippines, he expanded into illegal drug trafficking,
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  Speaker 1: weapons transactions, and money laundering. His organization operated across multiple continents,
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  Speaker 1: using intermediaries, encrypted communications, international business structure. But the empire
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  Speaker 1: wasn't maintained through technology alone. It was maintained through fear.
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  Speaker 1: Lareau recruited men with military experience to provide security and
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  Speaker 1: enforce his authority. Among them was Joseph Hunter, a former
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  Speaker 1: American soldier who became involved in organizing violence for the operation.
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  Speaker 1: In 2012, Catherine Lee, a real estate agent in the Philippines,
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  Speaker 1: was murdered after Lareau suspected her of stealing money. He
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  Speaker 1: later admitted murder and her killing. She was only one
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  Speaker 1: of several victims connected to his organization. American investigators have
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  Speaker 1: been following another trail, not murders, but prescription drugs. DEA
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  Speaker 1: investigators examining suspicious online pharmaceutical sales uncovered financial transactions, communications,
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  Speaker 1: and connections that eventually pointed toward Lareau. What began as
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  Speaker 1: an investigation into illegal medication distribution grew into an international
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  Speaker 1: pursuit involving narcotics, weapons, and organized violence. Investigators spent years
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  Speaker 1: trying to identify and locate the man directing the operation. Eventually,
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  Speaker 1: they arranged the meeting in Liberia. After his arrest, Leroux
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  Speaker 1: made a remarkable decision. He cooperated. The criminal organizer began
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  Speaker 1: helping the DEA investigate his former associates. His cooperation contributed
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  Speaker 1: to additional arrests and prosecutions, including cases involving drug trafficking
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  Speaker 1: and murder for hire. The man who commanded an international
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  Speaker 1: organization was now helping authorities dismantle it. There's almost something
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  Speaker 1: Walter White-like about his transformation, technical expertise, escalating criminal ambition.
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  Speaker 1: But Leroux's story was real, and unlike the fictional chemistry teacher,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't personally have to carry out every violent act.
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  Speaker 1: He built an organization that could do it for him.