Listen and read

Step into an infinite world of stories

  • Listen and read as much as you want
  • Over 400 000+ titles
  • Bestsellers in 10+ Indian languages
  • Exclusive titles + Storytel Originals
  • Easy to cancel anytime
Subscribe now
Details page - Device banner - 894x1036

Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire

27 Ratings

3.7

Duration
11H 17min
Language
English
Format
Category

Biographies

With an introduction by four-time Oscar nominated filmmaker Michael Mann.

The story of Paul LeRoux, the twisted genius entrepreneur and cold-blooded killer who brought revolutionary innovation to international crime, and the exclusive inside story of how the DEA’s elite, secretive 960 Group brought him down.

Paul LeRoux was born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa. After a first career as a pioneering cybersecurity entrepreneur, he plunged hellbent into the dark side, using his extraordinary talents to develop a disruptive new business model for transnational organized crime. Along the way he created a mercenary force of ex-U.S. and NATO sharpshooters to carry out contract murders for his own pleasure and profit. The criminal empire he built was Cartel 4.0, utilizing the gig economy and the tools of the Digital Age: encrypted mobile devices, cloud sharing and novel money-laundering techniques. LeRoux’s businesses, cyber-linked by his own dark worldwide web, stretched from Southeast Asia across the Middle East and Africa to Brazil; they generated hundreds of millions of dollars in sales of arms, drugs, chemicals, bombs, missile technology and murder. He dealt with rogue nations—Iran and North Korea—as well as the Chinese Triads, Somali pirates, Serb mafia, outlaw bikers, militants, corrupt African and Asian officials and coup-plotters.

Initially, LeRoux appeared as a ghost image on law enforcement and intelligence radar, an inexplicable presence in the middle of a variety of criminal endeavors. He was Netflix to Blockbuster, Spotify to Tower Records. A bold disruptor, his methods brought international crime into the age of innovation, making his operations barely detectable and LeRoux nearly invisible. But he gained the attention of a small band of bold, unorthodox DEA agents, whose brief was tracking down drugs-and-arms trafficking kingpins who contributed to war and global instability. The 960 Group, an element of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, had launched some of the most complex, coordinated and dangerous operations in the agency’s history. They used unorthodox methods and undercover informants to penetrate LeRoux’s inner circle and bring him down.

For five years Elaine Shannon immersed herself in LeRoux’s shadowy world. She gained exclusive access to the agents and players, including undercover operatives who looked LeRoux in the eye on a daily basis. Shannon takes us on a shocking tour of this dark frontier, going deep into the operations and the mind of a singularly visionary and frightening figure—Escobar and Victor Bout and Jeff Bezos rolled into one. She puts you in the room with these people and their moment-to-moment encounters, jeopardy, frustration, anger and small victories, creating a narrative with a breath-taking edge, immediacy and a stranger-than-fiction reality.

Remarkable, disturbing, and utterly engrossing, Hunting LeRoux introduces a new breed of criminal spawned by the savage, greed-exalting underside of the Age of Innovation—and a new kind of true crime story. It is a look into the future—a future that is dark.

© 2019 William Morrow (Audiobook): 9780062940896

Release date

Audiobook: 19 February 2019

Others also enjoyed ...

  1. Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels—from the Jungles to the Streets Toby Muse
  2. Hunting El Chapo: Taking down the world’s most-wanted drug-lord Andrew Hogan
  3. Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All Bruce Porter
  4. Double Cross: The Explosive Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America Chuck Giancana
  5. The Big Heist: The Real Story of the Lufthansa Heist, the Mafia, and Murder Anthony M. DeStefano
  6. The Sixth Family: The Collapse of The New York Mafia and The Rise of Vito Rizzuto Adrian Humphreys
  7. Boston Mob: The Rise and Fall of the New England Mob and Its Most Notorious Killer Marc Songini
  8. El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord Noah Hurowitz
  9. Top Hoodlum: Frank Costello, Prime Minister of the Mafia Anthony M. DeStefano
  10. The Corporation: An Epic Story of the Cuban American Underworld T. J. English
  11. Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante Larry McShane
  12. Carmine the Snake: Carmine Persico and His Murderous Mafia Family Michael Benson
  13. Mob Boss: The Life of Little Al D'arco, the Man Who Brought Down the Mafia Tom Robbins
  14. Narco Wars: The Gripping Story of How British Agents Infiltrated the Colombian Drug Cartels Tom Chandler
  15. Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob Jeff Coen
  16. The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob T. J. English
  17. Gangland New York: The Places and Faces of Mob History Anthony M. DeStefano
  18. Riding with Evil: Taking Down the Notorious Pagan Motorcycle Gang Dave Wedge
  19. Where the Bodies Were Buried: Whitey Bulger and the World That Made Him T. J. English
  20. Nine Lives: My Time as the West’s Top Spy inside al-Qaeda Aimen Dean
  21. Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series David Pietrusza
  22. Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War Eva Dillon
  23. Our Story Ronald Kray
  24. Snatched: From Drug Queen to Informer to Hostage—a Harrowing True Story Bruce Porter
  25. No Shadows in the Desert: Murder, Espionage, Vengeance, and the Untold Story of the Destruction of ISIS Samuel M. Katz
  26. Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.'s Notorious Mobster Tere Tereba
  27. The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop it John Miller
  28. The Widow Spy: My CIA Journey from the Jungles of Laos to Prison in Moscow Martha D. Peterson
  29. Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago Max Allan Collins
  30. Deal with the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship with a Mafia Killer Peter Lance
  31. Al Capone's Beer Wars: A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago during Prohibition John J. Binder
  32. Frank Sinatra and the Mafia Murders Douglas Thompson
  33. The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America's Most Notorious Mobster John Gleeson
  34. Hunting the Caliphate: America's War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell Wes J. Bryant
  35. The Oswalds: An Untold Account of Marina and Lee Paul R. Gregory
  36. Murder, Inc.: The Mafia's Hit Men in New York City Graham K. Bell
  37. The Master Plan: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Jihadi Strategy for Final Victory Brian Fishman
  38. The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War - A Tragedy in Three Acts Scott Anderson
  39. Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Dead Men Tell No Tales; Spies, Lies & Blackmail James Robertson

Ratings and Reviews

Reviews at a Glance

3.7

Overall rating based on 27 ratings

Others Describe This Book As

  • Informative

  • Thrilling

  • Mind-blowing

Download the App to Join the Conversation and Add Reviews.