Two former U.S. soldiers have been extradited from Thailand to New York to face charges of plotting to murder an American federal drug agent as part of a major international narcotics smuggling operation, Reuters reported. A German soldier has also been charged.
''That's fun, actually for me that's fun. I love this work,'' an ex-German soldier was quoted in court papers.
The documents described numerous conversations at meetings in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean from January through September, which were secretly recorded by Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
THE DEA agents were posing as Colombian drug traffickers.
The ringleader Joseph 'Rambo' Hunter is charged with recruiting a team of former military snipers to kill a DEA agent, news reports said. Hunter is expect in a New York court on Saturday.
"The bone-chilling allegations in [the] indictment read like they were ripped from the pages of a Tom Clancy novel. The charges tell a tale of an international band of mercenary marksmaen who enlisted their elite military training to serve as hired gun for evil ends," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
The information who were posing as cartel leaders agreed to pay Hunter and other $700,000 for two killings, and an addition $100,000 for him "for his leadership role," according to the filed indictment.
Hunter, Timoth Vamvakias and Dennis Gogel are alleged to have discussed committing contract killings for the cartel, Reuters also reported.
The three mercenaries were "willing and eager to take cold hard cash to commit the cold-blooded murders of a DEA agent and an informant," Bharara said. "Thanks to the determined, skillful and intrepid efforts of the DEA's Special Operations Division, an international hit team has been neutralized by agents working on four continents.
Hunter's team had acted as security for cocaine shipments which emanated in Asia and was bound for the U.S.
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