Former US Army sergeant Joseph Hunter pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to murder a US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent and another man, in what the government said was his post-military role as a contract killer.
Hunter, 49, who had been a sniper instructor, was arrested in 2013 after he and two other men were ensnared in a sting operation in which they agreed to kill a DEA agent and one of the agency’s confidential informers for US$800,000.
During the sting operation, Hunter met with two government informers who were posing as Colombian drug traffickers and who discussed the possibility of Hunter’s serving as the head of security for their organization, a federal indictment charged.
Photo: Reuters
Hunter later told other men he had recruited that they would be working for a Colombian cartel and could expect to “see tons of cocaine and millions of [US] dollars,” the indictment said.
In May 2013, Hunter was asked in an e-mail whether his team would be willing to kill the agent and a boat captain, who was said to be providing information to the authorities, and he said: “My guys will handle it,” the indictment said.
Hunter on Friday told a US district judge in a federal court in Manhattan that he had “agreed with others to kill an agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration” and the informer who was assisting the agent.
Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges related to the murder plot, the importation of cocaine into the US and the possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime.
One of the counts carries a 10-year minimum sentence, and Hunter could face life imprisonment when he is sentenced by US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain on May 29.
“This global gun for hire will now be confined stateside in federal prison,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said on Friday.
After the hearing, one of Hunter’s lawyers, Marlon Kirton, said of his client’s decision to plead guilty: “We think he made the right call.”
Kirton said his client had post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and hoped to receive “a reasonable sentence so he can go home to his family.”
“We are grateful that we have an opportunity to ask for 10 years,” Kirton said.
The defense had sought dismissal of the charges on grounds of outrageous government conduct, citing the DEA’s use of a cooperating witness — Hunter’s former boss Paul Le Roux, who allegedly threatened to kill him — to introduce Hunter to the informers who were posing as traffickers.
The New York Times reported in December last year that Le Roux, a South African businessman for whom Hunter had done security work, accompanying him on trips to Brazil, the Republic of Congo, Mali and the Philippines.
In 2012, Le Roux was taken into custody in Liberia and began cooperating with the US authorities.
Hunter claimed in a court filing last month that he “was in constant fear” that his former boss “would kill me or have me falsely arrested if I did not do his bidding.”
Bharara’s office said Hunter’s contention was meritless, adding that he had not distanced himself from Le Roux, or reported his concerns to law enforcement.
“Hunter was an active and willing participant in the narcotics trafficking and murder-for-hire conspiracies from the beginning,” Bharara’s office wrote
With Hunter’s plea, the defense claim is now moot.
Two of Hunter’s co-defendants — former US Army sergeant Timothy Vamvakias and former German corporal Dennis Gogel — have each pleaded guilty in the murder and cocaine importation conspiracies.
A third co-defendant, Slawomir Soborski, who once served in the Polish military, has pleaded guilty in the cocaine conspiracy, and a fourth co-defendant still faces trial.
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