An international drug trafficker who headed a team of murderous mercenaries and helped develop a weapons system for Iran was sentenced to 25 years in Manhattan federal court Friday by a judge who marveled at the epic scale of his crimes.
“I have before me a man who engaged in conduct in keeping with a villain in a James Bond movie,” Judge Ronnie Abrams said about Paul Calder Le Roux at the hearing, which was conducted via teleconference.
Le Roux, who cooperated with prosecutors following his 2012 arrest, faced sentencing Friday on a slew of charges, including drug trafficking, hacking and money laundering.
Abrams said Le Roux’s sprawling criminal enterprise — most of which was not included in his New York case, but could be considered at his sentencing Friday — was “nothing short of breathtaking.”
“He operated a mercenary team that commissioned beatings, shootings and firebombs. He participated in the murder for hire of at least seven people,” she added.
“He ran a weapons research and development program for the Iranian government. He attempted to acquire surface-to-air missiles. He planned a coup in Seychelles,” Abrams said.
Le Roux, the subject of several books and an upcoming movie by director Michael Mann, faces additional charges in the Philippines, where he allegedly directed his team of mercenaries to carry out the seven killings cited by the judge.
The criminal mastermind, who was born in what is now Zimbabwe, began his spy-movie like enterprise in the early 2000s while working as a coder by developing encryption software he later used to traffic prescription drugs into the US.
He graduated into weapons trafficking from there, and began working with regimes like the Iranian government, who commissioned him in 2010 to assemble a team of engineers to develop a weapons program for the nation.
Le Roux bribed officials in several countries including China, the Phillippines and several African nations to continue his trafficking and escape criminal prosecution.
“If Paul Calder Le Roux had a situation where he could bribe or kill his way out of he did so,” Judge Abrams said Friday. “He used 200 armed men in the hopes of becoming a warlord in Somalia.”
Le Roux said Friday that he regrets the murders he commissioned and told the judge he has mental health issues while pleading for a light sentence.
“I stay awake at night. I sleep one or two hours. I think about my terrible crimes all the time,” he said.
“I have no words to describe my conduct. I apologize to the victim’s families,” he added.
Le Roux faces extradition to the Philippines, where he will be charged in connection to the murders carried out by his team of contract killers.