>>73https://nypost.com/2019/02/16/how-a-fat-computer-geek-became-the-jeff-bezos-of-the-dark-web/?utm_source=quora&utm_medium=referralLe Roux didn’t exactly cut an opposing figure. At 350 pounds, with his constant outfit of polo shirt, cargo shorts and flip-flops, he looked more like the Comic Book Guy in “The Simpsons” than a cold-blooded crime boss. And he could be decidedly goofy.
But looks could be deceiving. He had “piercing eyes, an authoritative manner and an imperturbable smile,” according to Shannon. Lou Milione, a DEA agent who tracked Le Roux for years, told The Post that he could be “surprisingly charming. He was able to manipulate people without them ever realizing they were being manipulated.”
But the flip side of that charm was his anger. “Le Roux lacked certain social skills,” Shannon told The Post. “If he had a disagreement with somebody in his inner circle, his solution was, ‘Kill him! Kill his whole family!’ ”
His first taste of murder happened when he decided to whack his head of security, David Smith, in 2010. After luring him to a safe house in the Philippines, Le Roux instructed him to dig a hole — ostensibly to bury a safe filled with $2 million — and then shot Smith repeatedly with an MP5 machine gun.
“He learned something about himself,” Shannon writes. “He liked shooting. He liked killing. He took pleasure in thinking about Smith lying in the hole, bleeding out, with feral dogs circling what was left of him.”
As brilliant and threatening as Le Roux could be, he was also capable of bafflingly poor decisions. In a phone call bugged by DEA agents, Le Roux tried speaking in code to an employee about plans to hire a master meth chemist, calling him a “cook.”
But when his meaning wasn’t understood — “You mean a real cook, yeah?” the befuddled manager asked — Le Roux exploded.
“I am talking for meth, dude!” he screamed, abandoning all subtlety. “Are you retarded?”