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Le Roux's moves in Somalia were mystifying to the U.N. team. The militia Le Roux had backed was entangled in ongoing skirmishes with al-Shabaab, as well as a war between local pastoral nomads and another clan. In November 2010, a battle involving Le Roux's troops raged for several days, "causing allegedly heavy casualties from both sides," the report said. Why Le Roux, operating out of the Philippines, had any interest in a power struggle be- tween two clans in Somalia, the investigators couldn't determine.

They also discovered that Le Roux had begun experimenting with "the cultivation of hallucinogenic plants, including opium, coca, and cannabis" in the Southern Ace compound in Galkayo, importing greenhouses, herbicides, and farming equipment. He had obtained permission to land an Antonov cargo plane at the local airport, and "planned to import by air a large quantity of heavy weapons, including 75 kilograms of C4 explosives, 200 land mines, one million rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, and five AT-3 'Sagger' anti-tank missiles."

This had all taken place during the height of the Somali sea pi- racy epidemic. Llorca's team suspected but couldn't prove that Le Roux intended to set up a private security company on the coast, in the hopes of somehow involving himself in the piracy business- either providing protection for shipping companies or funding his own piracy.

Llorca reported that after spending over three million dollars in Somalia, in mid-2010 Le Roux abandoned whatever plans he had in the region. Locals overran the compound and took possession of the weapons, and one of Southern Ace's employees was shot and killed in the ensuing chaos.

The report thrust Le Roux into the news for the first time since his brief appearance in 2007, with a flurry of articles recounting the astonishing facts from the U.N. report and pondering the global reach of a "shadowy South African businessman," as the South African City Press described him. "Repeated attempts to contact Le Roux by phone and email proved unsuccessful," the re- porter noted.