Le Roux’s flight to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, touched down on September 25, 2012. Klaussen was already there, having ar- rived earlier with Stouch and Cindric to set up and rehearse the sting. Le Roux was traveling with his girlfriend, Cindy Cayanan; his right-hand man Shai Reuven was meant to accompany them from Manila, but for some reason plans had changed at the last minute. Klaussen and a driver picked up Le Roux and Cayanan at the airport. “You could see his eyes shining, like he saw potential in that country,” Klaussen said. “He liked what he saw. ‘We can do good things here.’ ” At their modest hotel in Monrovia, Klaussen arranged a suite for Le Roux, relishing the irony that his penny- pinching boss was being unwittingly upgraded by the U.S. govern- ment. The room adjacent to Le Roux’s was staffed around the clock by Stouch, Cindric, and several other DEA agents, monitor- ing video feeds from cameras next door.

The next morning Klaussen and Le Roux convened at the hotel restaurant for breakfast and planned for their rendezvous with the Colombian that afternoon, at another hotel across the city. Just before he walked in, Klaussen switched on his wristwatch camera.

“Morning,” Klaussen said.

“Heyyyy, greetings,” Le Roux replied, sounding unusually cheerful. He turned to Cayanan, standing next to him. “Why don’t you just hang at another table, okay?” She took a seat out of ear- shot.

“How was the night?” Klaussen said.

“All good. Not a bad place.”

“Well, like I said, probably the best you can get around here. Unfortunately it’s raining today, but . . .”

“I think it probably rains the whole year here.”

“Yeah it’s six, definitely six months. But, what to do?” Klaussen, knowing his boss, lowered his voice and got down to business. “Wrote a few things down,” he said. “You know I met with the guy, in Paris, for the Shan thing.”

In the hopes of layering other charges on top of the Colombian drug deal, Klaussen had told Le Roux that he had a contact from