Hunting LeRoux: The Inside Story of the DEA Takedown of a Criminal Genius and His Empire

Journalist Shannon (The Spy Next Door) delivers an exceptional account of the outlaw career of Paul LeRoux, who here emerges as perhaps the most significant contemporary criminal not known to the general public for his having “introduced the principles of twenty-first century entrepreneurship to the dark side of the global economy.” LeRoux, who grew up in South Africa, used his sophisticated computer skills to create an online pharmaceutical business in 2004 that yielded him millions. Carefully constructed to appear on the up-and-up, RX Limited linked pill-buying consumers with a network of physicians and pharmacies, randomly assigning repeat customers to different providers to allow them to make as many purchases as they wanted without raising any red flags. LeRoux moved on to create a “digitally powered, high-volume warehousing and delivery operation for drugs and arms” or, put another way, a “black-market Amazon.” Unlike Evan Ratliff’s recent book on LeRoux, The Mastermind, which focuses on the lower-level DEA investigators who first found evidence that RX Limited was a criminal scheme, Shannon starts with the DEA’s 960 Group, an elite unit of undercover agents whose efforts led to LeRoux’s arrest in 2012. True crime fans will want to read both to get the full story. Agent: Shane Salerno, Story Factory. (Feb.)