Zim druglord languishes in US prison

Startling revelations have emerged of a Zimbabwean druglord who made 250 million us dollars a year but is now behind bars and facing several counts relating to drug related crimes as well as murder.

The New York post reports that Le Roux was born in Zimbabwe in 1972 and given up for adoption by his birth parents — a rejection that haunted him for most of his life — he’d transformed himself from a programming genius who developed encryption software like E4M in the late ’90s, to the founder of RX Limited, the Internet’s first black market for pharmaceuticals. By the late-2000s, he was a self-made vice entrepreneur, raking in $250 million a year selling drugs, weapons and murder-for-hire on the dark web.

He was the new generation of crime lords, more Internet-savvy (and less concerned with image) than predecessors like Pablo Escobar and “El Chapo” Guzmán. He was the first “to operate in the realm of pure cyberspace,” writes Shannon. “He browsed among clients, suppliers, fixers and networkers, meeting them wherever fiber-optic cables and satellite links take him.”

Despite all his escapades Le Roux was eventually caught and has been in prison for his involvement in drug related crimes. The Zimbabwean is yet to be convicted given his role in assisting security agents with information on drug cartels. He faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison. It is said he may get a leniant sentence for his role in assisting authorities capture other drug cartels. While there have been several positive reports of Zimbabweans living abroad, LeRoux makes for sad reading as no one knows what the future holds for the 46 year old who in a worst case scenario faces life imprisonment.